The High Cost of Hurting Cuba

Anti-Cuban Maliciousness Sprinkled Far and Wide
Updated: Monday, December 15th, 2014

      This week a great lady -- Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil -- broke down and cried at a very public event in the capital city of Brasilia. {Photo courtesy: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty}. Americans should take particular note of those tears because, for one thing, U. S. tax dollars and tax-paid expertise recently went from Washington to Miami to Brazil in a failed and antithetical effort to help her two prime opponents prevent her from being re-elected as President of Brazil. Miami and Washington -- meaning a few Cuban-Americans -- oppose Dilma Rousseff because she happens to be Cuba's dearest and most important friend. Such opposition to all three of Latin America's female Presidents -- in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina -- reflect terribly on Miami, Washington, and America although American tax-payers who fund it don't care enough to voice a dissenting opinion against anything designed to hurt Cuba. But the feisty Dilma Rousseff used that foreign interference as a campaign tool on her way to her second term as the leader of Brazil, the Latin American superpower. However, her re-election had nothing to do with those tears this week. They concerned the fact that Brazil's National Truth Commission delivered to her a 2,000-page report on what the Associated Press article from Brazil called "the killings, disappearances and torture committed by government agents during the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorships." Dilma, as a young lady in 1970, fought against that brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship, but she was captured. The AP article yesterday stated: "Rousseff...rarely speaks about the abuses she suffered in detention, where she was bound and hung upside down, pummeled in the face and given electric shocks." So, the tears Dilma Rousseff, the re-elected President of Brazil, shed this week were understandable although they were surprising. The AP stated: "Rousseff, known for her steely demeanor, broke down during her speech at the report's launch-ceremony in the capital, Brasilia." With typical stoicism, she kept her composure in the first part of her speech: "Brazil deserves the truth. The new generations deserve the truth. And most of all, those who deserve the truth are those who lost family members, friends, companions and continue to suffer as if they died again each and everyday..." This was the point where the great lady lost her composure and began to cry. After reclaiming her emotions, she continued: "We, who believe in the truth, hope that this report contributes to make it so that ghosts from a sad and painful past are no longer able to find shelter." She was then given a huge and very emotional standing ovation. Americans and Brits, most especially, should also applaud her.

      When President Rousseff said, "Brazil deserves the truth," she meant it. She has also criticized the U. S. for routinely classifying {keeping secret} or redacting {hiding} data that the American people deserve to know. The Senate report about U. S. torture techniques shocked Americans this past week but look at a typical page above and note that so much is redacted {blacked out} that the information on the page is almost unintelligible. Dilma Rousseff, when she was the top aide to her presidential predecessor Lula da Silva, was once upset when U. S. President George W. Bush put anti-Castro zealots Otto Reich and Roger Noriega in charge of Latin American affairs. She commented, "The reason the Bush family has become a political dynasty in America is because America's political heavyweights can hide whatever anti-democratic deeds they commit, such as criminal acts against other nations. Americans deserve better, to know more."

     Photos are worth a thousand words, at least. This EPA/Kevin Dietsch photo shows that President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, on her last visit to the White House, was not too pleased with U. S. President Barack Obama. The public relations release described the session as "pleasant, cordial, and enlightening." This photo was more accurate. In private President Rousseff had scolded President Obama "for not keeping your campaign promise to ease the cruel sanctions against Cuba. Also, it shames you and America that floods of money from Washington and Miami try to defeat or diminish democratically elected leaders like me, Michelle Bachelet, and Cristina Fernandez." After this session, the next time President Rousseff was invited to the White House she made headlines by declining. Like the powerful female Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, President Rousseff was quite angry that the U. S. had spied on her private emails and phone calls. Merkel still accepted an invitation to visit the White House, but Dilma very sternly refused a return visit. 

      Yet, even after being scolded by President Rousseff in private, President Obama needed to kiss up, or down, to her. After all, her Brazil is by far the richest and most powerful country in Latin America. Of course, the U. S. is by far the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world. Yet, as President Rousseff let President Obama know, "It is incredible, as powerful as the U. S. is, it has a sharply declining influence in Latin America. That is partly because of a Cuban policy that all of Latin America sharply opposes. It is also because the U. S. tries not to own up to its brutal imperialist past in our Latin America."

