Russian Plans for Cuba

A Military Base??

      This is Russia's powerful Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. When he speaks, everyone listens because he doesn't make major statements without the full concurrence of Russia's ultra-powerful President Vladimir Putin. The agonizing war in Syria has dramatically raised tensions...and near military confrontations...between the U. S. and Russia, the world's two top nuclear superpowers. Russia's two foreign military bases are in Syria. Last week Mr. Shoigu made international headlines when he mentioned that Russia is "in discussions" concerning military bases in...Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Vietnam. In regards to Cuba, Mr. Shoigu's comment provides fodder for the anti-revolutionary cabal in the U. S. that busily seeks nails to hammer shut President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island. Just the mention of a Russian military base in Cuba is indeed A HUGE NAIL for the anti-Cuban Miami hardliners.

      When Sergei Shoigu, Russia's 61-year-old Defense Minister, tossed out the idea of a military base in Cuba, he well knew just the mention would fuel the vicious anti-Cuban forces in Miami and Washington. That's fine with Mr. Shoigu because America's major enemies and/or competitors around the world do not want to see President Obama's normalization plans with Cuba succeed. So, whether Shoigu's inclusion of Cuba was a bluff or a threat, it gained the expected traction. The Oct. 11-2016 Miami Herald included a major article written by Franco Ordonez entitled: "Russia Considers Opening Military Base in Cuba." Ordonez wrote: "Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia has come up with a list of countries where it's considering opening military bases. They include Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Vietnam. Cuban state media has cited the Russian military overtures, but the Castro administration has not offered any public indication of whether they've welcomed it." Although anti-Cuban venues such as the Miami Herald would not be likely to admit it, Cuba will not "welcome" Mr. Shoigu's overture although Revolutionary Cuba's survival since 1959 has repeatedly involved turning to other options whenever it has felt most threatened by the United States and Cuban exiles in Miami.

      The top two military powers in Russia -- President Putin and Defense Minister Shoigu -- are far more formidable foes/competitors than North Korea, Iran, or even China, another Cuba-friendly superpower that is drastically upgrading its conventional and nuclear capability. Russia's ultra-modern offensive and defensive nuclear arsenals -- and its delivery systems -- will, for the foreseeable future, remain America's biggest concern. Adding military bases in any of the four countries Shoigu mentioned -- Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Vietnam -- would be a game-changer. But it won't happen in Cuba -- at least not as long as Cuba can hold out hope for better U. S. relations. It won't happen in Communist Vietnam either because that prosperous nation would have too much to lose economically on the international stage. And it won't happen in Venezuela because the Cuba-friendly but teetering Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro faces far too much political opposition. 

But it could happen in Cuba-friendly Nicaragua.

      Study this photo. It was taken by Cesar Perez for the Associated Press on July 11, 2014. It shows Nicaraguan President Danny Ortega and his equally powerful wife Rosario Murillo greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the airport in Managua. It was a significant visit. Shortly thereafter Russia sent 50 modern tanks to Nicaragua and Russia got access to Nicaraguan airspace and ports. After you study this photo, Google Latin American history. It will tell you that, in their youth, Danny Ortega and Rosario Murillo were fierce Sandinista guerrilla fighters against powerful U.S.-backed forces -- with the Sandinistas eventually winning. Inspired by the Cuban Revolution and still idols of Fidel Castro, Ortega -- with his wife always at his side -- has been elected and re-elected President of Nicaragua. Neither Ortega nor Murillo have ever disguised their hatred or distrust of the United States. Putin knows that history and thus he probably believes Russia's best bet to have a military base in the Americas is in Nicaragua.

