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<h1><font size=4><b>If Julian Assange is a Terrorist, then What is Luis
Posada Carriles?</b></font></h1><font size=3>By Jean Guy Allard -
Cubanradio.cu, January 21st 2011 <br>
<a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5949" eudora="autourl">
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5949<br><br>
</a>The trials of the creator of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and of
international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles began with less than a
24-hour difference on January 10 and 11, one in London and the other one
in El Paso, Texas. The anomaly immediately catching the attention of many
is that the champion of freedom of information will be accused of the
very serious crime of terrorism, while the confessed terrorist will be
tried for migratory crimes sanctioned by a sentence he has already
served.<br><br>
The ANSA news agency reports that the request of extradition made by
Sweden for the charge of “sexual molestation” against Assange was
transferred from a court in the center of London to Belmarsh Court,
specializing in terrorism issues and annexed to a maximum security
prison, rebaptized years ago by the BBC as “The British
Guantanamo”.<br><br>
Assange will appear in court on a charge of terrorism, which implies,
according to British laws, his arrest and confinement.<br><br>
Luis Posada Carriles will continue to be free on bail when he appears in
the United States before a judge who acquitted him in a first trial and
who openly expressed her sympathy for him in a courtroom full of
followers, many of them with a terrorist past.<br><br>
A spokesperson of the British legal authorities stated that the transfer
to the court of Belmarsh, in the southeast area of the capital, is due to
“logistical reasons” and not, as stated by WikiLeaks, due to US
pressure.<br><br>
<b>SPEED UP FOR ASSANGE, DELAYED FOR POSADA<br><br>
</b>The truth is that while in the case of Assange, the procedures have
been speed up, skipping stages as much as possible after a series of
tricks to silence the Australian man, in the case of Posada Carriles, a
former CIA agent who served the Agency as an instructor of
explosives, a torturer, a police captain, a hired assassin, a terrorist
and a promoter of assassination, records of dilatory maneuvers to draw
out his case are surpassed.<br><br>
In addition to use a panoply of dirty tricks to pressure Assange,
sabotage his operations system, take away his income, recover the leaks,
manipulate the content, US agencies have terrorized the man who dared to
open the valves of the huge can of diplomatic trash of the United
States.<br><br>
Hundreds of texts have been written, books have been published and
documentaries have been made about the criminal record of Posada, the
Klaus Barbie of US intelligence.<br><br>
On May 17, 2005, at 1:30 pm, Luis Posada Carriles was arrested near
Miami, and taken in a golf cart to a helicopter, “with every courtesy
possible”, for his transfer to the offices of the Department of Homeland
Security.<br><br>
On April 1st, 2005, a lawyer for Posada Carriles, Eduardo Soto, confirmed
in Miami that his client - who illegally entered US territory on board a
shrimp vessel owned by a kingpin of the Cuban-American mafia - would ask
for asylum to stay in the country permanently.<br><br>
In spite of the accusations presented in Caracas for his participation in
the terrorist attack against a Cuban aircraft that killed all 73 people
on board in 1976; his arrest in Panama in 2000, in connection with a plan
for an assassination attempt against Cuban leader Fidel Castro; his
public acceptance for having organized a terrorist campaign against
tourist facilities in Havana in 1997; and his close links with terrorist
networks, Posada Carriles received full support from the US
government.<br><br>
On September 27, 2005, an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, William
Abbott, following federal instructions, used the absurd testimony of an
old accomplice of Posada and former official of the Venezuelan secret
police, Joaquin Chaffardet, to rule that he could not be deported to
Venezuela, from where he escaped prison and fled justice in
1985.<br><br>
<b>GETTING RID OF THE “HOT POTATO”<br><br>
</b>Four months later, on January 24, 2006, three days before the
inauguration of Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, The Miami Herald cited
what it called “fragments” of a statement by the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Bureau (ICE), that pointed out the following: “ICE is
progressing in carrying out of the removal of Mr. Posada from the
US”.<br><br>
The White House – in the face of an international scandal – assessed that
the best way to get rid of the “hot potato” - the former agent,
terrorist, torturer and assassin, was to find him refuge anywhere outside
US territory.<br><br>
Three days later, on January 27, 2006, US ambassador to Honduras, Charles
“Charlie” Ford, visited Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, on the day of
his inauguration, to make an insolent request.<br><br>
“Ambassador Charles Ford came to ask me to grant a visa to Posada
Carriles”, said Zelaya later.<br><br>
“It was impossible to give a visa to Luis Posada Carriles, since he was
questioned for terrorist acts. They defend that kind of terrorism, I
vouch for that”, he underlined.<br><br>
On April 19, 2007, Posada Carriles, found not guilty by Cardone, was back
in Miami not to set foot in a detention center ever again.<br><br>
<b>BROWNFIELD: “POSADA DOESN’T PUT ANYBODY AT RISK”<br><br>
</b>On March 18, 2008, as a response to statements made by Cuba and
Venezuela at the United Nations, the person in charge of legal affairs in
the US mission, Caroline Wilson, pointed out with candor that her country
“had carefully followed the legal procedures in force in the case of
Posada Carriles”.<br><br>
“As happens in democracies in the world, a person can’t be tried or
extradited if there isn’t enough evidence that he committed the crime
he’s accused of”, she asserted.<br><br>
In July 2008, US ambassador to Venezuela at the time, William Brownfield,
in statements to the Panorama newspaper, in Maracaibo, made it clear that
the United States had no intention whatsoever of putting Posada at the
disposal of Venezuelan justice, which was claiming and continues to claim
him.<br><br>
“Mr. Luis Posada Carriles doesn’t represent an imminent danger for
anybody”, Brownfield said, making it clear that the US would never turn
over its veteran agent.<br><br>
Ironically, a few days before the Brownfield blunder, Sub-Secretary of
State Thomas Shannon, today US ambassador in Brazil, assured the OAS that
the US Department of Justice was “still carrying out investigations”
about Posada Carriles.<br><br>
While Assange is hastily taken from a minor court to another one that can
lock him up for good, the Venezuelan government is waiting for an answer,
for more than five years now, to its extradition request for terrorist
Posada Carriles.<br><br>
Assange, the Web idealist demonized by major communication networks and
persecuted by US agencies, will soon know how imperial justice gives a
piece of its mind, with or without intermediaries.<br><br>
Ignored by an accomplice press, Posada, the mercenary assassin, will keep
on evading laws and haunting the dozens of victims and relatives of
victims of his crimes, who have been devastated by the permanent
despicable and cowardly willingness of those serving the empire.<br><br>
<br><br>
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