Castro Says Schwarzenegger All Muscle [questions intelligence... Bwahaha!]

[truthisfreedom]

wow, i can't stop laughing about this. nothing like having a little communist dictator off our coast to point out the idiocy of our voters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49484-2003Nov1?language=printer
Castro Says Schwarzenegger All Muscle

Reuters
Saturday, November 1, 2003; 2:08 AM

<snip>

"To judge from the photographs, he has a lot of muscle, but they have not tested him to see how much muscle he has in the brain," the bearded revolutionary quipped during a five-hour speech Friday evening closing a Latin American social sciences conference.

"He way well have more force in the arms than in the brain," Castro, 77, said of the former Austrian body builder who went from B-movie actor to Hollywood star and governor of the richest U.S. state.

"At least he has the merit of having done a lot of exercise," added the Cuban leader, who played basketball and baseball when he was younger.
<snip>

[lcordero]

1. ROTFLMAO

:D

[truthisfreedom]

3. what slays me is that his broken English is so much better than ahhnold's

and his wit is better too... bwahahahahahahaha!

[Say_What]

37. Right! and he rarely speaks English anymore. Sometimes news clips

of him in the US in the 1950s--particularly on the Ed Murrow Show--he spoke English throughout.

[onebigbadwulf]

2. Considering...

that Cuba's economy is probably better off than California's... I would have to say, he definitely is a genius.

[truthisfreedom]

4. i wish he took pokes at bush like this.

we need a good laugh once in a while.

[Mika]

13. He does take pokes at W on a regular basis.

Where have you been? A cave?

President Castro takes pokes at the entire bfee on a regular basis too.

[Say_What]

38. Castro about Bush: "I hope he isn't as stupid as he seems." and

that "someone very strange, with very little promise, has taken charge of the leadership of the great empire that we have as a neighbor."

Here's the article.

<clips>

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro this week fired his first verbal shot at President Bush since he took office, saying he hoped his new adversary in the White House is "not as stupid as he seems."

In a Sunday speech shown late Wednesday on state television, Castro said that "someone very strange, with very little promise, has taken charge of the leadership of the great empire that we have as a neighbor."

"That gentleman has arrived there, and hopefully he is not as stupid as he seems, nor as mafia-like as his predecessors were," the Cuban leader said. He added, however, that he was not troubled by Bush's presence, saying "he's there, and we are calm over here."

http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y01/jan01/25e4.htm

[dArKeR]

5. Did you see Ah-no on CNN with Davis?

With a smirk on his face, just like Junior does, he said smirkly says, 'I'LL BE BACK to Washington many times to get money.' This was at a news conference talking about the destroyed homes. And Ah-no is nearly laughing, smiling and joking about.

Davis really looked honest, sincere, empathetic, professional... I swear. This is not a bias opinion. Try to catch it for yourself and make your own judgement.

I just can't believe CA recalled Davis for Son-Of-Shit-For-Brains!

The Dems. have got to learn something from Junior and Ah-no! And I hope Dean learns something too! You can be a serious candidate like Dean ALWAYS is! The Sheeple don't vote for honest serious people. You've got to be more personable even if you're a dirty stupid shit-for-brains liar!

Which is a sad assessment of our country!

(Just saw this thread is better for what I just typed.)

[Ksec]

6. LOL Ahnold is stoopid

5 hour speech, Damn. Fidel must be one long winded little dictator.

[tlb]

7. As a dictator for life I suppose he would laugh at ANY voters.

Or at least the system that permit people to vote. Are you so out of touch with reality to think this will hurt Arnold's standing in the US generally and California in particular ?

When people risk their lives to LEAVE California, rather then to ENTER it as they do now, then maybe I might consider taking Castro's criticism seriously. And those who think his insults are so clever.

Come to think of it, I wonder how many risked their lives to leave Cuba today.