            Back in June, 2014, U. S. Vice President Joe Biden visited the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. To prove that the U. S. is embarrassed by its imperialist past, Mr. Biden made it a point to give President Rousseff forty previously classified U. S. documents related to the U.S.-backed Brazilian dictatorship that the U. S. had not only supported but had instructed that dictatorship on torture techniques -- torture techniques that were used on a young Dilma Rousseff back in the 1970s. In the second week of this month -- December, 2014 -- a tearful President Rousseff made international headlines by releasing a 2,000-page report on the brutality of that Brazilian dictatorship. Those U. S. documents undoubtedly helped Brazil compile the brutal evidence it made known this past week. The very same week that mammoth Brazilian report was released, the U. S. Senate made international headlines by releasing a scathing report on CIA torture at prisons such as the infamous one the U. S. maintains, unjustly President Rousseff believes, on Cuban soil at Guantanamo Bay. President Rousseff has said, "If the U. S. has to have a prison that Amnesty International calls the 'Gulag of our time,' it should at least be on U. S. soil, not occupied Cuban soil." Such comments are why President Obama and Vice President Biden do not like President Dilma Rousseff. But they must tolerate her. After all, she survived torture administered by that U.S.-backed dictatorship and she has been elected, and now re-elected, President of Brazil, the Latin American superpower.

       Dilma Rousseff turned 67-years-old on December 14th. As the re-elected President of Brazil, she is on friendly terms with all democratically elected world leaders, except possibly President Obama. She communicates privately with many of them. Here, for example, is the gist of a letter she recently wrote to Bulgaria's new Prime Minister Boyko Borisov: "On behalf of the Brazilian people and the government of Brazil, I congratulate you on the occasion of taking your office as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria. I keep good memories of our meetings during my visit to Sofia and your visit to Brazil on the occasion of taking up my post in 2011." Dilma apparently does not have such "good memories" of her White House visit.

       The fact that Americans and Brits know practically nothing about Latin American history shames their democracies today on the eve of a new year, 2015. Therefore, as an American or Brit you probably do not know a single person who remotely understands the photo-combo above. On the left is a color photo of Dilma Roussett as she is today, Latin America's most important leader as the democratically elected President of Brazil. On the right, the black-and-white photo shows a young Dilma Rousseff the very day she was sentenced to prison in 1970 by the brutal military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 till 1985. The young Dilma, inspired by the Cuban Revolution that, incredibly, had overthrown a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba in 1959, tried to do the same thing in Brazil in 1970. She failed and for the next three years was unmercifully tortured. But the Dilma Rousseff depicted on the right above is now the Dilma Rousseff depicted on the left above -- the re-elected President of Brazil, the Latin American superpower.

          In particular, Americans and Brits should study this photo {Courtesy: Agencia Estado/Corbis}. It shows a very sad Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff crying this week in her capital city, Brasilia. Her memories of being unmercifully tortured back in the 1970s by a U.S./UK-backed military dictatorship spawned those tears on December 11th, 2014. The 2,000-page report on the brutality of that dictatorship refreshed those memories. That report included this finding as revealed to the world by the Associated Press, Reuters, and the other leading international news agencies: "A share of the blame went to the United States and the UK, which were found to have trained Brazilian interrogators in torture techniques." Please take note that many of those "torture techniques" were used on a young, beautiful Dilma Rousseff. And if you do take time to take note of those revelations, Americans and Brits might begin to understand why today Dilma Rousseff is President of Brazil and why she strongly supports the sovereignty of Revolutionary Cuba against the revengeful remnants of the overthrown-but-retrenched-in-the-U.S. Batista dictatorship.

Dilma Rousseff, standing tall above, was born into a well-to-do Brazilian family.

Dilma and her siblings were pampered children.

But Dilma, even at a very young age, worried about Brazil's poor children.

As a teenager, Dilma dedicated her life to helping poor people in her beloved Brazil.

She became a guerrilla fighter against Brazil's U.S./UK-backed dictatorship.

 Those dictators made her Prisoner #3023 and tortured her unmercifully.

       But Dilma Rousseff survived to become the democratically elected and now re-elected President of Brazil, which is by far the most important Latin American nation. Beyond doubt, her efforts -- and the efforts of many who died trying to do what she did -- finally, in the 1980s, began to usher in the waves of democracy that engulfed Latin America. The U. S. and the UK tried mightily to hold back those waves. 

