Double standards: US shelters terrorist

[Penta]

He's OUR self-confessed and convicted terrorist and mass murderer, so international treaties and standards of justice don't apply.
I'm all in favour of the Convention Against Torture, but since US government lawyers themselves told the judge on Monday that they had no evidence Posada would be tortured in Venezuela, one has to wonder what he's based his refusal to extradite on.

Venezuela Slams Posada Carriles Immigration Hearing

Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005
By: Venezuelanalysis.com


Caracas, Venezuela, September 27, 2005—Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban-Venezuelan who is wanted for terrorism in Venezuela, will probably neither be extradited nor deported to Venezuela. The Venezuelan embassy in the U.S. reacted strongly to this turn of events, saying, “The Posada case reveals the Bush Administration’s double standard in its so-called war on terrorism.”

The hearings on whether Posada should be deported for violating U.S. immigration law concluded yesterday and the judge, William L. Abbott, is expected to make a final decision later this week. Posada’s attorney, Matthew Archambeault, told the press, “We are 99% certain that the judge is inclined to postpone the deportation.”

After hearing arguments, Judge Abbott said yesterday that there are sufficient grounds for not extraditing Posada under the provisions of the Convention Against Torture. According to Posada’s lawyers, Posada would face torture and possible extradition to Cuba if he were deported to Venezuela. The Convention Against Torture (CAT) states that individuals in U.S. custody may not be deported to countries where they could be subjected to torture. The Venezuelan government, however, has repeatedly denied that Posada would be extradited to Cuba or would face torture in Venezuela.

Posada is wanted in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airline that was flying from Venezuela to Cuba. All 73 passengers died in the crash. Posada denies that he was involved in the bombing, but recently declassified CIA documents reveal that Posada bragged to others about having planned the bombing. Posada is a notorious anti-Castro militant, who has been convicted of planning the assassination of Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000 and of placing bombs in Cuban tourist resorts in the 1990’s.

The Venezuelan embassy’s press release states the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which would normally be in charge of pursuing international terrorists, focused solely on Posada’s immigration matter. “Rather proceeding with the extradition of this self-confessed terrorist to stand trial for murder in Caracas, the U.S. Government has instead turned the case into a minor immigration matter in El Paso,” states the embassy’s press release.

The statement goes on to say that the U.S. government is abusing the Convention Against Torture to protect an internationally wanted terrorist. “There is no evidence that the government of Venezuela would torture Posada. To grant CAT relief to Posada Carriles is to cynically twist an international treaty meant to protect innocent victims of torture into an instrument with which to shelter a terrorist.”

Venezuela’s embassy in the U.S. argues that the U.S. government contradicts itself because in a recent case involving two Venezuelan officers wanted for their participation in the 2002 coup attempt the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued against the application of the CAT. “In that case DHS argued against Torture Convention relief, because of the absence of evidence that Venezuela tortures its prisoners. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the United States engages in the systematic torture of its own prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base, the Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities,” said the embassy.

According to the embassy, there are three separate international treaties that compel the U.S. to extradite Luis Posada Carriles: “1. The Extradition Treaty between the United States and Venezuela signed on January 19, 1922, 2. The International Convention on Civil Aviation signed in Montreal on September 23, 1971, and 3. the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings signed on December 15, 1997.”

[Penta]

Not worthy of further comment from BFC GWOT warriors? No worries about the effect on US credibility and reputation?

Some comments from current and former US state department officials:

"It's bad enough when the world knows that we're rendering suspected Islamic terrorists to countries that routinely use terror. But here we have someone who we know is a terrorist, and it's clear that we're actively protecting him from facing justice. We have zero credibility."

"The long and short of it is that we are harbouring a terrorist."

"All the government lawyers had to do was to point to the State Department's annual human rights report on Venezuela that says there is no recent history of people being tortured in Venezuela."

"This is really shameful."

And from Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba expert at the NSA who was instrumental in getting declassified documents including Posada Carriles' boasts about blowing up the civilian airliner:

"a travesty that compromises [the US government's] fight against terrorism".

"How the Bush administration expects to be taken seriously on the war on terrorism given the way it has handled every stage of Luis Posada's return to the United States that will haunt U.S. security interests for a very long time."

