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11/03/09 - Council on Hemispheric Relatons (Washington, DC) - Outrage and
Double Standards:
The Lockerbie and Cubana Airlines' Bombings

by COHA Guest Contributor Keith Bolender

http://www.coha.org/outrage-double-standards-and-lockerbie-and-cubana-airlines%E2%80%99-bombings/

The recent release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basete al-Megrahi
produced immediate outrage from the White House in reaction to later scenes
of jubilation marking his arrival in Libya.

Al-Megrahi had been freed on humanitarian grounds by Scottish Justice
Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The former intelligence agent for the Libya
government has advanced prostate cancer and is not expected to live more
than a few months. He was the only person actually convicted in the bombing
of Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York, which killed all 259 on board
the aircraft as well as 11 residents of the village of Lockerbie. A majority
of the passengers were U.S. citizens.

Prior to his release, warnings were given by President Obama and members of
Congress to Libya authorities not to celebrate the terrorist’s return. When
the images were shown of al-Megrahi waving to a cheering crowd at the
Tripoli airport, the rebuke was instantaneous. President Obama said the
sight was “highly objectionable.” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called
the media coverage of the scene, “tremendously offensive to the survivors
that, as I said, lost a loved one in 1988. I think the images we saw in
Libya were outrageous and disgusting.”

He added threateningly that the White House had contacted the Libya side to
express its indignation. “We have discussed with the Libyans about what we
think is appropriate. We’ll continue to watch the actions of this individual
and the Libyan government.” Implications of oil diplomacy hung in the air.

In reaction, it came as no surprise that family members of the victims were
enraged. Many called it an intolerable slap in the face to the memories of
their loved ones. Watching the reception, “just turns our stomach” said
Frank Dugan, president of the victims’ organization.

The rage and fury should not have been unexpected. To watch a terrorist walk
free, then to endure the added indignity of having him hailed as a returning
hero – it would appear that few countries have had a more legitimate case
than the United States to express its outrage.

Except maybe Cuba.

The velocity of the ire from the U.S. side is a revealing (some might say
hypocritical) reaction when compared to Washington’s treatment of its own
cartel of U.S.- protected terrorists, including Orlando Bosch and Luis
Posada Carriles. These two were the masterminds behind the bombing of Cubana
Airlines Flight 455, the second worst act of air terrorism in the Americas
after 9/11.

Notwithstanding attempts at deportation and minor charges regarding
immigration matters, Cuban born Bosch and Posada continue to live unmolested
in Miami and are treated as heroes by hard-line segments of the Cuban
community. The pair, responsible for a long line of terrorist activities yet
treated as virtual celebrities, have appeared on various local television
and radio stations, attended a variety of public functions, and Bosch was
even photographed in the front row at a speech made in 2002 in Miami by
President George W. Bush. In 1982 the Miami city commission held a Dr.
Orlando Bosch Day while the guest of honor was at the time in a Venezuelan
jail. The event, including a religious ceremony and a civic proclamation at
City Hall, was attended by hundreds. Keep in mind it was celebrating two of
the most notorious terrorists in the hemisphere.

Posada is now a part-time artist who has sold his works at numerous gallery
exhibits throughout South Florida; proceeds from his artistic endeavors have
earned him thousands of dollars. He is often seen at public functions and is
unfailingly greeted by supporters who champion his cause as a freedom
fighter.

Bosch was once described as the Western Hemisphere’s “most dangerous
terrorist” by the FBI, and Posada is currently under investigation for lying
about his connection with a string of bombings against various Cuban tourist
targets in 1997. However, neither one has ever faced legal proceedings in
the United States regarding their role in the Cubana Airlines bombing.

This is in spite of overwhelming evidence, including multiple reports from
American intelligence agencies, that has irrefutably established the pair’s
involvement in the downing of the passenger airliner. On its fatal flight,
the Cubana DC 8 had taken off from Barbados on its way to Jamaica, and then
to its final destination, Havana. The flight originated from Venezuela, with
a short stop in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Seventy three people were on board,
including the entire Cuban junior national fencing team, which was returning
home following a successful tournament in Caracas.

