Extradite Posada

One of the main tents of America's "War on Terrorism" is that suspected terrorists shouldn't find safehavens in other nations. The Bush Administration now has an opportunity to show they don't just talk a big game. Via the NYTs:

From the United States through Latin America and the Caribbean, Luis Posada Carriles has spent 45 years fighting a violent, losing battle to overthrow Fidel Castro. Now he may have nowhere to hide but here.

Mr. Posada, a Cuban exile, has long been a symbol for the armed anti-Castro movement in the United States. He remains a prime suspect in the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner that killed 73 people in 1976. He has admitted to plotting attacks that damaged tourist spots in Havana and killed an Italian visitor there in 1997. He was convicted in Panama in a 2000 bomb plot against Mr. Castro. He is no longer welcome in his old Latin America haunts.

Mr. Posada, 77, sneaked back into Florida six weeks ago in an effort to seek political asylum for having served as a cold war soldier on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's, his lawyer, Eduardo Soto, said at a news conference last month.

Naturally this presents problems to the Bush clique considering the backlash that will result in Florida's Cuban community if the U.S. extradites Posada to Venezuela, which is willing to try him for the Cuban airline bombing. (Don't forget Chavez has warm relations with Castro.) The Bush Administration could also arrest him for illegal entry or grant Posada political asylum.

The Bush Administration should do the right thing and extradite Posada.