A Double Standard?

"Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." Those are the words of President George Bush in September 2001 in what I believe was the finest speech of his political career. This was when he laid out the rational that became our justification for attacking Afghanistan for harboring Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Unfortunately sometimes the law of unexpected consequences kicks in. And that is what seems to have happened in the case of suspected or admitted (depending on your point of view) terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, pictured below. For those of you do not know the story, Posada seems to have been involved in the mid air bombing of a Venezuelan jetliner in the 1970's. There is evidence to support the charges and Venezuela wants to put him on trial. Posada however is unavailable to Venezuela because he is walking around the United States as a free man. Now just how is that possible? Maybe it is because the evidence seems to implicate the United States in the bombing as well. Maybe it is because Posada was and remains dedicated to removing Fidel Castro from office in Cuba and the Cuban political lobby is very strong. Maybe it is because Posada was a former employee of the CIA. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the Bush Administration is not moving to extradite Posada to Venezuela, despite recently declassified documents from the National Security Archive that point to his involvement in the bombing. 73 people died in that bombing. We are not moving to detain him as a known or suspected terrorist. And we are not pursuing any charges against him at all even though he is in the country illegally. In light of our President's own words of September 2001, why are we harboring this man? Is there one standard for the U.S. and one for other countries? You decide.