U.S. harbors terrorist in Miami

Luis Posada Carriles is a terrorist. He admits it.

In a 1998 interview with a New York Times reporter, Posada took credit for being the mastermind behind the bombing of a dozen hotels in the Caribbean in which a tourist was killed.

This is just one of many terrorist acts by Posada. He was convicted of a terrorist bombing plot in Panama that targeted the University of Panama, an act that would have killed more than a thousand students. At the time of his arrest on Nov. 17, 2000, Posada had 33 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives in his possession.

Posada is a fugitive from Venezuela, where he is wanted as one of the masterminds of a terrorist bombing of an airliner that killed all 73 on board in 1976. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while being held for trial on the airline bombing.

Last month, Posada entered the United States from Mexico and on April 12 he requested asylum.

How could a terrorist get past Home land Security, racist vigilantes on the Sou thern border and the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror and land safely in Miami?

Because Posada is a U.S.-sponsored terrorist. He began his lifelong career as a professional terrorist when he was trained in the early 1960s by the CIA. He was part of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba that was soundly defeated by the Cuban people. The attorney handling his asylum request says that Posada continued to work for the CIA for many more years.

Posada says he worked for the U.S. Army in Vietnam in the 1960s. After that he became head of the Venezuelan secret police, where he oversaw a campaign to purge the country of leftists, including the secret assassinations of many. In 1976, he was arrested in Caracas for the bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner that killed all 73 passengers.

Later, Posada went to Central America where he oversaw supply operations for the CIA Contra army fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

In 1997 he organized a bombing campaign that targeted tourist hotels in Cuba. Fabio di Celmo, a visitor from Italy, was killed in one of those explosions.

In 2000 he was in Panama plotting another bombing, this one of a conference being held at the University of Panama where Fidel Castro was scheduled to speak.

According to Dagoberto Rodriguez, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Wash ington, “On April 11, Cuban Presi dent Fidel Castro demanded that U.S. President George W. Bush respond before the world whether it was true that his government was harboring in its territory this well-known international terrorist.

“Up to now, no U.S. government authority has said a word on this matter. The silence of the U.S. government does not surprise us. It has been its historical behavior to harbor terrorists of Cuban origin on U.S. territory, giving them shelter and protection. For a long time, terrorism was the favorite method applied by the U.S. in its efforts to overthrow the Cuban government and that is why it trained, armed and financed them.”

In fact, it is because the U.S. has an army of terrorists in Miami that Cuba has taken extraordinary measures to defend itself from terrorist attacks.

Today, five Cuban men who were working to stop terrorism in Miami are in U.S. prisons for their efforts. The five had been sent by Cuba to Miami in an effort to protect the island from terrorist attacks.

The U.S. government charged the five with engaging in espionage. In fact, they were trying to monitor and prevent terror attacks from U.S. soil against their island nation and had even notified the FBI when they learned of impending attacks.

They were given unprecedented sentences, longer terms than any other espionage convictions in decades. Their trial took place in Miami where the anti-Cuban right wing is so strong that a fair trial is impossible.

Now they are known as the Cuban 5. Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González are currently awaiting the appeal of their convictions.

An international solidarity movement has grown over the last year to support the Five and demand their immediate freedom. More information is available at www.FreeTheFive.org.