Reheating the Cold War
The trial of a suspected terrorist is stoking old passions, from D.C. to Miami to Havana
Indeed, there's no shortage of folks who are uncomfortable with the government's choice to pursue Posada on immigration charges rather than hold him under provisions of the Patriot Act that call for the detention of suspected terrorists or try him as a terrorist as required under international conventions covering terrorist bombings. The Cuban government last month called Posada's release "an outrage to the people of the United States and an emphatic denial to the alleged 'war on terror.'"
Some Americans are squeamish as well. "We've never seen lawyers move heaven and earth like the Bush administration lawyers have in terrorism cases when they're prosecuting suspects from the Islamic world," says Philip Peters, adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives' Cuba Working Group. "This leaves them in a complicated position."
Peters and others point to the Justice Department's assertion last fall that Posada is "an admitted mastermind of terrorist ... attacks," as well as declassified CIA and FBI records linking him to the airline bombing. A 1998 New York Times story quotes Posada as saying that with money from the Cuban-American National Foundation he organized bombings in Havana that injured 11 and killed an Italian tourist. But he, his lawyers, and the foundation now say none of it is true. Posada denies involvement in the bombings and in the downing of the airliner. "My client has never acknowledged involvement in those bombings," Soto said last week.
The administration has staunchly defended its legal path. "We have charged him with criminal violations that are serious and fought very vigorously to keep him detained," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said last week. If convicted of the seven counts of fraud and making false statements, Posada could face up to 40 years in prison. But his lawyers predict a more lenient sentence.
More charges? Justice officials say they have not ruled out additional charges against Posada. In fact, a federal grand jury in New Jersey is considering whether he should be indicted in connection with the Havana bombings. Last week, the Justice Department confirmed a Miami Herald report that the FBI is working with officials in Cuba to make the case against Posada in New Jersey, where money was allegedly wired to militants plotting the bombing. Underscoring the politics permeating this case, three Republican members of Congress from Florida quickly condemned the administration for searching for evidence in a "terrorist state"-Cuba.
But the sensitivities hardly end there. Last week, U.S. government prosecutors filed a motion that would prevent Posada from testifying about his relationship with the CIA. Posada's lawyers immediately challenged the request. Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive, which collects and disseminates declassified government documents, said he had previously been skeptical that the government cared about what the exile might spill in court.
"But this motion tells me that there are still people inside the CIA concerned about what Posada has to say about his relationship with them in the 1960s and '70s," Kornbluh said. "This might have been a factor in the internal debate over whether to try him as a terrorist." CIA spokesman George Little said late last week that "any suggestion that the CIA influenced the handling of proceedings involving Mr. Posada is flatly wrong."
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