Kerry may be called to testify in defense of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles

Posada lawyer may call Kerry, North
As Venezuela seeks to block U.S. citizenship for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, his lawyer may look to Sen. John Kerry and Oliver North to testify about Posada’s former ties to the U.S. government.
BY OSCAR CORRAL AND PABLO BACHELET

In an effort to free Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles from federal detention and help him qualify for U.S. citizenship, his attorney may call on U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Oliver North of Iran-contra fame to testify about Posada’s ties to the U.S. government.

Posada’s lawyer, Eduardo Soto, said Tuesday that he is considering subpoenaing Kerry and North because their testimony may assure U.S. immigration officials that Posada was working for the U.S. government during the contra war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s.

Soto said Posada, who was once a legal U.S. resident, should receive U.S. citizenship because he served as an active-duty soldier for the U.S. Army in Vietnam, and later as a paid U.S. agent in Nicaragua.

’’He was the lead prosecutor in Iran-contra,’’ Soto said of Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged President Bush for the White House in 2004. He is a man who has personal knowledge of investigations, reports, testimony, everything that Iran-contra entails.'' Kerry spokeswoman April Boyd said she did not have ''immediate information'' on the senator's knowledge about the contra war. RAISING THE STAKES Tuesday, Venezuela raised the stakes in the high-profile diplomatic row between that South American nation and the United States by submitting an antiterrorist resolution at an Organization of American States meeting in the Dominican Republic. The resolution was intended to thwart any U.S. intentions to grant citizenship to Posada, a diplomat said. Venezuela's resolution, introduced at the 34-country OAS General Assembly that ended Tuesday, would deny safe haven to terrorists. The text does not specifically name Posada, who is accused by Venezuela of masterminding a 1976 bombing that killed 73 people on a Cuban airplane. Posada was acquitted of the bombing when tried by a military tribunal in Venezuela in the 1970s and escaped while awaiting a second trial in the early 1980s. He insists he is innocent. The resolution urges OAS members to adoptrelevant administrative measures to prevent anyone who has participated in the planning, preparation, financing or commission of terrorist acts from obtaining safe haven, protection or naturalization in their territories for the purpose of preventing extradition.’’

A Venezuelan diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to reporters on the issue, said the text is opposed by both the United States and Colombia. No U.S. officials were immediately available for comment.

Venezuela has repeatedly complained that the United States practices a double standard in its war on terrorism, demanding full collaboration from nations but refusing to hand over fugitives to countries that have strained relations with Washington.

Jose Pertierra, a Cuban-American lawyer representing the Venezuelan government in the Posada case, said Posada shouldn’t qualify for citizenship because he was convicted of a felony in Panama — possession of explosives. However, that issue is complicated because Panama’s then-President Mireya Moscoso gave Posada a full pardon in 2004 before she left office.

Meanwhile, at least two of Posada’s associates have already appeared before a federal grand jury that convened in Texas to investigate Posada’s entry into the United States, and two others are scheduled to appear later this month.

Posada and his associates have long maintained that he came into the United States by crossing the Mexican border. But Cuban leader Fidel Castro insists that Posada entered the country illegally on the Santrina, a shrimping boat owned by several of Posada’s friends.

FEDERAL WITNESS

Recently, a federal witness in a separate case, Gilberto Abascal, told investigators that Posada was indeed brought to Miami on the Santrina, according to court records.

But Abascal’s credibility is under fire because he has had contact with Cuban security agents, raising questions about whether he is a Cuban spy.

Posada, who is also wanted by Cuban officials for a string of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 and 1998, was detained in Miami by federal authorities in May 2005 after sneaking into the United States. Venezuela wants Posada extradited to face charges for the jetliner tragedy. U.S. officials have yet to respond to that request, Pertierra said.

Last year, an immigration judge ruled that the U.S. government cannot hand over Posada to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be tortured. That leaves Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the option of finding a third country that’s willing to take in Posada, who once worked for the CIA.

Soto is suing the U.S. government for Posada’s release, arguing that the United States has no legal grounds to hold him in detention any longer.

’’We have a situation where no one is coming to the defense of my client, and he deserves to be free,’’ Soto said. ``On the one hand, you can’t say today that he’s a terrorist because of his activities in the mid-1980s . . . and be on the sidelines applauding him and paying his check for doing so.’’

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