Cuba And The U.S. Media

Mostly A Barren, Biased Wasteland
Updated: Wednesday, June 10th, 2015

        Al Neuharth, a superb journalist and visionary from South Dakota, founded USA Today in 1982. Today and for the past three decades, I have subscribed to his invention, both the print version and online. I think USA Today was a great idea and remains a great American newspaper. However, when it comes to Cuba, USA Today, like the rest of the mainstream U. S. media, is extremely biased as it caters only to anti-Cuban extremists in Miami. In doing so, Americans are incessantly pommeled with anti-Cuban propaganda from self-serving politicians and promoters while opposing views are rarely, if ever, mentioned.

        Alan Gomez -- based in Miami, of course -- is USA Today's top columnist on all things Cuban. Like most of America's high profile journalists or propagandists regarding Cuba, Mr. Gomez has a serious generational hatred of Revolutionary Cuba and, obviously, somewhat of a fondness for the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that preceded it prior to 1959. This week {Monday, June 8th} Mr. Gomez's column in USA Today was entitled "Cuba In Congress' Cross Hairs Again." When he stuck to facts, he explained how vicious anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress from Miami are using an underhanded tactic to, as he put it, "block the president's plan to expand trade with Cuba." Those devious tactics, which Mr. Gomez seems to champion, involve members of Congress from Miami, such as Mario Diaz-Balart, attaching anti-Cuban bills to much larger so-called "must pass" bills working their way through Congress, such as the vast Transportation Bill that needs to be passed. In his typically biased column yesterday, Mr. Gomez, in the column itself and in bold headlines above it, quoted Miami's U. S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart as saying, "People don't want to just give up all leverage, getting nothing in return for the United States and doing nothing for the Cuban people." Since 1959, when the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was overthrown and quickly reconstituted in South Florida, two generations of the extremely rich and powerful Diaz-Balart family, and a handful of others like it, have successfully reserved the right to dictate America's Cuban policy, which the rest of the world and almost all democracy-lovers oppose. By never mentioning that Miami's entrenched contributions to the U. S. Congress might be more than a bit biased regarding Cuba, USA Today and the rest of the compliant U. S. media do a disservice to the U. S. democracy, just as right-wingers {such as the Dulles brothers} permanently harmed the U. S. democracy in 1952 when the U. S. government teamed with the Mafia to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba -- a disastrous imperialist adventure that spawned the Cuban Revolution, which in turn gave birth to Little Havana in nearby Miami, Florida.

        This WLRN.org photo shows three generations of Diaz-Balarts. On the left is the grandfather Rafael Diaz-Balart. He was a well-to-do mayor and legislator in Cuba. In the middle is his son, also named Rafael. In the upper-right is Rafael Jr.'s son Lincoln, who was born in Havana on August 13th, 1954, and thus Lincoln shares a birthday with...Fidel Castro, who was born on August 13th, 1926. In the lower right is Rafael Jr.'s son Mario, who was born in Miami/Fort Lauderdale in 1961. Both Lincoln and Mario were elected to the United States Congress from Miami. Lincoln resigned his entrenched congressional seat to, among other things, create a second anti-Castro La Rosa Blanca {The White Rose} organization. Lincoln's dad Rafael Jr. had created the first White Rose in 1959 as the very first very powerful anti-Castro paramilitary unit.

      This photo shows Rafael Diaz-Balart, in the middle and flanked by the infamous Masferrer brothers, attending a pro-Batista political rally in 1958. All three, soon after this photo, fled the Cuban Revolution.

        Rafael Diaz-Balart died of leukemia at age 79 on May 6, 2005, in Key Biscayne, Florida. He was born on January 17, 1926, in Banes, Cuba...the same year {on August 13th} that Fidel Castro was born on a nearby farm owned by his rich dad Angel Castro. Rafael and Fidel were later bosom buddies as classmates at the University of Havana Law School. In fact, Fidel in 1948 married Rafael's beautiful sister Mirta. But in the 1950s Rafael and Fidel went separate ways. Rafael ended up as a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and Fidel became a rebel determined to overthrow Batista. When that accomplishment shocked the world on January 1, 1959, the first generation of Cuban exiles -- personified by Rafael -- operated freely from South Florida in massive efforts to assassinate/overthrow Fidel. That didn't happen. But the second generation of Cuban exiles -- personified by Rafael's sons Lincoln and Mario -- are to this day conducting massive efforts to topple the soon-to-be 89-year-old Fidel's Cuba. That probably won't happen either, but the effort continues to create a vast economic and political cottage industry headquartered in Miami but now also with a tight grip on the U. S. Congress that the U. S. media pretends does not exist. Rafael Diaz-Balart, with vast post-Batista holdings in Spain and South Florida, was a very, very rich man...almost on a par with other ultra-rich Cuban exiles in South Florida such as the billionaire Fanjul and Canosa families.

         Meanwhile, an ill and weak Fidel Castro, who was born far richer than Rafael was, lives in a modest Havana home with his wife Dalia and one of their five sons, Alex. Dalia and Alex are his primary caretakers. On August 13th he is due to turn 89 although some believe he is too weak to make it to...August 13, 2015. 

