Air-bomb suspect poses dilemma for U.S.

EL PASO, Texas — Thirty years ago, long before liquids and gels were restricted on airliners, a tube of toothpaste may have brought a plane down from the sky.

Cubana Airlines Flight 455 crashed off the coast of Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976, killing all 73 people aboard. Plastic explosives stuffed into a toothpaste tube ignited the plane, according to recently declassified police records.

Implicated in the attack, but never convicted, was Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who has long sought to topple the government of Fidel Castro.

Today, Posada, 78, is in a detention center in El Paso, held on an immigration violation while the government tries to figure out what to do with him. His case presents a quandary for the Bush administration, at least in part because Posada is a former CIA operative and U.S. Army officer who directed his wrath at a government that Washington has long opposed.

Legal limbo

Despite insistent calls from Cuba and Venezuela for his extradition, the administration has refused to send him to either country for trial.

Intensifying the problem is that Posada, who was arrested last year in Miami after sneaking into the country, may soon go free, as the United States has been reluctant to file terrorism charges that could keep him in jail.

That prospect has brought a hail of criticism of the Bush administration for holding a double standard when it comes to those who commit terrorist acts.

"The fight against terrorism cannot be fought a la carte," said Jose Pertierra, a Washington lawyer who is representing the government of Venezuela in its effort to extradite Posada. "A terrorist is a terrorist."

The Bush administration has stopped short of prosecuting him as a terrorist, however, even though the Justice Department called him as much last week. In papers filed in federal court in El Paso on Thursday, it described him as "an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks on tourist sites."

No takers

Instead, Posada faces immigration charges, as the Bush administration tries its best to deport him somewhere else, where he would walk free.

Few countries seem willing to take him. So far, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama have all turned down American requests to take Posada, who denies that he bombed the plane but who is linked to the case in declassified CIA and FBI files.

"Who would want him?" asked one lawyer close to the case, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified because of the delicacy of the litigation. "Wherever he goes there will be intelligence agents from a variety of nations following him, not to mention hit squads."

Two countries do want Posada: Venezuela, where he is wanted for blowing up the plane, and Cuba, where he is viewed as an enemy of the state who has repeatedly tried to assassinate Castro.

11th-hour strategy

An immigration judge has ruled that Posada may be subject to torture in those two countries. But because no other country has stepped forward, and because he has not been officially deemed a terrorist by the U.S. government, a federal judge recommended last month — coincidentally on Sept. 11 — that Posada be released.

The Bush administration is now invoking a law that bars the release of an illegal immigrant who poses adverse foreign-policy consequences for the United States.

Posada has long-standing links to U.S. intelligence agencies, and his colorful past helps to explain why this is not a garden-variety terrorism case.

A former sugar chemist and exterminator in Cuba, he has been working in the shadows to carry out a policy not unlike the one Washington has advocated over the decades — the removal of Castro.

"How can you call someone a terrorist who allegedly committed acts on your behalf?" asked Felipe D.J. Millan, Posada's El Paso-based lawyer.

Was CIA notified?

Posada received military training in the United States and worked for the CIA as far back as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He played a role in supplying the contras in Nicaragua. He has admitted, but subsequently denied, involvement in a string of bombings of Cuban tourist facilities.

By the time the Cubana Airlines plane exploded, Posada was no longer in the employ of the CIA. But records show that he may have notified his former bosses that a bomb was going to be set off on a plane shortly before it happened.

Venezuela and Cuba staged events on Friday, the 30th anniversary of the airplane bombing, where Bush was condemned for his administration's failure to turn over Posada. A billboard posted outside the U.S. Interest Section in Havana features the image of Bush, Posada and Hitler.

A majority of the victims were Cubans, including the entire Olympic fencing team, which was returning from a competition in Venezuela. Guyanese and North Koreans made up most of the other passengers.

"Luis Posada Carriles is a terrorist, but he's our terrorist," said Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has been unearthing documents on Posada's case. "The historical baggage that he brought with him when he sneaked into the U.S. has created this dilemma for the Bush administration."