[truthisfreedom]

8. i didn't say it would hurt ahh-nold's standing. i was pointing out the

irony, but if it's lost on you, i apologize.

[Voltaire99]

10. Oh, please

You sound like Dick Cheney at an American Legion dinner.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why Cuba is so impoverished? Does the word "embargo" mean nothing to you?

As for those trying desperately to enter California, note, please, that most are fleeing conditions in Mexico, not Cuba.

And if you pause to consider the shitty lives awaiting illegal immigrants bound for exploitation by wealthy Americans in California, you might reach a somewhat more critical valuation of the state's benefits for exiles. Yes, it's "better" here for them. But that's hardly an ennobling comparison.

[tlb]

14. Since each of the old communist dictatorships was impoverished

I don't get too worked up about the embargo. Cuba trades with Mexico, Canada, Britain, Spain, Russia, and anyone else who wishes to trade with them.

Cuba's poverty is more basic then just not trading with the US. Had Cuba been impoverished while East Germany, Bulgaria, et al been thriving and rich, then you might have a case.

More to the point, it's hypocritical for people who call themselves progressive to cheer on a lifetime dictator mocking a free election, even when you don't like the outcome of that election he mocks. If Dick Cheney wants to give the same message, then good for him. That's one he would be right on.

As for missing the irony of the original post, guilty as charged. Perhaps the Bwahaha! threw me off. Certainly I have been misundertood before too, so apologies if I did anyone an injustice.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Either you have deliberately remained uninformed or you are "partisan"

"Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

• A Ban on Subsidiary Trade: Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.
  
  
• ]Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."
  
  
• Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.
  
  
• Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

Taken together, these four factors have placed severe strains on the Cuban health system. The declining availability of food stuffs, medicines and such basic medical supplies as replacement parts for thirty-year-old X-ray machines is taking a tragic human toll. The embargo has closed so many windows that in some instances Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain life-saving medicines from any source, under any circumstances. Patients have died. In general, a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive public health system is being systematically stripped of essential resources. High-technology hospital wards devoted to cardiology and nephrology are particularly under siege. But so too are such basic aspects of the health system as water quality and food security. Specifically, the AAWH's team of nine medical experts identified the following health problems affected by the embargo:

• Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.
  
  
• Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.
  
  
• Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.
  
  
• Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers.
  

Finally, the AAWH wishes to emphasize the stringent nature of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Few other embargoes in recent history - including those targeting Iran, Libya, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Chile or Iraq - have included an outright ban on the sale of food. Few other embargoes have so restricted medical commerce as to deny the availability of life-saving medicines to ordinary citizens. Such an embargo appears to violate the most basic international charters and conventions governing human rights, including the United Nations charter, the charter of the Organization of American States, and the articles of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of civilians during wartime.

American Association for World Health
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 1208
Washington, DC 20006
Tel. [phone] / FAX [phone]

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html

[Mika]

18. Wrong. Again

"I don't get too worked up about the embargo. Cuba trades with Mexico, Canada, Britain, Spain, Russia, and anyone else who wishes to trade with them. "


Your credibility on Cuba issues is severely eroding, because obviously don't know about the extraterritorial nature of US's Helms-Burton law.

The Helms-Burton law prevents any company that does business with the Cuban government from doing business in the USA. For example, if Bayer sold Aspirin to the Cuban health care system then Bayer would have to stop selling Aspirin in the USA. Get it? Same with all products world wide (except minimal O.F.A.C. approved trade). The Helms-Burton law forces foreign companies to chose between the small Cuban marketplace, or the vast US marketplace.

Sure, Cuba has very good relations with the governments of Mexico, Canada, Britain, Spain, & Russia, but those governments are not the businesses nor the manufacturers of the goods that their countries produce and sell to America, that Cuba wants to buy too.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Sad, isn't it? Here's information on the Helms-Burton Act

(snip) Officially the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, this act came after the downing of two civilian aircraft by Cuba which had violated Cuba's national sovereignty by entering its airspace. It was signed by President Clinton, who had lost Florida's electoral votes in the last election. Uncoincidentally, in the '96 election, Clinton captured Florida's votes.

