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Posada Carriles to stay in US: Washington shields CIA terrorist from prosecution
An immigration judge in El Paso, Texas ruled on Tuesday that the CIA-trained anti-Castro Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles cannot be deported to Venezuela, where he is a citizen and is wanted for mass murder, on the grounds that he could face torture there.
The ruling is the latest chapter in the decades-long US government protection of Posada and fellow Cuban exile terrorists. In this case, Washington is shielding him from prosecution for masterminding the 1976 terrorist bombing of a Cuban jetliner carrying passengers from Venezuela, in which 73 people were killed.
Venezuela issued a formal request last May for Posada’s extradition to stand trial, but the US authorities have flouted international law, refusing to arrest him on criminal charges and hand him over. Instead, after the extradition request, they picked him up on charges of entering the US illegally. This was done in order to protect him. Since then, US officials have treated his case as a run-of-the mill immigration matter.
The Venezuelan government has threatened to break diplomatic relations with Washington over its refusal to extradite Posada.
The ruling issued by Judge William Abbott in El Paso was farcical, exhibiting an unhealthy fascination with Posada, whom the judge described as “like a character out of Robert Ludlum’s espionage thrillers, with all the plot twists and turns Ludlum is famous for.”
Abbott claimed that he would have made the same ruling for “the most heinous terrorist or mass murderer”—Posada is both—“if he or she could establish... the probability of torture in the future.” Earlier in the proceedings, he said that he would grant deferral of deportation to Adolf Hitler if Hitler could prove such a threat.
The judge’s decision was made a foregone conclusion by the US government—which ostensibly was arguing for deportation. The Homeland Security Department prosecutor made no attempt to rebut unsubstantiated claims by Posada’s lawyers that he would likely be tortured if returned to Venezuela.
The only testimony offered to substantiate the Venezuelan torture claim came from one Joaquín Chaffardet, a Caracas lawyer and Posada’s long-time associate. “All political detainees in Venezuela have been subjected to torture,” he claimed.
The prosecution made no attempt to cross-examine Chaffardet on his 40-year political and business relationship with Posada, allowing him to pose as an objective expert on conditions in Venezuela. Had the government lawyer questioned Chaffardet, the issue of torture would have emerged in a different light.
The two men met in Venezuela in the late 1960s, when Chaffardet was the secretary general of the DISIP, the Venezuelan secret police. He hired Posada as chief of operations of this repressive force. The Cuban terrorist had been trained by the CIA and the US military in interrogation techniques, torture and bomb-making. When he arrived in Venezuela in 1967, Posada was on the payroll of the CIA.
Posada put his US training to work, directing the interrogation and torture of political prisoners. Survivors of Posada’s clandestine prison have testified to being subjected to beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and other forms of torture. A number of these prisoners were murdered or disappeared.
Afterwards, Chaffardet was a partner with Posada in a private security firm from which the bombing of the Cuban jetliner was organized. Chaffardet is a fanatical right-wing opponent of the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Read More
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/posa-s29.shtml
Venezuela issued a formal request last May for Posada’s extradition to stand trial, but the US authorities have flouted international law, refusing to arrest him on criminal charges and hand him over. Instead, after the extradition request, they picked him up on charges of entering the US illegally. This was done in order to protect him. Since then, US officials have treated his case as a run-of-the mill immigration matter.
The Venezuelan government has threatened to break diplomatic relations with Washington over its refusal to extradite Posada.
The ruling issued by Judge William Abbott in El Paso was farcical, exhibiting an unhealthy fascination with Posada, whom the judge described as “like a character out of Robert Ludlum’s espionage thrillers, with all the plot twists and turns Ludlum is famous for.”
Abbott claimed that he would have made the same ruling for “the most heinous terrorist or mass murderer”—Posada is both—“if he or she could establish... the probability of torture in the future.” Earlier in the proceedings, he said that he would grant deferral of deportation to Adolf Hitler if Hitler could prove such a threat.
The judge’s decision was made a foregone conclusion by the US government—which ostensibly was arguing for deportation. The Homeland Security Department prosecutor made no attempt to rebut unsubstantiated claims by Posada’s lawyers that he would likely be tortured if returned to Venezuela.
The only testimony offered to substantiate the Venezuelan torture claim came from one Joaquín Chaffardet, a Caracas lawyer and Posada’s long-time associate. “All political detainees in Venezuela have been subjected to torture,” he claimed.
The prosecution made no attempt to cross-examine Chaffardet on his 40-year political and business relationship with Posada, allowing him to pose as an objective expert on conditions in Venezuela. Had the government lawyer questioned Chaffardet, the issue of torture would have emerged in a different light.
The two men met in Venezuela in the late 1960s, when Chaffardet was the secretary general of the DISIP, the Venezuelan secret police. He hired Posada as chief of operations of this repressive force. The Cuban terrorist had been trained by the CIA and the US military in interrogation techniques, torture and bomb-making. When he arrived in Venezuela in 1967, Posada was on the payroll of the CIA.
Posada put his US training to work, directing the interrogation and torture of political prisoners. Survivors of Posada’s clandestine prison have testified to being subjected to beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and other forms of torture. A number of these prisoners were murdered or disappeared.
