CUBA: Neo-Cons Newest Target

[lofter1]

US steps up planning for a Cuba without Castro

By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Financial Times
Nov. 1, 2005

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9881666


US planning for Cuba's "transition" after the demise of Fidel Castro has entered a new stage, with a special office for reconstruction inside the US State Department preparing for the "day after", when Washington will try to back a democratic government in Havana.

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.

Caleb McCarry, the Cuba transition co-ordinator, is working on the project within the Office for Reconstruction and Stabilization, which was established by the Bush administration to prevent and prepare for post-conflict situations.

Every six months, the National Intelligence Council revises a secret watchlist of 25 countries in which instability could require US intervention. The reconstruction office, headed by Carlos Pascual - a Cuba-born former ambassador - was focused on Sudan, Haiti, Congo and Nepal. In a controversial move, Cuba was added to the list.

The US Institute of Peace, funded by Congress to work on conflict management, declined to lend its expertise to the Cuba project. "This was an exercise in destabilisation, not stabilisation," said one person involved.

Mr McCarry acknowledges wearing two hats: to help a post-Castro Cuba establish a democratic government and market economy, and to hasten that transition.

Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, appointed Mr McCarry in July. His post was recommended by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which she noted was created by President George W. Bush "to accelerate the demise of Castro's tyranny".

The commission declared in its May 2004 report that it "sought a more proactive, integrated and disciplined approach to undermine the survival strategies of the Castro regime and contribute to conditions that will help the Cuban people hasten the dictatorship's end".

Wholesale engagement is envisaged post-Castro, including immediate assistance so that "schools are kept open and provided with new instructional material and staff", food and medical aid is distributed, and pensions are paid.

Mr McCarry told the FT that last year's tightening of the US economic embargo - such as restrictions on visits to Cuba by Cuban-Americans, and a curbing of remittances - had cost the Castro regime an estimated $500m (€417m, £283m) in lost income.

Human Rights Watch last month condemned the travel restrictions imposed by both Cuba and the US, saying: "Both countries are sacrificing people's freedom of movement to promote dead-end policies." Mr McCarry declined to comment on his work in the Office for Reconstruction and Stabilization, except to say that it would be "thoughtful and respectful of the Cuban people and their wish to be free".

"The transition genie is out of the bottle," he said, referring to opposition activities inside Cuba, and a "broad consensus" reached with the exiled community. "They are the ones to define a democratic future for Cuba."

Officials say the US would not "accept" a handover of power from Mr Castro, who is 79, to his brother Raul, aged 74. While it is not clear what the US position means, Mr McCarry stressed the US would not "impose" its help.

Addressing the Association of the US Army last month, Mr Pascual indicated his co-operation with the military was at an early stage. He said his strategic planning was aimed at understanding "how we would manage that transition process between Fidel's death and a democratic Cuba, because we know that at some point, that is going to happen".

Analysts said the military, worried about a mass exodus of Cuban refugees, was keen to understand the administration's plans for what is called "the day after".

But they also question whether the White House is really committed to the task, noting the limited budgets of both Mr Pascual and Mr McCarry.

Some suspect Mr Bush drew attention to the issue in 2004 with an eye on securing votes in Florida from Cuban exiles. "The US has a history of not being very successful in achieving desired outcomes in Cuba," cautioned Daniel Erikson, analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank.

A US military officer said: "The truth is that nobody, including anyone on the island, knows what will happen during a transition. It's a little like trying to figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin."


Additional reporting by Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas

Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Ninjahedge]

the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise

So that's what they are calling invasions these days....

[redhot00]

to accelerate the demise of Castro's tyranny".


A demise that should've taken place 50 years ago.

[redhot00]

What is it about liberals that they don't mind sitting back and watching dictators oppress their people?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Because when we do intervene, the result is usually the status quo, except that we get blamed for the oppression.

[lofter1]

What is it about liberals that they don't mind sitting back and watching dictators oppress their people?
It's not that I "don't mind"...

But the US, for the most part, does not have a good track record when choosing to intervene (especially when the US goes it alone):

Guatemala
Chile
El Salvador
Viet Nam
Iraq

[ZippyTheChimp]

And Cuba.

The reign of Fulgencio Battista wasn't exactly a walk in the park. He murdered thousands of Cubans.

[BrooklynRider]

What is it about liberals that they don't mind sitting back and watching dictators oppress their people?

What "liberals" would those be? I've checked the profiles of posters in this forum and no one has identified themselves as such, so what are you talking about? Who are you addressing? Was that a rhetorical quesion?

How many people's lives do you believe are worth sacrificing to bring a country "democracy?" The reasoning that we are going to bomb and invade a country that has done NOTHING to the U.S. and NOTHING to threaten the U.S. simply because they won't subscribe to our ideals is repugnant. Is installing democracy at the barrel of a gun any better than installing communism or Islamic rule at the barrel of a gun?

Yet, I see your point. With our unprovoked, pre-emptive war against Iraq, we have done an incredible job saving people from Saddam Hussein and bringing peace and stability to the region. Abu Ghraib was a very effective way for us to do that. We have set a shining example of what they can be if they would just stop listening to their own leaders and let the U.S. determine their destiny. We have been brilliant there. People are still dancing in the street. Or, is that dancing around landmines - I keep forgetting?

But, I'm being silly, we've only been there three years and have seen 2000 Americans killed so far. I really need to hunker down and commit to the long haul - say 15 to 20 years - and give our leaders my unwavering support.

Yippee! We'e doing great so far!

[redhot00]

Points well taken and I am in no way condoning a military strike against nations run by monstrous dictators. What I am saying is that the idea of liberating a people from the dicatorship of someonlike like Hitler, Hussein or Castro is a noble cause.

Has the US gone about this the right way in the past? Of course not. Do I like to see American soldiers killed by the dozens in war? Of course not. Was my cousin one of the 2000? Yes he was. I in no way condone this military action in Iraq. At the same time, Hussein needed to be taken out of power. The atrocities that we saw at Abu Gharib were mild compared to those carried about by Hussein's regime.

And Brooklyn Rider, let's not kid ourselves, although no one here labels themselves as one, if you were a betting man, and if a poll were taken of the regular posters here, wouldn't you bet that there are more liberals than conservatives among us?

[Ninjahedge]

RH, you forget, we were instrumental in support of Saddam and men like him.

We do not have a good seeding and exit plan. All we know how to do effectively is invade, and we do NOT have the money to support Cuba in a time of reconstruction.

That being the case, Cuba would fall victim to whatever dictator wrests control of the government away from a weakened fledgling Democracy. This is usually done by the military.


All of this is BS really. We do not need to concern ourselves with this so much, but it is still a thorn to us that he is there. Many politicians want their cigars you know.

[ryan]

Points well taken and I am in no way condoning a military strike against nations run by monstrous dictators. What I am saying is that the idea of liberating a people from the dicatorship of someonlike like Hitler, Hussein or Castro is a noble cause.

Um, we did not liberate our friends the Germans from Hitler - we obliterated their country because we did not want them to invade the US. To suggest otherwise is revisionism to allow Hilter to fit neatly into your list with Hussein and Castro where he most definitely doesn't belong. Why didn't you mention the US defeat of Japan? Just because Hirohito didn't oppress the Japanese? WWII was fought to save our own country from demonstrated (as opposed to imagined) risk of invasion.

The US has never "liberated" a country from a dictator and left it better than we found it. As others have said, read some 20th century history (Latin American especially) and point out our successes to the group. Cubans I've spoken with don't feel especially oppressed by Castro or communism, though they do feel oppressed by the generations-old economic blockade.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Points well taken and I am in no way condoning a military strike against nations run by monstrous dictators. What I am saying is that the idea of liberating a people from the dicatorship of someonlike like Hitler, Hussein or Castro is a noble cause.It would benefit the human race if all of these despots and their circle of officials were summarily executed, but wars of liberation seldom work, unless there is perceived to be a threat to global stability.

As onerous as they were, the policies of Hitler would have been tolerated if they were confined to the German state. The U.S. government realized that eventually, it would have to engage in a global struggle with Germany. The long range B29 bomber was not developed for its eventual use against Japan, but as a weapon to attack Germany from across the Atlantic.

The behavior of German civilians toward Allied troops during the last months of WWII typifies the resentment of people toward foreign troops, no matter how bleak their situation is.

Although I don't completely agree, a good case can be made that the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and confrontations in Cuba and elsewhere, were tactical battles in winning the Cold War, which was a global threat. I think a more significant component was the economic power of the West, which fought the Cold War with one hand behind its back, while the Soviet bloc put all their resources into it.

