How I got mixed up with the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles

I'd like to share with you just how I got involved with international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. I'm still sorting it out. I hope that telling you the story will help me do that.

Luis Posada Carriles, on trial in El Paso, TX. Photo: Google images.

The Scene.
Yesterday morning: U.S. Marshals behind me, police on every corner, cop cars everywhere. Me? I'm standing on federal courthouse property, chanting loudly and repeatedly, part of a group of 40 or so who line the street. Our opponents, just a few yards away, are taunting and baiting us. The courthouse flags are at half-mast. A few days ago six people were killed, not so very far from here, at an event much less politically charged than this.

Posada supporters

The Event. 
A self-acknowledged terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, trained by and then hired by the United States, the man who clearly blew an airplane out of the sky and killed 73 civilians onboard, is on trial here in El Paso, in the building right behind me.

"Jail Posada. Extradite Posada. Jail Posada. Extradite Posada."

"About time he's brought to justice!" one might say, since his airplane gig happened over 34 years ago. But, one would be wrong.

He isn't on trial for the tourist hotels that he bragged to the New York Times he exploded. He's not on trial for the Italian tourist he killed while masterminding those explosions. Since he knows too much about the CIA, it appears that U.S. indignation about terrorism only goes so far. It can't extend to a terrorist of our own.

Instead he is on trial for lying to U.S. immigration-about five years ago. In the meantime, he's been living the good life in Miami, a hobbyist painter. I once met an immigrant who was deported for jaywalking. But Luis Posada Carriles is not deported. Nor is he in detention. For his trial, he's staying at the downtown El Camino Real Hotel: swanky name, swanky place.

And, although two nations clamor for his extradition so they can try him for his crimes, he's still here. The U.S. protects him. This trial is a "show."

Our "war on terror" is hypocrisy.

As an ordinary U.S. citizen, I can't do much anything about the CIA. For that matter, I have little personal impact on the federal government at all. But I can yell. And that's why I'm here. Were it not for the protestations of thousands, in the U.S. and throughout the hemisphere, likely even this insignificant trial wouldn't have happened. My body, my voice can call attention to this travesty. Lots of news media reps filmed, photographed and interviewed us. This event will appear in newspapers throughout the hemisphere.

I like standing outside the courthouse, near the display of photos of the faces of the people Posada is responsible for killing. It is a wall of faces. And they are not forgotten. Not while I'm standing here.

Other people have detailed the story of Luis Posada Carriles. I won't repeat it. But I will do what I can to make sure that the story of Luis Posada Carriles is not just swept under the carpet.

That's how I got involved with the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles:

I can yell.
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Short clip of one of the speeches delivered yesterday morining: speaking the truth about the hypocrisy that is the U.S. "war on terrorism"outside the court building that whitewashes the lie.