         Louis A. Perez Jr. is one of the world's greatest and most unbiased experts on Cuba and on U.S.-Cuban relations. That, unfortunately, is the prime reason you will never see or hear him on any of the major U. S. news networks or programs, all of whom much prefer biased anti-Cuban propaganda espoused by self-serving benefactors or promoters. The reason is two-fold -- longtime intimidation or political correctness. Louis A. Perez Jr. is a prolific journalist and author about Cuba, with the above book -- "Cuba In The American Imagination" -- among his classics. He is also the Director of the Institute For The Study Of The Americas at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In the first week of June, 2015, the U. S. networks featured anti-Cuban vitriol from the likes of John Boehner, the right-wing Speaker of the House of Representatives, along with the usual litany of anti-Cuban Cuban-American stalwarts Rubio, Cruz, Diaz-Lalart, Ros-Lehtinen, Menendez, etc. Meanwhile the U. S. networks wouldn't touch or mention much more insightful and far more unbiased major Cuban articles penned by Sarah Stephens, the head of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas; Peter Kornbluh, the head of the Cuba Project at the Washington-based U. S. National Security Archives; and Louis A. Perez Jr., the head of the Institute For The Study Of The Americas; etc. The sheer fact that Stephens, Kornbluh, Perez Jr., etc., are America's best unbiased Cuban experts disqualifies them from having their insight or views exposed on mainstream U. S. outlets. And that, as Perez Jr. has stated, is "much more an American problem than a Cuban problem."

       Louis A. Perez Jr, now 72, on June 5th penned a long article carried by "La Prensa San Diego" and other similar publications but it was far too accurate and unbiased to be mentioned by the mainstream U. S. media, which feasted on Rubio, Boehner, Menendez, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, etc., viciously maligning President Obama for removing Cuba from the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list. Here, by way of contrast, is the first sentence of Perez Jr.'s article: "On May 29, the United States removed Cuba from the list of 'state sponsors of terrorism' as one more step toward normalization of relations between the two countries. But, historically, it is the United States that has sponsored terrorism against Cuba." Throughout that article Perez Jr., an unchallenged expert on such history, revealed in detail gruesome U. S. terrorist acts against innocent Cubans, much of it perpetrated without consequences by the most vicious CIA-trained-and-funded exiles from the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba -- such as Luis Posada Carriles, still an honored citizen of Miami. Lopez Jr. wrote: "The United States engaged in a program of extralegal paramilitary operations as part of the failed attempts at Cuban regime change all through the early 1960s. These efforts included the Bay of Pigs invasion, scores of assassination attempts against Cuban leaders and numerous other covert operations. The intent was to bring about the collapse of the Cuban government, the CIA itself explained in 1963, through a 'strategy of economic strangulation to weaken and undermine the regime.' One planned operation the CIA detailed was designed to 'control major sabotage operations targets against Cuban industry and public utilities.' Another CIA project included 'the contamination of fuel and lubricants' as well as 'the introduction of foreign material into moving parts of machinery.' One plan specifically directed that 'fuel and food supplies should be sabotaged,' while another directive prescribed 'major acts of sabotage on shipping destined for Cuba and on key installations in Cuba.' The United States especially targeted sugar production, Cuba's principal source of foreign exchange. Covert operations involved planned arson of cane fields, sabotage of sugar machinery, and acts of chemical warfare including the spreading of chemicals in sugarcane fields to sicken Cuban cane cutters." While you won't find Louis A Perez Jr. on your U. S. "news" programs, you should become familiar with his books and also go online to study his aforementioned June 5th article. The U. S. media will provide unlimited free space and air time for Rubio, Diaz-Balart, Bush, etc., to spew propaganda about Cuba while being too scared or too biased to air the views of a Louis A. Perez Jr.

    Sarah Stephens is the democracy-loving Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. She is, beyond question, one of the world's greatest unbiased experts on Cuba and on U.S.-Cuban relations. And that, unfortunately, is precisely why you will seldom if ever see or hear her in the mainstream U. S. media, which reserves its Cuban reporting for anti-Cuban zealots. Ms. Stephens each Friday writes the CDA's "Cuba Central" blog. Her June 5th blog again excoriated Miami congressmen Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart for using their right-wing power in Congress to prey on innocent Cubans. This past Friday she singled out Diaz-Balart for his "budget bills moving through the House to shut down President Obama's travel reforms and other features of our historic diplomatic opening with Cuba." She added, "Of course, U. S. firms can easily do business with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China -- among many other countries -- and U. S. travelers freely visit those places as Senator Rubio's Deputy Chief of Staff did last year on an all-expense paid trip to Beijing." Rubio's hypocrisy in regards to Cuba is not supposed to be noticed by uncaring Americans but Ms. Stephens is a democracy-lover that cares. She flatly accused Rubio of "trying to starve the island and its people," presumably to enhance his economic and political positions. And this past Friday Ms. Stephens wrote, "The U. S. State Department has declassified documents documenting the role of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles in the 1976 terrorist attack on a Cuban airplane, the Miami Herald reports. The document shows that Posada, a trained CIA informant, alerted the Central Intelligence Agency of his plans to bomb the Cuban airliner en route from Panama to Havana. The document shows that the CIA...failed to act...and failed to alert Cuba of the plans. Years of documentary evidence assembled by the National Security Archive and others put Posada at the center of the plot to bomb the airliner in an attack that killed 73 persons on board." Ms. Stephens also mentioned documentary evidence that tied Posada to other horrendous terrorist acts, and she often notes that, thanks to incredible actions by the Bush dynasty and Miami-based members of Congress, Posada is a heralded free man today in Miami, recently in the news for leading an anti-Obama, anti-Cuban tourism street rally.