      Today President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil deeply admires the now 88-year-old Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary icon who inspired her own rebel-to-democracy political career. The world's two most famed democracies -- the U. S. and the UK -- supported the brutal Brazilian dictatorship that tortured Dilma and brutalized Brazil from 1964 till 1985. But today the citizens of the U. S. and the UK are taught to resent President Rousseff's affection for Fidel Castro while they are also taught to ignore how incredibly affectionate the U. S. and UK were to the Brazilian dictators that so powerfully tortured Dilma Rousseff.

      On the cusp of 2015, Fidel Castro at age 88 is still alive in Cuba and one of his greatest admirers, Dilma Rousseff, is the re-elected President of Brazil. Considering how much treasure the U. S. and the UK have used in decades-long efforts to eliminate him, and allegedly in trying to block her re-election last fall and her ongoing pro-Cuban efforts, citizens in the U. S. and UK should, perhaps, at least be allowed to comprehend the backgrounds, or history, that predicate the modern nexus between Castro and Rousseff.

      This photo this week (Dec. 11, 2014} shows the Brazilian Truth Commission presenting President Dilma Roussett the 2,000-word report on the brutality of the U.S./UK-backed dictatorship that she already knew all about from first-hand torture back in the 1970s. Citizens of the U. S. and the UK, perhaps, should read that newly published report as a means of strengthening their democracies heading into the new year of 2015.

       America's National Security Archive website is the best place to go to study U.S./UK involvements in Caribbean and Latin American history. Typically, the details of the 2,000-page Brazilian report that brought tears to President Rousseff's knowing eyes this week are already posted in totality on America's National Security Archive by its brilliant Latin American expert Peter Kornbluh. If you go online to read that report, you will see at the outset this salient point written by Mr. Kornbluh: "In contrast to the U. S. Senate report on torture released this week -- Dec. 8th -- which redacted even the pseudonyms of CIA personnel who engaged in torture, the Brazilian report actually identifies over 375 perpetrators of human rights crimes by name. The Brazilian report also sheds significant light on Brazil's role in the cross-border regional repression known as Operation Condor in Chile, and support for the Pinochet regime, as well as identifies Argentine citizens captured and killed in Brazil as part of a Condor collaboration between the military regimes." That quotation by Peter Kornbluh on America's informative National Security Archive should, but probably won't, resonate with Americans and Brits. The incredibly murderous 17-year reign of the Pinochet dictatorship began in 1973 after the Nixon-Kissinger administration ordered the CIA to overthrow the democratically elected presidency of Salvador Allende, who happened to be Fidel Castro's dear friend. After the death of Allende, the Pinochet-directed terror known to history as Condor ricocheted around the world, mostly unabated and unreported except later by such venues as ambient Hollywood movies!

       Yes, the 1975 mostly fictional movie "3 Days of the Condor" -- starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway -- revealed more truth about the murderous connections between the CIA and the Pinochet death squads than most Americans and Brits have ever gotten from their so-called mainstream media outlets. Note that the above poster promoting the movie used the line "be careful who you trust." Well, in the movie the character played by Robert Redford trusted his CIA bosses, at least until he...uh...learned not to.

The beautiful, innocent American Ronni Moffitt was one of the many victims of Condor.

        Ronnie Moffitt died in 1976 when this car was blown up within sound of the White House in Washington. The perpetrators were a part of Pinochet's infamous Condor operation. Any Google study of Ronnie Moffitt's murder will reveal that the CIA director at the time, and future Vice President and President, steered the FBI investigation away from the U.S.-backed Chilean dictator Pinochet. Also, any Googling of the Ronnie Moffitt murder will reveal that Pinochet's Condor operators were, typically, often Cuban exiles that had been trained in sabotage,  such as bombings, in the secretive Army of the Americas program at Fort Benning, Georgia. Within days of the car-bombing that killed Ronnie Moffitt, the civilian Cubana Flight 455 was blown out of the sky, killing all five of its crewmen and all 73 of its passengers.

        All 78 of the innocent souls murdered aboard Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6-1976, within days of the car-bombing that murdered Ronnie Moffitt in Washington, are to this day being mourned by family, friends, and companions. You may recall that President Rousseff of Brazil did not start crying during her speech Thursday until she got to the point in which she mentioned the "family, friends and companions" that still today mourn the many victims murdered by the U.S./UK-backed Brazilian dictatorship that tortured her so unmercifully in her own beloved country of Brazil. The above montage depicting the victims of Cubana Flight 455 still resonates throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, but not in the U. S. and the UK.

