Interview: Ann Louise Bardach discusses Luis Posada
Carriles' request for political asylum in the United States

MELISSA BLOCK, host: To his supporters, Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles is a heroic freedom fighter; to others, he's a terrorist. And now he's seeking political asylum in the United States. Posada's been implicated in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. He's served time in prison for the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, and he was linked to the 1997 bombings of Cuban tourist hotels. Posada's lawyer says he deserves US protection since he worked directly and indirectly for the CIA for years. Posada's opponents say granting him asylum would be setting a double standard on terrorism. Ann Louise Bardach writes about Cuba. She interviewed Posada for The New York Times in 1998, when he was in hiding in the Caribbean, and she joins us.Thanks for being with us.

Ms. ANN LOUISE BARDACH (Author, "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana"): My pleasure.

BLOCK: Posada has been, for years, on an immigration watch list. How do you figure he got into the country?

Ms. BARDACH: Well, what he told me in The New York Times series back in 1998 was that he had several passports and several bogus names. He said he had four at that time, including a phony American passport that somebody got for him in Atlanta.

BLOCK: Let's talk a bit about Mr. Posada's history and spool back to the 1960s. He was part of the planned Bay of Pigs invasion, and there's no question that he was trained by the CIA. How extensive were his connections with the CIA over the years?

Ms. BARDACH: Well, that's an interesting question. He was part of Bay of Pigs, he was trained at Ft. Benning and he had a pretty active career in the '60s. But what happens in the '70s is he falls into, quote, "bad odor." He was suspected of being involved with possible drug dealing, and there were some thefts. And there's a whole batch of CIA memorandum that we got hold of at The New York Times, and you could see that he had quite a checkered career. And, in fact, they fired him at the CIA. That's an important point, because the claim right now is that he's been an asset in helping the US all these years. Well, in fact, they terminated him at that time.

BLOCK: Luis Posada, as you say, falls out of favor with the United States, but resurfaces in the 1980s in connection with Iran-Contra. How does that happen?

Ms. BARDACH: Well, he's had many lives. And what happens during Iran-Contra is the people who were running Iran-Contra realized that, you know, you're not going to get saints to run a guerrilla war in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and that Luis Posada might be just the perfect fit for this. And what he told me was that he ran the field operations in El Salvador with his old cohort, Felix Rodriquez, who, of course, was famous for having captured Che Guevara. So he--in his mind, Luis Posada feels that he did favors for some very important people, and that now they owe him favors.

BLOCK: Well, now Luis Posada is in this country seeking asylum. How do you see this playing out? Could he actually be granted asylum, or would you expect him to extradited?

Ms. BARDACH: Well, a lot of it has to do with how solid his support is in Miami and with political power and the radio stations, etc. Previously, Jeb Bush has been very active in getting Cuban exiles, whether they've been convicted of terrorism or whatever, released from prison, and he's been quite successful. It's an interesting situation, and it'll be very interesting to see how the Justice Department handles this. But certainly, they have the wherewithal and the ability to promptly find him and arrest him. And the fact that he's already been in Miami for 19 days and hasn't been arrested, I think, speaks volumes about the climate right now, certainly in south Florida, and also possibly that the Justice Department has decided to see how this plays out politically before they make their move.

BLOCK: Ann Louise Bardach, thanks very much.

Ms. BARDACH: You bet.

BLOCK: Ann Louise Bardach is author of the book "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana."

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