[NYTr] Landau: How to Walk in Bushtime (Libby and Posada)

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

Counterpunch - Jul 24, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/

How to Walk in Bushtime

Scooter Libby and Luis Posada

By SAUL LANDAU

How does the commutation of the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coincide
with the release by a federal judge of Luis Posada Carriles, former top
terrorist of the Western Hemisphere?

Answer: Both the commuted and the released could have spilled the beans
on powerful officials for criminal conspiracies.

Indeed, Libby knew that Cheney conspired with Bush to coordinate public
lying -- Iraq had WMD and links to al Qaeda ­ and tried to suppress
information to the contrary. Cheney authorized the "outing" of
undercover CIA operator Valerie Plame to show how he would punish those
who challenged the lies. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, made public that Cheney's pet story about Saddam Hussein trying
to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger was nonsense.

In June, a rarely compassionate Bush complained that Libby's sentence
was "excessive" and cut his two plus year jail sentence, leaving him to
pay a $250,000 fine ­ mostly covered by contributions from his
"friends"­ and a meaningless probation period. Bush as Governor of
Texas (1994-2001) steadfastly refused to commute death sentences for
men whose lawyers had fallen asleep during key portions of their
trials. "Compassionate Conservatism" means compassion only for
conservatives ­ who have the goods on you?

Libby lied about the Plame affair and obstructed justice, that is he
covered up larger lies told by Bush and Cheney about reasons for
invading Iraq.

Posada also lied on immigration issues unrelated to his 1976 plot to
bomb a Cuban airliner in mid flight. Federal prosecutors purposely
bungled the case and a judge released him in 2007 after he served a
short time in jail.

Behind both cases loomed a dirty secret: the accused would implicate
higher ups if Bush did get them off the hook of justice.

Before Libby became Cheney's Boy Friday, he had already crisscrossed
the world of pardons and influence peddling. Ironically, Republicans
pointed to Clinton's pardon of Switzerland-based American fugitive
financier Marc Rich when Democrats complained about Bush's "lenience"
on Libby. Did they forget that Libby was Rich's attorney, the key man
responsible for arranging Clinton's January 2001 pardon?

Leading then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Israeli political
heavies Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert phoned Clinton to ask his
indulgence. Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit "praised Rich for
helping in 'the rescue and evacuation of Jews from enemy countries' and
searching for missing Israeli soldiers. Israeli officials also praised
Rich for putting up $400,000 in 1984 that was used by Egypt as
compensation after the murders of Israeli tourists by an Egyptian
policeman in the Sinai desert." (Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Feb 24,
2001)

In 1983, the aggressive Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, pushed for Rich to serve prison time for
racketeering. In 2001, New York Mayor Giuliani, not yet a presidential
contender, was "shocked that the President of the United States would
pardon" Rich. But in June 2007, presidential aspirant Giuliani
commended Bush's commutation. "I think the sentence was way out of
line." Ah principle!

No leading official of either Party, however, suggested that Bush
pardon Luis Posada Carriles, known as the Osama bin Laden of the
Western Hemisphere. What could the Justice Department do with this man?
In 1973, Washington signed the Montreal Agreement that would have each
country try airplane terrorists or extradite them. Venezuela had
requested Posada's extradition for the October 1976 blowing up of a
Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados. Posada did the plotting in
Caracas.

Every prosecutor remembered Bush's November 21, 2001 words: "If you
harbor terrorists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist,
you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist,
you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable." What Bush didn't
say was "this doesn't refer to 'our terrorists.'"

In February 1961, Posada joined Brigade 2506, the CIA's Cuban exiles
who invaded Cuba that April. Posada belonged to a special group the CIA
had designated to "clean up" the Castro supporters -- after their
presumably successful invasion. This Cuban exile Waffen SS corps
included the most brutal and cold blooded men, as the CIA rated them.
So, he didn't land at Giron Beach with the rest of the Brigade.

Posada then joined the army, received spy and demolition instruction
and moved to the CIA in 1965, "as a source of information on Cuban
exile activities." The CIA kept close relations with Posada (1967-74)
as he rose in Venezuelan intelligence, DISIP. The CIA trained, funded
and fed Posada who even indirectly advised the Agency of his plans to
blow up a Cuba airliner over Barbados in 1976.