[AK74]

This guy is small fries compared to Carlos Lehder!


Lehder is responsible for more deaths and ruined lives in America than Osama, yet he lives an opulent life in America itself under the protection of the Feds.


For the younger folks surfing the forum the character named Diego in the film "Blow" is based on Lehder.


Just do a web search on
his history and you'll be just as pissed and disillusioned with the Feds as I am!.

[Mike Heenan]

Interesting... Lehder is rumored to be out here in the witness protection program. Wonder if he slipped up and got involved with Sammy the bull a few years ago.

[redfax]

And you can follow that bit of research up by studying how the CIA shipped heroin to Sicily for refinement and later transfer to the US market....

I wish it was a joke.

[el3so]

And you can follow that bit of research up by studying how the CIA shipped heroin to Sicily for refinement and later transfer to the US market...

Let's agree to call it freedom powder, shall we? The H-word has such a nasty ring to it...

[Outkast]

Remember, terrorism is dependant on the government calling it so.

Case in point: China vs. Tibetian Monks.

It just happens that as far as the rules there go, practicing (any) religion besides the standard state line counts as "terrorism".

Anyone and anything can be a "terrorist" if it is considered subversive or offensive to a group of people.

[illman]

Carlos Lehder is not in the witness protection program. CL was never as big as Escobar/Ochoa/Gacha, but is always mentioned with them. He was drug addled and pretty much worthless by the Noriega trial.

The witness protection program story is a farce. I believe he is still in protective captivity for his own safety. His file shows neither a sentence reduction (beyond the 55 years promised after the Noriega trial) nor deferrment to the wpp. Note that both are placed in the file (ala Gravano).

CL said enough shit about the US officials that they would not allow him in the wpp.

Finally, he cannot be located in public records, which is not unprecedented. Typically, it comes out eventually they are/were in protective custody.

[Outkast]

It would be really scary if Binny was in U.S. protective custody...

<i>"So THAT'S why no one could find him!..."<i>

[Penta]

Remember, terrorism is dependant on the government calling it so.

I don't think even the US government could fail to classify blowing up a civilian airliner, planting a bomb that kills tourists and other civilians or attempting to assassinate a president as terrorism.

[AK74]

Proving someone's status in the WPP is a sisyphean task, yet the dude who went on CL's heels apparently managed to track down an exact address and phone number in the Bay area. If you Google CL that info should come up pretty quickly.


If you read the online transcript of the PBS Frontline interview with Mr. Jung (portrayed by Johnny Depp in "Blow") you'll know that CL through his base in Norman's Cay was Escobar's conduit into the U.S. market and as the famous line in "Blow" states: "if you did Coke in the late '70s or early '80s there is an 80 percent ( or perhaps 85 percent) chance that it was from us."

[Sri Lanky]

My favourite form of terrorism is the good old fashioned state terror sponsored by the Benevolent States of American. Might is right....but what goes around comes around as we have seen. Bush is making damn sure the rest of the world hates the US...that way the powers that be have a perfect excuse to ratchet up the Industrial-military complex of which some on this board benefit from.

[illman]

If you read the online transcript of the PBS Frontline interview with Mr. Jung (portrayed by Johnny Depp in "Blow") you'll know that CL through his base in Norman's Cay was Escobar's conduit into the U.S. market and as the famous line in "Blow" states: "if you did Coke in the late '70s or early '80s there is an 80 percent ( or perhaps 85 percent) chance that it was from us."

Actually, I've read several books about the medellin cartel. A portion of the drugs went through Normans Cay, but it was only a portion of the drugs going into the USA (not the northeast, Texas, California etc.) By that time, Lehder was an addict and considered unreliable. He was never in the league with the others. If you want to see what was really going on, read about Max Mermelstein.

Jung and Lehder were cowboys hooked on their own stuff, bigger in their own minds than reality.

[Soami]

This cats not alone. The US has a "house guest" that kidnapped and wacked two Irish UN Peacekeepers in Beruit. This terrorist starts a new life in America as a guest of Uncle Whiskers and the these Irish trooper's families get no justice. The Irish Independent Newspaper ran a story on this in July, but you won't hear a word about it in the American papers. Dam it, where is the War on Terror when you need it!

[AK74]

This is the link that I've been looking for:


http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/c ... tages.html