         George H. W. Bush was CIA Director only one year. But that year, 1976, was by far the bloodiest year for terrorist acts against Cuba, including the Oct. 6-1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 that killed 73 people. The Wikipedia photo above shows Mr. Bush when he was CIA Director, which lasted 357 days -- from January 30, 1976 till January 20, 1977. That brutal year marked the nadir of CIA-related Cuban violence.

        This Wikipedia photo shows George H. W. Bush with President Dwight Eisenhower. It was the Republican Eisenhower administration that in 1960 turned over to incoming President John Kennedy the CIA/Cuban exile plans to recapture Cuba, including the Bay of Pigs attack in April of 1963 that Kennedy was forced to sign off on. Later, Kennedy did an about-face on Cuba, once famously bellowing to his staff that he wished he could "blow the CIA to smithereens!" Then in November of 1963 Kennedy famously told Pierre Salinger and other key aides that his "main priority" when he got back from Dallas was to "normalize relations with Cuba." On Nov. 22-1963 Kennedy returned from Dallas in a coffin. The above photo of George H. W. Bush with outgoing President Eisenhower in 1959 is interesting because some great investigative journalists -- including Jack Anderson and Robert Parry -- wrote that GHW Bush in the early 1960s was far more engaged with the CIA, particularly concerning Cuba, than with his oil business in Texas. In fact, while with the Associated Press and Newsweek, Robert Parry spent countless but fruitless days following GHW Bush trying desperately to ask him about his ties to nefarious Cuban projects. Parry today runs Consortiumnews and you can reach him there or just Google his award-winning investigative work.

          Robert Parry is now 65-years-old. In 1985 for his stupendous investigative reporting for the Associated Press and Newsweek Magazine, Robert Parry won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. 

A great book by Robert Parry.

      Tim Padgett remains a rare bird in American journalism, especially considering that his home-base is Miami, the capital of South Florida's lush Banana Republic. Tim is not only a great reporter -- specializing on the Caribbean and Latin America -- but he also has the guts and the integrity to sharply criticize Castro's Cuba or to sharply criticize the vast cottage industry in the U. S. that makes economic and political hay out of unfairly assaulting and propagandizing Castro's Cuba. And Tim has been doing this for a long time. Since 1990 he has served as Bureau Chief in the Miami region for such enterprises as Time and Newsweek magazines. He currently is based in Miami for the WLRN-Miami Herald collaboration. Journalists in Miami, by their nature, are expected to say nothing but positives things about the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and, by the same token, report on only negatives about Revolutionary Cuba, especially while serving as propagandists to support the political and economic aspirations of Miami's Cuban-Americans. Miami journalists who have departed from that axiom have paid dearly for their integrity -- such as Emilio Milian who objected to such things as the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and Jim DeFede who got fired as a top Miami Herald columnist shortly after he wrote a scathing column excoriating Miami members of the U. S. Congress -- the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- for their incredible work on behalf of infamous Cuban-American terrorists, most notably Luis Posada Carriles. Most journalists, in Miami and elsewhere, got the message regarding any journalism related to Cuba. Tim Padgett, a very brave man, is the exception. His column the first week of June right there in Miami was entitled: "How Rubio Can Fix His Cuba Double Standard." Remember now, journalists in Washington and New York...not to mention Miami...are not supposed to say anything negative about Marco Rubio, the first-time U. S. Senator from Miami, now that Rubio is a major Republican presidential candidate. Padgett wrote: "I'm waiting any moment now for Marco Rubio to demand that President Obama recall our ambassador to China and shut down our embassy there." Then the very brave Tim Padgett explained how Mr. Rubio licks up to mighty China while pummeling little Cuba unmercifully to enhance his banks accounts, his PACs, and his poll numbers. For example, Padgett wrote: "Like the time -- just last year, actually -- that Beijing paid for a junket his aides took to the People's Republic for friendly talks on trade and foreign policy." Mr. Padgett, of course, implied that China paid for that junket to impress Rubio's U. S. Senate votes. Merely to write such words in a major forum of the U. S. media in 2015 separates Tim Padgett from his Miami colleagues but also from mainstream U. S. electronic, print, or online "journalists." Tim Padgett is a brave man and a great reporter, even concerning Cuba.

All of which reminds me of.........

         ..........................Cristina Escobar. At age 26, she is the top journalist in Cuba. She hosts the country's top program on state television -- The Round Table. Last month she made a star-studded trip to Washington to cover the 4th diplomatic session featuring Cuba's Josefina Vidal and America's Roberta Jacobson. Cristina, fluent in English as well as Spanish, garnered headlines of her own when she fired a series of pertinent questions at White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest during a crowded news conference. For example, she asked Earnest if he thought the U. S. diplomats at the proposed U. S. embassy in Havana "would be respectful?" She was plainly implying that she didn't think the U. S. diplomats at the 7-story U. S. Interests Section building in Havana have been "respectful" in their efforts to undermine the Cuban government. But after that introduction at the Josh Earnest news conference, Cristina made some standing-room-only speeches around the U. S. capital, presumably at pre-arranged pro-Cuban affairs. At each stop she made it plain that "my main mission to the United States is to point out that the lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans more than it hurts the intended target, our government. In Cuba, on my program and in talks, I feel more free to criticize my government than I believe the U. S. journalists are free to tell the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. That surprises me, especially the lack of input from U. S. citizens." Beyond her obvious photogenic and telegenic prowess, Cristina came across as a well educated and brilliant journalist. Perhaps highlighting her Washington trip are the rumors bouncing around the Caribbean that she was offered "3 million tax-free dollars" if she would defect to Miami and denounce the Cuban government. A Jamaican journalist who knows her well said, "Trust me, such offers have interested a lot of others but that's not in Cristina's DNA."  