      The black and white photo above shows Henry Kissinger, on behalf of the American people, congratulating the murderous Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who had replaced, for 17 brutal years, the dead, democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende. On the Washington-based National Security Archive website this week, Peter Kornbluh poignantly mentioned that the newly released Brazilian report on its murderous dictatorship revealed the actual names of those found, all these years later, responsible for the crimes. By contrast, Kornbluh pointed out that, typically, the recently released CIA torture findings of the U. S. Senate DID NOT MENTION actual names of those responsible for the tortures. Typically, when Americans read about Wall Street bankers paying, say, $10 billion in fines for crimes that earned them hundreds of billions of dollars, they surely never read about any of those billionaires being charged with crimes. Such routine immunity for elites, as Peter Kornbluh often reveals, do not pertain to everyday Americans, such as a mother caught stealing bread and beans to feed her hungry children.

       Peter Kornbluh routinely publishes on his easily accessed National Security Archive website such de-classified documents as this one related to the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 -- a seminal event that occurred within days of the car-bombing that killed Ronnie Moffitt. The problem is, by the time such material is de-classified, a new generation of American citizens is not interested in such unsavory history although learning from such things would greatly enhance their modern democracy.

       This photo shows British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a friendly chat with the brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It should have been an unfriendly chat. Like Spain and Portugal, in particular, the U. S. and Britain, most particularly, have a lot of apologizing to do for their past greedy installation and/or support of fiends like Pinochet so already rich Americans and Brits could get richer at the expense of the indigenous and overwhelmed people in those countries, such as Cuba, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. 

         Today these three very worthy females are the democratically elected Presidents of arguably the three most important nations in Latin America, left to right: Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. These three women all strongly support Cuba and all three lived in brutal U.S./UK-backed dictatorships, which still evoke unhappy memories. In a better world, all the nations of the Caribbean and Latin America would and should have democratically elected female Presidents -- and that includes Josefina Vidal in Cuba and Elizabeth Warren in the United States. History proves that men, by and large, are too greedy and too power-hungry. Women, perhaps because they naturally birth and nurture babies, are far more inclined to care for and respect the masses of people.

That's why great investigative journalists such as Peter Kornbluh should be treasured.

          Thanks to my intense study of what Peter Kornbluh posts on the National Security Archive, I feel I can make sound judgments about ruthless U.S.-and/or-UK-backed dictators such as Batista in Cuba, Pinochet in Chile, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoza in Nicaragua, Mobutu in the Congo, etc, etc. Like Mr. Kornbluh, I am a democracy-lover who believes one should learn from history and not ignore or hide it.

           Because of Peter Kornbluh, I know why this great lady -- President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil -- cried this week in her capital city of Brasilia. I believe I have read every de-classified document Peter Kronbluh has posted on the National Security Archive related to Fidel Castro's Cuba and Dilma Rousseff's Brazil. Therefore, I understand why, today, she is a bit fonder of Fidel Castro and Cuba than she is of Barack Obama and America. Moreover, because of her life experiences, I believe she has a right to her opinions.

      I did not like seeing the photos and videos of Dilma Rousseff crying this week because I am also well aware that my government's past and vile involvement in her nation helped produce those tears on Thursday, December 11th, 2014. I am also aware that America's installment and/or support of vile dictators throughout Latin America from the 1950s into the 1980s created, paradoxically, a positive backlash that has resulted in the democratic elections of President Rousseff in Brazil, President Bachelet in Chile, President Fernandez in Argentina, etc. But those decades of supporting malicious dictators should have other positive ramifications in the United States and in the UK -- such as holding elite people such as politicians as well as CIA and MI6 operatives accountable for their wrong-doings. Further, biased and revengeful Cuban-Americans hiding behind the skirts of the U. S. government should be held accountable for assaulting the island as well as taunting democratically elected pro-Cuban Latin American leaders. 

       Yes, this essay was entitled "The High Cost of Hurting Cuba." That cost since the 1950s has been, and continues to be, paid in buckets of money, blood, shame, and tears. The tears shed this week by President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil is merely a topical and typical example of U. S. and UK democracies gone awry.

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America's Ongoing Cuban Policy

It's More Harmful to U. S. Than to Cuba
Updated: Friday, December 12th, 2014

        President Salvador Ceren of El Salvador is in Cuba receiving urgent medical care. He took ill at a regional summit in Veracruz, Mexico. He was elected President of El Salvador in March of 2014. President Ceren is 70-years-old. His request to fly to Cuba for his critical medical care reflects a Latin American view of Cuba that most Americans simply do not comprehend. Why? Americans need an unbiased perspective on U.S.-Cuban relations if they are to judge things such as why President Ceren is in Cuba this week.

