Just what constitutes
a terrorist these days?
Sometimes it seems that the term gets thrown around at anything someone takes a disliking to, or as in Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22” it’ll get used as the trump card in any argument, like “National Security!” or “We’re fighting Communism!”.
On October 6th 1976 a Cubana airliner, with 73 passengers and crew aboard exploded in midair, there were no survivors. The FBI files state that a man by the name of Luis Posada Carriles was “up to his eyes” in planning the operation, so where do you think a man like Posada would be today?
A) in prison.
B) a free man.
C) that guy walking past me in the street.
If you answered A, brace yourself I have something to tell you about Santa Claus!
If you answered B, well done, you are correct.
If you answered C, if you’re in Miami, that may also be correct.
Here’s the nasty little history:
A CIA file (dated 18/10/76) quotes Luis Posada as saying “We are going to hit a Cuban airliner”. But what would the CIA know about Luis? Trained in explosives, and a trainee of the infamous Fort Benning, in 1966 Luis was being paid $300 a month by the CIA, previously he’d helped recruit people for what became known as the Bay of Pigs. If you want to know about his “Relationship to the U.S.” in 1976…then sorry, the document is still massively censored.
In 1985 Luis was actually in the process of being tried for the airliner bombing in a Venezuelan Court (Hernan Ricardo Lozano who put the bomb on the plane was an employee of Posada). After escaping from prison, he went off to help with CIA gun running operations to the Contras.
Should Luis go to trial on the charge of blowing up an airliner???
Well the UN Charter forbids providing safe haven to a terrorist, and the Montreal Convention on Aviation states that in such a case he must either be extradited for trial or tried in the U.S.
So far both options have been disregarded. Cuba and Venezuela have demanded he be extradited.
So how did Posada end up in Miami?
Well after a little 1997 bombing spree of hotels (he told a journalist he was involved), he turned up in Panama in 2000. Now going to a University is usually a good thing, to study and learn, but Posada was up to his old tricks. Luckily, before Posada could blow the building (and their target Fidel Castro) sky-high, he was arrested and the car full of explosives seized.
After serving a whopping 4 months of his sentence, Colin Powell negotiated his early release with an outgoing Panamanian President. Posada surfaced in Miami.
I’d like to pose a question:
Just what would Luis Posada Carriles have to do
in order to qualify as a Terrorist,
and stand trial accordingly?
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