      On Sunday, June 7th, the Philadelphia Enquirer introduced America to a Cuban lady named Margarita Alvarez. The article was written by Michael Matza and was entitled "U. S. Executives Explore Possibilities In Cuba." Margarita is a prime example of Cubans awaiting what they hope will be a U. S. relaxation of the 54-year economic embargo against Cuba. She owns an old mansion in Havana that was splendidly built in 1901, complete with 18-foot ceilings, marble floors, etc. It's a bit worn down now but the entrepreneurial-minded Margarita uses two neat rooms in the back for a very successful Bed & Breakfast, called Casa Particular in Cuba. Recently a Cuban, obviously fronting a large wad of U. S. money, offered Margarita $400,000 for her old mansion. She quickly said, "No, gracias." It will take a much larger cash offer than that to interest Margarita. Her mansion is located within three blocks of the fabled, refurbished Hotel Nacional. It is within easy walking distance of Havana's famed Malecon seawall. Location! Location! Location! A real estate agent's and a property owner's dream! Some of the richest people in the Western Hemisphere are eyeing Cuba as an investment opportunity. Margarita Alvarez knows that. So, she's not ready to sell her old mansion for a measly $400,000 right now. But...she does have a very neat and convenient Bed & Breakfast in Havana that she would be happy to rent you at a very reasonable price.

Meanwhile, back in the U. S......... 

      ...............this is a beautiful Baltimore Oriole coming in for a perfect landing. His human friend leaves his favorite snack, strawberry jelly, in this plastic dish to make sure he shows up regularly in her backyard.

{Baltimore Oriole photo courtesy of Jill Spaake/Birds & Bloom Magazine}

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Punishing Cuba Is Punishing Caribbean

Says Caribbean Elder Statesman

          P. J. Patterson was the Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 till 2006. He is now 80-years-old and still in good health...and still the most respected and most influential Caribbean statesman. Recently, at this year's CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum held at the Hilton Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Mr. Patterson triumphantly heralded President Obama's plans to normalize relations with Cuba and, in particular, remove Cuba from the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list, which Mr. Patterson called "grossly unjust and an undeserved punishment by the region's superpower that shows it is willing to hurt Cubans and thus all Caribbeans just to appease a few remnants from a long-ago righteously overthrown U.S.-backed regime in Cuba." At that Montego Bay forum he told the European businessmen that the Caribbean had 37 millions "customers and consumers, with over 11 million in our biggest and most important nation, Cuba." Also at that session, as he is doing elsewhere, Mr. Patterson tried to assure the other Caribbean nations that the expected influx of tourism in Cuba, due to the thaw in its relations with the U. S., should be welcomed and not considered competitive. He said, "Instead of people spending their time warning about how the advent of tourist arrivals in Cuba is going to affect the Caribbean, let's spend our time in seeing how, out of that alliance, the entire region is going to benefit by the creation of multiple destinations and multicultural experiences. For all these decades since the 1950s, the entire Caribbean has been punished by the U. S. punishing Cuba to comply with the demands of the Batista-Mafia remnants. If President Obama can end or even dent that wickedness, let all the Caribbean nations rejoice, not just the deserving Cubans on their nice island."

          As the long-time Prime Minister of Jamaica, P. J. Patterson had the courage...some say the audacity...to repeatedly thank Fidel Castro for Cuban projects that "profoundly helped Jamaicans and all Caribbeans." He was referencing Cuba's medical expertise that has been shared with nations in the region; giving free scholarships to Cuba's medical school, which happens to be the world's largest; and for such things as Cuba's Operation Miracle whereby Cuba has provided thousands of totally free eye operations to Caribbeans too poor to have otherwise ever hoped for such vital sight-saving and in some cases sight-restoring procedures. Mr. Patterson, in international forums such as the one above, has had the guts to say, "Fidel Castro knows that, at times, I have criticized him. But, unlike the United States, I also have the courage and the decency to attribute good deeds to him, and one of those good needs was chasing the Batista and Mafia crooks off the island and keeping them out of the Caribbean, although dangerously nearby." Some Jamaicans still criticize Mr. Patterson for such statements, not because they believe them to be wrong but because they advise him that it will reduce U. S. economic and commercial aid to Jamaica. Indeed, Mr. Patterson was once outraged because "A Jamaican company with ties to an American company was just fined a huge amount by the United States because the Jamaican company was guilty of selling a box of baby aspirin to Cuba! Guilty! Guilty! WHO ARE THE CROOKS HERE? I'll tell you...the ones with the biggest guns!"

But that's the Caribbean!

Now let's fast-forward to the U. S.:

        In the last few days, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio -- the two leading Republican presidential contenders -- have gone ballistic in ranting, raving, bellowing, and spewing against President Obama's plans to open a U. S. embassy in Havana and, particularly, removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Bush and Rubio, first off, should have enough personal decency to rant and rave about problems, far removed from their own multiple mansions, in U. S. slums and U. S. streets where crime is rampant and where some people who are not living under bridges are sleeping in cardboard boxes on streets and in parks. Also, of course, Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio should have enough decency, as Mr. Patterson in Jamaican constantly points out, not to punish 37 million Caribbeans because of their own revenge, economic, and political motives in hurting 11 million Cubans. Of course, Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio can ignore the opinions of Caribbean and world nations because {1} most Americans don't have the courage, intelligence, or the patriotism to care; and {2} most of the mainstream U. S. media has neither the courage nor the integrity to hold Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio accountable for their undemocratic and unfathomable assaults on innocent people in smaller nations, all in the name of "hurting Castro" but in the name of adding to their own economic and political fortunes.