Less than 10 minutes after take off, a bomb exploded under a seat adjacent
to the left wing. A desperate attempt was made to return the craft back to
the Barbados airport following the blast. The crew had managed to pilot the
plane to within five miles of the coast before a second explosion in the
rear washroom split the DC-8 in half, sending it crashing into the sea and
killing all on board.

The subsequent investigation established that two Venezuelan nationals,
Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo, had placed the bombs after boarding the
plane in Trinidad. Lugo and Ricardo got off in Barbados, returning to Port
of Spain the next day where they were arrested by local authorities.

During subsequent interrogations both testified that Posada and Bosch were
the architects of the act and were paid $25,000 to plant the explosives. It
was quickly established that Ricardo was employed by Posada’s Caracas
private detective agency. At the time of the bombing Posada, already a
long-time CIA operative, was a Venezuelan citizen working with that country’s
secret police. Ricardo had recruited his friend Lugo to join him in the
fiendish plot.

Bosch was head of a group of anti-Castro organizations known as the
Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), to which Posada
was connected. The pair’s involvement was described years later in a report
filed by acting Associate Attorney General Joe Whitely, who detailed,
“Information reflecting that the October 6, 1976 Cuban airline bombing was a
CORU operation under the direction of Bosch. CORU is the name of Bosch’s
terrorist organization.” The description was part of an unsuccessful attempt
on the part of the U.S. Department of Justice to have Bosch deported, which
was blocked by Washington as a result of political connections.

A declassified CIA document dated October 12, 1976, quotes Posada at a CORU
meeting a month before the bombing as saying, “We are going to hit a Cuban
airliner… Orlando has the details.” The document was released in 2005 by the
National Security Archives.

The four principals figures involved in hatching and carrying out the
bombing plot, Lugo, Ricardo, Bosch and Posada, were arrested and jailed in
Venezuela. Bosch evaded final sentencing on a technicality connected to the
translation of evidence. After being released, he made a highly publicized,
though illegal return to the United States in 1988. Despite not having a
visa, he flew into Miami where he was detained for a prior parole violation
and for his unlawful entry into the country. Disgracefully, his arrival was
greeted enthusiastically by hundreds of supporters in the city’s
Cuban-American community.

At this point, U.S. authorities held Bosch and initiated deportation orders,
after the FBI designated him as the Western Hemisphere’s worst terrorist, as
well as describing him as a person with no respect for human rights. The
deportation process was derailed when in July 1990 Bosch was granted a full
pardon by President H.W. Bush. The pardon was arranged through the office of
his son and later governor, Jeb Bush, who at the time was campaign manager
for Miami Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, an extremist Cuban-American
legislature who was serving in Congress. In 1987 after Bosch had been
incarcerated and was waiting for the decision on his deportation,
Ros-Lehtinen described him as a hero and a patriot to the local media. She
also helped raise $265,000 to cover his legal costs. She continues in
Congress as the dean of the greater Dade county, contingent of rightist
legislators that include Lincoln Diaz-Bilart (R-FL), Mario Diaz-Bilart
(R-FL) and Connie Mack (R-FL), staunch supporters of the government’s
longstanding full range anti-Castro policies.

When the pardon was announced, a series of celebrations were held throughout
Miami. Once Bosch was back in the community, he proclaimed he was ready to
‘rejoin the struggle,’ renouncing the agreement he signed with the
administration disavowing further violence against Cuba. In 1992, the Bush
administration granted Bosch his U.S. legal residency.

Posada’s return to America was somewhat more circuitous. He managed to avoid
a long jail sentence by bribing prison officials and walking out of his
Venezuelan prison cell with the help of compliant guards. He ended up in
Nicaragua fighting for the Contras, then settled in San Salvador. In May
2005 after showing up in Miami, holding a well attended press conference,
and demanding political asylum, he was arrested for illegal entry. Posada
was released in 2007 after posting a bond, to be greeted by cheers in Miami
and disbelief in Havana.

Last year, the Justice Department issued an “order of removal,” but it
professes that it has yet to find an acceptable country willing to take him.

