The Cuban Bin Laden
• Otto Reich’s principal task as ambassador to Venezuela was to free
Orlando Bosch, that diabolical pediatrician and CIA tool, and his
accomplice Posada Carriles, after they masterminded the sabotage of
a Cuban airliner off Barbados. Working for the FBI, Bosch advocated,
encouraged, organized and personally participated in acts of terrorism
within the United States and in other countries. The State Department
denied him a visa in 1987 because of his criminal past and his
implication in terrorism, and Associate Attorney General Joe D. Whitley
described him as a public danger. Nevertheless, he still walks the
streets of Miami freely and continues to incite and organize attacks in
that terrorist sanctuary, while the five Cuban patriots who risked their
lives to prevent those attacks have received life terms. Is there really
a war against terrorism?
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD (Special for Granma International)
"EXILES financed explosions in Cuba," read a Nuevo Herald
newspaper headline on November 16, 1997. That affirmation
couldn’t be clearer. However, in Miami, the United States’ terrorist
sanctuary, the such news didn’t perturb anyone. And some years
later, that metropolis is still totally beyond the reach of the law, the
Senate and even the multimillion-dollar War on Terrorism.
A living example of the extent of this criminal tolerance is Orlando
Bosch, the pediatrician of death, anti-Cuba arch-terrorist, protected
by the Bush family, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)
and the CIA. The brains, together with Luis Posada Carriles, behind
the sabotage of a Cubana airliner in full flight, provoking the death of
73 passengers on October 6, 1976, killer Bosch is now personally
represented in the White House by his lifetime buddy Otto Reich, who
sprung him from a Venezuelan jail.
Responsible for numerous acts of terrorism over the last 40 years,
Bosch continues to practice his profession of terrorism, constantly
advocating violence as a political method while being protected at the
highest level of U.S. society.
The history of Bosch’s crimes has been recounted on various
occasions under various circumstances. However, one account that
certainly has much credibility, bearing in mind his privileged
relationship with the U.S. authorities, is that of Associate Attorney
General Joe D. Whitley who, in May 1989, denied that dangerous
character the asylum he was seeking.
During this period of the War on Terrorism, his ruling is extremely
relevant.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, TERRORIST ACTIVIST
In his written report, Whitley recalled how Orlando Bosch Avila, born
in Cuba, had been admitted into the United States as a visitor on July
28, 1960, and authorized to remain in the country for no more than
30 days. However, Bosch remained there illegally from that time until
April 12, 1974.
Despite his illegal status in the country, for eight years Bosch headed
the Revolutionary Recuperation Insurrectional Movement (MIRR),
which Whitley defined as an anti-Castro terrorist organization.
On September 16, 1968, Bosch was involved in firing a projectile
from bazooka on the Polish vessel Polanica, which was then docked
in the port of Miami. On November 15, 1968, Bosch was convicted in
the District Court for the Southern District of Florida of various felony
offenses arising out of the assault on the Polish vessel. At that time
he was also convicted on an indictment that had charged him with
using the telegraph to send letters to the president of Mexico,
General Francisco Franco of Spain; and British Prime Minister Harold
Wilson, threatening to damage and destroy their countries’ ships and
airplanes.
Bosch was paroled in 1972 and left the United States in 1974,
thereby violating the terms of his parole.
More obsessed than ever with his terrorist mission, Bosch created
and headed the Command of United Revolutionary Organizations
(CORU) which, according to Whitley’s dossier, claimed responsibility
for numerous bombings in Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama,
Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere.
FROM VENEZUELAN PRISONS TO SANCTUARY SIDEWALKS
Then came the sabotage off the coast of Barbados, the most horrific
of Bosch’s crimes. Whitley describes it: "In October, 1976, Bosch
was arrested in Venezuela in connection with the October 6, 1976
in-flight bombing of a civilian Cuban airliner, which resulted in the
deaths of 73 men, women, and children. Though detained in
Venezuela for eleven years on charges arising from this incident, he
was finally acquitted."
The prosecutor adds: "At his trial, evidence was presented that the
two men convicted of homicide in connection with the bombing were
in contact with Bosch both before and after the bombing."
And there was a clear allusion to Bosch’s privileged links with current
Undersecretary of State Otto Reich, then U.S. ambassador to
Venezuela, as well as with the CIA and the Miami anti-Cuba mafia:
"Despite being related to a number of United States citizens or
permanent resident aliens who have sought to help him obtain lawful
immigration status in this country, Bosch’s applications for both
immigrant and non-immigrant visas were denied in 1987 by the
Department of State because of his criminal history and involvement
in terrorism."
We are still talking of the individual who is now freely walks the Miami
streets, in the midst of the War on Terrorism.
Whitley continues: "Bosch, nevertheless, came to the United States
from Venezuela on February 18, 1988, without valid entry
documents. Upon arrival, Bosch was taken into custody on an
outstanding warrant for his 1974 parole violation, and he served an
additional three months for his violation."
After his release on May 17, 1988, Bosch was detained by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). At that time, the INS
district director in Miami served Bosch with a notice of temporary
exclusion, alleging that he was excludable from the United States
because:
• "There is reason to believe he would seek to enter the United
States solely, principally, or incidentally to engage in activities
prejudicial to the public interest.
• "That he is or has been an alien who advocates or teaches or has
been a member of an organization that advocates or teaches the
duty, necessity, or propriety of assaulting or killing officers of any
organized government.
• "That he is or has been an alien who advocates or teaches or has
been a member of an organization that advocates or teaches the
unlawful damage, injury or destruction of property..."
In other words, the associate attorney general viewed Bosch as a
public danger.
