Left I on the News

Politicians and pundits are all atwitter, and quaking in mock fear, over the prospect of some "terrorists" (and alleged terrorists who "can't be tried") being imprisoned in U.S. prisons, or even, gasp, let loose in the U.S. They've all forgotten that there are numerous terrorists walking the streets of the United States. Of course these are the "good" terrorists, the ones whose acts of terrorism were directed against Cuba.

The gang in New York had 30 pounds of fake C-4. Luis Posada Carriles, along with Gaspar Jimenez, Pedro Remon and Guillermo Novo Sampol, were all caught and convicted in Panama with 20 pounds (some sources say 30) of real C-4, attempting to blow up an auditorium in which Fidel Castro was speaking to a room full of Panamanian students. Just four months later, under pressure from the U.S., the four were pardoned by the outgoing Panamanian President (now a U.S. resident, naturally), and Jimenez, Remon, and Sampol were all given a heroes' welcome upon their arrival in Miami (for various reasons, Posada was required to sneak into the country less than a year later).

Posada, Jimenez, Remon, and Sampol, all of whom have been involved with other acts of terrorism as well, not to mention Orlando Bosch, Posada's partner in masterminding the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cubana airliner which took the lives of 73 people, are all now walking the streets of Miami, free men, with one of them, Posada, being sheltered to this day from extradition to Venezuela, where he is still wanted on 73 counts of first-degree murder.

Two other terrorist associates of Posada, Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat, were caught with dozens of machine guns, rifles, C-4 explosive, dynamite, detonators, a grenade launcher and ammunition. They spent a year in prison, and now they too are walking the streets of Miami.

On the other coast, there was Robert Ferro, a man whose name has not once made the national or even regional media; only the local paper has covered his case. Why is that so astonishing? Because Ferro had a cache consisting of 1,600 firearms, including 35 machine guns, 130 silencers and two short-barreled rifles, along with a hand grenade, military rocket-launcher tube, and grenade parts, not to mention 89,000 rounds of ammunition! Ferro had even spent two years in prison earlier after being caught with C-4. His latest sentence was 65 months, although, given the history of such people (Alvarez and Mitat had both been sentenced to longer sentences, then had their sentences reduced), we shall see how much time Ferro actually spends in prison (if, indeed, the information ever makes the news). It will be interesting to see what sentences are forthcoming for the would-be terrorists in New York, with no actual C-4 in their possession. I'm betting on a lot more than 65 months.

And Posada? The U.S. has now, after years of investigation, decided that he lied when he said that he wasn't involved with the bombing of hotels in Havana in the 90's which, among other things, killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo. So they've charged him with terrorism, right? No, in a feat worthy of the Olympic gold medal in mental gymnastics, they've charged him with perjury for lying when he said he wasn't involved with those acts of terrorism. But actually charging him with terrorism? No, that would be too much to fess up to, after years of protecting him (continuing to this day) from prosecution for the murder of the 73 victims of the Cubana airliner.

Terrorists in the U.S.? Oh yeah, we've got plenty of them running around. And I'm not even mentioning the biggest terrorists of them all, the ones responsible for raining terror and death on the heads of the Afghan and Iraqi people.