The U.S. Government says the intent of the law is to bring Western-style democracy to Cuba. They intend to do this by making living conditions so awful that the people will revolt against the government of Fidel Castro.

The law has drawn international criticism for a provision allowing U.S. companies to sue foreign companies that work with the Cuban government. This is justified because the U.S. says they are using "stolen" U.S. property.

In order to be able to sue, you had to have lost $50,000 or more to the Revolution. In 1959, this was a very large amount of money, so the bill was mainly intended to benefit wealthy Americans. Lawyers for the Bacardi corporation wrote much of the law; the bill has come to be known as the "Bacardi Law" by opponents.

After the Cuban Revolution, economic aggression from the U.S. caused Cuba to nationalize all American property. The Cuban Government offered to reimburse American companies at the book value of the property, but none of them accepted. (snip/...)

http://www.abc.lv/thinkquest/tq-entries/18355/the_helms-burton_act.html

[tlb]

31. I knew of Helms-Burton, I also know it's been under a waiver .

President Clinton initially signed an order that the punitive measures not be activated, and this was renewed by Bush. The operative provisions of the law NEVER went into effect, so Cuba lacks that excuse for its normal communist-standard of poverty. The rest of the world can, and does, trade as they wish.

Ok ?

All off topic of course. The point was and remains a dictator holding office now for a half century is in not the man to applaud when he amuses himself mocking democratic process and those who participate in it. This is after all, Democratic Underground. Remember ?

[Judi Lynn]

32. ONLY ONE PROVISION of the Helms-Burton Act is ever waived

(snip) Title III. "Protection of Property Rights of United States Nationals"

The Helms-Burton law's centerpiece is Title III, which gives U.S. nationals and corporations the right to sue foreign companies which "traffic" in property expropriated from the U.S. entity after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Trafficking, a term usually reserved for the narcotics trade, refers to involvement in a venture that uses property confiscated by the Cuban government.

Helms-Burton expands the right to sue over confiscated property to individuals and corporations who were not U.S. nationals at the time of the confiscation, but rather who later became U.S. nationals. Cuban exiles with property valued at more than $50,000 at the time of confiscation could collect, as could non-U.S. corporations, such as Bacardi, which later became introduced U.S. operations. (snip/...)

http://www.cubavsbloqueo.cu/ver_ingles/A%20Closer%20Look%20at%20the%20Helms.htm




(snip) We are similarly opposed to H.R. 2179, the legislation introduced by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) that would repeal the waiver of title 3 of Helms-Burton, thereby opening the door to lawsuits against foreign companies doing business in Cuba. (snip/...)

http://www.eabc.org/910_hirc.htm


So far Bill Clinton and George Bush have opted not to allow European and other countries to be completely vulnerable to lawsuits from the former owners of nationalized Cuban property. This would trigger a storm any American president would have a hard time weathering.



Concerning the compensation issue for property confiscated during the revolution, it's addressed in this site created by the National Bipartisan Commission on Cuba, a bipartisan group of Congress people, and others, established in 1998, created by John Warner, Republican Senator:

(snip) April 15, 1959 - Fidel Castro unofficially visits the United States and meets with Vice President Richard Nixon and UN officials. Upon his return Cuba adopts the first Agrarian Reform Law, putting a limit on private land holdings with the state expropriating the remainder. The government offers compensation to the former owners based on the property's current tax assessment rate which has not been adjusted in over 30 years. (snip)

http://www.uscubacommission.org/history3.html

On edit:

The only way the embargo and travel ban will continue over a year or two is if no more Americans finally see through the horrendous lies. A few right-wing Cuban "exiles" and a tiny number of unbalanced right-wing Americans, like Jesse Helms, hope to keep us all in the dark, living with half-truths and deliberate lies which we've been fed for years.

