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Comrade Joe · #1 (**permalink**) 12-19-2007, 12:13 AM

Quote:

The release of United 93 has brought renewed attention to the tragic events of 9/11. Yet Americans are less familiar with the story of another jet full of innocent people destroyed by terrorists, Cubana Flight 455. On October 6, 1976, it was scheduled to take off from Barbados to Kingston, Jamaica. Nine minutes after takeoff, a bomb in the aircraft's rear lavatory exploded. The captain radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately!" A second bomb exploded, causing the plane to crash into the water. All 73 people on board died, including all 24 members of the Cuban national fencing team, many of them teenagers.

Until 9/11, Cubana Flight 455 was the worst act of terrorism aboard a commercial airline in the Americas. One of the men responsible for the planning of this incident currently lives within the country, and is currently applying for citizenship. His name is Luis Posada Carriles.

A fanatical anti-Castro Cuban exile, Posada has left a bloody swath of terror and destruction across the Gulf of Mexico. By his own admission, the CIA-trained and Miami-funded Posada has planned bombings of Cuban hotels, cafes, and dancehalls. Although he has denied involvement, strong evidence exists that Posada was involved in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455. CIA and FBI documents unearthed by George Washington University's National Security Archive place Posada among the conspirators at two planning meetings for the bombing...........

In a November 2001 news conference, President George W. Bush declared that, in the "War on Terror", there is no room for neutrality: "A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform?All nations?must do something?[It's] important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. ?[Y]ou're either with us or against us in the fight against terror." It sounded simple enough: Bush had thrown down the gauntlet, declaring that those nations who protected terrorists or did not do anything to expel or arrest terrorists inside their borders would face U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military consequences. He effectively eliminated the distinction between passive and active sponsors of terror. Georgetown Professor Daniel Byman says that a regime is "guilty of passive sponsorship if it knowingly allows a terrorist group to raise money, enjoy a sanctuary, recruit, or otherwise flourish but does not directly aid the group itself." Again, there is a refreshing simplicity in this definition. Those who harbor terrorists, for whatever reason, are just as guilty as the terrorists themselves. But why then, has the U.S harbored a vicious group of terrorists for over forty years?

Posada's case is by no means unique. Ever since the Bay of Pigs disaster, the United States government has ignored Cuban exile involvement in terrorist operations against Cuba, and Cuban interests as well as violence and intimidation directed against American citizens According to the Center for International Policy, "Militant hard-line exile activities in the late 70s and early 80s caused the FBI to designate Miami the 'terrorist capital' of the United States. The terrorist activities in Miami included death threats, beatings, mob attacks, vandalism, extortion, bombings and outright murder." The same article reports 68 acts of terror in Miami since 1968, including the bombings of:

The Continental National Bank, where Bernardo Benes, who was one of seventy-five Cuban exiles who met with Fidel Castro to negotiate the release of 3600 political prisoners in Cuba, was an executive (in 1983); the Cuban Museum of Art (in 1988 and again 1990); the home of Maria Cristina Herrera, the organizer of a conference on U.S.-Cuba relations (1988- the bomb was discovered in her garage before it went off); Marazul Tours, which arranges travel to Cuba (1989 and again in 1996): Little Havana's Centro Vasco, prior to the performance of Cuban singer Rosita Fornes (1996); the Amnesia nightclub before a performance by Cuban singer Manol��(1999)?
Actions abroad have included bombings and assassinations directed against Cuban interests in Venezuela, Guatemala, and other countries. Yet in many cases the CIA and FBI did little to prevent these actions or apprehend the perpetrators. The documents in the National Security Archive's cache demonstrate that US intelligence had advance knowledge of the bombing of Cubana

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.php?id=445

I am a bit curious as to what Americans know about this incident. I would be surprised if the average person had much knowledge of it. I cant imagine US citizens being entirely comfortable about hiding mass murderers who blew up a plane of civillians. Of all crimes that surely must upset Americans that this man and Orlando Bosch are protected by their country.

Look at what happened to Afghanistan for harbouring terrorists, if that is justifiable then so would bombing Miami be. Now dont get me wrong i dont want to see that and obviously the US aren't going to bomb their own country. But it would be justifiable with Bush twisted logic.

And a final point is that it was Jeb Bush who actually pardoned one of the bombers: Orlando Bosch. Makes you think there is no real difference with regards to terror between the US government and the taliban.