In any case, the Cuban missile crisis brought two military machines to the precipice, and neither liked what it saw. But that is in the past, and the rationale for the current policies toward Cuba is no longer relevant.

[Fabrizio]

Redhot: Why Cuba? What about the hopeless dirt poor in other countries of the Caribbean and So. America? Do you honestly think those poor have freedom and rights? Why no problem with their rulers?

These folks can only wish to be as well off as the Cubans:

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/07/brazil.favela.anniversary/

[TLOZ Link5]

Redhot: Why Cuba? What about the hopeless dirt poor in other countries of the Caribbean and So. America? Do you honestly think those poor have freedom and rights? Why no problem with their rulers?

These folks can only wish to be as well off as the Cubans:

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/07/brazil.favela.anniversary/

Eight years later and still no sign of improvement. In fact, things are probably worse now.

http://www.worldtravelwatch.com/archives/cat-brazil.shtml

Has anyone seen the documentary "News From a Personal War"? It's a bonus feature for the City of God DVD. Very enlightening.

[redhot00]

The thread was pretaining to Cuba and that is why I singled out Castro for these posts. Of course there are other leaders in So. America and Africa that are oppresive. Is there a problem with the leaders of America? Of course. I feel the same way about Bush as you probably feel about Berlusconi. But a dictatorship it's not. Our people are opressed in some ways, but our society and Italy's are a much freer society than Cuba's. We need to clean up corruption and Italy has a problem with the Camorra and other factions of organized crime, but the opression is not even in the same leauge as Castro's Cuba and Hussein's Iraq.

To Ryan and Zippy, sure the US had other motives for entering WWII. One of which was fear of a strike on American soil by the Germans. But what ended up happening was restored freedom to the people that Hitler had under his grasp. Hitler in many ways falls under the same category as Hussein and Castro, his oppression spread farther than just the boundaries of Germany, his was felt all through Europe. And Zippy, I see your point about peoples atitudes towards foreign troops, but there was plenty of joy among the citizens of France, Italy and England when American tanks rolled through their streets after their liberation.

My family in Italy even today, the older members anyway, have mixed feelings about American troops in their country. My uncle recalls running through the hills of Cassino as a child looking for spent shells that were fired from American warplanes. He remembers the fear he felt hearing bombs going off in the night. But he also knows what the alternative would've been like had the Germans been allowed to remain in Italy.

[BrooklynRider]

And Brooklyn Rider, let's not kid ourselves, although no one here labels themselves as one, if you were a betting man, and if a poll were taken of the regular posters here, wouldn't you bet that there are more liberals than conservatives among us?

I am very sorry for your loss in this senseless war and honor your cousin as a good soldier who followed orders. This, however, is no noble cause. I do not believe that anyone died in vain, because the deaths of our soldiers might, perhaps, make us more resolute in getting and reviewing the facts the next time this type of situation is presented.

If I were a betting man, I would say say that the people here are neither liberal nor conservative. I view the majority of posters here, even those whom I argue most strenuously with, as "reasonable" people. What you see here is not "liberalism" it is "realism." We (and I will dare to speak for most) understand that the world we live on is based on interdependence and individual responsibility. Part of that responsibility is a responsibility to protect the weakest amongst us, stand up for the rights of others as if they were our own, and to learn from the past and progress as opposed to clinging to some past ideal that never existed.

When you live in a large city, you recognize the responsibility that government must have, the role of citizens in filling the gaps and the need of the "haves" to sacrifice for the good of the "have nots" who live in our midst.

Just the knowledge that this administration is looking at a "post Castro Cuba" plan as if this was still 1961 and we were in the throes of a cold war is laughable and mortifying at the same time. The don't even have a "post-Katrina/Rita" plan for Americans and they are planning on "fixing" Cuba? Cuna has universal healthcare and a healthcare system that, despite our propganda, is recognized as amongst the best in the world - and accessible by all citizens.

The anti-cuban forces in this country were the rich capitalists and elite who were making lots of money on the backs of the poor Cubans. There are many people who travel to Cuba today - even Americans - who will tell you they LOVE IT! It is one of the most desirable vacation destinations in the world.

Our fixation on controlling other nations - especially at the cost of serving our own citizens - is a problem. And, it has nothing to do with how one votes or how one thinks.

[Fabrizio]

Redhot: Can we get over WWII? It was a very, very different situation. It cannot be sited for making an argument for invading Iraq or even thinking about touching Cuba.

[ryan]

sure the US had other motives for entering WWII. One of which was fear of a strike on American soil by the Germans.

Are you trying to equate the US entering of WWII with Iraq? If you are, just say it rather than hinting. It's an underwhelming overstatement if you that is what you're trying to say.

[Ninjahedge]

Rh is lumping his enemies together.

It is a common political tool.

RH, please try to seperate out individual instances or actions of a particular leader or group as means of comparison. the guys you mentioned have as much in common as Bush to Hu Jintao or Blair to Chavez.

Cuba is in a totally different category for so many reasons. While I do not agree with how he has run his country, I cannot compare him to Hussain, or either to Hitler.

[redhot00]

I am very sorry for your loss in this senseless war and honor your cousin as a good soldier who followed orders. This, however, is no noble cause. I do not believe that anyone died in vain, because the deaths of our soldiers might, perhaps, make us more resolute in getting and reviewing the facts the next time this type of situation is presented.

Thank you Brooklyn. My cousin lived his whole short life wanting nothing more than to be a Marine. It's all he ever wanted since he was a small child. And he was a great one. He was a standout high school football player, and the irony was, he would probably be playing football for some big name school right now had his desire to be a marine not surpassed his desire for anything else in the world. I hope you are right, that he and the others didn't die in vain, and I thank you for your kind words and well thought out post.

It's so true that living in the big city opens your eyes and mind. Many people who have more conservative views don't see what we see every day, the prejiudices, the oppression and the lack of justice that always occurs when many people of different backgrounds are put in the same relatively small area to work live and play together.

As far as Cuba goes as a vacation destination, I'd love to go there, and I can with my Italian passport, just haven't had the oppurtunity yet. I can't speak about the healthcare system or other topics of society, but my guess would still be that without Castro they'd be better off.

[Fabrizio]

"....but my guess would still be that without Castro they'd be better off."

Perhaps, but then again...perhaps not. Look at other Latin countries. At least the Cubans receive schooling... are literate and are healthy. They´ll certainy have a better chance.... interestingly enough, due to Castro.

[JMGarcia]

^I suppose it depends on what an individual puts value on in their lives as to whether they themselves consider themselves to be better off.

[TLOZ Link5]

Q: Daddy, why did we have to attack Iraq?

A: Because they had weapons of mass destruction.

Q: But the inspectors didn't find any weapons of mass destruction.

A: That's because the Iraqis were hiding them.

Q: And that's why we invaded Iraq?

A: Yep. Invasions always work better than inspections.

Q: But after we invaded them, we STILL didn't find any weapons of mass destruction, did we?

A: That's because the weapons are so well hidden. Don't worry, we'll find something, probably right before the 2004 election.

Q: Why did Iraq want all those weapons of mass destruction?

A: To use them in a war, silly.

Q: I'm confused. If they had all those weapons that they planned to use in a war, then why didn't they use any of those weapons when we went to war with them?

A: Well, obviously they didn't want anyone to know they had those weapons, so they chose to die by the thousands rather than defend themselves.

Q: That doesn't make sense. Why would they choose to die if they had all those big weapons with which they could have fought back?

A: It's a different culture. It's not supposed to make sense.

Q: I don't know about you, but I don't think they had any of those weapons our government said they did.

A: Well, you know, it doesn't matter whether or not they had those weapons. We had another good reason to invade them anyway.

Q: And what was that?

A: Even if Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, which is another good reason to invade another country.

Q: Why? What does a cruel dictator do that makes it OK to invade his country?

A: Well, for one thing, he tortured his own people.

Q: Kind of like what they do in China?

A: Don't go comparing China to Iraq. China is a good economic competitor, where millions of people work for slave wages in sweatshops to make U.S. corporations richer.

Q: So if a country lets its people be exploited for American corporate gain, it's a good country, even if that country tortures people?

A: Right.

Q: Why were people in Iraq being tortured?

A: For political crimes, mostly, like criticizing the government. People who criticized the government in Iraq were sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Isn't that exactly what happens in China?

A: I told you, China is different.

Q: What's the difference between China and Iraq?

A: Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled by the Ba'ath party, while China is Communist.

Q: Didn't you once tell me Communists were bad?

A: No, just Cuban Communists are bad.

Q: How are the Cuban Communists bad?

