More Bush Administration Hypocrisy

Luis Posada Carriles is an anti-Castro Cuban émigré who is alleged to have been involved in numerous violent terrorist plots. The Wikipedia entry elaborates on a lifetime of terrorist activity, including blowing up a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people, and bombing a string of hotels in Cuba.

He immigrated to the United States in 1961, served one year in the US Army, then continued separate military training with anti-Castro exiles in Florida. He was also on the CIA payroll from the 1960s until 1974.

A naturalized citizen of Venezuela, he escaped from jail there in 1985 and became an international fugitive. During those 20 years, he supplied arms to the Nicaraguan Contras, organized the bombings of luxury hotels in Cuba in 1997, in order to discourage tourism there, and was convicted in Panama of plotting the assassination of Fidel Castro. He sneaked across the Mexican border this year and sought asylum in the U.S. He was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security.

The Venezuelan Government requested extradition, since they want to retry Carriles for his role in the 1976 airline bombing. On Monday a Texas judge ruled that Carriles will not be deported to Venezuela because of fear of torture.

Elena Freyre, executive director of the Cuban American Defense League, said there was no proof Posada would be tortured in Venezuela and that he should have gone there to stand trial. She said the decision undermines the Bush administration's war on terror.

"It seems to me that this would have been exactly what this administration would not have wanted in this particular case," she said. "What we have here is a very elegant, if you want to call it that, or sneaky, if you want to call it that, maneuver to allow him to remain in this country."

Once again the Bush administration proves that its "War on Terror" is, in reality, a war for self-interest, greed and personal gain. The miserable failure of the federal government in responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina proved that this country is ill-equiped to respond to a terrorist attack. Now the Bush administration and the Department of Homeland Security prove that special interests take precedence over bringing international terrorists to justice. You don't want to alienate those Cuban-American voters, and you certainly don't want to cooperate with Hugo Chavez.