Yet, in the U. S. media.......

there are exceptions to cowardice and incompetence:

      DeWayne Wickham is the long-time top columnist for USA Today, America's largest newspaper. In direct reaction to the Bush and Rubio rants about Cuba being removed from the Sponsors of Terrorism list, Wickham's column yesterday -- June 2nd -- was entitled: "U. S. Terrorism List A Lesson In Hypocrisy." He began that column with this exact sentence: "Finally, Cuba is no longer on America's list of state sponsors of terrorism, which in the case of our Caribbean Island neighbor has long been a badly tarnished label." He pointed out that Cuba was unfairly put on the list in 1982 when the Ronald Reagan administration "secretly sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to send arms to the Contras -- in violation of a federal law." The Contras at the time were fighting the Cuban-backed Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas were led by a young rebel named Danny Ortega who since has been democratically elected and re-elected as Nicaragua's President and one of Latin America's best Cuban friends who idolizes Castro. Wickham then added what most U. S. journalists are afraid to mention: "But if Cuba had its own Most Wanted Terrorist list, Luis Posada Carriles would top it. Posada is widely believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner near Barbados that took the lives of 73 people. The Cuban exile lives openly in South Florida, where he's widely regarded as a hero for his acts of terrorism..." Wickham's last exact sentence in Tuesday's USA Today was: "The fact that Posada, an alleged terrorist who aided the U. S. effort to maintain hegemony over this hemisphere, was given safe harbor in the United States long ago undermined U. S. standing to accuse other nations of sponsoring terrorism." That and other well-known aspects of America's Cuban policy harms the United States and its cherished democracy a lot more than it harms Cuba, but that appears of little concern to benefactors such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both of whom can spend countless hours on U. S. television networks without ever having to worry about any questions concerning their support, tacit or otherwise, of vile and historic shameful acts against innocent Cubans who were terror victims.

This Miami New Times photo shows Luis Posada Carriles in Miami.

      Peter Kornbluh, a great author and investigative journalist, is the incomparable Cuban expert at the U. S. National Security Archives in Washington, D. C. On that website and in his books Mr. Kornbluh has listed page-after-page of previously classified U. S. documents about terrorist acts against Cuba, including but not ending with Cubana Flight 455 data that most U. S. authors-journalists-news reporters are afraid to mention. This past weekend, in reaction to the Bush-Rubio tirades about President Obama removing Cuba from the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list, Mr. Kornbluh penned a long article that was spread around the world by Yahoo News and other international outlets, and it was far more scathing and direct than the column DeWayne Wickham had in USA Today yesterday. Of course, Americans have longed been programmed to get their Cuban news from the likes of Bush, Rubio, and Posada...such as "IT'S THE BIGGEST BLOW YET AGAINST CASTRO!!" which was the famous battle-cry in the Miami media when the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 was confirmed. The U. S. citizens who to this day ignorantly or pusillanimously accept that battle-cry have done and are doing massive harm to democracy in the guise of harming Castro. That is the point brave people like Peter Kornbluh have been saying for many years.

And by the way.............. 

             ....................Drew Sheneman is one of America's greatest Editorial Cartoonists. He works at The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey and is syndicated nationally by Tribune Media Services. This week's Sheneman gem depicts some of the Republican presidential contenders with a 7-word aphorism coming from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: "You guys wanna share a clown car?" Great Editorial Cartoonists, using just a few words to highlight daunting sketches, can say a lot more than most journalists using hundreds or thousands of words. Actually, I believe Mr. Sheneman is stressing that the unending line of Republican presidential candidates is taking advantage of America's money-crazed political system that enables them to raise money even if they never can hope to be real contenders. Christie's mention of the "clown car" actually demeans the U. S. voters. After all, if money is the prime aspect of politics and the voters allow it to happen and to continue, the real "clowns" are us voters, not the greedy politicians.

      Rob Rogers is the great Editorial Cartoonist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and he is nationally syndicated by United Features Syndicate. He called his masterpiece this week "Bernie and Goliath." He was telling you, correctly, that your cherished democratic government has been purchased by the rich and that only presidential candidates who sell out to the millionaires and billionaires have the billions of dollars now needed to campaign. The Bernie in the title is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent running as a Democrat against Hillary Clinton. But he is famous for not selling out to anybody and for using his position in the Senate to constantly rail against politicians who indeed do sell out to everybody and anybody. Rob Rogers astutely is showing you that poor little Bernie with his sling-shot and nothing else doesn't stand a chance against Goliath, in this case the Clinton money-machine that more-and-more is tied to incredible amounts of money from Wall Street billionaires and foreign despots not to mention a plethora of speeches by Bill and Hillary Clinton that have garnered singular "payments" of $500,000-or-more per speech, pretending the speech itself is worth it. In other words, as Rob Rogers seems to indicate here, that money-crazed albatross will likely doom Bernie first and then Hillary, the only Democrat with the requisite billions needed to run. On the Republican side, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are also flush with billionaire "donors" because they, too, hang out "For Sale" signs. That's how to get elected.

Which reminds me...........

