Test on Terrorism

Peter Kornbluh

On September 11 a midlevel magistrate named Norbert Garney filed legal papers in an El Paso, Texas, court recommending that notorious Cuban-exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles be set free. In response to a petition of habeas corpus filed by Posada's lawyers, Garney's twenty-three-page "Report and Recommendation" (R&R) concluded that the Bush Administration had failed to avail itself of basic legal procedures to keep Posada in jail. Posada "was never certified by the Attorney General as a terrorist or danger to the community" under the Patriot Act, according to the R&R, nor had the Justice Department presented evidence of "special circumstances" that would allow it to hold Posada for security or terrorism concerns. In light of those findings, the magistrate wrote, "the Court recommends that Petitioner's request for habeas relief be granted, and that [Posada] be released."