FBI Agents interviewed Posada and other suspects in Caracas and
concluded "Posada was up to his eyeballs" in planning the bombing.
(Interview with former FBI Special Agent L. Carter Cornick, who
interrogated Posada)

Given the documentation on Posada's role in that mass murder and his
boasting to New York Times reporters Anne Bardach and Larry Rohter
about bombings he did in Cuba ­ obvious acts of terrorism ­ much of the
legal world expected the Justice Department to charge the man with
terrorism after he illegally entered the United States in 2005 or else
deport him to Venezuela, which had requested his extradition.

Instead, Justice accused Posada of lying to US officials during
interviews and on his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that the government had
manipulated its interview with Posada and then used it as a pretext to
charge him with a felony. The judge accused the prosecutors of using
"grossly shocking" tactics in building their case. (AP, June 5, 2007)

Like Libby, Posada's top level political connections got scared. The
official entanglements with the Bush family and this terrorist began in
1985 when US officials helped Posada "escape" from a Venezuelan prison.
The man who directed the illegal Contra War of the 1980s, Lt. Col.
Oliver North of the National Security Council, noted in his diary ­
made public during Senate hearings -- "JMC $50K." This referred to the
bribe paid by Jorge Mas Canosa (head of the Cuban American National
Foundation) to Venezuelan prison authorities for the "escape" and the
waiting car and plane that landed in El Salvador where a Salvadoran
officer met the fugitive with false identification papers. CIA official
Felix Rodriguez fixed that part of the operation. Then-Vice President
George H.W. Bush played a key supervisory role in supplying the Contra
rebels in their illegal war against the Nicaraguan government. Reagan
himself approved that covert action.

Posada worked with Oliver North and retired General Richard Secord in
the White House-directed operation to supply the Contras. In October
1986, a Sandinista anti-aircraft missile felled a supply plane in
Nicaragua and exposed the operation.

Posada then became security chief to Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon
Duarte, which required approval from US officials who knew Posada had
downed the Cuban airliner. In 1990, a year after Duarte left the
presidency, Posada became chief of security for Guatemalan President
Vinicio Cerezo. Again, the CIA and Pentagon played heavy roles in a
country whose destiny they had altered in a 1954 military coup.

In 1992, the FBI investigated the Iran-Contra scandal and interrogated
Posada at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras. Posada, recuperating from a
bullet wound in the cheek, told the Bureau about Felix Rodriguez's
close connections to Donald Gregg, Bush's national security adviser.
Posada knew that "Rodriguez was always calling Gregg," the FBI
concluded, because he "paid Rodriguez' phone bill." (Robert Parry, Lost
History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & Project Truth)

Reagan officials also aided Orlando Bosch, Posada's partner in
sabotaging the Cubana plane. In 1989-90, US Ambassador to Venezuela
Otto Reich, an anti-Castro Cuban with a reputation for being a liar,
convinced President Bush, against strong advice from INS and Justice,
to allow Bosch to return to the United States. Bosch, a terrorist of
world stature, got "harbored." The President's youngest son, Jeb ­ now
Florida governor ­ belittled the INS' warnings and convinced his father.

By 1994, Posada had recuperated from a bullet wound that unknown
pistoleros put in his check in Guatemala. He resumed his vocation:
assassinate Castro. Fidel planned a visit to Cartagena, Colombia.
Posada and cohorts awaited him with a sniper rifle. Fidel's security
forces, however, thwarted the eager shooters. (Miami Herald, June 7,
1998)

Having failed to assassinate Cuba's leader ­ Cuba's security forces
claim over 625 separate attempts, many with CIA backing ­ Posada
directed his attentions to sabotaging Cuba's economy. In 1997, working
with Mas Canosa, he hired money-hungry Salvadorans to plant bombs at
tourist spots in Havana. One explosion killed an Italian tourist. Cuban
authorities then captured two Salvadorans who named Posada as their
boss and paymaster. Using the alias of SOLO, Posada wired them of money
transfers.

Posada limps along Miami Beach's boulevards, sometimes with his old
cohort Orlando Bosch. Libby walks the streets of Washington. Bush
continues his empty rant against terrorism. Both geriatric terrorists
must chuckle over those familiar grim facial expressions and the
threatening words. "He who harbors a terrorist"

[Saul Landau is the author of A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD. His films are
available on dvd from roundworldproductions at gmail.com]