A: Well, for one thing, people who criticize the government in Cuba are sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Like in Iraq?

A: Exactly.

Q: And like in China, too?

A: I told you, China's a good economic competitor. Cuba, on the other hand, is not.

Q: How come Cuba isn't a good economic competitor?

A: Well, you see, back in the early 1960s, our government passed some laws that made it illegal for Americans to trade or do any business with Cuba until they stopped being Communists and started being capitalists like us.

Q: But if we got rid of those laws, opened up trade with Cuba, and started doing business with them, wouldn't that help the Cubans become capitalists?

A: Don't be a smart-ass.

Q: I didn't think I was being one.

A: Well, anyway, they also don't have freedom of religion in Cuba.

Q: Kind of like China and the Falun Gong movement?

A: I told you, stop saying bad things about China. Anyway, Saddam Hussein came to power through a military coup, so he's not really a legitimate leader anyway.

Q: What's a military coup?

A: That's when a military general takes over the government of a country by force, instead of holding free elections like we do in the United States.

Q: Didn't the ruler of Pakistan come to power by a military coup?

A: You mean General Pervez Musharraf? Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan is our friend.

Q: Why is Pakistan our friend if their leader is illegitimate?

A: I never said Pervez Musharraf was illegitimate.

Q: Didn't you just say a military general who comes to power by forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of a nation is an illegitimate leader?

A: Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez Musharraf is our friend, because he helped us invade Afghanistan.

Q: Why did we invade Afghanistan?

A: Because of what they did to us on September 11th.

Q: What did Afghanistan do to us on September 11th?

A: Well, on September 11th, nineteen men - fifteen of them Saudi Arabians - hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into buildings in New York and Washington, killing 3,000 innocent people.

Q: So how did Afghanistan figure into all that?

A: Afghanistan was where those bad men trained, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

Q: Aren't the Taliban those bad radical Islamics who chopped off people's heads and hands?

A: Yes, that's exactly who they were. Not only did they chop off people's heads and hands, but they oppressed women, too.

Q: Didn't the Bush administration give the Taliban 43 million dollars back in May of 2001?

A: Yes, but that money was a reward because they did such a good job fighting drugs.

Q: Fighting drugs?

A: Yes, the Taliban were very helpful in stopping people from growing opium poppies.

Q: How did they do such a good job?

A: Simple. If people were caught growing opium poppies, the Taliban would have their hands and heads cut off.

Q: So, when the Taliban cut off people's heads and hands for growing flowers, that was OK, but not if they cut people's heads and hands off for other reasons?

A: Yes. It's OK with us if radical Islamic fundamentalists cut off people's hands for growing flowers, but it's cruel if they cut off people's hands for stealing bread.

Q: Don't they also cut off people's hands and heads in Saudi Arabia?

A: That's different. Afghanistan was ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy that oppressed women and forced them to wear burqas whenever they were in public, with death by stoning as the penalty for women who did not comply.

Q: Don't Saudi women have to wear abayas in public, too?

A: No, Saudi women merely wear a traditional Islamic body covering.

Q: What's the difference?

A: The traditional Islamic covering worn by Saudi women is a modest yet fashionable garment that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers. The burqa, on the other hand, is an evil tool of patriarchal oppression that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers.

Q: It sounds like the same thing with a different name.

A: Now, don't go comparing Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are our friends.

Q: But I thought you said 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia.

A: Yes, but they trained in Afghanistan.

Q: Who trained them?

A: A very bad man named Osama bin Laden.

Q: Was he from Afghanistan?

A: Uh, no, he was from Saudi Arabia too. But he was a bad man, a very bad man.

Q: I seem to recall he was our friend once.

A: Only when we helped him and the mujahadeen repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Q: Who are the Soviets? Was that the Evil Communist Empire Ronald Reagan talked about?

A: There are no more Soviets. The Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or thereabouts, and now they have elections and capitalism like us. We call them Russians now.

Q: So the Soviets - I mean, the Russians - are now our friends?

A: Well, not really. You see, they were our friends for many years after they stopped being Soviets, but then they decided not to support our invasion of Iraq, so we're mad at them now. We're also mad at the French and the Germans because they didn't help us invade Iraq either.

Q: So the French and Germans are evil, too?

A: Not exactly evil, but just bad enough that we had to rename French fries and French toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

Q: Do we always rename foods whenever another country doesn't do what we want them to do?

A: No, we just do that to our friends. Our enemies, we invade.

Q: But wasn't Iraq one of our friends back in the 1980s?

A: Well, yeah. For a while.

Q: Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq back then?

A: Yes, but at the time he was fighting against Iran, which made him our friend, temporarily.

Q: Why did that make him our friend?

A: Because at that time, Iran was our enemy.

Q: Isn't that when he gassed the Kurds?

A: Yeah, but since he was fighting against Iran at the time, we looked the other way, to show him we were his friend.

Q: So anyone who fights against one of our enemies automatically becomes our friend?

A: Most of the time, yes.

Q: And anyone who fights against one of our friends is automatically an enemy?

A: Sometimes that's true, too. However, if American corporations can profit by selling weapons to both sides at the same time, all the better.

Q: Why?

A: Because war is good for the economy, which means war is good for America. Also, since God is on America's side, anyone who opposes war is a godless unAmerican Communist. Do you understand now why we attacked Iraq?

Q: I think so. We attacked them because God wanted us to, right?

A: Yes.

Q: But how did we know God wanted us to attack Iraq?

A: Well, you see, God personally speaks to George W. Bush and tells him what to do.

Q: So basically, what you're saying is that we attacked Iraq because George W. Bush hears voices in his head?

A: Yes! You finally understand how the world works. Now close your eyes, make yourself comfortable, and go to sleep. Good night.

Q: Good night, Daddy.

[BrooklynRider]

The problem with an embargo, such as we have, is that it not only cuts the Cubans off from Americans, but also cuts Americans off from Cubans. A much more powerful argument for change would come if we were permitted to visit and came back with stories of people unhappy, starving and uneducated.

If we really wanted to prove our might, we would lift the embargo and let people go and see for themselves to make up their minds. The earlier arguments about other similar dictatorships are apropos. Where were we in Rwanda? Where are we in the Congo? Where are we in Sudan? What about China and its human rights abuses?

The reality is that the people in Cuba aren't hurting very badly when compared to other societies. Cubans are actually doing quite well by Western standards. And, I'll add, that we have to be very careful about saying it is "communism vs. democracy". It is communism vs. capitalism and capitalism has failed a huge part of our nation miserably as we saw in New Orleans.

I think the United States has the greatest ideals in the world, which drove its creation. The ideals of this country are still the ones that inspire other individuals and nations. But, we live up to those ideals with different levels of success with each different administration and Congress. My own personal feeling is that we are venturing 180 degrees in the opposite direction and that diminishes, if it hasn't already completely obliterated, our previous moral high ground in arguing our case before the world.

[lofter1]

TLOZ Link 5: Excellent :D

I have no kids to whom I have explain this crazy world (no worry, as there seem to be plenty of others re-populating the planet) ...

Anyway, I can't explain it :confused: and wouldn't want to leave them this mess.

[Ninjahedge]

There is an easy explanation for every single thing that is on that list.

It makes the decision makers, and their associates money and/or power.

The reason we do not attack china for the smae discrepencies than other countries? Money. the reason we attacked Iraq instead of other countries? Money (oil control and possible political backlash from a former US affiliated operative).

Reasons given are thr reasons that people will accept most readily, whether the real reasons are acceptable to them or not.

Noone wants to hear the reason why women were generally not accepted as firemen until they are in a fire and the woman can't carry them down a ladder or hold a gushing firehose.

Some truths, good or bad, are not accepted over what the listener wants to hear.

[lofter1]

U.S. Nixes Cuba for Baseball Classic

Treasury Department Denies Permit to Cuban Federation for World Baseball Classic

By RONALD BLUM
The Associated Press

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/print?id=1407168


NEW YORK - Cuba won't be allowed to send a team to next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, the U.S. government told event organizers Wednesday.

The decision by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was conveyed to Major League Baseball on Wednesday, according to Pat Courtney, a spokesman for the commissioner's office.

A permit from OFAC is necessary because of U.S. laws governing certain commercial transactions with Fidel Castro's communist island nation.

Paul Archey, the senior vice president of Major League Baseball International, and Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association, issued a joint statement saying the organizers would try to have the decision reversed. The commissioner's office and the union have jointly organized the 16-team tournament, which runs from March 3-20 in the United States, Puerto Rico and Japan.

