The Predicted Cuba Siege Begins

It Was An Easy Prediction!
{Updated for: Monday, October 2nd, 2017}

      As expected, the sonic-wave mystery has virtually shut down the U. S. embassy in Havana, hurting Cubans and Americans. Major U. S. news outlets, including ABC News, today -- Monday, October 2nd, 2017 -- are reporting a new angle: "Frightening attacks on U. S. personnel in Havana struck the heart of the American spy network in Cuba with intelligence operatives being the first and most severely affected victims, the Associated press has learned. It wasn't until U. S. spies, posted to the embassy under diplomatic cover...the U. S. earlier had described the 21 sonic-wave victims as diplomats..." Those words from ABC News on Oct. 2nd puts a new wrinkle into the still evolving mystery, but there will be many more nuances in the coming days.

Photo courtesy: Adalberto Roque/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

       As we begin October-2017, we just passed a very sad weekend for Cubans on the island and awakened Monday to the horrendous shooting massacre in Las Vegas. The New York Times used the above photo to illustrate an article written by Ernesto Londono entitled: "Cubans Alarmed at U. S. Embassy Withdrawal and Travel Warning." The article began with these words: "It was grim, unsettling news: the United States warned Americans not to travel to Cuba and ordered the withdrawal of more than half its diplomats in Havana. The announcement...dealt a harsh blow to Cubans who had hoped the nascent normalization of relations with the United States that began in late 2014 would usher in a period of economic growth and greater prosperity." The NY Times article stated: "Groups of Cubans opposed to improved relations -- be it exiles or hard-line Cubans on the island -- could be to blame."

        What the New York Times wrote about on Sept. 29-2017 I had precisely and very easily predicted back on January 20-2017 with an essay on Cubaninsider entitled: "Cuba: Awaiting A Siege." It was posted, as you can research via Google, the day Trump replaced Obama as President of the United States. I knew then, as others should have known, that the Batistiano-controlled Trump would reverse the sane Cuban overtures his very decent predecessor, Obama, had made. Thus, predicting a "siege" on Cuba back on Jan. 20-2017 was easy as pie. That "siege" officially began this first weekend of October-2017 as reported by the worldwide media, including the aforementioned NY Times article.

    The above photo by Nicolas LaChance shows the thriving "La Dandy Restaurant" in Havana. After peaceful overtures from Obama, at age 25 Yaylen Vilches opened "La Dandy" two years ago. It became one of Havana's most popular privately owned restaurants. Its success, Yaylen told Nicolas LaChance, "was a dream come true." But in this weekend's aforementioned NY Times article, the devastated Yaylen was quoted as saying, "They keep throwing up obstacles against us," referring to the actions announced Friday-Sept. 29th by the U. S. government.

   The photo above by Emily Michot for the Miami Herald shows Americans leaving the U. S. Embassy in Havana this week -- Friday, Sept. 29th, 2017. The Miami Herald article written by Nora Gamez Torres lavishly quoted Miami members of the United States Congress -- counter-revolutionaries Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo -- ranting that the United States should "do more" against Cuba. Of course, "doing more" according to Rubio, Curbelo, and the Miami Herald might entail nuking Cuba.

      My "siege" prediction back on Jan. 20-2017 was predicated by past U.S.-Cuban history, including the photo-caption above. It shows a very scared President Clinton staring up at powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez. It was the day in 1996 when the reluctant but scared Clinton was forced to sign the cruel Helms-Burton Act into law, a Batistiano-directed act written by high-priced lawyers working at the behest of the all-time richest and most-powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban, Jorge Mas Canosa. The Helms-Burton Act, which can only be altered by Congress, to this day codifies the most stringent punishments of Cubans on the island while also enriching and empowering a handful of the most strident counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Americans who disagree with that assessment are cowards and enablers who have permitted such miscreants to dictate a Cuban policy...epitomized by Helms-Burton...that currently gets the U. S. condemned by a 191-to-0 unanimity in the United Nations. Helms-Burton evolved in 1996 when counter-revolutionary Cubans were alarmed with the knowledge that President Clinton intended to normalize relations with Cuba. Brothers to the Rescue planes, directed by one of Miami's most ardent counter-revolutionaries, began to torment Cuban airspace, even over Havana. After unheeded warnings to the US and the UN, Cuba shot down two of those planes either in or near its territorial waters. The provocational/shoot-down forced Clinton to end his plans to normalize relations with Cuba and go in the opposite direction -- signing Helms-Burton. The scared and unhappy Clinton soulfully glancing up at entrenched Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez in 1996 eerily has a nexus to today because Menendez is currently facing corruption and bribery federal charges related to his close ties to a multi-millionaire in Miami.

