The U.S. is often accused of double standards and hypocrisy in its foreign policy, human rights, and pro-democracy hubris when it comes to pursuing its own interests. This can easily be seen when one of the justifications for the Iraq war was to bring to democracy to the people of Iraq, while at the same time the U.S. enjoys rather cozy and lucrative relations with China. The fact that China has horrible human rights record and an authoritarian government doesn’t seem to matter when it boils down to the ‘important’ issue: trade. The China case is just one of a number of hypocritical stances taken by the U.S. and for that simple reason it doesn’t even stand out that much.
One recent case though seems to me to go head and shoulders above a lot of this hypocrisy, the situation surrounding Luis Posada Carriles. Some of you have heard of him before, others have not so I will give a little background information. Carriles is an anti-Castro Cuban militant that was once employed by the CIA. He has been tied to numerous bombings and terrorist plots over the years, most often funded by the CIA (this was apparently before the U.S. considered terrorism a bad thing, how the tables have turned). The most notorious crime he is connected with though is the 1976 bombing of Cuban plane that resulted in the death of all 73 people on board.
Sounds bad right? Well unfortunately it gets worse. He was jailed in Venezuela and was undergoing trial for the bombing when he escaped in 1985. After trying his hand in a few more plots over the years he ended up being jailed in Panama in 2000 for plotting an assassination attempt, but he received a Pardon and left the country 4 years later. He made his way into the U.S. at some point after that and was rightly detained by U.S. authorities.
But not on terrorism charges, rather on charges about lying to immigration officials upon his entry into the country. Both Cuba and Venezuela demanded that he be extradited to them to continue facing trial for his alleged crimes or that he be tried for them in the U.S. as is laid out in the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, a UN international agreement.
Pretty straightforward, right? Well the U.S. has refused to hand over Carriles or try him on terrorism charges, preferring to simply pursue the immigration charges in blatant disregard for international law. The fact that international law is being ignored is of course nothing new to the U.S. but the fact that a world recognized terrorist is the beneficiary of it should something rather disturbing to all U.S. citizens.
And to top it all of the judge in Carriles’ immigration case dismissed yesterday leaving Carriles a free man within the U.S.
At this point the question has to be: why? Granted the U.S. certainly doesn’t like or approve of the governments in Cuba or Venezuela so I can at least understand the reluctance to hand Carriles into their custody. But why let a known terrorist walk free in U.S., I mean at least give him trail here. Perhaps I am being cynical, but the only other reason I can think of is that in for about a year, from Jan 30 1976 to Jan 20 1977 George H. W. Bush served as Director of the CIA. If Carriles was brought to trail on terrorism charges he would inevitably bring to light many details of that agencies policies and secrets, probably putting George senior in a bad light. The fact that his son is in the White House and this administration has repeatedly rejected bringing Carriles to justice is just a bit too much for me.
It brings me to the conclusion that the U.S. hypocrisy only continues to spread. Terrorist are evil and bad when they come from the Mid East, but when they come from Cuba and are anti-communist not only do they escape punishment, they get a welcome into our country. Don’t think the rest of the world isn’t paying attention. They certainly are. This Orwellian double-speak can only go on for so long before it catches up with us.
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2 comments:
Theo-
I can't disagree with what I think (?) is your principal point...the US should turn Carriles over to Venezuela or Cuba to stand trial. I am not knowledgeable about their judicial systems, level of impartiality and rights of the accused, but that is their problem. Also, I certainly can not defend every decision that every US administration during, and since, the Cold War has made. I do however disagree with the way that you go about making your case for US hypocracy. You appear to be taking some facts e.g. Carriles was ONCE employed by the CIA, and some assumptions e.g. ...most often funded by the CIA, then extending your logic train, drawing conclusions and presnting them as facts and evidence of US hypocracy. Further, I would suggest that acusations are not the same as guilt, and while I agree that if there is credible evidence, this man should be turned over for trial, I hesitate to state his guilt until it is proven. As to your allegation of the US violating international law, I am not aware if the US has extradition treaties in place with Venezuela and Cuba. I also tried to follow your link for the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation to determine if the US was a signatory and if it was the controling instrument in cases of this nature, but unfortunately the link was not valid. I was however successful in following your link to Carriles himself and read about the dismissal of immigration charges against him. It seems that the Judge was not a lackey of the US Government, in fact far from it. She condemmed the government for using the excuse of imigration violations to interogate Carriles for other accusations and threw the case out because of the methods used.
I guess where I'm at is, if there is overwhelming evidence that Carriles is likely guilty of the crimes he is accused of, the US should deport him to his country of citizenship. But to draw broad conspiratorial conclusions based on assumptions and hypotheses and not accept that various US administrations acted within different contextual times to the best of their abilities within their interpertation of the law, is naive.
First of all I fixed the link, under the agreement the U.S. must extridite Carriles or make him stand trial in the U.S. on those or similar charges...As far as the Carriles case goes, well of course I don't know all the facts, no one does, that is kinda the point. I am not saying to condem him before for trail, but all evidence does point to his involvement not only in the 1976 bombing but in many others. I am a big fan of due process, but the fact remains that this guy is a 'terrorist'. You wouldn't let Bin ladin walk free into the U.S. He has had many accusations thrown at him, and yet it is not the same as guilt.
Not only is U.S. violating international law (see link), it is also violating current US law.
He was being tried in Venezuela, when it was led by a very pro-U.S. administration under Carlos Andres Perez, when he escaped.
I don't think I ever said the judge in his immigration case was a 'lackey of the U.S. government' as you put it, I was simply making the point that Carriles has now been released from custody and is walking free in the U.S. From her comments she appears to be as disgusted with the whole affair as me.
One final point, I don't really understand why you are talking about 'various U.S. administraions' and different contexts. There is only one relevant context, the here and now. The current administration needs to detain Carriles and a) extridite him to Cuba or Venezuels, or b) make him stand trial in the U.S. Hell the president has the power to declare any person on this planet an 'enemy combatant' to be held with no rights indefinitely, not that I support that, the point being it is clearly easy enough to detain him if the administration wanted to. So my conclusions are drawn from the obvious fact that, against all logic, reason, and law, the current administration is choosing not to. You have to ask yourself, why? You say I draw 'broad conspiratorial conclusions' but do you a more reasonable answer? Please let me know.
Oh and I am not the only one who feels this way,"On Wednesday Democratic Congressman William Delahunt urged Bush to detain Posada and certify him as a terrorist under the Patriot Act. Congressman Delahant said the U.S. government should not be giving sanctuary to a man he described as "one of the Western Hemisphere's most notorious killers." Democratic Congressman Jose Serrano of New York also condemned the Bush administration's handling of the Posada case. Serrano said: "It further weakens our moral standing in the world as we will undoubtedly be seen as being biased in our ongoing war on terrorism."
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