Fortunately, most Americans are brighter than that, and are starting to wake up and think this matter over seriously.

[Mika]

33. The familiar pattern of accuse/get corrected, accuse again

Don'tcha just love the Cuba 'experts' who tout the CANF disinfo line, only to be corrected, then they shift to another false accusation - in an ever decending loop?

Title III of Helms-Burton is one of the waivers that pissed off the Miamicuban "exiles" during the Clinton admin. Bush* promised the Miami intransigents he would sign it into law the moment he was elected.. keeping his promise (since he wasn't elected), W* has waived Title III of H-B since his coronation.

[Judi Lynn]

34. Good one, to be sure!

[Osolomia]

35. I don't expect to find ignorant bigots spewing cold war propaganda

to be particluarly acceptable on a forum such as this in this day and age. Especially ones who have no credible links to corroborate the lies and bullshit.

[Judi Lynn]

36. It's hard to calculate how any Democrat

supports the same dirty agenda the most extreme right-wing Americans have been pushing since the 50's, actually.

Anyone who doesn't indulge them is a COMMIE, a Castro-humper!

[0007]

11. Get a grip!

Did you read Castro's 911 speech? I didn't think so. Contact me and I'll you a copy.

[Robb]

12. Yeah! You tell 'em!

Plus, I mean come on -- what can Castro bench? 110? 120?

:eyes:

[Mika]

16. The laugh is on your ignorance

"As a dictator for life I suppose he would laugh at ANY voters. Or at least the system that permit people to vote."


Ignorance abound. Mission accomplished. (As in: the mission to keep Americans completely in the dark about Cuba.)

I've been to Cuba many times, including during the 1997-98 elections.


Here are some of the major parties in Cuba. The union parties hold the majority of seats in the Assembly.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/cu.html

* Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) {Communist Party of Cuba}
* Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba (PDC) {Christian Democratic Party of Cuba} - Oswaldo Paya's Catholic party
* Partido Solidaridad Democrática (PSD) {Democratic Solidarity Party}
* Partido Social Revolucionario Democrático Cubano {Cuban Social Revolutionary Democratic Party}
* Coordinadora Social Demócrata de Cuba (CSDC) {Social Democratic Coordination of Cuba}
* Unión Liberal Cubana {Cuban Liberal Union}

Plenty of info on this long thread,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=6300&forum=DCForumID70


http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

--

Representative Fidel Castro was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of District #7 Santiago de Cuba.
He is one of the elected 607 representatives in the Cuban National Assembly. It is from that body that the head of state is nominated and then elected. Raul Castro, Carlos Large, and Ricardo Alarcon and others were among the nominated last year. President Castro has been elected to that position since 1976.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/do/Dorticos.html

Dorticós Torrado, Osvaldo

1919–83, president of Cuba (1959–76). A prosperous lawyer, he participated in Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement and was imprisoned (1958). He escaped and fled to Mexico, returning to Cuba after Castro’s triumph (1959). As minister of laws (1959) he helped to formulate Cuban policies. He was appointed president in 1959. Intelligent and competent, he wielded considerable influence. In 1976 the Cuban government was reorganized, and Castro assumed the title of president; Dorticós was named a member of the council of state.

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.attcanada.ca/~dchris/CubaFAQ.html#Democracy

Or a long and detailed version here,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books





"Come to think of it, I wonder how many risked their lives to leave Cuba today."


Far fewer than Mexicans, for example.

The USA offers over 20,000 LEGAL immigration visas per year to Cubans (and Bush just announced that the number would increase despite the fact that not all 20,000 were applied for in the last few years). This number is more than any other single country in the world. Cuba prevents none. The US does. Its the US interests section in Cuba that does the criminal background check on the applicants.

The US's 'wet foor/ dry foot' policy (for Cubans only) permits Cuban criminals and felons to enter the US despite having failed a legal application.

