Castro’s Terrorist is Ours

May 18, 2005

Castro is angry about a man called, Luis Posada Carriles, wanted on suspicion of helping plan and carry out the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner just as it was taking off from Venezuela. Seventy-three innocent people were killed. He is also a suspect in a 1997 bombing in Cuba which killed one person.

Castro is right to be angry though he has become the dictator who cried wolf..... who has whined so much in the past there is little credibility left when there is justification for anger.

Posada, a Cuban exile and "freedom fighter" was caught for the bombing but escaped and slipped into the United States a couple months ago, and then asked for asylum. He was finally arrested a yesterday after Castro threw a fit.

Now, Bush has to figure out what to do with him which is to grant asylum, send him to Venezuela for a trial or find a country willing to take him. Bush must send him back to Venezuela for trial.

The basic problem here is that Posada is a terrorist and he certainly fits the definition. He unrepentantly used violence to make a statement in his quest to overthrow the Cuban government and also said a few days ago, he would not renounce violence in the future. Sounds like bin Laden and other Muslim extremists.

Many exiled Cubans believe Posada is a hero because he is fighting against Castro and for a free Cuba. They are muddleheaded and wrong. If Bush allows Posada to stay in the U.S. for any reason, he too is wrong.

What difference is there between those killed on 911 and in 1976? The killers in both cases, bin Laden and Posada, had the same belief that murdering innocent people was a good thing.

Posada arguments for asylum is that he will face persecution in Venezuela and reprisals from Cuba. Probably and rightly so. He deserves no better treatment as a murderer. Bush must not let a murdering terrorist stay here or even go free. Posada must  "pay the price" for his actions. Not to do so, would undercut our “War on Terror” and damage its progress now and in the future. Posada is not worth it.

It would also deny justice for the 1976 victims and their families.