[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 72 (Thursday, May 3, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H4470]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE TERRORIST WE CAUGHT BUT WON'T PROSECUTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, next week Luis Carriles is scheduled to 
stand trial for allegedly lying to immigration authorities when he 
entered the United States 2 years ago.
  Most Americans have probably never heard of Carriles, but everyone 
should know the real case against him because it shows the double 
standard of the Bush administration and its so-called commitment to 
fight terrorism.
  Carriles is being prosecuted for an immigration violation in America, 
but he has been convicted in other nations for acts of terrorism, 
including the downing of a commercial Cuban airliner over 30 years ago 
that killed 33 innocent people. He is a wanted international fugitive. 
The Bush administration knows this, but instead of turning Carriles 
over to the sovereign Governments of Cuba or Venezuela, as they have 
asked, we are going to get him on an immigration violation.
  Why is the Bush administration handling Carilles in this way? Three 
letters say it all: CIA.
  Carriles was a CIA agent. He was part of the Bay of Pigs debacle, and 
his fierce opposition to Cuban President Fidel Castro has been reported 
by the media.
  Officially, Carriles left the CIA in the middle of 1976. That is the 
year that Luis Carriles was convicted in Venezuela of masterminding the 
downing of the Cuban airplane.
  The administration won't reveal what role Carriles played as a CIA 
agent or what his assignments were. His shadowy connections to the 
United States Government almost certainly continued after he and the 
agency parted ways. The media has reported that Carriles helped funnel 
U.S. supplies to the Contra rebels attempting to overthrow the 
Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
  Carriles himself has personally boasted of a role in the deadly 
bombings of hotels in Havana, Cuba, in the 1990s. And Carriles was also 
convicted in Panama in the year 2000 for a plot to assassinate Fidel 
Castro. He was sentenced to prison, but he was later pardoned and set 
free.
  You would think that capturing a man like this would have the 
administration calling a news conference to declare their success in 
the war on terror with a long-sought terrorist in custody. Not so. 
Instead, the administration is busy trying to get a court to bar him 
from testifying about what he did for the CIA. Carriles' lawyers have 
said his client will talk about that, and the assignments during and 
after his official employment. One of the CIA directors during the time 
of Carriles' connection to the agency was former President George H. W. 
Bush, the President's father.
  The American people have a right to know what really happened in the 
1970s and what role, if any, the United States played in the deadly 
games of Carriles. Was he a rogue agent or was he acting on CIA orders?
  The Cuban Government wants him, but we are not talking to Havana as 
long as Castro is alive and in power. Venezuela, which has an 80-year-
old extradiction treaty with the United States, has repeatedly asked 
for Carriles. But the President isn't talking to Venezuela, either, so 
those requests have been denied.
  The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service says Carriles poses a 
significant danger to our Nation, but the U.S. Justice Department just 
hasn't acted.
  In a recent editorial that I submit for printing in the Record, the 
Los Angeles Times described Luis Posada Carriles as ``the Zacarias 
Moussaoui of Havana and Caracas.'' The Times points out that Moussaoui 
is serving a life sentence without parole for his role in the 9/11 
attacks, but Carriles was released on bail and is living at home in 
Miami, with his family, awaiting trial next week. The U.S. is holding a 
person convicted of major terrorist acts in other countries, but he is 
going to be prosecuted for an immigration infraction. That is like 
bringing Osama bin Laden in and trying him for a traffic ticket.
  The moral compass of the Bush administration is just spinning round 
and round over the treatment of Posada Carriles. Next week it is going 
to stop on a new direction: H, for hypocrisy.

                   [From the LA Times, Apr. 20, 2007]

 A Terrorist Walks: Luis Posada Carriles Has Boasted of Bombing Havana 
             Hotels, Yet American Justice Lets Him Go Free

       With a misguided decision upholding bail for Cuban-born 
     terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of 
     Appeals in New Orleans has done more than free a frail old 
     man facing unremarkable immigration charges. It has exposed 
     Washington to legitimate charges of hypocrisy in the war on 
     terror.
       By allowing Posada to go free before his May 11 trial, the 
     court has released a known flight risk who previously escaped 
     from a Venezuelan prison, a man who has boasted of helping 
     set off deadly bombs in Havana hotels 10 years ago and the 
     alleged mastermind of a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airplane that 
     killed 73 people. Posada's employees confessed to the attack, 
     and declassified FBI and CIA documents have shown that he 
     attended planning sessions.
       In other words, Posada is the Zacarias Moussaoui of Havana 
     and Caracas. Moussaoui is serving a life sentence without 
     parole in a federal prison in Colorado for conspiracy in the 
     9/11 attacks; Posada is free to live in Miami.
       Posada, a 79-year-old Bay of Pigs veteran who served time 
     in Panama for plotting to kill Fidel Castro, has never been 
     charged with crimes of terrorism in U.S. courts. Instead, 
     Immigrations and Customs Enforcement nabbed him for lying to 
     immigration authorities after he sneaked in the country in 
     March 2005 and held a news conference announcing his 
     triumphant return. Both Customs and the Justice Department 
     lobbied to keep Posada behind bars, but U.S. law enforcement 
     has never shown a strong interest in trying him for more 
     serious crimes. In turn, Posada's lawyer has preemptively 
     warned that if charged, his client would likely reveal 
     extensive collaboration with the CIA.
       The United States keeps 385 suspected terrorists imprisoned 
     in Guantanamo Bay, many in isolation and all without U.S. 
     norms of due process. Yet Posada, a confessed terrorist, is 
     sent home with an ankle bracelet.
       The United States has not been able to persuade any of 
     seven allied nations to accept Posada. A federal judge has 
     ruled that he can't be extradited to Cuba or Venezuela 
     because he might be tortured. The best solution would have 
     been for the court to refuse bail until trial while the State 
     Department keeps searching for a third-party country that 
     would agree to try him on terrorism charges.
       Instead, Castro receives a propaganda victory gift, the 
     White House has its moral authority undermined and the 
     victims of Carriles' alleged crimes see justice delayed once 
     more.
       The U.S. government has done many odd things in 46 years of 
     a largely failed Cuba policy, but letting a notorious 
     terrorist walk stands among the most perverse yet.

                          ____________________