Cuba: US Avoids Calling Posada a Terrorist

After more than a year of trying to obfuscate the essential facts against the hemisphere's most lethal terrorist, the Bush Administration has finally made clear its intentions., It appears the heinous crimes of Luis Posada Carriles will go unpunished. February 1st was the deadline a judge had given the Justice Department to declare Posada a terrorist. It now appears likely Posada will serve some time for lying about his entry into the US, but be set free relatively soon - to join Orlando Bosch as top terrorists being harbored by the Unites States. We can only assume this is the reward for their jobs well done in the service of anti-Communism.

STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Havana, February 5, 2007

U.S. avoids trying Posada for what he is: a murderer and terrorist

ON January 31, the United States government once again used a legal
subterfuge to avoid bringing charges against Luis Posada Carriles for
what he actually is: a murderer and a terrorist.

Our people will recall that on January 15, in response to the U.S.
government's criminal indictment of Luis Posada Carriles on January
11, 2007, on charges of fraud and lying when applying for
naturalization, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX)
clearly stated that it was hoping that "those charges against the
terrorist Posada Carriles for minor immigration- related crimes would
not become a smokescreen for granting him impunity for the serious
crime of terrorism... "

The U.S. government should have filed charges with Judge Philip
Martinez of El Paso, Texas, before February 1 to prevent the court
from accepting a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by the
notorious terrorist's lawyer, which - if successful - would have led
to his release. It was to be expected, therefore, that prior to
February 1, the U.S. government would bring charges of terrorism
against Luis Posada Carriles, something for which - as the
aforementioned MINREX statement noted - they "have all the evidence,"
an assertion that the Ministry is now restating.

In fact, on October 5, 2006, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agency of the U.S. Homeland Security Department had told Luis
Posada Carriles that he would remain under federal custody because
"...you have a history of engaging in criminal activity, and have
been involved with individuals and organizations which promote and
use terrorist violence."

Nevertheless, this past January 31, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed
a motion rejecting the habeas corpus petition as inadmissible,
arguing only that that Posada Carriles is no longer under Homeland
Security custody - which is over U.S. immigration authorities -;
instead, he is now in custody of the U.S. Justice Department as a
result of the criminal proceedings against him begun on January 11 on
charges of fraud and false testimony. In other words, the argument of
the U.S. government is that Posada Carriles must remain in custody,
not because he is a terrorist, but because he is a liar.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to remind the U.S.
government that the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts
against the Safety of Civil Aviation, signed in Montreal on September
23, 1971, and to which the United States is a signatory, establishes
in its Article 7 that "The Contracting State in the territory of
which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite
him, be obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the
offence was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its
competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution. "

Identical terms are used by the International Convention for the
Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, which went into effect on May 23,
2001, and to which the United States also is a signatory.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the name of the Cuban people and
of the victims' families, would like to remind U.S. President George
W. Bush of his own words on August 26, 2003, when he said in St. Louis, Missouri: "...if you harbor a terrorist, if you support a
terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the
terrorists."