MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sat, Apr. 01, 2006

LUIS POSADA CARRILES CASE
Posada called a national security risk
Immigration officials listed reasons why Cuban exile militant
Luis Posada Carriles cannot be released, including
charges he took credit for bombings in Cuba.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com 
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/14237689.htm

Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, detained in a Texas immigration facility, cannot be released because he poses a ''danger to the community'' and a ''risk to the national security of the United States,'' federal officials say.

The letter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Posada also classifies him as a ''flight risk'' and someone with a history of ``criminal activity.''

This history includes a prison escape in Venezuela after an attack on a Cuban jetliner in 1976 and allegations he took credit for bombings in Cuba in 1997 in 1998.

DISREGARD FOR SAFETY

''You have a history of engaging in criminal activity, associating with individuals involved in criminal activity, and participating in violent acts that indicate a disregard for the safety of the general public,'' according to an ICE letter to Posada released by his lawyer this week.

It added that Posada had a ``propensity for engaging in activities . . . that pose a risk to the national security of the United States.''

The seven-page letter contains the first public explanation by U.S. immigration authorities about the reasons why Posada cannot be released, as his Coral Gables immigration attorney Eduardo Soto had demanded.

Soto said the ICE letter, dated March 22, ''contained nothing new'' and noted that none of the information the government cited proves Posada is a danger to U.S. national security.

''If you read between the lines you know the government has absolutely no evidence,'' Soto said. He added that he plans to sue the government in federal court.

A Venezuelan embassy statement issued Friday interpreted the ICE letter as an acknowledgement by the U.S. government ``for the first time that Luis Posada Carriles is a terrorist.''

Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman in Miami, said her agency issued a statement on Posada recently and planned no more comment on the issue for now. That statement, issued March 22, did not give reasons for ICE denying Posada's release.

Among the government's reasons for holding Posada listed in the letter, were Posada's ''statements'' that link him to the ''planning and coordination of a series of hotel and restaurant bombings in Cuba'' in 1997 and 1998.

That was a reference to statements attributed to Posada in interviews in which he was quoted as taking responsibility for the bombing attacks in Cuba.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

In testimony in immigration court in El Paso, Texas, last year Posada denied those statements.

He said he was not misquoted, but that because he had difficulty understanding English he had not explained himself clearly and was misunderstood.

The ICE letter also cited his conviction in Panama in 2004 in connection with an alleged assassination plot against Cuban leader Fidel Castro while Castro visited Panama. Posada has denied any plot to kill Castro in Panama.

The letter also cited Venezuela's extradition request for Posada ''based on your alleged involvement in the 1976 bombing of the Cubana Airlines passenger jet'' and his ''escape from a Venezuelan prison'' while the case was pending.