Cubans who leave illegally are returned to Cuba (if caught at sea) by US law. But IF they make it to US soil, no matter who they are or what their criminal backround might be, they get to stay in the US and enjoy perks offered ONLY TO CUBAN IMMIGRANTS. perks like instant work visa, instant green card, instant access to sec 8 taxpayer assisted housing, instant social security, instant welfare, and more.

These perks are not offered to any other immigrant group, but yet, without the perks offered to Cubans, immigrants still pour into the US from all over the Caribbean and the Latin Americas - many taking greater risks than Cubans to get here.

[lumpy]

19. Thank you Mika for your educational post

Would that everyone would take the time to read it. This information is supported by reputable unbiased organizations and individuals who know the true Cuban situation. Too many in the US don't bother to educate themselves and take political propaganda and misrepresentation at face value.

[Mika]

21. You're welcome

"Too many in the US don't bother to educate themselves and take political propaganda and misrepresentation at face value. "



True. Before I had ever been to Cuba I believed most of the misconceptions represented by the Castrophobes and R-wingers.

My eyes have been opened.

Us Americans should be allowed to travel to Cuba unfettered by our government, but I'm sure the travel ban is intended to keep us in the dark so the misrepresentations of Cuba can continue with little challenge.

[lumpy]

23. US Cuban relations have been bothering me for a long long time.

I realized (not necessarily supported) the US stance during the cold war when Russia was considered our enemy and anti-Communism was in full flower. I really believed when Russia discontinued to financially support Cuba that the US would ease up on Cuba. Castro has been begging the US for years to open friendly relations with Cuba inspite of the attempted invasion and CIA attempts to kill him. Cuba absolutely is no threat to the US, in fact it would be to our benefit to open diplomatic relations and allow open free trade with Cuba. The Cuban people deserve no less. Would that this country had dedicated leaders who would be willing to give their lives for love of their country such as Castro, dictator that he may be. It appears he is not willing to invade other countries for love of money and power and use his people as pawns in their lust for power.

[Mika]

26. The Cuban people deserve recognition

".. leaders who would be willing to give their lives for love of their country such as Castro, dictator that he may be."


Lumpy, you are missing the point. Castro is elected. And will continue to be as long as the US continues the threats and hostilities. The Cuban people have a great deal of respect and love for their Head of State, because of his bravery, his intelligence, his willingness to take the heat, his successes at rallying the people behind their own sovereignty, but most importantly Castro inspires Cubans to higher ideals. Keep in mind that Castro does not rule Cuba.. the Cuban people wouldn't take that crap for a minute after their demonstrated success at removing a brutal, blood-soaked, FULLY US supported dictatorship -Batista. The real power in Cuba is now in the elected National Assembly, where Raul Alarcon is the prime minister. President Castro is really Cuba's figurehead, advisor, strategist, and lead cheerleader, these days.


Everything that Cuba has achieved over the last four decades has been achieved by the Cuban people, not one man -Castro. Who could honestly believe that Castro forced one of the highest quality health care systems in the west on the Cuba people, that Castro forced the highest literacy in the west on the Cuban people, that Castro forced one of the highest teacher to student ratios in the world on the Cuban people, that Castro forced sovereignty and pride in their accomplishments on the Cuban people? That would be simply silly. The Cuban people, together, did all of this - Fidel Castro being one of them.

[lumpy]

29. I do understand

Sorry I meant to parenthesize the word dictator. Castro does have strong support from the majority of Cubans. Of course a successful nation has to work in conjunction and be united in common goals.

[Judi Lynn]

25. You might gain from reading about US funding of Cuban "dissidents"

NED Covert Action Cuba, China, Russia, VN
By R. McGehee, CIABASE, 14 January 1996
The below posting on the voting in the United Nations to condemn Cuba's human rights record fits in the worldwide pattern of the U.S. using "human rights abuses" as an excuse for political action operations. Human rights has replaced "Communist Conspiracy," as the generic catch phrase for U.S. political subversion.

