Cuban Airline Bomber to Be Released from US Custody

Click above to see the CIA document where Posada admits planning the Cubana Airlines bombing.

BBC News
A US court has ruled that a Cuban wanted on terrorism charges by Cuba and Venezuela should be set free from a Texas immigration detention centre.

Ex-CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles was held for crossing illegally from Mexico after serving time in Panama for plotting to kill Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Mr Posada Carriles faces deportation, but it cannot be to Cuba or Venezuela.
...
Mr Posada Carriles' lawyer, Felipe Millan, said his client could be free within 30 days if a federal district judge upheld the ruling.

Prison escape

Both Venezuela and Cuba have accused the US government of harbouring a man they consider to be a known terrorist.

Mr Wingerter said: "If we are serious about fighting terrorism then we need to prosecute all terrorists, not just those opposed to US foreign policy."

The US Department of Justice said it was reviewing the court decision.

The entire Cuban fencing team was among those who died when the Cuban jetliner flying from Caracas was bombed.

Mr Posada Carriles was convicted in Panama of trying to bomb Cuban leader Fidel Castro at a summit in the country in 2002.
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What an insult to America on the 5th Anniversary of 9/11... What really gets me from this disgusting but wholly expected decision, is that the judge had the gall to say this about the "rights" of one who illegally entered the country (and lied about it to Federal Officials). Tell that to the thousands stranded in prison today on immigration charges, many for years and with nowhere to go. Where are the immigration activists, where are the national security politicians, where is the outrage from the press?

The terrorist's fate was secure when the "Magistrate" ruled - based only on the BS presented by Posada's lawyers - that he would face torture if extradited to Venezuela. Nevermind that no human rights organization has alleged any such torture in that country's Federal prisons for many years (ironically from the period when Posada headed that country's intelligence services). And nevermind that US law states that terrorists and "dangers to the community" are exempt from release provisions.

This article states that Posada "faces deportation" but only to a country that will take the hemispere's leading terrorist. Sound to me like a way of quietly releasing one of the world's most wanted men without actually doing so on the record? Quite smart, those bureacrats are. They can do anything when instructed to by Washington.

The Herald cited an interesing bit:

On March 22nd the Homeland Security agency (ICE) denied his release, arguing he was a "danger to the community" and posed a "risk to the national security of the United States."

But Garney (the Magistrate) wrote in his opinion Monday that the ICE statement was not enough to keep Posada in detention. According to Garney, the law requires for indefinite detention a formal certification by the U.S. attorney general that a detainee is a terrorist or threat to the community. "In this case, petitioner was never certified by the Attorney General as a terrorist or danger to the community or national security," wrote Garney, adding the government also had not "moved to detain petitioner under any special circumstances."

In its 2001 ruling, the high court said foreign nationals who cannot be deported can be held beyond six months after removal orders become final -- but only if they are deemed ``especially dangerous individuals.''

The court said those cases must be ''subject to strong procedural protections,'' but did not spell them out.