Luis Posada Carriles, also known as "Bambi,"  was arrested in November 17, 2000, in Panama, within hours after Cuban President Fidel Castro exposed to the world media and the Panamanian authorities a plot to assassinate him and to slaughter the student body of the University of Panama where Castro was due to speak during his stay in the central American country.

Fidel Castro was in Panama attending the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama's capital.

When he was arrested, Posada carried a fake passport and had 33 pounds of plastic explosives, called C-4, in his possession.

If Posada had been successful in detonating his explosives at the university auditorium where Castro was scheduled to speak, it has been authoritatively estimated that he would have murdered not only Fidel Castro but also at least 1000 students.

This terrorist operation against the University of Panama and Fidel Castro, if it had succeeded, would have exceeded in bestiality Posada's October 6, 1976 mid-flight bombing of the Cuban airliner which murdered 73 persons.

It would have also exceeded or outperformed in bestiality the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, by Timothy Mcveigh, when  168 people were murdered and 500 or so were wounded.

The Panamanian prosecutors rejected the idea of charging Posada and three accomplices with attempted murder of either the students or Castro, choosing rather to charge Posada with illegal possession of explosives, carrying false documents, and endangering public safety.

Posada and the three others were ultimately found guilty of only "endangering public safety."

Posada's evolving defense asserted during the criminal proceedings against him in Panama reveals his nonchalance about the proceedings and about the taking human life. First, Posada told the Panamanian police that he and his friends came there to "protest" Castro's visit. He found it hard to explain why he brought 33 pounds of plastic explosives with him. Second, Posada said he didn't intend to blow up the university auditorium, as Castro alleged, rather he was going to blow up the motorcade in which Castro rode. Finally, Posada, after consulting with his attorney, Rogelio Cruz, came up with story that he called off the hit before the police knocked on the door of the hotel room where he was staying.

The mildness of the charges against Posada and the other three reflects the corrupting influence of the money of the Miami mafia on Panamanian politics and justice.

Julio Berrios, a Panamanian attorney who watched the proceedings, said "There has been a saturation operation in the media, with national and international coverage, to confuse public opinion and undermine the investigation and the punishable charges against the terrorists, financed, organized and protected by Miami’s Cuban-American mafia."

The Panamanian authorities didn't appear to be too distraught over the plot to assassinate Fidel Castro.

As a matter of fact, some of the Panamanian authorities showed that they were not too distraught over the endangerment of the public's safety at the university.

The four criminals were pardoned in 2004-- after serving only three years of their 8-year sentences -- by the then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.

The pardon of Luis Posada Carriles, Pedro Crispín Remon Hernández, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo and Guillermo Novo Sampol for the attempted university massacre in November 2000 was negotiated in Miami by Ruby Moscoso, sister of the then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, for the sum of $4 million, according to documents published on the internet.

A document titled "All The Corruption And Bribes In Panama's Pardon Of The four Anti-Castroites" , was published on the website "Rebelión" a few days before Posada showed up in Florida.

The content of the document corroborate information that has been circulating in Panama and Miami ever since the controversial release of the four terrorists on August 26, 2004.

Panamanian authorities who are investigating former President Mireya Moscosos -- who now safely resides in south Florida -- for corruption unrelated to Posada and his three fellow terrorists, have confirmed the truth of this document and some of the other documents published on the web site relating to the "pardon."

I don't believe I exaggerate or over-dramatize when I suggest that the principle of the rule of law is not closely observed in Panama.

But does the rule of law in the United States apply to Posada?

Specifically, is Posada above 8 USC 1226a, a provision of the immigration law of the United States?

The Section 1226a certification proceeding is an entirely separate proceeding from Posada's immigration case, seeking poilitical asylum, which Miami attorney Eduado Soto will handle.

