Castro has 18 months to live, U.S. believes

[Mika]

Castro has 18 months to live, U.S. believes
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/15998493.htm

The U.S. government believes that Cuban leader Fidel Castro has terminal cancer and has less than 18 months to live, government officials say.

The information is not based on insider reports but rather on publicly available materials such as videos and still photographs of Castro released by the communist government, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The officials said the government is convinced that Castro suffers from terminal cancer but does not know what type of cancer or what part of his body it is affecting. It was not clear when the 18-month period began or ends.

-

But U.S. officials apparently do not know the exact nature of Castro's cancer. The Associated Press, citing U.S. and Defense Department officials, reported Sunday that the Cuban leader has cancer of the stomach, pancreas or colon.

The report says the U.S. officials believe Castro may not last through 2007, and would live up to 18 months if he undergoes chemotherapy, and three to eight months without it.

Great to see such spot-on investigative reporting again from the Miami Herald. :eyes:

[Kagemusha]

1. The guy's old enough that even if he has no cancer

he might not live 18 months.

Or he might.

Or he might not...

[Demit]

2. Diagnosis by video. Yes, this government's very good at that. n/t

[Scurrilous]

3. LOL

I heard this report this morning as I drove my kid to school and the first thing I thought of was Bill Frist's 'diagnosis' of Terry Schiavo.

I think the Herald prints this crap in order to keep their Cuban-American exilio readers (both of them) interested in their newspaper.

[BulletproofLandshark]

4. Paging Dr. Frist!

Dr. Frist, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[qanda]

5. I was thinking the exact same thing

What is wrong with these people?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. You beat me to it

n/t

[MrPrax]

7. The Magic 8 Ball doesn't lie!

Did someone let Psychic Juanita loose again in a CNN studio?

She hasn't spoken to Castro since 1963, the year before she emigrated to Miami. But Juanita Castro said her information about her brother is accurate.

"I have my way to know everything -- not everything, but some very important things," she said.

CNN

[onehandle]

8. Please let him live until January 21st, 2009

Bush will get the historical "credit" if Castro dies.

[Turbineguy]

9. Make it 23 months

and Rove won't have to invent an October surprise in 2008.

[The Count]

10. US Government is a doctor now? yeah, Terry Sciavo - not in a coma!

What an absurd headline!

[EFerrari]

11. The Miami Herald "We'll Print ANYTHING!"

In other news,






/oops

[sweetheart]

13. Boston!!

Really, like after a lifetime of hearing about a poor country making
due without violent insurgency, with a tiny fraction the prison population
of the warmongering states of race hate and corporate feudalism,
surviving all these years, and for that crime, living without violence
in a state of outstanding green credentials, the poor chappies in washington
needs ta find another evil doctor evil, one that makes them look less stupid.

The world's largest military is pathologically paranoid at a mouse under flordia,
its beyond irrational, just plain odd and silly, how the old batty uncle's alszimers
is progressing.

[EFerrari]

16. There must be a lot of drug abuse at the Miami Herald

because they run so much fantasy that's the only way you could account for it.

Maybe they drop acid every morning as a group?

[sweetheart]

19. If they dropped acid, they might tell the truth

It is an amazing truth syrum, just unfortunately for the CIA, real truth. :-)

No, they're high on cocaine, more mork from ork.

[Benhurst]

12. Great! This means it won't be long before the Pierce family

sugar plantation is back in the Bush Crime Family's hands.

I'll bet Ma Bush is practicing cracking her bull whip at this very moment.

[warrens]

14. If investigations uncover what I think they will

So do Smirk n Snarl. Treason is a hanging offense.

[FlaGranny]

15. Well, it's not very far fetched to think that.

Mr. Castro has a very "cachectic" appearance. He had "abdominal" surgery. Therefore, you must wonder if he had surgery for cancer of an abdominal organ. My VERY first thought when I saw video of him was that he was very feeble and was dying, probably from cancer. Also, when you have experience with a lot of elderly people, you can tell when they are on the way out. My husband has a lot of elderly customers (and we have elderly neighbors). I never fail to be correct when I tell him that one of his customers will soon be gone. Sometimes I can tell over the phone. No, I'm not being sarcastic - I have a lot of contact with these people and I really can tell - their voices change.

If you doubt me, go sit in the waiting room of an oncologist. It's usually easy to pick out those with only a short time left. Sometimes people can surprise you and die suddenly and not show many signs beforehand, but when the signs are there, you can be pretty certain.

[ngant17]

17. coming from the Miami Herald?

Well, you have to second-guess the source. I mean, weren't they just exposed recently for having some goverment-paid propagandists disguised as journalists on their payroll?

Various US government administrations, particularly Repugs, have been predicting the emminent demise of Fidel Castro on a periodic basis. At least they seem to have given up on direct political assassination of the man, so they can substitute something more benigh, like these annual "Castro is on his death-bed" notices in the press.

This fail the credibility test, as just about everything else coming from this now lame-duck president.

[Mika]

18. Yep, US gov paid propagandists disguised as journalists on their payroll..

.. fired, then rehired.

[Phredicles]

20. Ha! The poison the CIA put in his cigars is finally WORKING!

[dflprincess]

21. Is this another message Bush got from God?

Or is the CIA planning to take another try at murdering Castro?

[nealmhughes]

22. Actually, I have suspected that for some time, from the time that he fell

off the stage over a year ago. He didn't look well then. Then he was more and more out of public view, even at major patriotic events he always attended before.

The stomach operation had to have been a risk at his age, and would have only been done in dire straits.

Hugo and lots of others have been making an awful lot of courtesy calls lately, from his hospital room.

Tiene ochenta años y una vida llena de actos por el pueblo de su isla de el.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Here's an article published in Toronto a couple of weeks ago,

which has a slightly different tone!

Cuba's Castro appears on state TV
Oct. 28, 2006. 09:43 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS



REUTERS/CLAUDIA DAUT
A man watches television footage of Cuban leader
Fidel Castro in Havana on Saturday. The public
appearance was Castro's first since mid-September.

HAVANA — Cuban President Fidel Castro made his first public appearance in more than a month, walking and defiantly addressing recent rumours of his death in a video aired Saturday on state television.

The 80-year-old Cuban leader, who temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul in July following intestinal surgery, appeared thin and tired but read a newspaper in a loud voice and was shown walking slowly but steadily in an unidentified room.

“They’ve declared me moribund prematurely,” he said, holding a copy of Saturday’s edition of Granma, the Cuban Communist party daily newspaper.

“But it pleases me to send my compatriots and friends this small video.”
(snip/...)

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&col=968350060724&c=Article&cid=1162072211393&call_pageid=968332188854

[lpbk2713]

24. This *intel* is from the same govt that's been looking for OBL for over five years.

Therefore: Castro will outlive us all.

[daleo]

25. Well, Cheney looks pretty bad too

But he can still muster the energy to shoot lawyers in the face. So I wouldn't put too much stock on a video diagnosis.