"We are very disappointed with the government's decision to deny the participation of a team from Cuba in the World Baseball Classic," Archey and Orza said. "We will continue to work within appropriate channels in an attempt to address the government's concerns and will not announce a replacement unless and until that effort fails."

Organizers had said the Cuban team likely would have included only players currently residing in Cuba and not defectors such as Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez and Livan Hernandez, who have become major league stars.

In the tournament schedule announced last week, Cuba was to play its three first-round games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, facing Panama on March 7, the Netherlands on March 9 and Puerto Rico the following day. If the Cubans advanced, they would also have played their second-round games in Puerto Rico.

"It is our policy that we do not confirm, deny or discuss licenses," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
"Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest."

At last week's news conference in Dallas announcing tournament plans, Orza sounded nearly certain about OFAC granting a permit.

"I do not think that is a serious impediment," Orza said, adding he was "very, very confident that the Cubans will play."


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

[Ninjahedge]

Why are we still hardlining Cuba?

Is there any point at this point?

[lofter1]

^ Cuban exile voting bloc in Florida is the sole reason.

[Ninjahedge]

Screw that.

I think we should still issue warnings against Castro and the like.

But the embargo has just made it harder to influence the country. Sealing a border is not the best way to foster change!

It would also be a hell of a lot easier for people to make it over here if there was less of a blockade.....

[lofter1]

The USA is the only country embargo-ing Cuba. Italy, Germany, Canada and any number of other countries do business there and give their citizens access ot Cuba.

The US attitude is archaic and hypocritical -- especially given the relationships that the US has formed with China et al.

[ZippyTheChimp]

December 18, 2005

Tensions Rise as More Flee Cuba for U.S.

BY ABBY GOODNOUGH

MIAMI, Dec. 17 - The number of Cubans intercepted at sea while trying to reach the United States is at its highest level since tens of thousands took to the Florida Straits on makeshift rafts and in small boats in the 1994 exodus sanctioned by President Fidel Castro.

The sharp rise - and an increase in clashes between would-be immigrants and the Coast Guard - are inflaming tensions over a policy enacted in response to the 1994 migration that allows Cubans without visas to stay if they reach American soil but turns back those caught at sea.

The "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which does not apply to any other immigrant group, is being blamed by critics for at least 39 deaths this year in the Florida Straits and is testing the resolve of the Coast Guard, which the critics say has become too aggressive in enforcing the restrictions.

In offering a permanent escape to Cubans who make it here, they say, the policy encourages them to risk their lives.

Coast Guard data show that as of Friday, 2,683 Cubans had been intercepted at sea this year, nearly double the number for all of 2004. And while the high season for migrant crossings, when the sailing tends to be smoothest, is already past, scores have kept trying the journey despite the perils.

Some of the migrants, hoping to avoid confrontations with Coast Guard patrols, are taking unusual routes, to the United States Virgin Islands and the Gulf Coast of Florida. A fast-growing number - including 6,744 counted by Customs and Border Patrol in the fiscal year that ended in September - are entering the United States by slipping across the Mexican border, often after sailing some 500 miles to Honduras from Cuba.

The State Department says the new wave of migrants is a result of increasingly repressive policies in Cuba, the island's crumbling economy and Mr. Castro's refusal to let more Cubans sign up for a lottery under which the United States is supposed to grant 20,000 visas a year.

But some Cuban-Americans in South Florida say that new limits on their visits and on the money they can send to relatives on the island, imposed by the Bush administration last year, have led to greater desperation among many Cubans.

Ever more aggressive smuggling has also played a role. Far more Cubans are making it to American shores, including, for example, 14 migrants discovered near a parking lot on Marco Island, Fla., a few days after Thanksgiving. About 2,530 completed the journey to South Florida in the last fiscal year, compared with 954 the year before, according to the Border Patrol.

"The message to Cuban families is that if you don't want to wait in line, your relatives in Miami can pay $8,000 and you've got a good chance to make it here," said Philip Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research group in Washington. "It really is a glaring exception in the whole homeland security policy."

One incident this fall perhaps best encapsulated the growing resolve of Cubans to slip into this country and of the federal government to keep them out.

Florida television audiences watched as government agents struggled to keep 10 migrants in a homemade metal vessel from reaching the beach just north of Miami after a Customs and Border Protection boat bumped it hard enough to spill some of the migrants overboard. Coast Guard boats had also sprayed the vessel with a hose and tried stalling its engine with a rope during a prolonged showdown with the migrants, all men.

"We are needlessly putting innocent lives at risk," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which helps Cuban and other migrants pursue asylum claims. "Our Coast Guard is being put in the untenable position of endangering lives in order to keep people from reaching our shores."

Luis Diaz, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Miami, said that the agency's tactics had not become more aggressive but that unlike in the past, it was working closely with agencies like Customs and Border Protection since becoming part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.

"We are working better and smarter with our partners," Mr. Diaz said. "Before we were in Homeland Security we had different radios, different frequencies, and now we are working together behind the same equipment."

The number of Cubans being intercepted is by far the highest since 1994, when 37,000 took to the Florida Straits after Mr. Castro announced that his government would no longer stop boats or rafts leaving the island. It was a hostile move against the United States and a way for Mr. Castro to divert attention from his domestic problems and quell an uprising against him on the island, similar to when he let 125,000 Cubans leave in the Mariel boatlift of 1980.

The 1994 exodus led the United States and Cuba to agree on the wet foot, dry foot policy in 1995, ending this country's longtime practice of admitting all Cuban migrants as refugees.

Many of the Cuban migrants are paying thousands of dollars, often provided by relatives here, to smugglers who whisk them across the Florida Straits on speedboats, several of which capsized this year. In one such case, a 6-year-old boy drowned after the boat he was riding in fled a Coast Guard cutter in October. In another, an Antiguan merchant ship rescued three migrants who said that 31 others had drowned when their 28-foot boat overturned in August.

Others are still trying the dangerous trip on rafts or vessels of their own making, some of which are spotted by fishing boats and cruise ships that report them to the Coast Guard. Those intercepted at sea can get preliminary asylum interviews aboard Coast Guard cutters, but only a few are deemed eligible for second interviews. They get sent to the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

If found to have a credible fear of persecution, they still cannot come to the United States and instead are resettled in other countries like Spain and Australia.

Only about 2.5 percent of Cubans intercepted at sea in the last fiscal year were taken to Guantánamo and considered for asylum, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Even of those, most were eventually returned to Cuba.

Even as the number of Cuban migrants balloons and President Bush proposes new laws to curb illegal immigration, there is no plan to re-examine the wet foot, dry foot policy, said Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman. She said Mr. Castro's policies were behind the increase in migration efforts.

"Castro's repression of his own people and refusal to allow the basic freedoms enjoyed by people everywhere have led to a mass migration by the Cuban people," Ms. Hironimus said.

But some Cuban-Americans in South Florida say Mr. Bush's refusal to make exceptions to the current policy is evidence that he is deserting the anti-Castro cause.

They were particularly angered by a case last month in which Jorge Ernesto Leyva, who had recently emigrated from Cuba, drove a rented speedboat to Havana from Key West, packed the 27-foot boat with 37 relatives and tried to return here clandestinely. But the sea turned violent and as the passengers were bailing water, a Coast Guard helicopter spotted the boat and directed a cutter to intercept it.

The Coast Guard crew had transferred only about half of the migrants to its cutter when the speedboat capsized, trapping two grandmothers and a 9-year-old girl underneath. The girl's mother dived under the boat to rescue the girl, but nobody saved the two women - even though Mr. Leyva and others on his boat said they begged the Coast Guard crew to do so.

Mr. Diaz, the Coast Guard spokesman, said rescue diving was not part of the Coast Guard's standard procedures.

"People ask us, 'Go underneath the hull,' " he said. "Well, we don't carry divers. If our personnel jumped in the water, then no one is going to be manning the ship. We have just enough persons to run a vessel. We don't have extra bodies to do things some of these relatives want us to do."

Mr. Leyva and a teenager on the boat were brought to Florida because they had been admitted previously. The others asked permission to attend the funerals of the drowned women, who were 74 and 60. But the Department of Homeland Security denied their request and returned them to Cuba.

"We are concerned about the policy and the effect it has on the way the Coast Guard does its business," said Matthew Archambeault, a lawyer for Mr. Leyva and his family. "We do feel they sacrifice safety to keep people away from dry land."

Terry Aguayo contributed reporting from Miami for this article.

* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Marksix]

I have lots of friends who have visited Cuba and without exception(well, maybe Cubana - lol), say just what a brilliant country and people they found. Our national health service studies some of their services to learn from them and the cigars are the best!