     Although the U. S. Congress consists of 535 members, the counter-revolutionary Cubans since 1959 have had no trouble getting the necessary few Congressmen -- such as Jesse Helms and Dan Burton -- to pass their self-serving legislation, such as the Helms-Burton Act that the rest of the world, by a 191-to-0 vote, condemns. Of course, like President Clinton in 1996, most Americans are too afraid to condemn it.

       Thus, the Helms-Burton saga in 1996 made it easy for me to predict back on January 20th, 2017, that a "siege" of Cuba was imminent. That "siege" started this first weekend of October-2017. The convenient provocation this time didn't involve Brothers to the Rescue planes. Instead it involves an equally convenient and very mysterious episode of U. S. diplomats in Havana being attacked by some sort of sonic waves that cause debilitating physical problems, such as loss of hearing.

      While counter-revolutionary zealots in the U. S. blame the Cuban government for the sonic-wave attacks against U. S. diplomats in Havana, not even the Trump administration -- after months of intense Cuba-assisted U. S. investigations in Havana -- blames Cuba. Not even Bush-connected anti-Cuba stalwarts like Michael Palmly blame the Cuban government, and Palmly is an expert on that subject. He was President Bush's anti-Cuban boss at the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 2005 till 2008. Palmly knows the Cuban government is not so stupid as to purposely try to end the revolutionary rule of the island. Cuba has begged the U. S. FBI and CIA and even the Canadian government to help Cuba find the sonic-wave culprits. Palmly believes the perpetrator may be a single rogue Cuban on the island who opposes peaceful U.S.-Cuban relations. Palmly says, "There is a struggle for the soul of the Cuban Revolution. It's entirely possible there are rogue elements." He meant either Cubans on the island or Cubans, say, in Miami. The London-based BBC, which has excellent reporters on the island, seems to agree with Palmly. The BBC this week featured sonic-wave experts that explained how easy it would be for one rogue person to Google and then purchase an apparatus that he or she could use to inflict such damage at the U. S. embassy or in Cuban hotels or homes.

      To understand the Helms-Burton Act and terrorist-provoked actions by CIA-connected Cuban-exiles determined to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, Americans need to read the great author Ann Louise Bardach's classics such as "Without Fidel." Her website references her brilliant books, essays and articles. On July 12th, 1998, her article in the New York Times quoted Luis Posada Carriles, the all-time most famous Cuban-exile/CIA-connected terrorist, explaining why he bombed a hotel in Havana, which killed an Italian tourist. It was to deter tourism to Revolutionary Cuba.

     To this day, very proud of decades of deadly terrorism against Cuba, Luis Posada Carriles remains a heralded citizen of Miami. He was on the CIA payroll for years and presumably has a nice pension. At one time in that 1998 Ann Louise Bardach interview in the NY Times, Posada mentioned his role in the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and even mentioned, in addition to the U. S. government, he was paid by the Bush-anointed richest and most powerful Cuban-exile Jorge Mas Canosa. But later Posada recanted those last two involvements but he has never recanted such things as his "collateral damage" from hotel bombings, etc., etc. 

        Cuba's top U. S. expert, veteran diplomat Josefina Vidal, told the NY Times in this weekend's scintillating article that the U. S. is unfairly punishing Cuba for the sonic attacks Cuba is trying to solve. She said, "It's a hasty decision that will affect the bilateral relations, specifically the cooperation in matters of mutual interest."

