BY OSCAR CORRAL

Cuba group takes out New York Times ad against exile militant Posada

The campaign against Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles reached a pinnacle Friday when the New York Times published a full-page advertisement from a Cuba-based group urging the U.S. government not to harbor him.

The expensive ad inside the A section, framed as an open letter to the families of the victims of 9/11, stresses that there should be no safe harbor for Posada.

''October 6, 1976, was our September 11,'' said the letter, referring to the bombing of a Cubana De Aviación jetliner that killed 73 people. ``Help us keep a terrorist like Luis Posada Carriles, admitted murderer, from gaining protection and impunity in the country where so many people still cry for the victims of the terrorist act that brought down the twin towers on September 11.''

Posada's case has put Washington in the uncomfortable position of being accused of harboring an accused terrorist even as it wages a global war on terrorism.

The letter was attributed to the ''Committee of Families of the Victims of the Cuban Airliner Bombing in Barbados.'' The website mentioned is based in Cuba, where the government strictly controls the content of all media.

But the plea may have come too late.

In September, a U.S. immigration judge decided that Posada won't be deported to Venezuela or Cuba, where he is wanted for alleged terrorist acts, because he would likely be tortured there. United States policy forbids deporting people to a country where they would likely face torture.

One of Posada's lawyers, Matthew Archembeault, said the letter was merely propaganda from the Cuban government and was not based on facts.

''Cuba and Venezuela have a good propaganda machine,'' Archembeault said. ``If you look at the facts surrounding the airliner case, you come to the conclusion quickly that there is really nothing to support that he was involved.''

Archembeault said the U.S. government is trying to find a third country to send Posada, but so far has come up empty. Posada and his lawyers want the government to free him.

Posada, who was detained in South Florida May 17, gained Venezuelan citizenship in the early 1970s when he was a top officer in the Venezuelan state police, DISIP. Venezuela is still asking that he be extradited for trial on charges of masterminding the airliner bombing, but that likely will not happen since a judge has ruled Venezuela would probably torture him.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has threatened to ''reconsider our diplomatic ties'' with the United States if Washington doesn't extradite Posada.

Posada was acquitted by a Venezuelan court of charges in the bombing but escaped from a Venezuelan prison while awaiting the results of a second trial.

Still, the letter blames him.

''Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch Avila, two of the most dangerous terrorists of the western Hemisphere, are responsible for this monstrous act known as the Barbados crime, as well as other crimes,'' the letter said. ``they have shamelessly acknowledged the crimes without remorse.''

Bosch was twice acquitted in Venezuelan courts in the bombing, and Posada has denied that he played any role in the attack.

Cuba also accuses Posada of organizing bomb attacks on hotels and restaurants in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian national.