From over here (England) America's stance on Cuba seems bizzare; whatever could a superpower like America have to fear from a little country like Cuba? It just looks like bullying to us.

Apropos nothing in particular, except perhaps to show just what a complicated world in which we live; does anybody know the last time (we) British fought against America? It was in 1945/46 in Indochina, now Viet Nam. As Michael Cane would say – “Not a lot of people know that”.

A can of Coca Cola to the person who can name the side America backed with arms and materiel. (Clue: He was once a waiter who worked in Paris)...

[TLOZ Link5]

Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh communists. Much like how we used to be allied with Saddam Hussein, we armed him during his fight against the French.

Vietnam is another interesting case in point. Even today, in the U.S. there's still an anti-Vietnamese sentiment espoused by people who cast Vietnam as our enemy, when in reality Americans (even veterans!) are vacationing there in record numbers and are warmly welcomed.

No Coke, thanks; I'll take a bottle of the real American champagne: Dom Perignon :D

[Marksix]

No Coke, thanks; I'll take a bottle of the real American champagne: Dom Perignon :D


...now I KNOW you are trying to cause trouble - if any French people are reading this you will start a war. See how these things start?!?! lol

[ZippyTheChimp]

there's still an anti-Vietnamese sentiment espoused by people who cast Vietnam as our enemy, when in reality Americans (even veterans!) are vacationing there in record numbers and are warmly welcomedAlthough the path was different, the Vietnam of today is the best result we would have wanted in the 1960s. The present government is no comparison to those of the US backed Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu.

I plan on going back; just not ready yet.

The embargo on Cuba has been a joke for twenty years.

[ZippyTheChimp]

January 21, 2006

Cuba Makes Cut for the Classic

By JACK CURRY

The field for the World Baseball Classic is finally complete after Cuba was granted a license to participate in the 16-team tournament when President Bush intervened and ordered his staff to settle the issue.

The tournament organizer's second attempt to get a license for Cuba from the Treasury Department was successful and eliminated a thorny complication, if not a fatal jolt, to the event. If Cuba had been denied again, the inaugural classic could have been jeopardized because the International Baseball Federation had threatened to withdraw its sanction if Cuba was left out.

Instead, after Major League Baseball and the players union helped revise the application to guarantee that Cuba would not make American money by playing, the Treasury Department approved the license yesterday. If Cuba made money from the tournament, which runs March 3-20, that would have violated the United States' trade embargo against the country.

Administration officials said the reversal of the position came after the president became directly involved. As a former partner in the Texas Rangers, he knew, they said, that there were ways to organize the high-profile games without aiding the government of Fidel Castro.

"The president wanted to see the matter resolved in a positive way," said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Our concerns were making sure that no money was going to the Castro regime, and that the World Baseball Classic would not be used by the regime for espionage. We believe those concerns have been addressed."

Aside from Cuba, the other 15 teams will make at least 1 percent of the net profits from the event, with those percentages escalating as teams advance. The champion will reap a 10 percent profit. But Cuba, a traditional international power and the gold medal winner in the 2004 Olympics, will get nothing.

While the Cubans said they would donate proceeds to Hurricane Katrina victims, it will not actually happen that way because that would mean they still would have received American money before transferring it. Instead, the World Baseball Classic will handle the money Cuba would have earned and will make the donation to make sure no money flows through Cuba.

In addition to the concerns about revenue, Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the State Department, explained that the Treasury Department also had questions about the delegation that would travel with the baseball team and "any potential for those individuals to engage in activities not related to the baseball classic, shall we say."

When the Cubans travel to international baseball games, they typically have more security guards than players and say they need the additional manpower to prevent defections. It was unclear how many visas Cuba will receive for personnel who are not players or coaches, but McCormack said any concerns about Cuba's delegation were addressed in the second application.

Before Cuba's participation in the tournament was assured, there were passionate expressions both for and against allowing the country to participate. Now that Cuba's appearance is definite, that dialogue continued percolating, especially among lawmakers.

In Miami, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American who lobbied the Bush administration to bar the Cuban team, called the decision to let it participate "lamentable and unfortunate."

Diaz-Balart, who last month proposed that a team of athletes who defected from Cuba play instead, said that it would be difficult for Cuban team members to defect during the event because their government would monitor them closely. "It will be tough for the players," said Diaz-Balart, a Republican. "But nevertheless I am inviting them to seek freedom."

Other Cuban-Americans in Miami were more supportive of the reversal, saying that fighting with Castro over baseball was a waste of time.

"This was certainly not a worthwhile battle," said Joe Garcia, a political strategist for Democrats and the former executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. "What do you gain - that a few ballplayers can't play ball? This was a silly resistance and just not worth it."

Ramon Saul Sanchez, a Cuban-American leader who recently ended an 11-day hunger strike after the White House promised to meet with Cuban-Americans to address concerns about immigration policy, said he, too, was happy about the reversal.

"We can't play the same game Castro plays," Sanchez said. "I would like to see Castro give visas to exiled athletes who want to play in Cuba. That doesn't happen because he puts up barriers. But we shouldn't be putting up those same barriers. Sports should be free."

For his part, Diaz-Balart said, "It was a small price to pay to remind the world of the oppression of the Cuban people for 47 years."

Diaz-Balart said he had talked to the Bush administration about the second attempt to get a license for the Cuban team. He would not say whether he had discussed it with Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, the president's brother.

Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, said he had been talking with the Treasury Department for at least the past six weeks about the tournament, but was not consulted on the final decision. "It was too bad to cave to Major League Baseball's wishes when it really wasn't the right thing to do," Martinez said. "We would not have thought of playing with an apartheid South African team."

Even though Cuba will not earn any proceeds, Diaz-Balart said the players would receive per diems and warned that baseball officials should be careful that money does not reach the Cuban government. Diaz-Balart also said it was "sad" that the players union supported the effort to get Cuba a license.

Commissioner Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, the executive director of the players association, issued statements in which they thanked government officials for their cooperation and assistance in securing the license.

"Now, with Cuba's entry in the tournament approved, the World Baseball Classic promises to be an historic event and will guarantee our fans the greatest possible competition among the best players in the world," Selig said.

Paul Archey, baseball's senior vice president for international business operations, and Doyle Pryor, a union lawyer, met with several Cuban officials last week to discuss the potential size of their traveling party and other subjects that had been raised by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a branch of the Treasury Department. After they delivered the answers to the office and detected a positive response, the officials grew more optimistic that Cuba would eventually get a license.

Cuba will play in Pool C in the four-pool tournament, along with Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands, and is scheduled to face Panama in its first game, in San Juan, P.R., on March 8. The deadline for provisional 60-man rosters was Tuesday, so the Cubans will be asked to present theirs soon.

Reporting for this article was contributed by David E. Sanger, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and John H. Cushman Jr. from Washington and Abby Goodnough and Terry Aguayo from Miami.

* Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

[TLOZ Link5]

...now I KNOW you are trying to cause trouble - if any French people are reading this you will start a war. See how these things start?!?! lol

Epps. That was my ugly American moment of 2005. I'm entitled to one a year :D

Though there are indeed wineries in California that produce Dom Perignon. And far be it from me to make any mention of outcome of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.

[lofter1]

Cuba vows communist succession post-Castro

YAHOO / AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060716/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_after_castro_1)
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
July 16, 22006

What will Cuba be like when Fidel Castro is gone? Washington and Cuba have — no surprise — startlingly different versions of a post-Castro Cuba, and many dissidents on the island complain they will be caught in the middle.

In Washington's scenario, presented this week by a presidential commission, a democratic Cuba will endorse multiparty elections and free markets and become a new ally to be rebuilt with American assistance after nearly five decades of communism.

But Castro, who apparently enjoys good health and turns 80 on Aug. 13, has been fortifying the ruling Communist Party to ensure the status quo long after his death. He plans to hand over power to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the first vice president of Cuba's Council of State.

The key aim of the 93-page report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is to halt that succession, using diplomacy to enlist Cuban citizens and other countries to demand a new government after Fidel dies.

It recommends that the United States spend $80 million over two years to encourage that change, saying Cubans could appeal to the United States for food, water and other aid. It envisions U.S. technicians rebuilding schools, highways, bridges, financial specialists designing a new tax system and the United States helping Cuba join the International Monetary Fund.

"The greatest guarantor of genuine stability in Cuba is the rapid restoration of sovereignty to the Cuban people through free and fair, multiparty elections," says the report that was released July 10.

Other experts say the commission is being unrealistic.

"We need a reality check here," said Wayne Smith, America's top diplomat to Havana from 1979 to 1982. "Anyone who knows Cuba knows the Cuban people aren't going to rise up against a successor regime."