      It was Josefina Vidal who brilliantly represented Cuba in the touchy negotiations with the Obama administration that produced peaceful results in U.S.-Cuban relations that counter-revolutionaries, not surprisingly, are determined to scuttle. She told the NY Times this weekend, "Cuba, as the U. S. knows, was committed deeply to working with the top U. S. and Canadian experts to determine the cause of the terrible symptoms experienced by the American and Canadian diplomats." Clearly, Vidal believes that no one...except extremist counter-revolutionaries...could possibly maintain that Cuba's revolutionary government would try to sabotage its own government with "such asinine and cruel stupidity."

      But in 2017, with the Trump administration having replaced the Obama presidency, America's CUBA POLICY is largely in the hands of the U. S. counter-revolutionary U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio. That today is as dangerous to Cuba and to the U. S. democracy as 1996 was when America's CUBA POLICY scared President Clinton because it was then being dictated by counter-revolutionary Helms-Burton-orchestrator Jorge Mas Canosa. Today Rubio, falsely projected as a choirboy by the U. S. media, claims that punishing 11.2 million totally innocent Cubans on the island is necessary to punish "the Castros." Like President Clinton in 1996, most Americans today are too afraid to challenge Rubio and even too afraid to wonder why only counter-revolutionaries like Rubio keep getting elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress when the vast majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba. But Congressmen like Mr. Rubio primarily represent themselves, not the majority of people/Cuban-Americans in Miami. 

     Meanwhile, because of a handful of rich and powerful Cuban-Americans like Rubio, totally innocent Cubans every day of their entire lives are severely punished in the name of the United States of America. I'm speaking of Cubans like the ones shown above who recently endured hurricane ravaged streets in their capital city. All their lives, like their parents before them, they suffer, not just from natural calamities, but mostly from self-serving counter-revolutionaries hiding behind the might of superpower America because two generations of Americans have not had the guts or decency to challenge politicians such as Rubio, Helms, Burton, etc.

      Instead of hurting "the Castros," this is the type Cuban that Rubio hurts. Her name is Julia de la Rosa. Thanks to the decent overtures by President Obama, Julia created a thriving 10-room Bed & Breadfast business that includes a pool and a stunning view of Havana. She was scared when Trump {Rubio} replaced Obama and those fears surfaced for Julia this weekend as she told the NY Times and as she tearfully told Andrea Mitchell of NBC News a couple of months ago. She told the NY Times this weekend, "Preventing two countries that are so close to engage culturally is a crime. This doesn't just hurt us; they are hurting people in both countries." Of course, Americans are not supposed to pay attention to Julia's tears because they are required to support Rubio's vengeance against "the Castros."

        Thousands of private Cuban entrepreneurs thrived thanks to President Obama and the drastic changes Cuba made to accommodate Obama's wishes. But when Trump became the U. S. President, worried entrepreneurs composed a letter...the letter being displayed above...and took it to Washington. The letter, plus their statements, begged President Trump to "let us keep making livings for our families." But Republican President Trump, like Democratic President Clinton in 1996, is afraid of counter-revolutionaries like Rubio. So the sweet letter was doomed.

        A Cuban that understands Cuba is Harold Cardenas who authors the popular "La Joven Cuba" blog. He agrees with the popular opinion that some rogue, not the Cuban government, is behind the sonic-wave attacks on the diplomats in Cuba. This weekend's NY Times article used this exact quote from Harold Cardenas: "In Cuba there is a sector that considers improved relations with the United States a betrayal."

      And so, Cubans on the island are very sad this weekend, including Cristina Escobar. She is Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist and an influential leader of the all-important young-adult generation of Cubans. In Cuba and on U. S. soil she has made these two firm statements: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island" and "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." So, she doesn't just blame counter-revolutionaries like Menendez and Rubio. She blames the U. S. media for lying about Cuba and about the likes of Menendez and Rubio. But most of all, she blames the American people for letting rogues dictate Cuban policies.

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