Since 9/11, it’s been a key anti-terrorism tenet of the Bush Administration that those who harbor and support terrorists are part of the nightmarish problem and will be held accountable – and dealt with accordingly.
Obviously easier said than implemented. Witness Saudi Arabia, which has incubated terrorists and then funneled protection money to them under various guises.
Closer to home, it was encouraging that the White House celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by snubbing Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA. The IRA, which has taken the lives of innocents in the name of political redress, is a terrorist organization. They aren’t Al-Qaeda or Palestinian Islamic Jihad and wish us no harm, but the point should be a terrorist is a terrorist. And non-combatant innocents are innocents. Ours or anybody else’s.
But in outrageously bad timing, the U.S. now courts international charges of hypocrisy and double standards with the impending case of Luis Posada Carriles. The Cuban exile militant has been on the lam for years and recently – and secretly – entered the U.S. He is somewhere in Miami and reportedly hopes for asylum.
Over the years, he has been linked to a number of violent – and deadly — incidents against the government of Fidel Castro. In fact, he is still wanted – ironically — by Venezuelan authorities for the mid-’70s bombing of a Cuban plane in which all 73 aboard perished. It had taken off from Caracas.
Here’s hoping the Bush Administration’s bar on pandering to South Florida Cubans doesn’t drop low enough to accommodate Carriles – either in seeking political asylum or parole as a Cuban refugee.
A terrorist is still a terrorist.