We Make No Distinction...

...between terrorists and those states who harbor them.

Wasn't that what the President said, just 9 days after September 11th?

Then why are we harboring a known, confessed terrorists within our borders, and refusing to give him up to the country wherein he did the crimes?

Oh, because he's ex-CIA:

He is a man that time has left behind, and on Wednesday the Bush administration tried to figure out how to reconcile its war on terrorism with its treatment of a onetime ally accused of terrorist acts.

Castro and the Venezuelan government have said the U.S. will be applying a double standard in fighting terrorism if it does not act to ensure that Posada faces trial in the 1976 bombing of an airliner that killed 73 people.

The Cuban exile, 77, once worked with the CIA during its tooth-and-claw war on leftist radicals in Latin America. Now, instead of being hailed as an anticommunist hero, he is drawing little support even from Florida's Cuban American community.

And his presence in the United States is a problem, not a source of pride, for the Bush administration, which remains hostile to Castro but more concerned about its credibility in the war on terrorism.

An administration official said Wednesday that the United States would probably seek out a country willing to accept Posada but also willing to pledge that it would not deport him to Cuba or Venezuela, which has called on the United States to extradite him for alleged involvement in the airliner bombing. Venezuela has often acted on Cuba's behalf, and U.S. law prohibits extradition to such countries.

I don't know what country that's going to be, since Brazil, El Salvador, Great Britain, and of course Venezuela and Cuba have all called for Posada Carriles' extradition. It's not a good situation to be in when Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez can lecture you about terrorism and double standards. In fact, Chavez is surging in popularity because of this situation:

Mr. Chávez... is emerging as this generation's Castro - a charismatic figure and self-styled revolutionary who bearhugs his counterparts on state visits, inspires populist left-wing movements and draws out fervent well-wishers from Havana to Buenos Aires.

Like Mr. Castro, Mr. Chávez is burnishing his image by mining latent anti-American sentiment and capitalizing on Washington's mistakes, like the tacit support the White House gave to a short-lived coup against him in 2002.

He is now getting mileage out of the case of Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-American exile and anti-Castro warrior accused of bombing a Cuban airliner.

Mr. Chávez has demanded that the United States, which is holding Mr. Posada Carriles, return him to Venezuela, his base of operations at the time of the bombing. Mr. Chávez has repeatedly accused the United States of having a double standard on terrorism, coming down hard on those it perceives as its enemies and pulling its punches with an accused terrorist at war with Washington's longtime nemesis, Mr. Castro.

The strategy is classic Castro, but Mr. Chávez has one great advantage the Cuban leader never had - the richest oil reserves outside the Middle East, a gusher of cash that he is using to weave ever closer diplomatic and commercial ties with Latin American nations.

And by holding Posada Carriles, we do nothing but give Chavez credibility. The US has already tried to overthrow him in a coup attempt once, in 2002. He now enjoys 70% popular support in his country. He's an enemy of the US. And he has a wellspring of oil under his control.

How long before the words "regime change" tumble out of Dick Cheney's mouth?