The U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism - Operation Condor and Luis Posada Carilles

from the "when-we-do-it-it's-not-terrorism-it's-supporting-
democracy" dept...

"Operation Condor" was a coordinated plan among the military governments that ruled Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s that was used to track down, capture, and eliminate left-wing opponents... an international conference, "Against Terrorism, For Truth and Justice," with Operation Condor as a principal focus, was held this past Thursday through Saturday in havana...

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a bit more background on "Operation Condor" thanks to wikipedia...

Operation Condor was a campaign of assassination and intelligence-gathering, dubbed counter-terrorism, conducted jointly by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in the mid-1970s.

The right-wing military governments of these countries, led by dictators such as Videla, Pinochet and Stroessner agreed to cooperate in sending teams into other countries, including France, Portugal and the United States to locate, observe and assassinate political opponents. They also exchanged torture techniques, like near drowning and playing the sound recordings of victims who were being tortured to their family. Many people disappeared and were killed without trial. Their targets were leftist guerrilla terrorists but many are thought to be political opponents, family and other innocent people.

It has been alleged that Operation Condor was given at least tacit approval by the United States, due to fear of violent Marxist revolution in the region. It appears that Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon administration, was closely involved diplomatically with the Southern Cone governments at the time and well-aware of the Condor plan.

from the Havana conference...

"Operation Condor does not belong to any one of us, but rather to the victims," said Calloni, who proposed the creation of a centre like the one established to investigate the crimes of the Holocaust, "to uncover the truth and expose the guilty." [Argentine journalist Stella Calloni, author of the book "Operation Condor: A Criminal Pact."]

Her idea was backed by other participants. "Operation Condor was a transnational corporation of terror. We need to coordinate the information we have to put an end to the impunity," said Paraguayan researcher Alfredo Boccia.

Calloni maintained that in the 1960s, the CIA created a sort of "all-star team" of terrorists, culled from the anti-Castro Cuban exile community, to eliminate the left-wing opposition in numerous Latin American countries.

"The members of this all-star team were Luis Posada Carriles, brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll, Virgilio Paz, Félix Rodríguez, Dionisio Suárez and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo," she said.

here's some bio data on luis posada carilles, again thanks to wikipedia...)

Declassified US government documents showed that [Luis Posada Carilles] was [on the] CIA payroll from the 1960s until mid-1976. Along with Orlando Bosch he was indicted but twice acquitted of taking part in the bombing of a Cuban airliner over Barbados in 1976, in which all seventy-three people onboard were killed. While waiting for a Venezuelan prosecutor requested retrial on the same charges Posada escaped Venezuelan prison and found work supplying arms to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras. Posada Carriles has been an international fugitive since the early 1980s.

It is alleged that Posada has worked for the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), which denies any connection. The Miami Herald has recently run articles querying CANF's ties to terrorism and Operation Condor.

but, on may 17...

Federal agents arrested notorious Cuban exile leader Luis Posada Carriles near Miami Tuesday afternoon. He is reported to have been planning to leave the country.

venezuela, however, concurs with the prevailing view among latin american countries that luis posada carilles is latin america's osama bin laden, has requested his extradition...

Venezuela, which wants Washington to hand over anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles, is asking the Organization of American States to adopt a resolution on extradition at its meeting in Fort Lauderdale next week.

the u.s., in typical fashion, does not appear ready to comply...

The United States intends to send Luis Posada Carriles to a country rather than Venezuela who requested his extradition in May, said Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Friday in Cuba.

[...]

Rangel said he doubts there will be a positive US response to the Venezuelan request in the end because the United States fears the terrorist could reveal his ties with Washington.

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