After 9/11, the Bush administration proposed a U.N. resolution that stated U.N. member states should "ensure that anyone who has participated in the financing, planning, preparation or perpretation of terrorist acts...is brought to justice". The U.S. supported the passing of this resolution because it didn't want members of the United Nations protecting terrorists.
But evidently the Bush administration thinks that resolution applies only to other countries, because they are now in the process of protecting a terrorist.
In 1976, Luis Posada Carriles planned the terrorist bombing of an airliner that cost the lives of 73 innocent people. But Posada is not a member of any terrorist group that Bush disapproves of. Instead, he is an ex-CIA Cuban, militantly anti-Castro, and a naturalized citizen of Venezuela.
Both Cuba and Venezuela believe he is the terrorist responsible for the airliner bombing, and have asked the United States to extradite him to stand trial for the murders. The Bush administration has refused to do that. Instead, they charged him with lying to immigration officials to enter the country - a charge that allowed him to post bail. He is now staying with his family in Florida.
Once again, Bush and his cronies show that they don't believe that laws apply to them - not Constitutional law and not international law. If Posada were an Arab and in another country, Bush would be raising hell wanting him extradited. But since he is accused of terrorism against countries Bush doesn't like, his crime is ignored by the administration.
Cuba and Venezuela have now taken their case to the United Nations in an effort to bring Posada to justice. They believe the United States should obey the same rules it expects other countries to obey, and they are right.
The U.S. should take Posada into custody and send him to Venezuela to stand trial for his crimes. A terrorist is no less a terrorist because his innocent victims were Cuban or Venezuelan rather than American. There should be no double standard when it comes to terrorists and their victims.
Posada should pay for his crime, just as al-Queda must pay for theirs.
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