        ....................that Josefina Vidal believes that both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio will take the presidential sweepstakes away from Hillary Clinton. If Bush is the President, she believes Rubio will then be massively groomed to be the future President. But Vidal believes Rubio will defeat his mentor, Bush, and win the Republican presidential nomination. Alright, you say, what the hell does she know about U. S. politics? Well, Vidal knows a lot more than the high-priced pundits you see nightly on American television. They are there to make money and promote themselves, and fill a lot of airtime for networks that otherwise might need to actually go out and gather the news. Vidal is Cuba's unabashed and unchallenged expert on all things American. For the past fifteen years her prognostications about U. S. politics have been uncannily accurate. If they had not been so, it is highly likely that during the pre-Obama two-term George W. Bush administration the U. S. and its phalanx of Cuban-American extremists would have ended Cuba's status as a sovereign nation...and that was especially true during the brief, bloody, and shameful period when George W. Bush put Otto Reich and Roger Noriega in charge of America's Latin American Affairs. During the brief Reich-Noriega reign, the Cuba-friendly democratically elected Venezuelan government was overturned in a coup, quickly recognized by Washington. If that had been allowed to stand, Vidal figured Cuba would be next. Like most Bush-era anti-Cuban zealots, Reich and Noriega continue on as powerful lobbyists...using vast wealth and connections to target Cuba. During the last Bush era Vidal, if Cuba was to survive, had to be right on all major U. S. prognostications. She was. Now, even while she tries to engineer normal relations with the U. S. while Obama has fifteen months or so left in office, Vidal is preparing for a Jeb Bush-Marco Rubio control of the White House along with Commander-in-Chief status beginning in 2016. If that seems far-fetched, remember...if Vidal makes a major misjudgment about the U. S., Cuba's existence as a sovereign nation will be history, analogous to the 1950s Batista-Mafia era. So, when it comes to the top echelon of U. S. politics, Vidal probably knows a lot more than your favorite pundit. And if that were not so, Cuba as we know it would have ceased to exist during the last Bush presidency and will cease to exist the next time a Bush, or a Rubio, takes control of Commander-in-Chief honors. That's merely the Cuban facts of life...with the island's future very tightly tied to Vidal's wisdom.

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Obama's Cuban Fasination

An Obsession Destined To Make History 
{One Way...Or The Other}
Sunday, May 31st, 2015

        Pele, the Brazilian legend and the greatest soccer player of all-time, will accompany one of his former teams, the New York Cosmos, to Havana next Tuesday to watch the Cosmos play a Cuban national team. In 1978 the Chicago Sting traveled to Cuba and played a Cuban team but that was long ago when a decent U. S. President, Jimmy Carter, was trying his best to normalize relations with Cuba. On June 2nd in this year of 2015 the New York Cosmos will play in Cuba because a decent U. S. President, Barack Obama, is trying his best to normalize relations with Cuba. The iconic Pele is now 74-years-old. Oh, my, Pele. How time flies!!

        On April 11th at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City {AP photo}, President Obama told President Castro that he was removing Cuba from the U. S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, a list that has so mightily pleased the most extremist Cuban exiles for three decades. That presidential promise came to fruition this week -- Friday, May 29th, 2015. As of now, Cuba is not listed as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

      This Getty Images photo taken this week -- Thursday, May 28th -- in Miami reflects President Barack Obama's abiding and history-making fascination with Cuba. On his visit to Miami, President Obama is shown paying homage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, the Catholic patron saint of Cuba. As this photo was taken, the President was discussing the massive 747-square-foot mural at the Cuban-themed site in Miami.

      In a statement heard around the world on December 17th, 2014, President Obama said: "Today the United States is taking historic steps to chart a new course in our relations with Cuba and to fraternize and empower the Cuban people." It was a brave statement, the bravest any American President has dared to make since 1959 when the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship was overthrown in Cuba only to resurface with its headquarters in Miami. Following up on his December 17th statement, President Obama bravely defied the powerful Miami contingent in the U. S. Congress and removed Cuba from the U. S. State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Yes, that removal became effective Friday, May 29th, 2015. It paves the way for the impending monumentally historic reopening of the U. S. Embassy in Cuba and the subsequent reopening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington. Regardless of what happens in the days and months to come {and a whole lot will happen because of the massive power of the anti-Cuban Cuban-American lobby}, President Obama has already crowned a notch on his legacy as the bravest and most effective President in U. S. history to stand up to the awesomely powerful right-wing contingent that has dictated America's disastrous Cuban policy since the 1950s, a policy that the entire world also opposes.

       Last week Cristina Escobar, Cuba's stunning 27-year-old superstar journalist, made history by becoming the first Cuban journalist to quiz a White House Press Secretary at a major news conference. She, in fact, stunned Washingtonians in speeches around town and Press Secretary Josh Earnest at the news conference with a barrage of questions that U. S. journalists simply do not have the courage or the integrity to ask: "Do you think U. S. diplomats at a Cuban embassy will be respectful instead of using the U. S. Embassy as a cesspool for dissidents?" "After a normalization or modernization of relations, will this cut down on the many regime change programs funded by the U. S. Congress?" "Does this mean that the U. S. media and the U. S. government will begin to tell the truth, not lies, about Cuba?" "Will Obama be allowed to continue peaceful overtures to Cuba?" At several standing-room-only speeches, Escobar's scathing statements and questions were well received. At the news conference, the President's Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, responded with a long litany of scripted U. S. positions on why the U. S. will continue its regime change programs "on behalf of the deserving Cubans on the island." Well, Cristina Escobar on her stunning visit to Washington made it plain that she is a deserving Cuban on the island. She is also the island's journalistic superstar as the host of the nightly must-see/must-hear Round Table in prime time on state television and radio. Escobar's final question to Josh Earnest was the easiest one: "Can we expect Obama to visit Cuba in 2016." Departing from his scripted comments to the tough earlier questions, Josh earnestly answered the last one. He replied: "The President would relish the opportunity to visit the island of Cuba."

