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Cuba militant ends US asylum bid
Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles has withdrawn his application for asylum in the United States at a court hearing.
Accused of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro, he faces possible deportation to Venezuela, where he is wanted over a 1976 plane bombing.
The former CIA operative says he faces torture if he is sent to Venezuela.
His lawyer says he will now seek to remain in the US on the basis of his US military service. Another court hearing is scheduled for 26 September.
Mr Posada Carriles alleged the Cuban leader tried to have him killed in 1990 because of his previous work for Venezuela as a security official.
The former CIA operative was arrested in Miami in May, and applied for asylum.
But he has now withdrawn his asylum plea, because he feared continued testimony in court might force him to reveal state secrets.
He will now apply for US citizenship, under a law applying to non-citizens who served honourably in the US military.
Mr Posada Carriles served for one year in the early 1960s.
Torture threat
The 77-year-old has been appearing before an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, to face charges of entering the US illegally.
If the court finds against him, he risks being extradited to Venezuela.
Venezuela accuses Mr Posada Carriles of planning the bombing of the Cubana Airlines plane on a flight from Caracas to Havana in 1976, an attack which left 73 people dead.
A naturalised Venezuelan, he was twice acquitted by courts there of plotting to bomb the plane.
He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting a trial on appeal.
He told the court he spent 15 of the years since his escape living on a military base in El Salvador and making frequent trips to Guatemala.
The exile said he had been issued passports and travel documents with different names by the governments of those countries.
"We had identification cards the government would give us. We could not use our names or the Communists would kill us," he said.
Earlier a Venezuelan lawyer, testifying on behalf of Mr Posada Carriles, said he would be tortured if he were extradited.
Joaquin Chaffardet said it was also very likely Caracas would send him to Cuba.
The Cuban government says Mr Posada Carriles was behind a series of bombings of hotels in Havana in 1997.
Fidel Castro has said that he should be tried in Venezuela, or in front of an international court.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4201266.stm
The former CIA operative says he faces torture if he is sent to Venezuela.
His lawyer says he will now seek to remain in the US on the basis of his US military service. Another court hearing is scheduled for 26 September.
Mr Posada Carriles alleged the Cuban leader tried to have him killed in 1990 because of his previous work for Venezuela as a security official.
The former CIA operative was arrested in Miami in May, and applied for asylum.
But he has now withdrawn his asylum plea, because he feared continued testimony in court might force him to reveal state secrets.
He will now apply for US citizenship, under a law applying to non-citizens who served honourably in the US military.
Mr Posada Carriles served for one year in the early 1960s.
Torture threat
The 77-year-old has been appearing before an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, to face charges of entering the US illegally.
If the court finds against him, he risks being extradited to Venezuela.
Venezuela accuses Mr Posada Carriles of planning the bombing of the Cubana Airlines plane on a flight from Caracas to Havana in 1976, an attack which left 73 people dead.
A naturalised Venezuelan, he was twice acquitted by courts there of plotting to bomb the plane.
He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting a trial on appeal.
He told the court he spent 15 of the years since his escape living on a military base in El Salvador and making frequent trips to Guatemala.
The exile said he had been issued passports and travel documents with different names by the governments of those countries.
"We had identification cards the government would give us. We could not use our names or the Communists would kill us," he said.
Earlier a Venezuelan lawyer, testifying on behalf of Mr Posada Carriles, said he would be tortured if he were extradited.
Joaquin Chaffardet said it was also very likely Caracas would send him to Cuba.
The Cuban government says Mr Posada Carriles was behind a series of bombings of hotels in Havana in 1997.
Fidel Castro has said that he should be tried in Venezuela, or in front of an international court.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4201266.stm
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Romero is accused of selling Honduran passports to hundreds of Cubans, Lebanese and Colombians who are presumedly linked to drug-trafficking and terrorism.
Juan Carlos Sanchez, Romero's lawyer, told the Tegucigalpa court in a document that Romero's office allowed Posada to pass through the Honduran territory because he came with a false passport and was protected by members of the FBI.
Posada and three of his compatriots were jailed in 2002 in Panama after a failed assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000, although they were only charged with possession of explosives.
Sanchez said Posada entered Honduras in August 2004 after being pardoned by ex-president of Panama Mireya Moscoso.
It is presumed that Posada arrived on a private flight from Panama to San Pedro Sula, 180 km north of capital Tegucigalpa, along with his compatriots.
Posada, 77, escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 where he had been serving a sentence related to the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner while in Caracas.
A number of governments that had citizens aboard the jetliner have demanded the deportation of Posada.
Posada has denied any involvement in the jetliner bombing, which killed 73 people. He requested asylum in the United States after his arrest in Miami this May, on charges that he sneaked into the country illegally through Mexico.
Venezuela, where Posada is a naturalized citizen, has asked Washington for his extradition.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/31/content_3426503.htm
But Luis Posada Carriles, 77, a U.S. Army-trained explosives expert who helped carry out the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and has been accused of trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, will petition to remain in the United States on the basis of his U.S. military service, his lawyer said.
Posada says he would be imprisoned and tortured if returned to his Communist homeland or to Venezuela, where he faces charges of helping in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.
He has denied any part of a plot against Castro and the other charges of arranging bombings.
The asylum hearing in an El Paso court is not a criminal matter, but the case has placed President George W. Bush's administration in a difficult position as it tries to balance its support among the powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American community with its global campaign against terrorism.
Left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his ally Castro say Posada is a terrorist and accuse Washington of protecting the Cuban exile because of his past with U.S. intelligence agencies.
Judge William Abbott on Wednesday said Posada has made a preliminary showing of a danger of mistreatment in Venezuela during the hearing.
"It appears to my satisfaction that he has a real fear and a clear possibility of torture (in Venezuela)," Abbott said.
ANOTHER COUNTRY
The government will have a chance at a Sept. 26 hearing to challenge the assertion that Posada would be in danger in Venezuela, but it has not decided whether to do so. If not, the government would be able to detain Posada for 90 days as it searched for another country to send him to.
Posada, a self-described anti-Castro "freedom fighter," is a naturalized citizen of Venezuela, and has been involved in U.S. covert operations such as the Iran-Contra affair, according to recently declassified government documents.
His lawyer said that he had decided for the good of U.S. security to stop testifying and end his request for asylum.
"He may step into sensitive areas that could harm the security of the U.S. government or other countries," attorney Matthew Archambeault told the judge.
After the hearing, Archambeault said Posada "knows a lot and could provide a lot of information ... but that has never been his intention -- to use his knowledge as a bargaining chip."
Posada will apply for U.S. citizenship under a law covering aliens who have served honorably in the U.S. military -- as Posada did for one year in the early 1960s.
U.S. government attorneys were planning to continue questioning Posada about a 1997 series of nightclub bombings in Havana.
Posada was arrested in May in Miami and moved to El Paso for detention after he illegally entered the United States on the Texas-Mexico border. His attorneys have not contested that Posada entered the United States illegally.
Venezuela's demand for his extradition from the United States has strained already tense relations between the world's No. 5 oil exporter and its biggest energy client.
The country has dismissed suggestions Posada could be tortured or handed over to Cuba and promises a far trial.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/breakingnews/view.asp?msgID=10021