We note that the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. government-funded entity, has assumed many of the politcal action responsibilities of the CIA. In NED's annual reports it lists extensive human rights organizations it has created and funded -- sometimes it funds multiple human rights organizations or activities in one country.

In A CIABASE update report covering the period from July through December 1995, it was noted that NED was funding political action operations in China, Vietnam and Russia and that these countries had protested NED's subversive operations -- which had used "human rights" guises.

Some of the entries on NED operations related to CUBA are listed below.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(snip) The national endowment for democracy (ned) is the reagan adm's efforts to Influence foreign journalists ala the cia in the fifties. The only Difference is that the gvt has found a new way to launder the money. In 9/84 ned gave leonard sussman's freedom house $200,000. Fh is a Conservative human rights org. To set up a net of democratic opinion Makers...to end the isolation of democratic-minded intellectuals and Journalists in the third world. The idea to send articles to regional Editors on each continent to reprint the article. Ten to 12 articles each Month sent to 350 journalists in 50 countries. Authors of articles Neoconservatives. Articles sent to nicaragua from leiken, arturo cruz and Pedro chamorro. Fh also disseminated an attack on people in jamaica, an Investigation of the far left in australia and a feature on west europe's Peace groups' relations with the plo. All of the article on s. Africa have Argued against disinvestment. Articles on afghanistan, tibet, angola, Poland, grenada, ethiopia, the ukraine and cuba have been distributed. Fh Recv an additional $175,000 to operate the exchange. The nation 5/24/86 720 (snip/...)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/154.html

[leesa]

30. I don't think it will hurt American's perceptions because most

Americans are so out of touch with reality they will never hear it. They are too busy watching teevee. I wonder how much US propaganda you swallowed today?

[Voltaire99]

9. Ha, ha, ha, ha!

Good on Castro!

[Judi Lynn]

15. He's still really quick

Has dinners with many, many American Senators and Representatives, as well as Americans from various businesses staying in Cuba to establish connections for future commerce. His dinners are legendary, as he actually can be expected to sit and talk with his guests at LEAST six hours, and usually more! They all give reports of being deeply impressed with his knowledge of American history, politics, etc.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Interesting hotel catering to Jewish clientele open in Cuba

With rooms named from Bible,
historic Cuban hotel caters to Jews
By Larry Luxner



HAVANA, Oct. 30 (JTA) — Care for an authentic Cuban mojito at the L’chaim bar? How about Israeli salad, matzah-ball soup and cheese blintzes?
They’re all now on the menu at the Hotel Raquel, Cuba’s first boutique hotel catering specifically to adventurous Jewish tourists.

Richly illustrated passages from the Old Testament cover the walls of the small but elegant property, located in what was once a thriving Jewish neighborhood of Old Havana.

The 25-room hotel originally was built as a bank in 1908, a time when thousands of impoverished Jews from Eastern Europe, Turkey and Syria were immigrating to Cuba. (snip/...)

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13383&intcategoryid=5

[Osolomia]

24. The stench of Americans' hypocrisy is revolting

Castro noted that the governor-elect had traveled to the island at least once in the past.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/7158920.htm

And how many cigars did he smuggle back?

[Judi Lynn]

27. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?

"We must impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and its constant companion, disease, undermine the peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army."

John C. Breckenridge
Department of War
Office of the Undersecretary
Washington D.C.
December 24, 1897

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/bmemo.htm

[Mika]

28. It stinks to high hell

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/7158920.htm

Castro referred to recent news reports that Cuban-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., had asked Schwarzenegger not to promote American trade to Cuba.

So, the Miamicuban "exiles" don't want California to promote jobs here at home.

Meanwhile, Ileana Ros Lehtinen's district (Miami) is THE poorest city in the USA, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the US (THE highest in black male unemployment).

Batistano-ism on full display. :puke: