'Good' terrorist who may be freed today

Thursday, April 12th 2007, 4:00 AM

It defies reason.

Luis Posada Carriles, a dangerous man with a long criminal history that includes terrorist acts in several countries, is about to be released from jail. So much for the war on terror.

The Justice Department has refused to classify the former CIA operative as a terrorist. That means that he is currently awaiting trial - set for May 11 - on only immigration violations. He could be released on bail as soon as today.

Posada, 79, has been in jail since he entered the U.S. illegally in May 2005. He is currently held at the Otero County jail in New Mexico.

Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered his release in El Paso, Tex. On Monday, she refused to grant the prosecutors' petition to delay the order.

It does not matter that Posada - born in Cuba and a naturalized Venezuelan - is accused by those two countries of, among other crimes, planning the bombing in 1976 of a Cuban passenger jetliner over Barbados that killed 73 civilians. Among the victims were the young members of the island's fencing team returning home after a competition.

Last year, an immigration judge decided that he should be deported - but not to Venezuela or Cuba, where, the judge said, he could be tortured.

The deportation order has been unenforceable. Hard as they try, federal authorities cannot find any country willing to take in such an unsavory character. And now Posada, accused only of immigration violations, is about to be set free.

To do so would be a slap in the faces of the families of the 73 Cuban airliner victims. And it would cast a dark shadow on President Bush's war on terror.

Particularly since in March of last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied Posada's release for very specific reasons: Posada, ICE said then, was a "danger to the community" and "a risk to the national security of the U.S."

Posada's pending deportation order, though, could be used by ICE to keep him behind bars.

At 79, Posada is far from being a kindly grandfather. In fact, blowing up the Cuban airliner was only one of many terrorist acts in which the former CIA operative is said to have participated.

On Aug. 26, 2004, he was released from a Panama jail after that country's president, Mireya Moscoso, pardoned him. He had been in prison, accused of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro at asummit of Latin American leaders in 2000, whileCastro was speaking at a university.

Had the attempt been successful, many Panamanian students would have been killed. Posada's plan was to use 33 pounds of explosives - enough to destroy an armored car and damage everything within 220 yards. He was sentenced toeight years for endangering public safety.

Posada also has boasted of having planned six Havana hotel bombings in 1997 in which an Italian tourist died and 11 people were wounded.

After his pardon in Panama, Posada went into hiding in Central America. He's also still a fugitive from Venezuela, where in 1985 he escaped from jail. He is wanted there for his role in the bombing of the Cuban jetliner.

This is the man who, believe or it not, could be set free as soon as today on the streets of America.

Yet, for the war on terror to be real there cannot be "good" terrorists and "bad" terrorists: All terrorists, even the ones who agree with U.S. foreign policy, must be prosecuted.

President Bush himself left no doubt about it when he said: "If you harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist."

From: NY Daily News

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