 This image of Cristina Escobar was used by www.cibercuba.com to illustrate the incident in Washington when the gorgeous young Cuban journalist was approached and interviewed in a parking lot by an unfriendly reporter from Miami. Brilliant and feisty, she very bravely still stuck to her oft-repeated major theme in Washington: "Cuban emigrants in the United States need to dismantle the lies about Cuba that fuel the U. S. Cuban policy that hurts Cubans on the island. That is my primary message from Cuba."

    When the Miami reporter questioned that statement by Cristina Escobar, she didn't recoil from it or soften it. Instead, she repeated it a second time with stronger emphasis. Back on her own turf, she told her nationwide audience in Cuba, "As you know, you and I have criticisms of our government at times and we are not afraid to air them. But the well-known dissidents, as few as they are among us, are mostly funded by regime-change money from the U. S. Congress. In the U. S., which I just visited, I am amazed that, so long after the revolution, Americans are the ones still afraid to speak the truth about Cuba."

     Regardless of what impression  -- positive, negative, or indifferent -- Americans have regarding Cristina Escobar's ephemeral but emphatic visit to Washington, we should, I believe, come away with this impression: There are a lot of young, well-educated, patriotic Cubans on the island just like her. Sure, her stunning looks and her state-of-the-art speaking voice in either Spanish or English got her a lot of attention. But she used every opportunity to stress that her primary reason for coming to Washington was not just to cover the important 4th diplomatic session involving Cuba's Josefina Vidal and America's Roberta Jacobson. She repeatedly pointed out that, most of all, she wanted the U. S. Media to "stop telling lies about my country" because "it fuels a U. S. policy towards Cuba that harms so many of us on the island that do not deserve it." Most unbiased and unintimidated Americans would have to agree with her. On her nightly radio/television platforms in Cuba, Cristina Escobar makes those points, just as she did on her Washington visit. In the U. S., Americans are supposed to hear only the viewpoints of Cuban dissidents, especially the ones that Escobar says "are paid and encouraged by the anti-Cuban Cubans in the American Congress." Again, whether you agree with Cristina Escobar or not, it is only fair that...if you hang on every word of Cuban dissidents such as Yoani Sanchez...you at least should listen to Cristina Escobar too.

For example.............

         ..........Cristina Escobar says that "in some ways Cuba is now more democratic than the U. S., especially when one considers the way journalism has evolved in the U. S." The image above reflects what Ms. Escobar means. In this photo, that is Cuba's most famed dissident, Yoani Sanchez, meeting in the hallowed halls of the U. S. Congress with the U. S. Senate's two virulent anti-Castro Cuban-American Senators -- Bob Menendez from Union City and Marco Rubio from Miami. Forget the fact that Cuba permits dissidents like Yoani Sanchez to fly around the world and then return to Cuba while everyday Americans for decades have been denied the freedom to travel to Cuba; that's a different issue. Cristina Escobar believes that "a handful of biased individuals make the U. S. Cuban policy." She was undoubtedly referencing "a handful of biased individuals" such as the five depicted here. Back in Cuba, Cristina Escobar told her audience, "The mainstream U. S. media didn't like my visit to Washington. But if I were a Cuban dissident, the U. S. media would have wined and dined me till I was probably too dizzy to fly back to Cuba." Indeed, Cuban dissidents in the U. S. -- from Yoani Sanchez to Alina Fernandez to whomever -- merely have to hold up their hands and say they are anti-Castro and they can expect to be showered with rewards, including tax dollars. Yoani Sanchez, for example, is the darling of every anti-Cuban/anti-Castro media outlet worldwide, including the fawning Huffington Post, Fox News, etc. Sanchez already had the world's largest anti-Castro blog but she admitted, when she returned to the island after a recent world tour that included Miami and Washington, she had enough "resources" to fund a massive digital newspaper for at least a year. When that year is up, Cristina Escobar believes Sanchez's coffers will be replenished. Ms. Escobar, back in Cuba, coyly remarked, "Of course, I am convinced that those Cubans in Congress and those dissidents in Cuba don't really want the 'longed-for' regime change to really happen. It it did, their piggy-banks and political nests would dry up and then what would we have...a return of the Batista descendants and Mafia from Florida? Uh, no thank you."

           Is Cristina Escobar -- the bold, beautiful, brassy, and brilliant young Cuban journalist -- right or is she wrong? More importantly, Cristina Escobar represents a basic fact: There are two sides, not just one, to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. Americans, as well as Cubans, need to admit such simple and basic facts. 

         President Obama's obvious fascination with Cuba is apparently because he believes it is America's decades-old Cuban policy that makes the U. S. look more like a Banana Republic than a Democracy. "If the same policy has failed for over half-a-century," he says, "perhaps it is time to try a new policy." The President surely realizes the peril of opposing a handful of right-wingers who continually defy the world, the United Nations, and democracy with their punitive actions, such as the reviled embargo, against innocent people in a foreign, smaller, and vulnerable country. But he obviously thinks such opposition on the part of democracy is worthwhile. In other words, a decent and democracy-loving President Barack Obama, in trying to defend innocent Cubans, is mostly trying to defend the image of America and democracy. If that is not so, perhaps one of the right-wing pundits on Fox "News" will explain to all of us why it is not so.