      This photo was taken in 1961 shortly after Fidel Castro led Cuba's successful defense at the Bay of Pigs when the Cuban exiles and the U. S. attempted to overthrow him. Fidel's heroics at the Bay of Pigs powerfully impressed Nikita Khrushchev, the dictator of the Soviet Union. It also powerfully impressed Fidel Castro who realized that the military attack as well as terrorist acts against Cuba and assassination attempts against him would never cease. The Soviet Union and the United States in 1961 were the world's only two nuclear super-powers. One was undeniably trying to kill both him and his revolutionary government and the other was offering to support him and Cuba. The Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1961 maintains that aligning Cuba with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union was Fidel's plan all along. History refutes that assertion. In April of 1959 Fidel spent 12 days in the U. S., barely three months after the triumph of the Revolution, believing the Eisenhower administration -- instead of continuing to support the overthrown Batista-Mafia exiles -- would be Cuba's friend. Vice President Nixon famously told Fidel face-to-face that the exiles and the U. S. would regain control of Cuba within weeks. The rest is history. So are other attempts over the years, even during the Cold War, when Fidel personally tried -- for Cuba's sake -- to ease tensions with its northern superpower neighbor. During the Johnson administration, for example, Fidel personally sent LBJ a letter that pinpointed 12 capitulations Cuba was willing to make to the U. S. in exchange for "friendlier" relations. In that letter Fidel famously told President Johnson that, if it would hurt his upcoming re-election, any consideration of the proposals could be kept secret. Fidel's 12-day mission to the U. S. in April of 1959, his 12-stage proposal to President Johnson, etc., don't compute with the Batistiano-directed Cuban narrative in the U. S., so Americans -- unless they do some Googling -- wouldn't know about such things. But they indeed are historic, just as the 1961 photo above in which Fidel Castro warmly embraced Nikita Khrushchev, choosing the only nuclear superpower not trying to kill him.

      Study this photo too. That's President John Kennedy in 1962 sitting in his heavily cushioned rocking chair to ease his chronic back pain. He is talking to four ultra-powerful U. S. Generals, with Curtis LeMay closest to him. The Cuban Missile Crisis -- the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust -- in October of 1962 followed the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba and Fidel Castro's alignment with the Soviet Union. President Kennedy in 1960 had inherited from the pro-Batista Eisenhower-Nixon administration a bevy of covert plans to attack Cuba and to assassinate Fidel Castro, plans secretively labeled "Operation Mongoose," etc. Kennedy enthusiastically carried through on the assassination plans against Fidel and tepidly on the Bay of Pigs attack. But by 1963, gearing up for what would have been his re-election, Kennedy detested the CIA and his war-mongering Generals far more than he detested Fidel Castro. In November of 1963 Kennedy informed his top aides -- such as Pierre Salinger and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. -- that his "top priority" when he returned from his trip to Dallas was to "normalize relations with Cuba."  However, he returned to Washington from Dallas on Nov. 22-1963 in a coffin and, at least prior to the current Obama administration, no U. S. President had come close to trying "to normalize relations with Cuba" since Kennedy. Also, shortly before his ill-fated trip to Dallas, Kennedy famously bellowed, "If I could I would blow the CIA to Smithereens!!" During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962, it is abundantly clear that Kennedy felt the same way about his war-mongering Generals. Curtis LeMay, closest to Kennedy in the above photo, was among those not only advising Kennedy but beseeching him to nuke Cuba and then follow-up with an annihilating ground assault to end both the missile crisis and "the Cuban problem," an act that would likely have resulted in a massive nuclear retaliation from the Soviet Union. Several historic documentaries aired on the BBC as well as the Smithsonian and AHC networks offer chilling de-classified audio recordings of Kennedy being besieged with such advice. So, the Fidel-Khrushchev 1961 photo and the Kennedy-LeMay 1962 photo were harbingers of the never-ending U.S.-Cuban conundrum that presaged the more modern Putin-Ortega 2014 photo and the Defense Minister Shoigu October-2016 photo in which he mentioned a possible Russian military base in Cuba. In other words, what historically goes around often comes around again.

       From 1962 till 2002, the old Soviet Union and modern Russia greatly irked the U. S. with this massive Lourdes listening devise in Cuba. Both the U. S. and Russia considered it a giant spying apparatus. 

        When he visited Cuba in July of 2014, Russian President Putin reportedly discussed closer military ties with Cuban President Raul Castro but by then Raul had already had two positive but secretive phone conversations with President Obama about normalizing relations, and that superseded Putin's plans.

In an apparent effort to go over Raul's head, Putin visited Fidel.

       According to a source very close to Fidel, he told Putin, "I am still a revolutionary but now it's all about the climate, the environment and food production." It is unknown how Putin deciphered those words.

