textfiles-politics/xslt-coll-pclean/bushbomb.xml

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   <p>
Wrong Number BBS FILE NAME: BUSHBOMB.TXT </p>
   <p> [Reproduced with permission from _The Spotlight_, June 22, 1992 </p>
   <p> The Spotlight
300 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20003 </p>
   <p> Free use of this material is permitted provided that _The Spotlight_
is credited, including publisher's address] </p>
   <p>BUSH LINKED TO TERROR BOMBING; </p>
   <p> WILL U.N. ASK FOR EXTRADITION?: </p>
   <p> Shocking Evidence Revealed </p>
   <p> The evidence pointing to President Bush's role in the terrorist bombing of
a Cuban airliner grows stronger with new revelations. Will the UN Security
Council demand his extradition to Cuba or the World Court, as Bush and the
UN have done in the case of Libyan suspects in a similar crime? </p>
   <p> By Warren Hough
Exclusive to The Spotlight </p>
   <p> Washington, DC, 6/12/92 -- Long-suppressed records have turned up
"shattering" new evidence of the role played by President George Bush in
the midair bombing of a Cuban airliner and in its subsequent cover-up,
Latin American officials conducting a "preliminary review" of the tragic
incident have told the UN Security Council.
The secret files reportedly confirm that in mid-1976, while serving as
CIA chief, Bush was in "overall command" of a botched sabotage operation
that ended in the crash of a Cuban passenger jet, killing all 73 aboard,
The SPOTLIGHT has learned from diplomatic sources close to the
investigation.
A CIA agent identified as Luis Posada was arrested by Venezuelan
authorities shortly after the Cuban plane exploded in midair during its
takeoff from a Caribbean stopover, these sources say. Posada, a member of
a sizable CIA contingent conducting covert operations from Venezuelan bases
at the time, was charged with having smuggled an explosive device aboard
the flight, and held for trial.
Bush, anxious to disclaim all responsibility for such an atrocious
terrorist outrage, ordered a "no-holds-barred" cover-up of the crime, the
record suggests.
"In order to take the heat off Posada, the CIA targeted another
suspect, Dr. Orlando Bosch, a militant Cuban exile activist who advocated
'armed action' against the Castro dictatorship," recounted Felipe Rivero,
the popular Miami broadcaster who is The SPOTLIGHT's correspondent in the
region."
Venezuela's secret police, known after its Spanish initials as DISIP,
maintained close relations with the CIA and followed its lead. Bosch was
imprisoned and charged with complicity in the bombing in Venezuela. </p>
   <p> BUSH ORCHESTRATION </p>
   <p> The next move in the cover-up reportedly orchestrated by Bush was to
"recover" Posada, these sources day. In a well-organized and lavishly
financed jailbreak, the alleged aerial bomber was spirited from Venezuela
to Panama, where the CIA issued him a new set of identity documents under
the name of Ramon Medina, a Guatemalan businessman.
In the concluding move of the cover-up, Posada, now known as "Medina,"
was handed over to Felix Rodriguez, a senior CIA field agent with whom Bush
had a personal working relationship, the record shows. Rodriguez gave
Posada a series of covert jobs with CIA teams stationed in Central America,
largely in order to protect him and "keep him happy," these sources
related.
"I, for my part, spent 11 years in various maximum security Venezuelan
prisons," Bosch told a SPOTLIGHT reporter during a recent telephone
interview. "During those years, I was put on trial four times for that
airplane bombing. My case was heard by military, civilian and appellate
courts. I was found innocent each time. But after each acquittal, the CIA
came up with new 'suggestions' about my guilt." </p>
   <p> PALE AND FRAIL </p>
   <p> Finally the Venezuelan government told Washington it could no longer
hold Bosch. Pale and in frail health, the falsely accused "terrorist" was
flown back to Miami. "Here I could hope for no acquittal," recounted
Bosch. "At the airport, immigration officials threw me into chains. I was
held in solitary confinement for 29 months."
Finally granted a provisional release after leading Cuban-American
Republicans pressed his cause without letup, Bosch now lives in seclusion
near Miami. "My status is that of a 'deportable' alien," he told The
SPOTLIGHT. "If I engage in any political activity, or even if I talk too
much, I can be tossed back into jail. I am in no position to comment on
controversial questions -- not even in my own cause."
Living under the assumed name and a small CIA paycheck in Central
America also proved difficult for Posada, SPOTLIGHT correspondent Rivero
reports. "A couple of years ago, two men walked up to Posada in a
Guatemalan restaurant and shot him five times," Rivero related. "He
survived the shooting by a sheer miracle. Badly injured -- he lives
largely on liquefied food and walks with a crutch, I hear -- he has
vanished into the 'protective custody' of the CIA."
The reason for Posada's attempted assassination is known, however. He
"drank a bit and began to talk too much," U.N. sources said. "The CIA
needed an airtight cover-up of that airline bombing. When Posada turned
talkative, his usefulness to Bush was at an end -- and, but for an iron
physique and that miraculous survival, he would have been, too."
Now the U.N. Security Council, having assumed jurisdiction over such
international terrorist crimes when it clamped harsh sanctions on Libya
last April, faces a tougher challenge: How to deal with a case of aerial
mass murder in which the principal suspect happens to be THE INCUMBENT
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. </p>
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