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Terrorist Cuban Exile Luis Posada Carriles Seeking Political
Asylum in U.S.
EXCLUSIVE: Top Cuban Official Ricardo Alarcon Demands U.S.
Hand Over Terrorist Posada
Terrorist Cuban Exile Luis Posada Carriles Seeking
Political Asylum in U.S.
A chief terrorist with long ties to US intelligence agencies
is seeking asylum in the United States. The FBI has evidence
linking him to an airline bombing that killed 73 people. We're
talking about the notorious militant Cuban exile: Luis Posada
Carriles. Today we speak with one of the few American reporters
who has interviewed him and the president of the national
assembly of Cuba, which is calling for his extradition to
Venezuela.
A chief terrorist with long ties to US intelligence agencies
is seeking asylum in the United States. The FBI has evidence
linking him to an airline bombing that killed 73 (seventy
three people). We're talking about the notorious militant
Cuban exile: Luis Posada Carriles. Today we speak with one
of the few reporters who has interviewed him and the president
of the national assembly of Cuba.
Luis Posada Carriles is a 77-year-old former CIA operative
who was trained by the U.S. Army at Fort Benning in Georgia.
He has been trying to violently overthrow Fidel Castro's government
for four decades. Three weeks ago he entered the United States
after years of hiding in Central America and the Caribbean.
Posada has been connected to the 1976 downing of a civilian
airliner that killed 73 passengers - the first act of airline
terrorism in the Western hemisphere. He has also been linked
to a series of 1997 bombings of hotels, restaurants, and discotheques
in Havana that killed an Italian tourist; as well as a plot
to assassinate Castro five years ago. He has been jailed in
Venezuela and Panama. He was last seen in Honduras. Earlier
this month he was said to have slipped into Miami. His newly-retained
attorney has now requested asylum for him. In response, Venezuela's
Supreme Court ruled that the government should seek his extradition
from the United States to face terrorism charges.
If Posada is still in the United States, the Bush administration
has three choices: granting him asylum; jailing him for illegal
entry; or granting Venezuela's extradition request.
State Department official Roger Noriega claimed the Bush
administration didn't know for sure if Posada was in the United
States. He said Cuban claims about Posada "may be a completely
manufactured issue." At the same time Noriega said the
U.S. is "not interested in granting him asylum."
The brother of the Italian tourist killed by a bomb in a
Havana hotel in 1997 told the Miami Herald: "It's like
a New York or New Jersey resident who lost a relative in the
September 11 attacks, and the mastermind of this terrorist
act is living in Canada. Wouldn't they be upset at the Canadian
government?"
Today we spend the hour on the case of Luis Posada Carriles.
Later in the program we'll speak with the President of the
Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon, but we first turn
to the reporter who interviewed Posada for the New York Times
in 1998 - Ann Louise Bardach. At the time, she didn't say
where he was hiding out. It was Aruba. We reached her last
night at her home in Santa Barbara where she is a professor
at the University of California Santa Barabra. She is a columnist
for online magazine Slate and the author of "Cuba Exile."
She talked about what Posada admitted to her and why he chose
to speak out.
- Ann Louise Bardach, journalist and author.
EXCLUSIVE: Top Cuban Official Ricardo Alarcon Demands
U.S. Hand Over Terrorist Posada
In an exclusive interview, the president of the Cuban National
Assembly Ricardo Alarcon gives his most extended remarks to
date on the case of the notorious Cuban exile Luis Posada
Carriles. Alarcon says, "Now the Bush doctrine - those
who harbor a terrorist are as guilty as the terrorist himself
- should be proven. The proof is in the pudding."
- Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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