Besides the Cubana bombing, Posada and Bosch have been accused of various
acts of terrorism going back to the early 1960s. Bosch was arrested in
Florida in 1968 for an attack on a Polish freighter in a Miami harbor on its
way to Cuba. He has since been linked to more than 50 bombings against Cuban
island civilian targets.

Posada was a member of the Cuban American brigade that invaded the island at
the Bay of Pigs in 1961. As a CIA agent in the 1960s and 70s, he was
connected to acts against Cuban officials outside the country, including his
arrest in 2000 for the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro at a press
conference that the Cuban leader was staging in Panama. In 2004 he was
sentenced to prison for his part in the proposed hit, though four months
later, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso issued a pardon to him on very
shaky grounds. Moscoso, who left office soon after, now lives in Miami.
Former Panamanian President Martin Torrijos called Posada’s pardon by
Moscoso unconstitutional and demanded his return.

The media, particularly in Miami, has not been shy to give Bosch and Posada
a huge tranche of sympathetic publicity. On live radio on June 6, 2002, and
again in the June 16 issue of the Diario de las Americas, Bosch reiterated
his call for terrorism against Cuba. On August 21, 2001 he published a
widely reported Declaration of Principles in which he considers terrorist
actions against Cuba as legitimate. On December 5, 2002 Miami New Times
quoted Bosch as saying: “There were no innocents on that plane. They were
all henchmen,” in reference to the Cubana Airlines bombing.

Posada also has been interviewed on numerous occasions, including in the
Miami Herald supplement Tropic, in which he wrote a major piece in the
November 1991 issue of the publication. A very revealing piece appeared in a
New York Times article in 1998 which outlined his history of terrorist
activities. This included his admission, which was later denied, of direct
involvement in the 1997 hotel bombing campaign on Cuba, in which Italian
tourist Fabio Di Celmo was killed when one of the bombs went off in front of
the Copacabana Hotel in Havana.

So while America expresses its bitterness over the gross indifference of
those to Lockerbie, there exists a large dichotomy. There remains little
concern regarding Cuba’s anger over the White House’s complete indifference
to the island’s hurt over the heavy loss of life at the hands of the
terrorist attack.

This is a direct contradiction to President Bush’s own proclamation after
9/11 when he told the world, “We’ve got to say to people who are willing to
harbor a terrorist or feed a terrorist: ‘You’re just as guilty as the
terrorist.’” Of course, passivity over Posada amply revealed the Bush
administration’s selective indignation when it comes to one distinguished
instance of terrorism, in contrast to that allegedly authored by a White
House-favored misanthropy.

The Cuban government persists with its demands for the pair’s arrest. The
relatives of the victims continue to suffer, all the more so when they see
Bosch and Posada living con frio lives in Miami.

Besides this grievance, the Cuban government continues calling for the
release of the Cuban Five, who were agents sent on an intelligence mission
to Florida more than a decade ago to infiltrate counter-revolutionary
entities in order to prevent further terrorist attacks against the island to
take place. The Five are serving extremely lengthy jail terms for conspiracy
to commit espionage, although in the course of the trial no proof was
presented that U.S. government secrets were ever compromised by what was
later claimed to be an entirely defensive action. The Cubans claim the
unjust circumstances of the imprisonment was entirely politically motivated
and particularly galling, especially when contrasted with the freedom and
celebrity status which was enjoyed by Bosch and Posada for decades while
residing in Miami.

While any judicial action against Bosch and Posada for their roles in the
Cubana Airlines bombing seems altogether unlikely, the Cuban side hopes to
at the very least, see the end of Washington’s indignation over Lockerbie.
However, indifference to the bombing of the Cuban airline has symbolized
that when it comes to terrorism, the U.S. has been entirely selective.

Note: You might also want to consult a related article on the subject:
Posada Carriles, Child of Scorn: Yet Another Example of the White House’s
Denigration of its War on Terrorism, which Woefully Lacks Integrity,
Coherence or Consistency

Keith Bolender is author of the forthcoming book, Voices from the Other
Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba (Pluto Press, London
England, 2010).

This analysis was prepared by COHA Guest Contributor Keith Bolender