Afterwards, Chaffardet was a partner with Posada in a private security firm from which the bombing of the Cuban jetliner was organized. Chaffardet is a fanatical right-wing opponent of the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Read More
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/posa-s29.shtml
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Venezuela blasted as "vile and sinister" on Wednesday a U.S. ruling that a Cuban exile wanted in connection with a 1976 airliner bombing could not be deported for trial in Caracas.
A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday that Luis Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan accused of masterminding the bombing that killed 73 people, faced the threat of torture in Venezuela and in Cuba and could not be deported to those countries.
The Posada case has further frayed the strained relations between the United States and Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a top supplier to the U.S. market.
Chavez, an ally of Communist Cuba who often rages against U.S. foreign policy, says Posada is a terrorist and warned this year that his government could revise its diplomatic relations with the United States if he were not extradited.
"They have taken a decision as vile and sinister as the actual act of terrorism. Once more the U.S. government has been unmasked as a farce in the war on terrorism," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters.
"The saga of the Bush family is always linked to terrorism," he said.
Rangel said attorneys were working on a legal response to the decision. But asked whether Venezuela would review its ties with Washington, he responded: "When did we say that?"
HELD SINCE MAY
The United States has held Posada, 77, since May for illegally crossing the border from Mexico. He denies involvement in the 1976 bombing, but has admitted working against Cuban leader
Fidel Castro.
A former
CIA collaborator, Posada escaped from Venezuelan prison in 1985 awaiting retrial for the bombing. A military court initially acquitted him in the 1980s. Caracas and Havana say he planned the bombing of the Cuban jet off the Bahamas.
His case has been widely seen as a difficult one for the Bush administration, which says it is fighting a war on terrorism, but has chilly relations with Havana and Caracas.
During the U.S. hearing, U.S. government lawyers said they had no evidence Posada would be tortured in Venezuela, but expressed concerns about Venezuela's justice system and Chavez's close relations with Cuba.
Chavez, elected in 1998 promising to fight poverty, has frequently clashed with Washington over his self-proclaimed socialist revolution and close ties with Castro and
Iran.
Washington says it is worried about Chavez eroding democracy at home and spreading his populist message abroad with energy and trade deals to regional partners.
Supporters applaud his campaign to use oil revenues to battle poverty with social reforms.
Posada can be held up to 90 more days before the government must do something with him, his lawyers said.
A self-described anti-Castro "freedom fighter," Cuban-born Posada helped carried out the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of his homeland and was involved in U.S. covert operations such as the Iran-Contra affair.
A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday that Luis Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan accused of masterminding the bombing that killed 73 people, faced the threat of torture in Venezuela and in Cuba and could not be deported to those countries.
The Posada case has further frayed the strained relations between the United States and Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a top supplier to the U.S. market.
Chavez, an ally of Communist Cuba who often rages against U.S. foreign policy, says Posada is a terrorist and warned this year that his government could revise its diplomatic relations with the United States if he were not extradited.
"They have taken a decision as vile and sinister as the actual act of terrorism. Once more the U.S. government has been unmasked as a farce in the war on terrorism," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters.
"The saga of the Bush family is always linked to terrorism," he said.
Rangel said attorneys were working on a legal response to the decision. But asked whether Venezuela would review its ties with Washington, he responded: "When did we say that?"
HELD SINCE MAY
The United States has held Posada, 77, since May for illegally crossing the border from Mexico. He denies involvement in the 1976 bombing, but has admitted working against Cuban leader
Fidel Castro.
A former
CIA collaborator, Posada escaped from Venezuelan prison in 1985 awaiting retrial for the bombing. A military court initially acquitted him in the 1980s. Caracas and Havana say he planned the bombing of the Cuban jet off the Bahamas.
His case has been widely seen as a difficult one for the Bush administration, which says it is fighting a war on terrorism, but has chilly relations with Havana and Caracas.
During the U.S. hearing, U.S. government lawyers said they had no evidence Posada would be tortured in Venezuela, but expressed concerns about Venezuela's justice system and Chavez's close relations with Cuba.
Chavez, elected in 1998 promising to fight poverty, has frequently clashed with Washington over his self-proclaimed socialist revolution and close ties with Castro and
Iran.
Washington says it is worried about Chavez eroding democracy at home and spreading his populist message abroad with energy and trade deals to regional partners.
Supporters applaud his campaign to use oil revenues to battle poverty with social reforms.
Posada can be held up to 90 more days before the government must do something with him, his lawyers said.
A self-described anti-Castro "freedom fighter," Cuban-born Posada helped carried out the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of his homeland and was involved in U.S. covert operations such as the Iran-Contra affair.
For more information:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&...
What hipocrisy! This guy is a terrorist by any definition, but the US is protecting him out of hatred of Castro and Chavez and under pressure from right-wing Cuban Americans. He should be extradidted to Venezuala for trial, or at least put on trial here.
He was put on trial -twice in Venezuela and aquitted twice. You think he's going to get a fair trial under Chavez? He'll be put on the first plane to Havana & shot.
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