5-25-05, 8:53am

Vice President of the Russian Communist Party Ivan Melnikov has severely criticized the current US Administration´s anti-Cuban maneuvers of giving protection to notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Melnikov told Prensa Latina on Tuesday that it was no secret that Washington was applying a double standard policy regarding terrorism. 'We are all perfectly aware that for more than four decades, tens of thousands of violent actions against the Island and its Revolution have been prepared and financed on US territory,' he said.

However, to grant asylum to Posada Carriles after he has been detained and when confronted with the evidence presented by Cuban President Fidel Castro is as criminal as the decision to invade Iraq in March, 2003, added the Communist leader.

In his opinion, it is impossible to say one is fighting terrorism and at the same time give shelter the extremist.

'This double, contradictory stand between what the US President says and what he does is an insult to mankind,' he stressed.