20, April 2007 Double Standard on War on Terror
It would appear our government and courts do not follow a uniform standard of administering justice. Take the case of ex-CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles. In 1976 Carriles planned the midair bombing of a civilian passenger plane killing 73 people and thereafter directed the bombing of tourist hotels in 1997. He escaped from prison in Venezuela and then entered the U.S. illegally. The U.S. department of Justice ignored his horrific terror crimes and decided to charge him for minor infractions of immigration laws and fraud.
The refusal of the U.S. government to try Posada smacks of a double standard on our alleged ‘war on terror’. The Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civilian Aviation, ratified in 1971, mandates he be extradited or tried in the country where he is living. Judge Kathleen Cardone, of the El Paso Federal Court last Friday, granted Luis Posada Carriles freedom on bail. Posada’s favored treatment is in sharp contrast to the cruel conditions of René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, and Antonio Guerrero. These five Cubans, charged with monitoring private organizations inside the U.S. planning terror attacks against Cuba, are enduring harsh double life sentences in maximum security prisons. This makes a complete mockery of our claims to be a bastion of peace and justice. I urge readers to write to their representatives in Washington and demand that Posada be tried for terror crimes and the ‘Cuba Five’ be released immediately and unconditionally. Their continual incarceration is a travesty of justice.
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