AP: Texas

07/25/2005

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL  / Associated Press

A federal immigration judge asked lawyers involved in the deportation case of a Cuban militant Monday to provide briefs on whether the Bay of Pigs invasion could be considered an act of terrorism.

Judge William A. Abbott also denied bond for Luis Posada Carriles, 77, a former CIA operative accused of orchestrating the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner while in Caracas, Venezuela.

Posada has been held in an El Paso federal detention center since May on charges that he sneaked illegally into the United States through Mexico and is seeking asylum in the U.S.

Among the factors Abbott said he would consider in Posada's case was whether he had ever provided material support for acts of terror.

Recently declassified CIA documents show that the spy agency trained Posada in Guatemala in 1961 to participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, including explosives and weapons training. Posada, who rose to the rank of second lieutenant, was in the U.S. Army from March 1963 to March 1964 in Fort Benning, Ga.

Abbott said the sponsor of terrorist activity didn't matter, even if it were the U.S. government. He didn't elaborate, except to say he would ask the lawyers to provide briefs on the matter.

"I look forward to reading the government's response," said Matthew J. Archambeault, one of Posada's Florida-based attorneys.

Posada was mostly silent during Monday's hearing, occasionally conferring in Spanish with one of his lawyers. Appearing in court in a red jail uniform, with the outline of a bulletproof vest visible on his back, Posada's right temple and jaw were heavily bandaged from recent skin cancer surgery.

Following the hour-long hearing, Archambeault said Abbott's request was a surprise, though it was an issue Archambeault and other of Posada's lawyers had discussed.

Posada, who Archambeault said did not actually participate in the failed invasion, also has denied any involvement in the bombing of the Cuban jetliner.

According to a declassified CIA document released last month, Posada said shortly before the deadly bombing that he and others would "hit a Cuban airplane." Venezuelan officials have said Posada was in Caracas when he allegedly planned the attack, which killed 73 people when the plane crashed off the coast of Barbados.

Archambeault also withdrew Posada's claim that he had not abandoned his permanent U.S. residency, saying his client didn't want to burden the court with an issue he couldn't win.

Archambeault said Posada had not decided if he would appeal Abbott's bond decision. The lawyer did say Posada would renew his request that the case be moved to Miami and elsewhere in Florida, where Posada has friends and relatives.

Posada, also an ex-Venezuelan security official and naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is scheduled to appear next on Aug. 29, when his lawyers are expected to begin arguing for asylum. Archambeault said Posada might testify.

Posada's arrest gained international attention and at times strained relations between the United States and several Latin American and Caribbean countries. Those governments want the Bush administration to deport Posada to Venezuela to stand trial on the airplane-bombing charges.

Posada was acquitted of the bombing by a military court, but that decision was later thrown out when officials argued that Posada should be tried in a civilian court. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 before the civilian trial was completed.