Ironically, in October of 2016 as Russia is making headlines about putting a military base on Cuban soil, the United States -- much to Cuba's chagrin -- maintains a massive military base on Cuban soil. Back in 1962 during the famed Cuban Missile Crisis, the U. S. secretively agreed to remove its nuclear missiles in Turkey aimed at the Soviet Union If the Soviets would remove their missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States. Also, the U. S. secretively agreed never to attack or invade Cuba. So, would the U. S. now secretively agree to remove its military base in Cuba if Cuba agreed never to allow Russia to have a military base in Cuba? Sorry, that superfluous question disregards Batistiano influence in Congress.

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Batistianos Hurt Louisiana

With Control of Congress!!

     This AP/Gerald Herbert photo shows John Bel Edwards, the Governor of Louisiana, holding a news conference at the airport in New Orleans. His plane had just touched down after a 5-day trip to Cuba that also included other top state officials, especially in the agricultural sector. Governor Edwards is desperately trying to position Louisiana in "the best possible position to expand trade with Cuba" if the U. S. government ends the embargo against Cuba. That won't happen because the U. S. government's Cuban policy is rigidly dictated by a U. S. Congress under the yoke of revengeful remnants of the Batista dictatorship that the Cuban Revolution overthrew on January 1, 1959. All these decades later, millions of Americans -- including Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana -- are still forced to suffer because of a grossly undemocratic Cuban policy designed to benefit a few extremists at the expense of everyone else.

      This Ismael Francesco/AP photo shows Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Cuba's National Port Administrator Manuel Perez signing tentative agreements potentially important to both Louisiana and Cuba. But the operative word regarding Cuban issues, of course, is tentative. After signing a plethora of "Memorandums of Understanding" with Cuba, Governor Edwards lamented the fact that the U. S. embargo of the island, in place since 1962, will continue to stifle trade agreements that would benefit his state. Louisiana wants badly to boost rice and soybean sales to Cuba while creating shipping traffic from Louisiana ports to Cuban ports. Governor Edwards said, "We are best positioned because of our geographic proximity to the island, and because of our deep-water ports, to really ship an awful lot of goods to Cuba." 

       At cordial meetings like the one depicted above, Governor Edwards of Louisiana and his team of executives found the Cubans "very receptive and friendly." Cuba currently buys rice and soybeans from faraway Vietnam but admits that it would save "money and time" if the products and shipping came from the more convenient New Orleans ports. Louisiana, skirting around the embargo, already exports more to Cuba than any other U. S. state and prior to the embargo in 1962 was also America's largest Cuban trading partner. But Governor Edward's trip to Cuba again reveals that, decade after decade, the U. S. Cuban policy is designed to revengefully, economically and politically benefit a few while harming everyone else.

Poor Little Cuba.

A Batista-Mafia paradise 1952-1959.

A Congress-mandated Batistiano punching bag 1959-2016.

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Cuba's Legitimate Gripes

Shame U. S. Democracy!!

And Mock U. S. Taxpayers!! 

       Cuba's Minister related to U. S. affairs, Josefina Vidal, has stunned even America's top diplomats with her skill in negotiating her David vs. Goliath points in her ongoing effort to normalize or least to improve relations between the two neighboring nations. In this month of October in the fast-fading year of 2016, Vidal is admitting that she has more to do or else she will abandon efforts to normalize U. S. relations so Cuba can concentrate on "dealing with friendly nations not under the yoke of self-serving Miami and Washington bashers of Cuba, those who have gotten rich and powerful by not just bashing the Cuban government but mostly by bashing the Cuban people." Vidal was apparently referencing Congress being able to maintain the Embargo against Cuba since 1962 and, also, she is undoubtedly aware that the leaders of more friendly nations -- China, France, Russia, Vietnam, South Korea, etc., etc. -- have recently visited Havana trying to take advantage of U. S. intransigence to gain "footholds" in Cuba because, as three of those leaders said within a two-week period, "Cuba is the pathway to closer ties in the Caribbean and Latin America." Such comments reminded Vidal that little Cuba, as the decent Obama administration draws to a close, is "not without leverage in dealing with the superpower to our north. There are other superpowers, none of whom are trying to starve Cuba. Except for the United States forever permitting a few in Miami to direct its basic Cuban policy, there is not a single nation in the whole world that can be described as anti-Cuba." 

