Put up or shut up on the WoT

As reported in the WaPo, the capture of escaped anti-Castro terrorist,Luis Posada, poses an interesting question for BushCorp™: Does the War on Terror extend to all who use such tactics, or only those who use terror against nations we deem friendly?

Venezuelan officials demanded that Posada be extradited for a new trial on charges related to a 1976 bombing of a civilian airliner that killed 73 Cubans and Venezuelans over the Bahamas. And in Cuba, where 1 million people marched through Havana demanding Posada's arrest hours before he was taken into custody, top allies of Castro pressured the Bush administration.

"Now Mr. Bush has to prove he is sincere about terrorism," Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon told the Associated Press. "What the United States has to do now is clear: If there is a request for his extradition it has to attend to it according to its own laws."

Further complicating the issue is the politcally sensitive Cuban community in the uber-swing state of Florida which typically vehemenently opposes any move which might be seen as legitimizing Castro's rule. As has been observed, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter.

That this is a serious dilemma is indicative of BushCorp™'s failure to define it's War on Terror. Starting 9/12, the admin. sought to paint the significance of the 9/11 attacks with the broadest strokes possible in order to justify virtually any military escapade.

Posada represents an opportunity for BushCorp™ to, for once, do the right thing:

Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, writes that "the Bush administration should set ideologies aside and view the Posada case as a golden opportunity."

It is an opportunity for the US government to dispel widely expressed suspicions around the world that its war on terrorism has ulterior motives, and to stand on the principle that terrorism is a threat to humanity from across the political spectrum. It is also an opportunity to apply international law above geopolitical interests.

But given BushCorp™'s usual disdain for any law it finds inconvenient, and international law in particular, I suspect Mr. Posada's shadow will never darken the doorway of a Venezuelan courthouse.