Dissidents in Cuba say they appreciate the gesture, but fear it will backfire and lead to more arrests. In 2003, 75 dissidents were arrested and accused of being "mercenaries" receiving U.S. aid — a charge the activists denied.
Opposition member Manuel Cuesta Morua called the U.S. offer a "poisonous embrace."

"Those are 80 million arguments for the Cuban government to make it seem all Cuban dissidents are financed by the United States," he said.

The dissident community has not fully recovered from the 2003 arrests, and no Cuban opposition leader has emerged with widespread support.

Cuba also lacks the powerful nongovernment institutions that existed in communist-era Poland, where the Solidarity movement, organized around a strong Roman Catholic church and labor unions, managed to topple the Communist leadership.

The U.S. report has been well-received in Miami, where U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (news, bio, voting record), a Cuban-born Republican, said it shows "the strong commitment of President Bush to help the Cuban people free themselves from the shackles of their brutal oppressor."

But Smith calls the U.S. report "pure pie-in-the-sky."

"The reality will end up being somewhere between those two visions, and probably closer to the Cuban succession plan — with the addition of popular pressure for economic reforms," said Smith, who heads the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy, a foreign policy institute in Washington.

Long a taboo topic, Cuba's planned succession has been discussed more openly in recent months with Raul Castro, the longtime defense minister, appearing frequently in state media to insist the party will continue its dominant role.

If Raul Castro does succeed his brother, the United States will likely be sidelined while other countries interact with Cuba's new leadership, said Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute, a think tank outside Washington.

That's because the United States in 1996 tightened its Cuba sanctions and prohibited aid to Cuba until multiparty elections are planned, political prisoners are released, and both Castro brothers are out of power.

Peters said the report only hardens Washington's position on Cuba.

"The report leaves no doubt that the administration will not support in Cuba the kind of change it applauds in China — economic liberalization without significant political change," Peters wrote this week.

Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said he believes the report's classified section contains plans to attack the island or assassinate its leaders.

"We have the right to expect the worst," said Alarcon, referring to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and earlier U.S. assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.


On the Net:
Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba: http://www.cafc.gov/
Cuban government site on U.S. measures against Cuba: http://www.cubavsbloqueo.cu/Default.aspx?tabid290
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc.

[Bob]

We might as well recognize Cuba and end the embargo. After all, we deal openly with other communist murderers, why not the Cuban ones?

[Ninjahedge]

We have to make it so there are restrictions, not embargos.

They have been in place for how many years now and what has that gotten us? A very strong Cuban minority in Florida. :P

It is pretty easy to sway public opinion when people have something to lose. When the only thing they have left to lose is their lives, it is very difficult for them to oppose the man holding the gun.

[lofter1]

They have been in place for how many years now and what has that gotten us? A very strong Cuban minority in Florida.

Who fill the pockets of U.S. politicians -- in Florida and elsewhere.

Hence the dimwit U.S. policy on Cuba.

[OmegaNYC]

Should of seen this coming.

Castro Relinquishes Power Before Surgery Mon Jul 31, 11:43 PM http://images.optonline.net/media/image/ARTICLE_GRAPHICS_eee182d4-4e41-410e-931a-0454914a4526.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:void(0);)



HAVANA - Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated U.S. attempts to oust him and survived communism's demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.
The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to a letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," said the letter. Extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure."
Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his younger brother and successor Raul, the defense minister, but said the move was of "a provisional character." There was no immediate appearance or statement by Raul Castro.

It was the first time in his decades-long tenure that Castro has given up power, though he has been sidelined briefly in the recent past with occasional health problems.
The elder Castro asked that celebrations scheduled for his 80th birthday on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Castro said he would also temporarily delegate his duties as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul, who turned 75 in June and who has been taking on a more public profile in recent weeks.

In power since the triumph of the Cuban revolution on Jan. 1, 1959, Castro has been the world's longest-ruling head of government. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth, crowned in 1952, has been head of state longer.
The "maximum leader's" ironclad rule has ensured Cuba remains among the world's five remaining communist countries. The others are all in Asia: China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.

In Old Havana, waiters at a popular cafe were momentarily stunned as they watched the news. But they quickly got back to work and put on brave faces.
"He'll get better, without a doubt," said Agustin Lopez, 40. "There are really good doctors here, and he's extremely strong."
In the nearby Plaza Vieja, Cuban musicians continued to play for customers - primarily foreign tourists - sitting at outdoor cafes. Signs on the plaza's colonial buildings put up during a recent Cuban holiday said, "Live on Fidel, for 80 more."

"We're really sad, and pretty shocked," said Ines Cesar, a retired 58-year-old metal worker who had gathered with neighbors to discuss the news. "But everyone's relaxed too: I think he'll be fine."
When asked about how she felt having Raul Castro at the helm of the nation, Cesar paused and said one word: "normal."
Over nearly five decades, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled Castro's rule, many of them settling just across the Florida Straits in Miami.

The announcement drew cheering in the streets in Miami. People waved Cuban flags on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouting "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba," hoping that the end is near for the man most of them consider to be a ruthless dictator. There were hugs, cheers and dancing as drivers honked their horns. Many of them fled the communist island or have parents and grandparents who did.
White House spokesman Peter Watkins said: "We are monitoring the situation. We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the day of Cuba's freedom." The State Department declined to comment Monday night.

Castro rose to power after an armed revolution he led drove out then-President Fulgencio Batista.
The United States was the first country to recognize Castro, but his radical economic reforms and rapid trials of Batista supporters quickly unsettled U.S. leaders.
Washington eventually slapped a trade embargo on the island and severed diplomatic ties. Castro seized American property and businesses and turned to the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance.

On April 16, 1961, Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. The following day, he humiliated the United States by capturing more than 1,100 exile soldiers in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The world neared nuclear conflict on Oct. 22, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy announced there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. After a tense week of diplomacy, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev removed them.
Meanwhile, Cuban revolutionaries opened 10,000 new schools, erased illiteracy, and built a universal health care system. Castro backed revolutionary movements in Latin America and Africa.

But former liberties were whittled away as labor unions lost the right to strike, independent newspapers were shut down and religious institutions were harassed.
Castro continually resisted U.S. demands for multiparty elections and an open economy despite American laws tightening the embargo in 1992 and 1996.
He characterized a U.S. plan for American aid in a post-Castro era as a thinly disguised attempt at regime change and insisted his socialist system would survive long after his death.

Fidel Castro Ruz was born in eastern Cuba, where his Spanish immigrant father ran a prosperous plantation. His official birthday is Aug. 13, 1926, although some say he was born a year later.
Talk of Castro's mortality was long taboo on the island, but that ended June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although Castro quickly returned to the stage, many Cubans understood for the first time that their leader would one day die.
Castro shattered a kneecap and broke an arm when he fell after a speech on Oct. 20, 2004, but typically laughed off rumors about his health, most recently a 2005 report that he had Parkinson's disease.

"They have tried to kill me off so many times," Castro said in a November 2005 speech about the Parkinson's report, adding he felt "better than ever."
But the Cuban president also said he would not insist on remaining in power if he ever became too sick to lead: "I'll call the (Communist) Party and tell them I don't feel I'm in condition ... that please, someone take over the command."
---
Associated Press writer Vanessa Arrington in Havana contributed to this report

[lofter1]

Comrade Fidel Lives On ...

Castro Says He's Stable After Surgery


http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/CUBA_CASTRO.sff_HAV112_20060801174417.jpg (http://apnews.myway.com/image/20060801/CUBA_CASTRO.sff_HAV112_20060801174417.html?date=20 060801&docid=D8J7TRDG1)
(AP Photo/Javier Galeano) Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
Cuban workers attend a political gathering in support of Cuban President Fidel Castro
in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006. Fidel Castro, who has defied the United States
for nearly half a century while wielding absolute power over this island 90 miles south of Florida,
remained out of sight Tuesday after undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily turning
over power to his brother Raul.

AP News / My Way (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060801/D8J7TRDG1.html)
By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Aug 1, 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro said his health was stable after surgery and he was in good spirits Tuesday as Cuba's Communist government worked to impose a sense of normalcy on the first day in 47 years without the Cuban leader in charge.

A statement by Castro read on state television began with Castro saying "I can not make up positive news." But he said his health was "stable," and "as for my spirits, I feel perfectly fine."

Castro expressed his gratitude for all the good wishes he's received from government leaders and supporters around the world, and called on Cubans to remain calm and maintain their daily routines.

"The country is prepared for its defense," he said in the statement.

