I dunno – that standard might make a non-terrorist of Timothy McVeigh. That is, he could argue (if he weren’t dead) that his real target was governmental – the Oklahoma City federal courthouse and its employees – and all the other civilians killed in the bombing were just “collateral damage.”
You’re irremediably optimistic, aren’t you?
You mean besides their (mis)statements of the last five years?
According to that link, there’s a possibility extradition would mean death for Posada:
Which makes Posada an illegal alien, but asylum-seekers usually are until their status is regularized.
European countries won’t extradite any suspect to the U.S. without a guarantee the suspect will not be executed, but I’ve never heard of the U.S. setting that condition.
It would be kind of hypocritical for the U.S. not to allow extradition because of the possibility of a death sentence if he would face a death sentence here for the same crime, no?
If we protect him, then we have shown ourselves to be liars and hypocrites of the worst sort. We “declared war on terrorism”. We invaded countries to “fight terror”. At least that was one of the official lines.
Fight terror anywhere and everywhere. Nowhere to hide. We’re comin’ ta getcha. I’m comin’ and hell’s comin’ with me. Smash puny terrorists. Blah blah blah blah blah.
If we now protect one, for any reason, then we should hang our heads in shame. We will have proved to the world that no, our words don’t mean a damn thing, and we are even worse than we are accused of being.
To say the least.
We can only hope.
I’d be very, very surprised if the looming death penalty were a grounds for denying extradition. Is there any precedent for the US ever doing that? It’s not like he’s an escaped poliical prisoner.
This seems like the opportune time to bring up our mollycoddling of the terrorist organization the Mojahedin-e-Khalq. A presidential advisor even raised funds for them.
Freedom fighters indeed.
In the eyes of some, that’s exactly what he is. Who do you think is giving Posada shelter in southern Florida? Some radical Cuban exile group, I have no doubt.
The BBC is saying he did:
The FBI knew an airliner was going to be bombed and didn’t try to stop it? :eek:
And after that, the U.S. government was willing to use Posada again, in Nicaragua?
Bingo.
And just who knows how tangled the woven web be? So many fingers and so many pies, it is inevitable the U.S. finds itself in some pretty tight spots, from time to time, so that it cannot easily do what it wants or what is right. When THAT happens usually there will be very little in terms of formal response, in hopes it just goes away.
The following article explains the Bush Administration’s position quite nicely:
Its like the very old joke: “One of our intelligence agents just shot one of their filthy spies!”
It appears the Admin’s response is do deny knowledge that Posada in the U.S. and to not even try to find out whether he is. What are the Venezuelans gonna do?
Hypothetical: If the Venezuelans were to do with Posada as the Israelis did with Adolf Eichmann when he was hiding out in Argentina – insert secret agents to kidnap him and take him back to stand trial – and assuming they succeeded – what would the U.S. do about that?
Either ignore it and try to keep Posada’s CIA ties from becoming general public knowledge, or at the most, throw a diplomatic tantrum. But there won’t be much public sympathy for a terrorist so there wouldn’t be sanctions or anything. Maybe threats of them, but I highly doubt anything would come of it.
If Castro/Chavez somehow succeeded in finding him and dragging him out, my guess would be quiet out of D.C. and a temper tantrum out of Miami. Should he spill any stinky beans… then it’s deny, deny, deny out of D.C.
Um… is this a serious question?
It’s understood the 'states are a bit loopy on certain things, especially when it comes to ‘terrorism’. The U.S. declared war on Iraq when everyone knew their (first, and even second) reasons were crap. Here in Canada, heated words were delivered regarding a border that had let none of the accused individuals through. The U.S. government extradited a Canadian citizen to Syria for it’s 3rd-party-torture programme, and if someone ends up flying a light plane in the same time zone as Washington everyone is told to run away.
I know nothing about this Carriles, but you’re saying this same institution is willing to entertain harbouring someone who ‘bombed a Cuban airliner over Venezuela, killing 76 people’???
There aren’t enough :eek: in the world.
Well huh. Ever since the new board format was introduced, I’ve occasionally opened a tab for GD instead of my desired forum, GQ. If the general posting theme is different here, feel free to ignore my last post, but I’m keeping my newfound incredulity.