       In October, 2016, Vidal's diplomacy is stronger than it was three years ago when she eagerly accepted the then-secretive and surprising overtures from the Obama administration to begin normalizing relations. With undeniable resolve, she immediately drew a line in the sand that many in Miami and Washington laughed at: "Remove Cuba from your State Sponsors of Terrorism list and then we'll talk." Having Cuba listed on that list was an absolute cornerstone for the Miami zealots who relished the undeserved shame it cast on Cuba and, significantly, enabled Cuban exiles to sue unrepresented Cuba in Miami courtrooms. Yet, Vidal's line in the sand moved the needle and Cuba, indeed, was taken off the onerous Sponsors of Terrorism list. Beyond that came more remarkable diplomacy that resulted in...the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, the resumption of cruise ships and commercial airplane traffic from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1962, more Americans being allowed to visit Cuba and judge it for themselves, U. S. business relations with the island at least afforded some openings, etc., etc.

      Even while flashing her sweet, sanguine smile, Vidal this month of October has drawn another line in the sand. Like with the one regarding terrorism, she is not bluffing with her current demand, which is an end to the embargo that...quite literally...has tried to starve Cuba ever since 1962. The Miami hold on the U. S. Congress -- cemented and made indelible by the almighty alliance of the Bush dynasty with Jorge Mas Canosa back in the early 1980s -- supposedly has codified the embargo against Cuba for eternity, an abomination opposed even by most Cuban-Americans and by the entire world {the UN vote each October is 191-to-2 against it}. Yet it is abundantly clear to Vidal and to others that the hardline zealots in Miami and Washington have never been concerned about the damage to America's image and democracy's image done for decades by the U. S. Cuban policy -- the image of the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s and, since 1959, by the Batistiano influence on a quite flawed and indefensible Cuban policy.

        The U. S. is not blessed with a diplomat as skilled as Vidal, but she says, "Hey! Any perceived advantage I have against the superpower is not me. My diplomatic opponents...good, smart people like Roberta Jacobson or whomever...try to defend a policy that serves just a few people...economically, politically and also the revenge motive...while they hide behind the world's richest and strongest nation. Any unbiased perspective spots a bully saying 'I can steal your lunch money because I'm strong and you're weak' or 'I can starve you into submission till you surrender totally.' Does that explain the theft of our Guantanamo Bay? Does that explain protected terrorists bombing a civilian Cuban plane loaded with children? Does that explain history's longest embargo? You tell me. I've answered your questions. Now you should answer mine." 

      Back in her purest diplomatic posture, Vidal actually started off this month of October-2016 with a Twitter Q & A session. I kid you not! She used that forum to finish drawing the line in the sand regarding the embargo, stressing that the U. S. end the embargo or Cuba -- with no options left like back in 1959 -- the island will be forced to "look elsewhere." She seems to feel that in 2016 Cuba would have more options than in 1959 when it actually had "just one," apparently meaning the Soviet Union. Vidal's most important quotation in this month's Twitter Q & A session was this exact sentence: "We have insisted once again on the need for the U. S. to end programs aimed at provoking bilateral relations." With that comment and with the above expression, Vidal is displaying frustration and surprise that the U. S. -- INCREDIBLY -- is spending millions of tax dollars each day on regime-change programs in Cuba even as it maintains the embargo and engages in efforts to normalize relations with the island. INCREDIBLE, even considering the complicity of the not-too-bright or bold taxpayers who have had six decades to muster courage to voice opinions.