Under the provisions of 1226a, the attorney general of the United States may certify an alien as a criminal or terrorist if the attorney general has reasonable grounds to believe that the alien has engaged in criminal or terrorist activities. Section 1226a calls for the mandatory detention of suspected terrorists whom the attorney general has certified as such. Section 1226a prohibits the attorney general from delegating the authority to make criminal or terrorist certifications of aliens to anyone except to the deputy attorney general and the deputy cannot delegate the authority to anyone else. Section 1226a requires that the attorney general place the detained alien in removal proceedings from the United States or charge the detained alien with a criminal offense, not later than 7 days after the commencement of detention. Finally, Section 1226a provides that judicial review of any action or decision relating to 1226a is available exclusively in habeas corpus proceedings.

So, the question is whether US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has reasonable grounds to believe Posada, a Cuban national, has engaged in criminal or terrorist activities.

Well, Posada himself told The New York Times, July 1998 how he feels about murdered Italian tourist who happened to be in a Havana hotel lobby which Posada had arranged to be blown upf: "It is sad that someone is dead, but we can't stop. That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time." and he boasted, according to the Times, "I sleep like a baby."

I'm not surprised.

Clearly, Attorney General Gonzales should detain Posada and place him in removal proceedings or charge him with a crime ... there are plenty of crimes to pick from.

But for the last three weeks, Gonzales has pretended he didn't know the world famous terrorist -- Luis Posada Carriles -- had slipped into the United States.

So, the attorney general of the United States ... no less ... acts as if the question of certifying Posada under Section 1226a as a terrorist or as a criminal has not arisen.

The intent of this law  --  8 USC 1226a  -- can be gleaned from the caption that accompanies it in the US code "MANDATORY DETENTION OF SUSPECTED TERRORISTS."

So, the question, under Section1226a, is not whether Posada is a terrorist. He is.

The question is not whether he is a convicted terrorist. He is.

The question is not whether he is a "suspected" terrorist. He certainly is.

Posada isn't the first terrorist the Bush family has protected.

George W. Bush is trying to do for Posada what his father, George Bush, Sr., did for Orlando Bosch who was a cellmate of Posada in Venezuela, both charged with the 1976 midair bombing of the Cuban airliner.

And the two Bush presidents are helping these closely linked terrorists -- Posada and Bosch -- for the same reason ... Jeb Bush.

George Bush Sr. in 1990 pardoned Orlando Bosch.

In 1968, Orlando Bosch, using a bazooka, attacked a Polish freighter in the Miami harbor. He served 4 years of a 10-year sentence for the bazooka attack before he was paroled in 1972. While on parole, Bosch was subpoenaed by a grand jury which wanted to question him about the assassination of a rival Cuban exile leader in Miami. Bosch promptly fled the country. In 1976, Bosch was arrested along with Posada in Venezuela for the bombing of the Cuban airliner. He served 11 years of jail time for the airline bombing and returned illegally in 1988 to the United States where he was arrested for parole violations.

In a string-pulling and propaganda campaign, Jeb Bush and his right-wing Cuban supporters -- the Miami mafia -- got Bosch released from jail and INS permission for him to remain in the United States.

Jeb leaned on his old man -- the president of the United States -- for the pardon for Bosch.

Since then, the Miami mafia has destroyed democracy in Florida to help ... politically ... the Bush family. In 2000, the mafia intimidated or obstructed over a million voters, mostly African-American, inclined to support the Democrats, from voting.

In 2004, the mafia, extended their vote-swindling operations from the African-Americans to senior citizens with Democratic proclivities.

Today, Jeb Bush wants Luis Posada either pardoned or granted political asylum to assure, among other things, that the Miami mafia will steal enough votes and otherwise rigged his 2008 election  -- or whenever he runs --  for president.

Brother George in the White House is eager to help Jeb get what he wants.

This is the main reason why the cowardly and corrupted US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to institute Section 1226a terrorist certification proceedings against Posada.

This is why Gonzales pretends that the "pardon" of Posada by the bribe-snatching former president of Panama clears Posada of the charge of attempted mass murder ... again.

© Copyrights 2005 by AxisofLogic.com and VHeadline.com

Additional articles by Arthur Shaw

Cuba's Marielitos - Imprisoned Without Trial and the Harsh Realities of U.S. Prisons

Is the Bush Regime Planning to "Special Op" Venezuela?

The Cowboy Dictator

United States
Posada, The Fiend, Has Arrived
Arthur Shaw, -Axis of Logic