[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1015-E1016]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH REGARDING LUIS POSADA CARRILES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, today 20 Representatives sent to President 
Bush the following letter regarding the asylum application of terrorist 
Luis Posada Carriles and the extradition request from Venezuela:

       Dear Mr. President: We are writing to urge you to oppose 
     the application for asylum by Luis Posada Carriles, and to 
     support the request for extradition to Venezuela, where he is 
     a fugitive from justice.
       Posada, a CIA-trained Cuban exile, is one of only two prime 
     suspects in the bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner, which 
     killed all 73 people onboard on October 6, 1976, according to 
     FBI investigators and declassified documents. The plane had 
     originated in Caracas and was bound for Cuba, with a stop in 
     Barbados. The bomb went off as the plane was leaving 
     Barbados.
       In addition to the Cuban airline bombing, Posada is 
     implicated in an act of terrorism that took place on American 
     soil, here in Washington, DC. On September 21, 1976 former 
     Chilean government minister Orlando Letelier and his American 
     associate, Ronni Moffit, were killed by a car bomb near 
     Sheridon Circle. The bombing was one of the worst acts of 
     foreign terrorism on American soil to that date.
       Carter Cornick, a retired counterterrorism specialist for 
     the FBI who worked on the Letelier case, said in an interview 
     that both the airline bombing and the Letelier bombing were 
     planned at a June 1976 meeting in Santo Domingo attended by 
     Posada in addition to others. Mr. Cornick said that Posada 
     was involved ``up to his eyeballs'' in planning the attacks. 
     At the time of the bombings, Venezuelan police found maps and 
     other evidence in Posada's Venezuelan home that tied him to 
     the terrorist acts. Furthermore, a recently declassified 1976 
     F.B.I. document confirms Posada's presence at two meetings in 
     the Anauco Hilton Hotel in Caracas where the airline bombing 
     was planned.
       Posada, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Cuba, and a former 
     Venezuelan intelligence agent, was jailed in Venezuela for 
     the airline bombing, but then escaped from prison in 1985 
     while awaiting trial.

[[Page E1016]]

       After escaping prison, Posada continued to terrorize 
     civilians, and even boast publicly about his crimes. In a 
     1998 interview with the New York Times, he claimed 
     responsibility for organizing a series of bombings aimed at 
     Cuban hotels, department stores and other civilian targets 
     during the summer of 1997. The bombings killed an Italian 
     tourist and injured 11 other human beings.
       Perhaps realizing he had not helped himself or his cause, 
     Posada later retracted his statements.
       In November 2000, Posada was arrested in Panama for 
     preparing a bomb to explode in the University of Panama's 
     Conference Hall, where Fidel Castro was going to deliver a 
     speech. Hundreds of people were expected to attend this 
     event, and had Cuban intelligence not uncovered the plot 
     beforehand, there would have been massive civilian 
     casualties. Posada was convicted in a Panamanian court only 
     to be pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso just 
     days before she left office in August 2004.
       Moscoso's successor, Martin Torrijos, criticized the 
     pardon, aptly noting, ``For me, there are not two classes of 
     terrorism, one that is condemned and another that is 
     pardoned. ``
       Similarly, in 1989, when the Justice Department was 
     considering the asylum request of Posada's fellow Miami 
     militant, and suspected co-conspirator in the Cubana bombing, 
     Orlando Bosch, then-Associate U.S. Attorney General Joe D. 
     Whitley said, ``The United States cannot tolerate the 
     inherent inhumanity of terrorism as a way of settling 
     disputes. Appeasement of those who would use force will only 
     breed more terrorists. We must look on terrorism as a 
     universal evil, even if it is directed toward those with whom 
     we have no political sympathy.''
       Aside from the United States' foreign policy regarding 
     Cuba, our stated, official national security policy against 
     terrorism is unequivocally clear.
       On September 19, 2001, Mr. President, you eloquently 
     reaffirmed our national policy against terrorism: ``Anybody 
     who harbors a terrorist, encourages terrorism, will be held 
     accountable. I would strongly urge any nation in the world to 
     reject terrorism, expel terrorists. ``
       On August 26th, 2003 you said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, 
     if you support a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you are 
     just as guilty as the terrorists.'' The National Security 
     Strategy of the United States, released in 2002 stated, ``No 
     cause justifies terror. The United States will make no 
     concessions to terrorist demands and strike no deals with 
     them. We make no distinction between terrorists and those who 
     knowingly harbor or provide aid to them.''
       Not only must the United States reject the asylum 
     application of Luis Posada Carriles, a known international 
     terrorist, but Posada should also be returned to Venezuela 
     for a proper adjudication of the case against him. Posada was 
     a dual citizen of Venezuela and Cuba, he plotted terrorist 
     crimes from Venezuela, including the bombing of the civilian 
     airline flight that had originated in Venezuela, and he 
     escaped from a Venezuelan prison. As a sovereign nation, 
     Venezuela has the right to pursue justice in this case.
       Posada's lawyer Eduardo Soto has objected to his client's 
     return to Venezuela, arguing that he could be tortured there. 
     To satisfy such concerns, the United States should abide by 
     its standard policy on these matters, which according to 
     William Haynes II, general counsel of the Defense Department, 
     ``is to obtain specific assurances from the receiving country 
     that it will not torture the individual being transferred to 
     that country.'' If this policy is applied in the transferring 
     of prisoners to Syria, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, all 
     countries whose abusive practices have been documented and 
     condemned by the State Department's annual human rights 
     report, then the United States must surely apply this policy 
     to Venezuela, a nation with a Constitution that specifically 
     prohibits torture and provides for the prosecution of 
     officials who instigate or tolerate torture.
       Many innocent victims who happened to be Cuban died at the 
     hands of Posada, in a crime similar to that which killed 
     innocent American victims on September 11, 2001. It is not 
     only inconceivable to imagine the possibility of granting 
     this terrorist asylum, but also of denying justice to all of 
     the victims of his crimes. Such actions would go against 
     everything that your Administration has claimed to stand for 
     in the ``War on Terrorism.'' It is our hope that for the sake 
     of all the families of terror casualties in the United States 
     and around the world that Luis Posada Carriles is not granted 
     asylum in the United States, and that he is rightfully 
     extradited to Venezuela where he will finally face justice.
           Sincerely,
         Dennis J. Kucinich, Raul M. Grijalva, Jose E. Serrano, 
           Barbara Lee, Cynthia McKinney, Maurice Hinchey, John W. 
           Olver, Bobby L. Rush, James P. McGovern, Edolphus 
           Towns, Donald M. Payne, Sam Farr, Lane Evans, Bennie G. 
           Thompson, Carolyn B. Maloney, Ed Pastor, Tammy Baldwin, 
           Sheila Jackson Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Maxine Waters.

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