Story from the New York Times.  About Luis Posada Carriles, and anti-Castro terrorist formerly on the C.I.A. payroll, and also an operative for the Nicaraguan Contras.  He wants asylum in the United States.  He did a lot of stuff that our government liked at one time, and he figures he should be able to cash in on it.

     Problem is, a couple of those things included blowing up Cuban nightclubs and an airplane…which makes him a terrorist.  But he was one of “our” terrorists.  One of our chickens wants to come home to roost.

     But we can’t have that…because he’s a terrorist, and we’ve declared war on terrorists and terrorism, and any States that sponsor terrorism or harbor terrorists.  And it could be a little embarrassing…even for this administration, to explain why we’re harboring one of our terrorists that we sponsored way back when.

     Giving him up is a problem as well…because the places that want him (Cuba and Venezuela) are not places we want to validate by extraditing criminals to.  It would be a political coup for enemies of the Bush family on both counts.  Plus, there’s that whole “he used to work for us, and every once in a while it’s nice to have people do our dirty work, and if we turn on them they won’t want to anymore” thing.

     I wonder what they’re going to do with this one.  There is no obviously “right” answer.

     This case is an outgrowth of our history as a country that, from time to time, has loved to take short-cuts and cut the corners and bend the rules to the breaking point, and overlook the breaks.

     I’m sure that our current administration will not worry too much about what is the RIGHT thing to do in this case, but will instead look at the base and decide what is the most politically expedient thing to do.

     Unlike the judges thing, they really haven’t had a chance to “pre-spin” this issue, so my guess is that they will take a hard anti-terror stance and send him somewhere.  I’m sure if they can swing it, they’ll try to get someone other than Venezuela or Cuba to take him.

     Hmmm….didn’t he kill a lot of Italians?  I wonder if Italy would want him.  That way we’re not letting him go, but we’re not giving him to people we’re harboring ancient grudges against.

     But personally, I think we should build a time-machine and go back in time and stop our government from sponsoring and training terrorists.  Wouldn’t that be nice?