Half-hearted terrorist prosecution
Monday, May 7th, 2007Luis Posada Carriles faces trial this week for immigration fraud, a trivial charge for a man accused of bombing an airliner and killing all 73 people aboard. Posada enjoys a special status among accused terrorists: he’s a friend of the American right wing because he’s an anti-Castro militant and a former CIA operative.
That means he gets a pass on several terrorist bombings including the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, and a series of bombings of tourist hotels and other tourist sites in Havana in 1997. Or, at least, Posada gets as much of a pass as the Bush administration can arrange. The government is cooperating with the defense to bar potentially damaging evidence from Posasa’s trial, including any mention of his ties with the CIA. On the other hand, a grand jury in New Jersey is weighing evidence in the tourist bombing cases, and there is a growing international clamor for Posada to be extradited.
Both Cuba and Venezuela have demanded Posada’s extradition. The Bush administration has refused, on the grounds—wait for it—that Posada would face torture if he were extradited. As Jon Stewart has pointed out, this administration is no longer capable of doing anything that is not ironic.
It goes without saying that the director of the CIA in 1976, George H.W. Bush, who was Posada’s boss when the airliner was brought down, won’t be facing prosecution.