"Everyone needs to struggle, and work."

© 2006 IAC Search & Media. All rights reserved.

[OmegaNYC]

For all we know, Castro could be dead. You really think Cuba will tell the world if their leader is dead?

[ablarc]

"Everyone needs to struggle, and work."
"Struggle": that about sums it up for all of us --but in Cuba it has special meaning.

Half a century on, the Revolution continues the struggle.

Viva la causa ;).

Viva el lider :D.

[Ninjahedge]

Tehy have said that no pictures, tape, or audio of Castro, or his brother, have been seen or released since he was taken in.

People believing that his death will change things, however, will probably be dissapointed.

You would think that after 50 years of embargo, and his countrys pitiful lack of collapsing on itself, that the US would look for other ways to handle this guy and his island.

And really funny stuff with those workers in the pic. I don't think I see a single face there that says they like him, what is happening or anything else. They all look like they were paid to be there.

[ablarc]

They all look like they were paid to be there.
You're expected to do it without pay.

Stick, not carrot.

[Ninjahedge]

You're expected to do it without pay.

Stick, not carrot.

Since when is a day free of "motivation" not payment? ;)

[lofter1]

Kind of like those US political rallies where GOP / Dems round up some supporters and stick them in front of a camera ;)

[OmegaNYC]

Kind of like those US political rallies where GOP / Dems round up some supporters and stick them in front of a camera ;)
heh, good one Lofter!

[Ninjahedge]

Kind of like those US political rallies where GOP / Dems round up some supporters and stick them in front of a camera ;)


They NEVER do that!!!

They just politely ask the non-supporters to join them at a counter-rally a few miles down the street where the president will drive by........

[milleniumcab]

What is it about liberals that they don't mind sitting back and watching dictators oppress their people?

What is it about conservatives that they decide which dictators are best to take out and which are best not to touch.. How do they decide which are better than others...

OHHH yea, I just remembered... A real dictator not only supposed to oppress his/her people but kiss our ass at the same time...

A good example = SADDAM HUSSEIN, 20 years ago..;)

[milleniumcab]

Kind of like those US political rallies where GOP / Dems round up some supporters and stick them in front of a camera ;)

The art of politics don't change with regimes...

[lofter1]

Elian Gonzalez Wishes Castro Well

breitbart.com (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/06/D8JB68LG0.html)
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
August 7, 2006

HAVANA

Elian Gonzalez sent a note Sunday wishing a speedy recovery to "my dear grandpa Fidel," and Cuba's vice president said the world's longest-serving leader is recuperating well after surgery.

Former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrived in Havana, telling Cuban state media, "I am sure that we will soon have Fidel resuming his functions and leading his people."

Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of an international custody battle with family members in Miami six years ago, published a letter in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde signed with "little kisses" from him and his half-siblings and cousins.

"We send you this letter to let you know that we are worried about your health," Elian, now 12, wrote. "We hope for your speedy recovery and take the opportunity to wish you a happy birthday, may you have many more."

The ailing leader turns 80 on Aug. 13.

http://www.breitbart.com/images/2006/8/6/D8JB68LG0/D8JB68LG0_preview.jpg

Vice President Carlos Lage said in Bolivia Saturday that media reports that Castro had abdominal cancer were false.

"He is coming along well. He does not have stomach cancer," Lage said. "He's been made well by the operation and is recuperating favorably."

Lage's comments were the most detailed by a Cuban government official about Castro's medical condition since Monday, when it was announced that Castro had undergone surgery for intestinal bleeding and temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul, 75.

Havana has provided no details and released no pictures of Castro - fueling speculation around the world about his condition. Raul Castro, the defense minister, also has not been seen in public since the announcement.

Cubans were told Tuesday in a statement attributed to Castro that most details of his health would be kept "a state secret" to prevent the island's enemies from taking advantage of his condition.

Authorities have been calling on Cubans to reaffirm their commitment to Castro and the government, and have beefed up security by mobilizing citizen defense militias, increasing street patrols, and ordering decommissioned military officers to check in at posts daily.

The enemy in Cuba is perceived to be the U.S. government and hardline Cuban-American exiles. President Bush's call Thursday for democratic change on the island was seen as a provocation.

Washington insists it is pushing for peaceful change in Cuba and has no intentions of invading, with White House press secretary Tony Snow dismissing as "absurd" the suggestion that the United States would attack.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

[lofter1]

For a Post-Castro Cuba, Castro Lite

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/weekinreview/06depalma.html?ref=weekinreview)
The World
By ANTHONY DePALMA
August 6, 2006

EVEN from his sickbed — or what delirious crowds in Miami last Monday had for a time believed was his deathbed — Fidel Castro was obsessed with how history would judge him. In a statement outlining a new provisional government headed by his brother Raúl, he exhorted Cubans to continue the long revolutionary struggle during his absence, repeating, as always, that “imperialism will never vanquish Cuba.”

With his bushy beard and his booming anti-American rhetoric, Mr. Castro, who turns 80 next Sunday, will linger in the Cuban imagination far into the future as a double image — one, the romantic revolutionary of 1958, promising Cuba equality, prosperity and independence; the other, the prisoner of a half-century of confrontation with the United States that kept Cuba from evolving in a way that could deliver on the promises.

- Comments by Roberto Salas

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas1.jpg
CHE GUEVARA AND FIDEL CASTRO, JANUARY 1959
This is very dear to me because it's the first picture I took of Che.
It was at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, about the second week.
The picture has a strange atmosphere because it's a time exposure, two or
three seconds. The whole illumination is from the match when Fidel lit the cigar.

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas2.jpg
CASTRO IN NEW YORK, APRIL 1959
Fidel stayed at the Statler Hilton, the old Hotel Pennsylvania, right across from Penn Station.
He went out onto a balcony to wave to the cheering Cuban-American crowd assembled below.
That balcony is still there and the flagpole is still there. He was 31, and he looks so young and
enthusiastic. It makes you think how differently things might have turned out.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas4.jpg
MOUNT VERNON, APRIL 1959
We came to the United States with an entourage of about 50 people.
Fidel saw Vice President Richard Nixon and, before taking the train from
Washington to New York, we went to Mount Vernon. He started looking at the books -
he was interested in everything about United States history.
This is a vintage print, the only one I have.
The negative doesn't exist any more.

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas3.jpg
CASTRO PORTRAIT, 2002
This is going to be the cover of my new book, "Fidel,"
which is being published in England. I took it at the airport
in Havana while he was waiting for some visiting official.
I have pictures of him from when he was very young
right up to the present.
He's 78 now, and you can watch him age through the images.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas5.jpg
CASTRO IN HIS OFFICE, 2002
This is in his private office in the Palace of the Revolution.
It was taken about 2:30 in the morning. He likes to walk
back and forth, thinking about this and that.
He was waiting for Oliver Stone, who was doing a documentary,
"Commandante," for HBO. He was supposed to come at 3 a.m.,
and he did, though he did ask "what kind of hours are these?"
Fidel still goes for 18, 20 hours a day. He's one of those people
who can sleep for a couple of hours and look as fresh as a lettuce,
and everyone else is just dead.

Today, many experts say that any successor loyal to the Castro revolution may have to chip away at his legacy in order to save it. The Cuban people may revere his memory, but they will also demand change.

Hardliners within the regime remain. But rank-and-file soldiers, long deprived of promotions and mobility, will want the military to stop running hotels and resorts and return to the role of a traditional military. Small-scale entrepreneurs, who tasted free enterprise with their small restaurants and fruit stands, will want a freer economy. Intellectuals will want the state security apparatus dismantled. And the majority of Cubans — poor and powerless — will demand a chance for a better life than they’ve known under Fidel.

Cuba has survived all these years on the largesse of “padrones” who shared Fidel Castro’s disdain for Washington — first the Soviet Union with its sugar subsidies, now Venezuela with its cheap oil. But counting on such friends for the long term, rather than reforming Cuba’s economy and entering the global markets for trade and capital, seems a risky bet at best. And without Fidel Castro’s mythic presence to draw them, those friends might be tempted to wander.

Last week, as Mr. Castro lay in a hospital recovering from intestinal surgery, it seemed entirely possible that he would never retake the same tight-fisted control of the government, and that a long-awaited transition had begun.

But change will have to be done carefully. Most of the 11 million Cubans on the island today were born after Mr. Castro came to power and have known only his Communism. So despite the decrepit housing, the wasting food shortages and a repressive security system that can make a whispered complaint the basis of a jail sentence, Fidel Castro remains an admired figure to them. He has allowed no statues of himself, but his visage on posters, billboards, television and newspapers is as familiar to Cubans as the sky.

