Venezuelan Prez Lambastes U.S.

Newly released U.S. government documents citing a confidential informant reveal a Cuban exile talked of attacking a Cuban plane weeks before the 1976 bombing of a passenger jet that killed 73 people.

The information came to light as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lambasted U.S. officials for charging Luis Posada Carriles with a measly immigration-related crime Thursday, saying not extraditing him would amount to sheltering a terrorist.

"The hypocrisy of the United States has been shown once more," Chavez said in a televised speech in the eastern city of Cumana. "Either it sends him to Venezuela, or it will stand before the world as protecting an international terrorist."

"The CIA knew those lords of death were going to put the bomb on the Cuban plane," Chavez said.

One U.S. State Department intelligence brief issued after the attack and made public Wednesday says an informant revealed Posada said weeks before the bombing: "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner."

A declassified CIA document, also made public Wednesday, said the agency had a report from an informant in June 1976 that a group headed by Posada's associate Orlando Bosch planned "to place a bomb on a Cubana Airline flight traveling between Panama and Havana."

Other government documents have described Posada, a militant opponent of Fidel Castro, as a longtime CIA agent.

Posada, 77, is accused of masterminding the attack on Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which exploded after takeoff from Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976.

The latest documents shedding light on the case were released by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization based at George Washington University that collects government records.

Venezuela insists Posada a naturalized Venezuelan should be extradited to face charges of murder and treason for the bombing, which was allegedly plotted in Caracas.

U.S. immigration officials, however, charged him Thursday with entering the United States illegally, which could instead lead to his deportation to another country.

"We demand that the United States ... send this terrorist, this international bandit" to Venezuela, Chavez said. "Mr. Posada is a murderer. I'm not a judge... but that is shown, he's a killer, a terrorist."