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."

The State Department intelligence brief says two Venezuelans who worked for Posada in his private security company in Caracas were detained in Trinidad and Tobago on suspicion of planting the bomb before the plane took off from Barbados.

The 1976 report to then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger cited an informant as saying one of those detained in Trinidad, Hernan Ricardo Lozano, "may have been trained in the use of explosives" by Posada.

An FBI document made public Wednesday reveals an FBI attache in Caracas had multiple contacts with Ricardo and advised him on obtaining a U.S. visa days before the bombing even though the attache harbored suspicions he might have been involved in a previous bombing of Guyana's consulate in Trinidad.

Another FBI document noted Ricardo was arrested in Trinidad along with Freddy Lugo, who also worked for Posada. It said they flew to Trinidad early on the morning of the bombing, checked into a hotel with their luggage, and then left on a flight for Barbados. The report said they returned to Trinidad the same day -- without their luggage.

Lugo and Ricardo later were sentenced in Venezuela to 20 years in prison, while Bosch was eventually acquitted and moved to Miami.

Posada was acquitted in two trials, but prosecutors kept him in prison while they appealed the decision. He escaped in 1985 after paying a bribe -- reportedly $28,600 to prison officers. Some accounts said he was disguised as a priest.

Venezuela's state-run Bolivarian News Agency said Thursday that his escape was successful "thanks to the help" of the CIA.

Associates have said Posada then began working for the Iran-Contra project in El Salvador, helping the White House illegally ship arms to Contra rebels battling Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s.

One previously released FBI document issued after the bombing quotes a confidential informant saying Posada was among a group who discussed the 1976 bombing ahead of time at a bar in the Caracas Hilton.

Posada, who was detained Tuesday in Miami, has denied wrongdoing but has acknowledged entering the United States secretly through Mexico in March. Posada's lawyers say he would not receive a fair trial in Venezuela.

By Christopher Toothaker