Seriously… you couldn't make this stuff up - Aid - Brief Article

New Internationalist, May, 2003

When is a terrorist not a terrorist?

When he's a Cuban-American, possibly.

Rogue State author William Blum recently asked: 'What do you call a man who blows up a plane killing 73 people... who attempts assassinations against several diplomats... fires cannons at ships docked in American ports... and places bombs in commercial and diplomatic buildings in the US and abroad?'

Well, certainly NOT a terrorist. His name is Orlando Bosch, he's Cuban and lives unmolested in Miami, Florida, homeland for hordes of Cuban exiles determined to bring down the regime of Fidel Castro. He was freed from prison in Venezuela, where he had been held for the plane bombing in 1976, partly because of pressure from the then American ambassador, Otto Reich -- himself an ultra-right-wing Cuban-American who has recently resurfaced as George W Bush's 'special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere'.

After Bosch returned to the US in 1988, the Justice Department condemned him for what he was -- a violent terrorist -- and was about to deport him when George Bush Senior stepped in with son Jeb to save the day.

It seems Orlando is to Cuba what Osama bin Laden is to the US. The plane that Bosch bombed was a Cuban plane and he's wanted in Cuba for a host of other serious crimes. The Cubans have asked Washington to turn him over to them, but the US has refused. With Cuba itself on the US State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism, those Cuba considers terrorists are apparently Uncle Sam's buddies. Indeed, the city of Miami once declared a day in Orlando's honour -- Orlando Bosch Day. Which makes one wonder -- just what would happen to Havana if it declared Osama bin Laden Day a national holiday?

Read more from William Blum in 'Any person or state who gets in the way of the American Empire, beware!' at www.onlineopinion.com.au