     To grasp or begin to understand Vidal's staunch diplomatic stance, you need to study the above graphic. It is used courtesy of renowned Cuban expert Tracey Eaton and his Along the Malecon blog. Mr. Eaton used this graphic in regards to Vidal's Q & A session on Twitter. It references the incredible number of endless regime-change programs aimed at Cuba, specifically Mr. Eaton's new revelation concerning a propaganda effort lushly funded by unwitting taxpayers and aimed at "Cuban youth." It quickly produced a counter-effort on the island entitled: "Cuban University Students Condemn Subversive U. S. Schemes." It also rankles Vidal. Mr. Eaton also mentioned such ageless tax-sucking regime-change propaganda schemes as Radio-TV Marti, the lush and massive Miami-based operation that continues to this day although way back in the 1980s ABC News famously detailed that it was a useless "Broadcast to Nowhere" that Cuba could easily block, Cubans wouldn't believe anyway, and its apparent existence was to enrich certain Cuban-Americans in Miami. Thanks to Miami's control of Congress on Cuban issues, the Washington-to-Miami money pipeline for Radio TV-Marti still flourishes today even though neither my representative in Congress nor yours can remotely justify it...or any of the other myriad regime-change programs our tax dollars fund. Vidal says, "Expensive propaganda aimed at Cuba from the U. S. is one thing. Another thing is the expensive propaganda aimed at Americans about Cuba. And Americans pay for all that propaganda that eventually ends up hurting them perhaps more than it hurts Cubans. And are you telling me that all that regime-change money could not be better spent on worthy projects in the United States? But, uh...pardon me for asking. It's not really my place. It's actually Americans who should ask such questions." 

          As an American democracy-lover and taxpayer, I have a question: "Why does a Cuban named Josefina Vidal appear to have far more of a genuine concern for America's image and for American taxpayers than our representatives in the U. S. Congress?" In October of 2016, wouldn't the answer to that question best define America's incredible self-demeaning Cuban policy, a policy that no U. S. politician can remotely justify?

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U.S.-Cuban Commonality

Hurricanes and Politics!!

       This REUTERS photo shows that President Obama, in the closing three months of his two-term presidency, is still trying to battle Miami hardliners and a belligerent Congress in his brave and sterling efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, the nearby island that has much in common with the United States -- including Hurricane Matthew that this week slammed ferociously into eastern Cuba and the eastern United States after devastating Haiti and much of the Caribbean. That's Jill Biden, the wife of U. S. Vice President Joe Biden, waving to well-wishers Thursday after arriving in Havana aboard Air Force Two. In the red dress on the right is Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister in charge of relations with the United States. Mrs. Biden was accompanied by U. S. officials specializing in educational, cultural and women's issues.

      On this week's visit to Cuba Jill Biden told Josefina Vidal, "Your country and mine are so close and our people have so much in common, even Hurricane Matthew. And there are so many people -- like me in the United States and you in Cuba -- who want so much for that closeness to not just be in physical distance but also in social, diplomatic, political and humanitarian endeavors." Vidal replied, "Your words are kind and appropriate. I am fully aware of the many Cubans and the many Americans who share your sentiments. I do."

       Generally speaking, it's neither healthy nor politically correct for the U. S. media to mention anything positive about Cuba but those restrictions don't apply to foreign journalists -- such as Sarah Marsh at the London-based REUTERS agency. Sarah's coverage of Hurricane Matthew's massive assault on eastern Cuba stressed the typically superb job the Cuban government did to protect its people and help them recover. She wrote: "Many people throughout Cuba's southeast praised the government's evacuation plans and shelters, where many remain. Authorities in convoys passed through to assess the damage. Hurricane Matthew reduced much of the Cuban town of Baracoa to rubble, whipping up giant waves that demolished cement buildings and winds that tore off roofs, but there is one thing it didn't do: take lives. Largely due to a rigorous evaluating scheme, Cuba managed to avoid the fate of neighboring Haiti, where nearly 900 deaths have been reported so far in the wake of the strongest hurricane to hit the Caribbean in nearly a decade." Ms. Marsh pointed out that the roads leading to the devastated and very historic city of Baracoa, including the La Farola highway, are "impassable" because of flooding or mudslides and a key bridge over the Toa River collapsed. The Cuban government has utilized soldiers, horses, tractors, and helicopters "to help victims" in areas where food crops, including tons of bananas, have been destroyed or severely damaged.

Sarah Marsh on Twitter wrote, "This is all that is left of this lady's home in Baracoa." 

      Sarah Marsh's Cuban coverage is fair and balanced. She is among the best for sensing the pulse of the Cuban people, especially those in the rural or remote areas. Her REUTERS articles and her Twitter page are informative and replete with photos that chronicle the joys, struggles, and rhythms of everyday Cubans.

