TODAY, as world attention continues to be focused on United States-driven responses to combat terrorism, Cuba will be marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of a Cubana passenger aircraft off Barbados on October 6, 1976 that killed all on board -- 59 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five North Koreans.

The Barbados built monument to the victims of that horrific tragedy that was unveiled at Payne's Bay, St. James in 1998 by President Fidel Castro, with Prime Minister Owen Arthur at his side, will be the scene of a wreath-laying ceremony.

The weekend programme of memorial activities in Barbados has been organised by the Bridgetown-based Cuban embassy in collaboration with the Guyana Consul in Barbados, Norman Faria, and a Cuban-Barbados Friendship Association.

In Havana a mass rally will take place in Revolution Square, addressed by President Castro who has made an unequivocal denunciation of terrorism following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Next week CARICOM (Caribbean Community) leaders will be discussing anti-terrorist security measures at their special summit in The Bahamas.

An identified mastermind of that Cubana tragedy, Orlando Bosch, a Cuban-American medical doctor, once an active collaborator with the CIA, continues to enjoy his "freedom" in the U.S.

He is happy that successive administrations in Washington have ignored Cuba's requests for his extradition to face trial for his involvement in the bombing tragedy of 25 years ago.

In Haiti, President Jean Bertrand Aristide last week chose the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the 1991 military-backed coup that forced him into exile to repeat his plea for the U.S. to extradite from New York, where he has been living, Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant. He is the former Haitian paramilitary leader of a death squad, and he is wanted for his involvement in the coup and terrorist activities that wasted hundreds of lives.

While it took years before finally handing over documents to Haiti that U.S. military forces had seized during 1994 with their revelations of the crimes of terrorists of paramilitary forces that killed between 3,000 and 5,000 Haitians, the U.S. has to date refused to extradite the notorious Constant, who was also identified as an active collaborator of America's CIA.

President Aristide was enthusiastically applauded when he told the rally: "The

United States wants Osama bin Laden. We want 'Toto' Constant".

It was a sentiment echoing President Castro's own call for the extradition of Orlando Bosch.

On August 8 this year, Cuba had circulated to the United Nations, Caribbean and other governments a summary of "main terrorist actions" against it launched from the U.S.

In the fight against terrorism we all have a stake. But we must be on guard against discriminatory and self-serving responses in exposing and deposing the terrorists of this world.

The U.S. which, under successive administrations, has witnessed acts of assassination and terrorism hatched and executed on its own soil, is now mobilising an international coalition in a declared war against terrorism -- after the infamy of September 11 in New York and Washington.

Truth, as we know, easily becomes a victim of war.

Today, as even journalists of mainstream media in America are emotionally joining in shrill cries for retribution, a lead anchor for CNN was citing the terrorists' strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as the U.S. "first brush" with terrorism.

How conveniently those who know better forget! After all, long before the infamy of September 11, for which bin Laden is supposedly the chief villain, there was the infamy of home-grown terrorist, Timothy McVeigh, in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, among them 19 children.

McVeigh was to callously declare the death of the children as "collateral damage".

It is to be hoped that such chilling callousness is not repeated by a bin Laden, or any other, for the 6,000 plus who died on that unforgettable day on September 11 when commercial aircraft were used as deadly missiles to humiliate the world's superpower.

Let us all say 'no' to terrorism and await judicial trials not just for bin Laden, but also for other wanted terrorists like Bosch and Constant, for a start.