Every action that Raúl Castro, 75, or any other successor takes will be measured against a simple standard: Does it honor Fidel Castro’s popular legacy, or tear it down? One Cuba expert, Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a scholar at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, says that a successor will have to do both.

As a hero of the revolution himself, and a prominent figure since, Raúl Castro is one of the few people who could change the nation’s course. But even for him, it would not be easy.

Ms. Pérez-Stable says, for example, that any successor will face what she calls a straitjacket if they want to start reforming the economy. “Whatever is left of Fidel’s revolution,” she said, “will constrain the future of any successor.”

The most powerful constraints that remain are virulent anti-Americanism and a centralized economy run on an ideology that broke down long ago.

Mr. Castro used anti-Americanism to build his political power at home, his reputation in Latin America, and his strategic alliance with the Soviet Union during the cold war, as well as to form his current bonds with Venezula’s Hugo Chávez.

But the American embargo that followed the rebels’ triumph froze Cuba out of any hope of building a future based on trade with the biggest economy in the Americas.

Canada, Mexico and many other countries continued to do business with Cuba, asserting that the way to deal with Mr. Castro is to engage him, not isolate him. Appreciating his defiance of the economic giant in whose shadow they also lived, they kept trading with him even when he could not pay his bills.

But with Mr. Castro out of the picture, that degree of enthusiasm could easily dry up, leaving a potential successor with only more difficult options.

One option lies in China. Raúl Castro has visited there and expressed admiration for that nation’s ability to meld economic openings while preserving Communist power. It could be a model for Cuba, but ideological hard-liners in the government would strenuously object.

Cuba could continue to rely on Venezuela’s revolutionary solidarity and its oil, but that would leave Cuba at the mercy of Mr. Chávez — and dependent on his longevity in office.

Or, in what may be the most problematic solution, Cuba could accept some form of cooperation with the United States. But any Cuban leader who did that might be accused of making Fidel Castro turn in his grave.

Moreover, in recent years Mr. Castro has placed young “Fidelistas” in key political, ideological and economic positions within the government. They would try to keep a successor from straying too far from Mr. Castro’s devotion to the cause of anti-imperialism.

After all, Cuban resentment of the United States as an interventionist power predates Mr. Castro, just as his own anti-Americanism predated his Communism, and it was Mr. Castro’s titanic talent for getting under the skin of American presidents that made him a hero throughout much of the third world.

Even today, that popularity survives in large parts of Latin America — as reflected in the recent successes of Mr. Chávez in Venezuela and of Evo Morales in Bolivia — and it provides the most likely scenario for immediate support for a Castro loyalist to keep Cuba going.

In lands where free trade and open economies — the methods favored by Washington — have not delivered a better standard of living, attacking Washington is a popular political stand, and Mr. Castro’s own economic failures do not seem to matter. So continued support from Mr. Chávez, in particular, could give any successor a way to keep Cuba afloat without change for some time.

China, with its keen interest in Cuban nickel, could continue to develop its Cuban market ties at the same time.

But China also offers any successor of Fidel Castro a game plan for change and political survival.

In Beijing today — a city experiencing explosive growth based on China’s accommodation to the global market — a huge portrait of Mao still hovers over Tiananmen Square, and crowds throng Mao’s mausoleum. William Ratliff, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution who is an expert on Cuba and China, said that despite the brutal repressions of Mao’s rule, most Chinese continue to admire him.

He said China’s ability to honor Mao, even as it tears down the economy he set in place, could provide a model for Cuba.

“Maybe Raúl’s next trip to China should be to study image making,” Mr. Ratliff said.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/05/weekinreview/05castro_graph.large.gif

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Ninjahedge]

Raul is only a half brother. I see so little resemblance in the face, body, or much of anything else to Fidel...


But anyway, is it just me, or does Fidel look a little like Liam Neeson in this pic?
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/06/arts/salas4.jpghttp://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00011/Liam_Neeson_i_Batman_11894c.jpg

[lofter1]

Good call ^^

[lofter1]

Fidel Lives On ...

http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/UserFiles/Image/2006/agosto/fidel-castro/fidel-castro-4.jpg
© Copyright Juventud Rebelde (http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/)

Castro in Photos, Warns of Long Recovery

http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/UserFiles/Image/2006/agosto/fidel-castro/fidel-castro-2.jpg
(AP Photo/HO)
This is one of four photographs published Sunday Aug. 13, 2006 by Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper's online
edition Juventud Rebelde proporting to show The first photographs of Fidel Castro since his illness two weeks ago.
Castro holds a copy of the Saturday Aug. 12, 2006 edition of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.

The headline reads "Absolved by history."

The Associated Press cannot verify the authenticity or the date when these photographs were shot.

apnews.myway (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060813/D8JFQIB80.html)
By ANITA SNOW
August 13, 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro sent Cubans a sober greeting on his 80th birthday Sunday, saying he faces a long recovery from surgery - and warning they should be prepared for "adverse news." But he encouraged them to be optimistic, saying Cuba "will continue marching on perfectly well."

As a newspaper printed the first pictures of Castro since his illness, his younger brother, Raul, made his first public appearance as Cuba's acting president. State TV showed him at the airport greeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his arrival to celebrate Fidel's birthday.

Castro, who underwent surgery for an unspecified intestinal ailment that forced him to step aside as president two weeks ago, said in a statement that his health had improved, but stressed he still faced risks.

"To affirm that the recovery period will take a short time and that there is no risk would be absolutely incorrect," said the statement in the Communist Youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. "I ask you all to be optimistic, and at the same time to be ready to face any adverse news."

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

[Ninjahedge]

The photo has been PSed.

The contrast is not right on the text and it does not look like "printed" material.

They could have put anything they wanted on the front page there.

Geez these guys should get someone better to do their "creative editing"... :p

[lofter1]

New pictures show Chavez visiting Castro

yahoo / AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_castro)
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer
August 14, 2006

HAVANA - Cuba's Communist daily published new photographs of ailing leader Fidel Castro on Monday, showing him in bed on his 80th birthday during a visit with his brother Raul and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ...

granma.cubaweb (http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/art-051.html)

Fotos: ESTUDIOS REVOLUCIÓN

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/fidel12-1.jpg

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/fidel12-6.jpg

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/fidel12-8.jpg

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/fidel12-2.jpg

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc.

[lofter1]

http://www.spreadshirt.com/shops/63000/62441/motives/62441_799383_big.gif


https://www.spreadshirt.com/shops/47000/46666/motives/46666_521684_big.gif

http://www.thepeoplescube.com/

[OmegaNYC]

LOL that Che shirt is classic!

[lofter1]

Video: FOX, CNN reports focus on Cuban billboards
painting Bush as 'bloodsucking' vampire or Hitler

http://www.fluctuat.net/blog/IMG/el-asesino.jpg

Raw Story (http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Video_Cuban_billboards_paint_Bush_as_0915.html)
Filed by David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
09/15/2006

While the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement or nations) presidential summit meets in Cuba, news reports on FOX and CNN spotlighted billboards which mock President George Bush.

One billboard shows Bush as an "assassin" with bloody, vampire teeth, while others compare the U.S. president to Adolph Hitler.

"More than 55 heads of state - including Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Manmohan Singh of India, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Evo Morales of Bolivia - have travelled to Havana, the self- proclaimed 'capital of the Third World' for the NAM summit," reports Deutsche Presse Agentur (http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Raul_Castro_urges_NAM_countries_to__09152006.html) .

According to the FOX News anchor Jane Skinner, the summit was a "meeting of a who's who of world leaders who hate America." A graphic displayed during the FOX report announced that the "summit of world leaders who hate America kicks off in Cuba."

While CNN's segment entitled "Havana Hostility" focused on the billboards, FOX interspersed shots of the signs during a speech given by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in which he pledged support for Iran.

Michael E. Parmly, Chief of Mission-Designate for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, tells CNN that the billboards are undiplomatic, vulgar and "not worthy of the Cuban people." Although the U.S. doesn't have diplomatic relations with Cuba, Parmly is the "top US diplomat" stationed there.

[lofter1]

It seems that Bush turned down Fidel's invitation to the NAM get-together in Havana ...

http://forum1.fluctuat.net/mesimages/4/cuba-terroriste.jpg

http://forum1.fluctuat.net/mesimages/4/cuba-injusticia.jpg

http://forum1.fluctuat.net/mesimages/4/cuba-peligro.jpg

http://forum.fluctuat.net/fluctuat/International/Propagande-anti-Bush-Cuba-photos-sujet-10-1.htm