      This Ramon Espinosa/AP photo shows a woman tearfully coming to grips with the total loss of her home in Baracoa, Cuba -- an island of wonderful people now dealing with the effects of Hurricane Matthew.

      Sarah Stephens at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas writes the informative Cuba Central update on the CDA website each Friday. Cuba, while trying to deal with its own problems related to Hurricane Matthew, as always is the first to help Haiti. Sarah Stephens on Friday wrote: "In Haiti, Cuba is already present and pitching in. Members of the Cuban Medical Brigade, some 648 Cuban doctors and other professionals, remain on site. They...offer medical care and disease-prevention efforts in the aftermath of the storm." It is widely known, as referenced by Sarah Stephens, that Cuba has provided such help to Haiti since that poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere was hit by the murderous earthquake in 2010.

      If you Google "Cuban Doctors in Haiti" the first of many articles that comes up is entitled: "Cuba Medics in Haiti Put the World to Shame." You will discover the article is by the British media, the type article the United States media would not consider. The doctor above is Cuban and his patient is Haitian. The service is free-of-charge and ubiquitous, especially in the very poorest and most dangerous areas of Haiti. 

      This Cuban doctor is providing vital vaccination care for a Haitian child as the very appreciative mother watches. The photo is courtesy of canadahaitiaction.com and that non-U.S. source is free to report on the direly needed medical expertise that Cuba provides to Haitians -- with loving care and free of charge. 

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An Historic Anniversary

Unknown to Americans!!

It Doesn't Compute with Cuban Narrative!! 

       Exactly 40 years ago this week -- back on October 6, 1976 -- a DC-8 civilian airplane was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb, murdering all 73 innocent souls on board. This week marked the 40th anniversary of that historic event -- the first and only mid-air terrorist bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere. It was a Cuban airplane known forever to history as Cubana Flight 455. The 40th anniversary this week was marked in Cuba, the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere. Yet, as historic as Cubana Flight 455 is and as intertwined as it has always been with the United States featured as the major player, Americans to this day are not supposed to really know about it or, if they do, they and the U. S. media are supposed to keep their mouths shut about it. With rare exceptions, that mantra is meticulously adhered to...or else Americans might have trouble meekly capitulating to the Cuban narrative in the United States that, since 1959, has been primarily dictated by only the most visceral remnants of the long-ago overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Cubana Flight 455, you see, is and will remain a prime reason for the haunting veracity of this absolute truth: CUBA SAYS A LOT MORE ABOUT THE UNITED STATES THAN IT SAYS ABOUT CUBA.

      Of all the people on this planet, Peter Kornbluh knows more than anyone about Cubana Flight 455 and other U.S.-Cuban relations that the U. S. government, the mainstream U. S. media, and the most vehement Cuban exiles want to keep hidden for posterity from the American people. Luckily, Mr. Kornbluh is an extremely brave and brilliant investigative journalist with an impeccable reputation for honesty and clarity. He is also, as noted above, the Director of the U. S. National Security Archive in Washington where he heads the Cuba Documentation Project. From that prism and platform, Mr. Kornbluh has declassified a plethora of official U. S. documents that for years had covered up high-level culpability in such historic events as...Cubana Flight 455. That includes the documents and their supporting data that he regularly posts on the U. S. National Security Archive website, a truly informative source.

       This week, to mark the 40th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6-1976, Peter Kornbluh posted an additional plethora of material on his National Security Archive. If you dial it up you will see the four glaring headlines that preamble his new documentations:

         ***"Bombing of Cuban Jetliner 40 years later."

         ***"Colgate Toothpaste Disguised Plastic Explosives in 1976 Terrorist Attack."

         ***"Confessions, Kissinger Reports, and Overview of Luis Posada Career Posted."

         ***"National Security Archive Calls on Obama Administration to Release Still-Secret Documents." 

       After those headlines, Mr. Kornbluh's first paragraph is:

                "On the 40th anniversary of the first and only mid-air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere, the National Security Archive today called on the Obama administration to declassify all remaining intelligence records on Luis Posada Carriles to shed light on his activities, provide historical evidence for his victims, and make a gesture of declassified diplomacy towards Cuba. Toward that goal, the Archives today re-posted documents implicating Posada Carriles in that terrorist crime and identifying still-secret records to be declassified. Posada currently lives free in Miami. Declassified C.I.A. and F. B. I. files link Posada to the Cubana bombing."    

