Cuban Terror Suspect Indicted

MIAMI — Federal officials Thursday filed new charges against an anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative whose case has drawn international attention because of suspected links to the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

Luis Posada Carriles, 79, was charged with one count of naturalization fraud and six counts of making false statements in a naturalization proceeding, U.S. Justice Department officials said.

Last fall, a federal judge reviewing the case gave federal prosecutors until Feb. 1 to supply more evidence that Posada should remain behind bars. U.S. District Judge Philip Martinez ruled that Posada had been held well beyond court-established time limits.

The new charges likely will mean that Posada will remain jailed. He is currently being held in El Paso, Texas.

The prospect that Posada might win release has outraged human rights activists, who have blasted the Bush administration for failing to charge Posada as a terrorist at a time when the country is embroiled in an international war on terror.

Critics believe Posada's strong support among politically powerful Cuban exiles has influenced the administration's handling of the case.

Complicating the matter is Posada's longtime work as an agent for the CIA, conducting operations that in decades past seemed justified as part of the Cold War struggle against communism. In the post-9/11 era, those same acts are difficult to distinguish from the terrorism the United States is now fighting.

Yet another wrinkle: two top U.S. foes in the region, Cuba and Venezuela, want Posada extradited to stand trial for the Oct. 6, 1976, bombing of a Cubana Airlines airliner that killed all aboard, including the Cuban national fencing team. At the time, it was one of the worst acts of terrorism ever perpetrated in this hemisphere.

Posada has denied involvement in that bombing and claims to have renounced violence. His Miami lawyer, Eduardo Soto, has said Posada should be granted asylum instead of facing prosecution.

The case has roots stretching back for decades, entwined in the murky world of Cuban exile politics and activism.

Posada worked for the CIA in the early 1960s and helped plan the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion, in which U.S.-trained exiles tried and failed to topple Fidel Castro. He lived for some time in the United States, but hop-scotched around Latin America, always, it seems, involved in anti-Castro plots.

In September, 1976, Posada was in Venezuela, and U.S. intelligence documents quote him as telling an informant, "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner."

About a month later, Cubana Airlines Flight 455 exploded as it island-hopped through the Caribbean, killing all aboard.

Posada was acquitted twice of involvement in the bombing in trials in Venezuela, but, dressed as a priest, escaped a Venezuelan jail while awaiting a retrial.

Soon he surfaced in El Salvador, where he assisted Oliver North in the Iran-Contra deal, helping smuggle arms to anti-communist fighters. In 1990, he was shot in the face and torso several times as the target of an assassination attempt in Guatemala.

In 1998, he admitted to a reporter his involvement in a series of hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian businessman, an admission he later withdrew.

In 2000, he was convicted in Panama of a plot to blow up Castro during a visit by the communist Cuban leader. In 2004, he was pardoned and released by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoco, a move some human rights activists say was a political ploy aimed at shoring up Cuban exile support for President Bush's re-election campaign.

In May 2005, Posada surfaced in Miami, where he lived openly for two months before being jailed on immigration charges.

Since his arrest, the Bush administration has ignored an extradition request from Venezuela, while trying vainly to find a third country willing to take Posada. So far seven nations in the hemisphere have declined requests to accept him.

The Center for Justice and Accountability, a California-based human rights group, has been in contact with relatives of some of the Cubana Airline bombing victims, and is considering legal action should Posada escape prosecution.

"There's no doubt in our minds he is a terrorist responsible for the deaths of many people," said Matt Eisenbrandt, the group's legal director. "We want to make sure he's held accountable, and we have no doubt the U.S. has the laws and the capacity to properly prosecute somebody like Posada."