TERRORIST DOSSIER EVEN IN FBI FILES
The portrait of Bosch as drawn by Associate Attorney General
Whitley is confined to the contents of the dossier presented him, but
the record of the killer pediatrician is much wider, as we will see.
However, when delineating his own views, Whitley came to a
devastating conclusion and ended up by roundly rejecting the asylum
application of the hero of the Miami mafia:
"The files of the FBI and other government agencies contain a large
quantity of documentary information which reflects that, beginning in
the early 1960’s, Bosch held leadership positions in various
anti-Castro terrorist organizations. The information contained in
these files clearly and unequivocally reflects that Bosch has personally
advocated, encouraged, organized and participated in acts of
terrorist violence in this country as well as various other
countries. While some of this information is of a non-confidential
nature, greater quantity, both classified and unclassified, is of a
confidential nature because of the need to protect intelligence
sources and methods. The information presented for my review
included all of the evidentiary materials made available to the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the material submitted
by Bosch to the Regional Commissioner, and additional classified
information furnished by the FBI."
It should be noted that the CIA is conspicuous in its absence when it
comes to documenting its disciple’s activities.
Among the various documents later quoted by Whitley, apart from
the material linked to the legal process, there are certain extremely
interesting pieces, such as:
• "Documents reflecting that in June, 1974 Bosch publicly admitted
having sent package bombs to Cuban Embassies in Lima, Madrid,
Ottawa, and Buenos Aires.
• "A radio interview of Bosch during his incarceration in Venezuela in
which he advocated violent action against the Venezuelan
government. Letters from Bosch to CORU requesting that
Venezuelan property be bombed if he were not brought to trial.
• "An interview of Bosch, tape-recorded by the author of an article
entitled ‘I Am Going to Declare War’ which appeared in the New
Times, May 13, 1977. Apparently, Bosch claimed CORU was
responsible for over fifty bombings, but refused to take personal
credit for terrorist actions within the United States because of ‘FBI
heat.’"
In his role as a U.S. government attorney, Whitley certainly cannot
be suspected of pro-Cuban sympathies, and even less so in the
1980’s; he was a senior official within the U.S. legal apparatus that is
currently waging the War on Terrorism, at least outside of the Miami
sanctuary. His report describes Bosch as a full-fledged terrorist, in no
uncertain terms:
"For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his
advocacy of terrorist violence. He has threatened and undertaken
violent terrorist acts against numerous targets, including nations
friendly toward the United States and their highest officials. He has
repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause
indiscriminate injury and death. His actions have been those of a
terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and
inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims."
He concludes: "The United States cannot tolerate the inherent
inhumanity of terrorism as a way of settling disputes. Appeasement
of those who would use force will only breed more terrorists. We
must look on terrorism as a universal evil, even if it is directed
toward those with whom we have no political sympathy."
Whitley subsequently ordered Bosch’s deportation, but more than 12
years have gone by since this finding, and Orlando Bosch has never
been expelled from the United States. Quite the opposite. Combined
pressure from the CIA, the anti-Cuba mafia and extremist Republican
circles procured his release, after 31 countries refused the official
U.S. request to accept the terrorist.
WHITE HOUSE MEETING TO ABSOLVE A TERRORIST
According to The New York Times of August 17, 1989, Cuban
origin Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen personally negotiated
Bosch’s release with then President George Bush Sr. The meeting
was organized by Jeb Bush, who thus secured the anti-Cuba mafia
vote for his election as governor in 2000.
Bosch, the brain behind what is known as the Cubana airliner
explosion, the author of more than 50 attacks in the United States
and abroad, the apologist for terrorism, received a presidential
pardon from George Bush on July 20, 1990.
Was Orlando Bosch going to stop preaching terrorism as a method
of political struggle?
Since then, his name has been bandied about as a possible
accomplice of Luis Posada Carriles, his old partner during years of CIA
work, in connection with a series of terrorist acts in Havana in 1997.
In an interview published in The Miami Herald in September of that
year, Bosch refused to confirm his participation, to then comment:
"Besides, even if we had, we would deny it because it’s illegal [to
direct bombings] from this country."
And he concluded: "In any case, we don’t criticize that form of
struggle, if it’s the Cuban people’s choice."
During the trial of the five Cubans accused of espionage last year, an
allegation came up that Bosch himself had confessed to one of the
accused who had infiltrated his milieu, to having gotten explosives
smuggled into Havana during that same period.
In a final demonstration of his uninterrupted activism Bosch and
other accomplices made a call to violence "by all means and
methods necessary," in the August 22, 2001 edition of The Miami
Herald, that "objective" daily lending space in a perfectly
irresponsible manner to this promotion of terror.
September 11 arrived, and then the war against Afghanistan and an
unprecedented national and international campaign against terrorism.
Decrees and laws, billion-dollar budgets, all to support the battle
against evil.
And Orlando Bosch walks the streets of Miami. Free as a bird! Better
still, his partner, his godfather, the man who engineered his exit from
Venezuelan jails and then did everything he could to get him asylum
in the United States, Otto Reich, the most famous agent of the
terrorist CANF, is now the White House’s representative in Latin
America.
It couldn’t be more ridiculous: killer Bosch is in Miami, free to
engineer other attacks with dozens of followers willing to use the
most extreme forms of violence, and protected by powerful forces –
but Cubans who entered the United States precisely to watch over
the terrorist circles and prevent them perpetrating from further acts
of terrorism, remain in jail.
Will someone stand up, at some time, in the U.S. Senate to demand
a true investigation of Miami, sanctuary of the terrorist mafia?
Perhaps the number of deaths weighing on Bosch’s conscience is not
greater than that of Binaden, but in terms of the number of lethal
actions and his years of serving criminal objectives, his record is
unequaled.