U.S. Indicts Terror Bomber (and Former CIA Operative) on Charges of ... Perjury and Obstruction

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 9:37 AM on April 10, 2009.

One of the things that made the "War on Terror" such a farcical catch-phrase is that the U.S. government has always had, at best, little interest in terrorism when it was aimed at targets the establishment deemed appropriate.

Reuters:

A federal grand jury has accused anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles of lying to U.S. authorities about his role in bomb attacks against tourist sites in Cuba in 1997.

In an indictment filed against Posada by the grand jury in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, he is accused of seeking to "obstruct and impede" the work of the U.S. government by lying during an immigration interview about his role in the attacks.

An Italian man was killed in the 1997 bomb blasts in Cuba in a case the indictment highlights as an "offense involving international terrorism."

The arraignment of Posada, who has a long history of violent opposition to former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has been set for April 17 and jury selection for a trial is expected to begin on August 10.

Posada is wanted in both Cuba and Venezuela, where he is accused of masterminding the 1976 suitcase bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. That bombing occurred while Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan, lived in the oil-rich South American nation.

The latest indictment marks the first time since Posada arrived in the United States seeking asylum in March 2005 that he has been linked in a court proceeding to the Cuba bombings which killed Italian national Fabio di Celmo.

In addition to being linked to the destruction of the Cuban jet, Posada has admitted to a string of bombings in Havana night clubs during the 1970s. Yet the Bush administration released Posada, who was arrested in 2005 on immigration charges, despite keeping tens of thousands of people who had never committed mass murder in detention for lesser immigration violations.

Meanwhile, five Cubans who were sent to Miami to monitor the anti-Cuban terror groups to which the government has long turned a blind eye, are rotting in prison, facing long sentences for espionage after a trial condemned by international human rights groups as being anything but fair. In 2005, a United Nations report (PDF) on illegal detentions noted:

...it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.

The "Cuban Five," as they've come to be known, have petitioned the Supreme Court for a new trial.

Tagged as: terror, posada carriles

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.