And by the way..............

         .....Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is the President of Iceland. Iceland has had only five Presidents since it gained independence from Norway in 1944 during World War II. Mr. Grimsson has been President of Iceland since 1996. One reason he keeps getting re-elected is his frankness. Also, he hates big banks.

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Beauty & Brains In Cuba

Now She Conquers Washington
Updated:Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

This is Cristina Escobar, the most popular journalist on the island of Cuba.

         Cristina is the brilliant host of Cuba's most popular prime-time television program -- La Mesa Redonta {"The Round Table"}. Her journalistic skills and her uncompromising beauty meld into an irresistible lure.

         This past week the talented and enchanting Cristina Escobar arrived in Washington to cover the fourth diplomatic session that pitted Cuba's Josefina Vidal against America's Roberta Jacobson.

 As in Cuba, Cristina Escobar's mesmerizing looks turned heads in Washington.

      But so did her acute journalistic skills.

      Josh Earnest, President Obama's White House Press Secretary, held a news conference prior to the 4th Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic tussle in Washington. Soon, Earnest was smiling broadly as he was besieged by a barrage of pertinent and refreshingly uncommon questions from an uncommonly beautiful journalist speaking perfect English in a gorgeous Spanish accent. Her sighting seemed to energize Mr. Earnest. The journalist was Cuban superstar Cristina Escobar. In quick succession she asked: "First, do you think that it's possible to see the scenario in which we will open embassies in Havana and Washington? And in that future scenario, is the administration committed to be more respectful of the Vienna Convention towards the behavior of the American diplomats in Havana, for example? Do you think the programs for regime change in Cuba will go on or not? Do you have any remarks on that? And on the other things, do you think that President Obama will also continue seeing his executive prerogative to expand the links, the bonds, with Cuba? And will we see Obama in Cuba in 2016?" Josh Earnest is a married man and a new father but it was obvious he was amused by the fresh beauty in his midst as well as her excellent barrage of questions. He used typical White House rhetoric to answer the tough queries, such as the impasse about the opening of embassies and whether  the "behavior" of U. S. diplomats in Havana would be "respectful." But Josh earnestly seemed to relish her last question about "will we see Obama in Cuba in 2016?" He smiled coyly and sweetly down at her and replied, "I know he would relish the opportunity to visit the island, and Havana in particular."

       While she was in Washington last week to cover the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, the 27-year-old Cristina Escobar not only became the first Cuban journalist to fire questions at the White House Press Secretary, she made the rounds with speeches at places like the sold-out Maryland House. She fiercely advocated "better treatment for my Cuban people from the United States." She freely gave interviews even to unfriendly U. S. journalists such as Carlos Rafael Dieguez of Radio Miami and Cubainformacion. She sternly  told Rafael Dieguez, "I want in Washington to spread the right information about Cuba to dismantle the lies transmitting through the international media about Cuba." When challenged by Rafael Dieguez, the feisty Cristina boldly stood her ground, repeating, "I want to change the lies about Cuba, the lies by the U. S. media manipulations that sustain the policy of the United States towards Cuba, a peaceful and safe country."

      The best and most viewed Spanish-speaking blog about Cuba is Cafefuerte.com. The image of Cristina Escobar above is taken from that website's insightful parking lot interview with Cristina. It's in Spanish but if you view that interview you will detect the brilliance of Cristina in easily answering tough questions. Her speaking voice is superb in either Spanish or English and her journalistic skills are stunning. In the U. S. there is a vast and lucrative cottage industry that solicits and beckons Cuban superstars in baseball, ballet, and medicine. Well, Cristina is a superstar broadcaster that every U. S. television network would crave because of her skills as a journalist and her Spanish-English expertise. And, uh, she's also rather telegenic. But based on her speeches and demeanor in Washington, it seems that her abiding love for Cuba might mean more to her than becoming an instant millionaire television star in the United States. On Cafefuerte.com, she said, "The socioeconomic-political reality in which I grew up in Cuba has been defined by what happens here. I want to promote a change in the U. S. policy towards Cuba." She is obviously 100% Cuban and extremely patriotic. Bold, beautiful, young, talented, and smart, she has a mission in life -- to improve America's attitude towards her island. It's a worthy mission. She is an admirable young lady.

        Cristina Escobar is now back in Havana hosting Cuba's most popular and most informative television program -- The Round Table -- nightly in prime-time. If, indeed, President Obama visits Cuba in 2016, he will be forced to meet with Cuban dissidents such as Yoani Sanchez, and that will be a price he will gladly pay to justify his appearance on The Round Table with Cristina Escobar as his host. There are rumors in Washington that President Obama requested and received a personal copy of a video tape depicting Cristina's questioning of Josh Earnest. And it is assumed the President was more interested in Cristina Escobar's Cuban ascent than he was in critiquing the performance of his highly capable Press Secretary.

   Cristina Escobar is a very accomplished and dedicated journalist. Back in early December, 2014 -- just prior to Presidents Obama and Castro announcing their plans to normalize relations -- Cristina and seven other Cuban journalists spent ten days participating in journalism seminars at California State University in Fullerton, California. Cristina's astute questions to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest were not unlike the questions she asks nightly on her highly rated Round Table program in Cuba. She is not at all reluctant, or afraid, to take positions not advocated by the Cuban government. "If I oppose something," she says, "I will express my firm opposition. If I couldn't do that, I would not be a journalist. I like my job in Cuba. It has evolved around me. I am proud of my profession and my country."

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