October 6, 1976 began a new chapter in terrorism, as the first civilian airliner was blown up in midflight. The plane was Cuban, and all 73 people aboard were killed, including Cuba’s junior girl’s fencing team, and South American students about to begin free medical study in Cuba. Venezuela arrested and convicted two men who planted the bomb, and the bombers confessed that they were hired and directed by two Cuban exiles, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, who still preach that when it comes to Cuba, there are no innocent civilians, even simple tourists.

One such tourist was killed, Fabio Di Celmo from Italy, and others were wounded when a series of bombs went off in Cuban tourist hotels in 1997. Posada boasted to the New York Times in an 8,000 word interview published on July 12-13, 1998, that he was responsible for those bombings and many others, and that he felt that the CIA left him alone because of their long working relationship.

While Posada gave that interview from an "undisclosed location" in Central America, Bosch was living comfortably in Miami as a permanent U.S. resident, having been freed from custody by Bush the father in July 1990, despite U.S. Justice Dept. findings that "For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence" and that he "demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death." Citing at least 16 bombings, assassinations and attempted assassinations, the DOJ observed "The security of this nation depends on the possibility of convincing other nations not to harbor terrorists. We cannot shelter Dr. Bosch and maintain our credibility." Now Posada is asking for the same "shelter" here which Bosch has enjoyed since 1990.

"If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist," President George W. Bush proclaimed 11 years later in justifying the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and his global "war on terror." And so Posada’s request for U.S. asylum "is truly a test of U.S. policy on the issue of international terrorism," according to Peter Kornbluh, of the authoritative National Security Archives. "You can’t say that one man is allowed to blow up an airplane and kill 73 innocent people because he ideologically is in keeping with the President's position on undermining and overthrowing the Castro government in Cuba. A terrorist is a terrorist, and Luis Posada, frankly, has one of the longest careers in terrorism of any individual alive today."

The NLG on April 20, 2005 issued a statement noting Posada’s suspicious arrival in the United States and opposing his asylum request. It added that Posada was convicted in Panama after being caught in 2000 with explosives for the planned assassination of Cuban President Fidel Castro, and asserted that Posada’s premature release from jail in Panama was at the behest of the Bush Administration.

The Guild statement also noted that Posada had been a CIA agent since the 1960s, was trained in explosives and sabotage at the notorious School of the Americas, and was part of the CIA's Bay of Pigs invasion. While in Venezuela in the 1970s, Posada oversaw the killing of Venezuelan leftists as head of the Intelligence and Prevention Services Division (DISIP) of the national police. In the 1980s Posada commanded the supply of munitions to the Nicaraguan contras from the CIA's Ilopango airbase in El Salvador.

NLG President Michael Avery stated, "Since the Cuban revolution, over 3,400 Cuban people have died by violent attacks perpetrated on the island by anti-Cuban paramilitary groups that operate freely in Miami. President Bush has said that in his view any government that harbors terrorists is complicit in murder and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Allowing Posada into the U.S. and entertaining an asylum request from a confessed terrorist is an open acknowledgement of accomplice liability in the crimes against Cuba."

The Guild statement ended by demanding "that asylum be denied to Posada and that he be arrested and deported to Venezuela, which has demanded his return and which has an extradition treaty with the U.S., or that he be tried by a competent international tribunal, as Cuba has alternatively suggested." The NLG also encourages participation in the Campaign to Tell Bush and Congress "No Asylum for Posada" initiated by the ANSWER Coalition, in which 10,000 people have already joined, at www.pephost.org/PosadaCarrilesasylum

Posada’s arrival followed a U.S. tour co-sponsored by a number of NLG Chapters featuring Bernie Dwyer, co-producer of the Cuban/Irish documentary "Mission Against Terror." It shows the attempts by the "Cuban 5" to prevent similar acts of terror, such as by monitoring Bosch’s actions in Miami. Three of the Five are serving life sentences; and all are in their seventh year in jail and still (as of April 28^th) awaiting word on their appeal. The DVD and other information is available from www.freethefive.org.