           As you can note, Peter Kornbluh -- as a democracy-loving American -- staunchly believes that the American government should not routinely use declassified documents to protect government-connected criminals even if it relates to high-level individuals and, yes, even if it relates to Cuban relations.

      This photo is courtesy of Adalberto Roque/Agence France Presse/Getty Images. It shows one of the many anniversary demonstrations honoring the memories of the 73 people killed aboard Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976.

     Ceremonies commemorating the 73 victims of Cubana Flight 455 routinely tie the tragedy to "Posada Carriles" and the "C. I. A." Material uncovered by Mr. Kornbluh and posted on the U. S. National Security Archive support those conclusions, which are no longer seriously denied. But backed by powerful Miami politicians and Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress, Posada remains a free citizen of Miami. As documented by Mr. Kornbluh, Posada -- the most famed and unabashed anti-Castro militant following the triumph of the revolution in 1959 -- for many years was on the U. S. government payroll, starting when he and many other anti-revolutionary zealots were quickly sent to Fort Benning in Georgia to prepare for recapturing the nearby island.

       The pain resulting from terrorist acts is unending for the families of victims. The sister and mother depicted above had been waiting at the airport in Havana for the return of Cubana Flight 455, which included 24 Cuban teenage athletes that were coming home with the Gold Medals they had won in the Central American Championships in Caracas, Venezuela. When this black-and-white photo was taken on Oct. 6-1976, this sister and mother had just been told that Cubana Flight 455 had crashed in the ocean with no survivors.

      This modern color photo was taken by Roberto Leon for NBC News. The mourning, mustachioed Cuban holding up the black-and-white photo of his family is Carlos Cremata. Carlos in the Cowboy outfit is shown standing between his mom and dad, a dad that was in the cockpit of Cubana Flight 455.

     This is one of the many declassified documents re-posted by Peter Kornbluh on the National Archives website, and he this week asked President Obama to declassify many other documents that he has pinpointed as still being hidden.  

        Posada Carriles was one of the most notable anti-Castro zealots quickly put on the U. S. government's payroll after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959. The Brigade 2506 mentioned in the caption above was the unit that attacked Cuba in April of 1961, an infamous event that ended up solidifying revolutionary control of the island from that day till this day in 2016.

Posada was born 88-years-ago in Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Posada at an anti-Obama demonstration in Miami.

In some other cities there are anti-Posada demonstrations.

         In 1976 Emilio Milian was the most popular Cuban-American newsman in Miami. After he complained on the air about such terrorism "against decent, totally innocent Cubans" as highlighted by Cubana Flight 455, he was famously car-bombed. 

      Since 1989 when Jeb Bush was Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager, a steady stream of Bush-connected Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots {but no moderates} have been elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress. It appears they believe they alone should dictate Cuban policy and also control the Cuban narrative in the U. S. although polls in Miami show that more Cuban-Americans favor President Obama's peaceful overtures to Cuba than the endless animosity preferred by these three members of Congress. On the left above is Mario Diaz-Balart who followed his Havana-born brother Lincoln to Congress from Miami. Rafael Diaz-Balart, their father, was a key minister in the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. As at the news conference depicted above, the mainstream U. S. media can be used 24-hours-a-day to denounce anything related to Revolutionary Cuba but it would be rare indeed for the U. S. media to criticize anything related to the extremely vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship or to the vile actions of a few extremist Cuban-Americans.

        This iconic photo shows a Cubana DC-8 at the airport in Madrid, Spain in May of 1976. Yes, this is the exact airplane that soon became the ill-fated Cubana Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 -- eternally making it memorable. It is a significant part of U.S.-Cuban history. On this week's 40th anniversary of the terrorist bomb that blew it out of the sky into the ocean, Peter Kornbluh at the U. S. National Security Archives believes Americans have the right to know that history. Moreover, he believes Americans have the right to know the topicality that is associated with that history.

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