U.S. Arrests Anti-Castro Cuban Tied To 1976 Airline Bombing

Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles was arrested in Miami Tuesday by immigration authorities as he was preparing to leave the country. Posada is a 77-year-old former CIA operative who has been trying to violently overthrow Fidel Castro's government for four decades. He has been connected to the 1976 bombing of a civilian airliner that killed 73 passengers - the first act of airline terrorism in the Western hemisphere. He snuck into the United States in early March after years of living in hiding in Latin America and is seeking asylum. Hours before the arrest, Cuban President Fidel Castro led about a million Cubans in a protest march in Havana to demand that the United States act against Posada. Castro - who has accused repeatedly accused Washington of double standards in its war on terrorism - spoke to the crowd.

* Fidel Castro, Cuban president speaking on March 17 in Havana

Posada's arrest at a house in Southwest Miami-Dade County came on the same day the U.S. government summoned him to an asylum interview. But instead of appearing at the interview, Posada gave a news conference at an empty warehouse near Hialeah where he denied the accusations against him.

* Luis Posada Carriles, speaking at a press conference in Miami on March 17.

After the news session, Posada's lawyer told reporters his client had dropped his US asylum petition and had intended to leave the country. He was arrested at a house in Southwest Miami-Dade County shortly afterwards.

Both Cuba and Venezuela have called for the Bush administration to extradite him to face charges of terrorism. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said "As a matter of immigration law and policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not generally remove people to Cuba, nor does ICE generally remove people to countries believed to be acting on Cuba"s behalf." Homeland Security went on to say it has 48 hours to determine Posada's immigration status.

In an interview in Tuesday's Miami Herald, Posada said he was amazed the U.S. government had not been looking for him. He said "At first I hid a lot. Now I hide a lot less." He also denied any involvement in the airliner bombing although recently declassified documents from the CIA and FBI indicate he attended at least two planning meetings for the attack. Posada refused to confirm or deny involvement in other attacks, telling the newspaper: "Let"s leave it to history."

* Ann Louise Bardach, award-winning journalist and Author of Cuba Confidential. She interviewed Posada in 1998 for The New York Times in one of his only in-depth interviews. She is the director of the Media Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
* Robert Parry, veteran investigative journalist and author of the new book "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq." For years he worked as an investigative reporter for both the Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. His reporting led to the exposure of what is now known as the "Iran-Contra" scandal.
* Ira Kurzban, Miami based lawyer who specializes in asylum cases. Since 1991, he has served as General Counsel for the government of Haiti.

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