       This AFP photo was taken at a recent news conference in Havana that featured Josefina Vidal, Cuba's key Minister on all things related to the United States. Top international news agencies including London-based Reuters, Paris-based Agence France-Presse, Caracas-based TeleSUR, etc., highlighted the session with headlines such as "Cuba Condemns U. S. Punitive Mentality," in case you want to check what she had to say online. The AFP news agency identified Ms. Vidal as "The Director-General of the United States Department in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Whatever her title, she is the most important person -- in either Havana or Washington -- related to the day-by-day nuances of U.S.-Cuban relations. Moreover, I believe, Ms. Vidal is considered the fairest appraiser of the U.S.-Cuban quagmire in either Havana or Washington. Many of her comments at this news conference -- as reported by AFP, Reuters, TeleSUR, etc., should be of interest to Americans interested in their democracy. Among her comments:

***"The U. S. punitive mentality against Cuba clouds Washington's diplomacy."

***"The United States has not forgiven Cuba for deciding its own path."

***"The punishment philosophy is still running in Washington."

***"Most Americans desire a more sensible Cuban policy."

***"A few revengeful Cubans control America's Cuban relations."

                       ***"But if Havana and Washington are committed to overcome this disagreement, that they have had for more than 55 years, it can be done. As Cuba's top diplomat regarding the United States, I, for one, for Cuba's sake, desire friendly relations with our most powerful neighbor, a neighbor that should be our major friend and trading partner, not our major, or only, enemy. If Americans are disappointed in Cuba's government, they should understand that I, one who has spent much time in the United States, remain keenly disappointed in America and its government that, both now and historically, has treated Cuba in manners totally unrelated to the proud democratic principles that should have, and should be, applied. Recognizing that Cuba is a sovereign country, not an American playpen or piggy-bank, would, I think, be a good place to start. Is it too much to ask that sanity and decency finally applies to our relations?" 

              Note that the final quotation ended with a question mark, not a period. It posed a legitimate question that a democracy should be able to answer. The above comments by Josefina Vidal at a recent news conference in Havana parallel a speech she made at the Kennedy Library in Boston in 2002 when, at a forum that included Caroline Kennedy and many of America's top historians, she was the one that received the standing ovation. In this last month of 2014, now in Havana as Cuba's top official pertaining to American affairs, Josefina Vidal remains the most courageous and the most sensible governmental official involved in U.S.-Cuban relations. Additionally, she is the one significant player working the hardest to normalize a more sensible relationship between the two important neighbors whose hostility adversely affects the entire region. More and more, it is apparent that the U. S. is simply unable or unwilling to produce or allow a diplomat of comparable statue to negotiate freely with Josefina Vidal. That situation might whet the economic and revenge appetites of a few but, for sure, it harms everyone else.

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     This photo, taken by Yenny Munoa, dominated the front page of the Bahamas News Leader Monday -- December 8th, 2014. It shows Prime Minister Freundel Stuart of the Bahamas with Cuban President Raul Castro, who is hosting the 5th annual CARICOM Summit this week. The 15 leaders of the Caribbean nations are there. And, one by one, they have excoriated the United States because of its Cuban policy, which these nations consider hypocritical and harmful to the entire region. In April in Panama, the Summit of the Americas will take place. And there, with President Obama scheduled to be in attendance, the nations of Latin America will also excoriate America's Cuban policy. Panama has begged Cuba to attend the Summit of the Americas because a host of nations have said they will boycott the session if Cuba is not represented. In recent days, the President of Panama has been subjected to official rebukes via official congressional stationery from Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress. The CARICOM Summit began Monday with a sharp denunciation of that assault on sovereignty by a few Cuban-Americans. Prime Minister Stuart called America's Cuban policy, "Senseless, self-inflicted, and unnecessary anti-Americanism designed by a few Cuban-Americans in Congress."

      This AFP/Jorge Luis Banos photo shows the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, sharing a jovial moment with Raul Castro at the start of the CARICOM Summit of Caribbean nations Monday in Havana's Palace of the Revolution. Even before he left Jose Marti Airport upon his arrival, Prime Minister Gaston Brown made this comment: "I call on President Barack Obama to lift that senseless, gutless embargo against our sister nation Cuba. It is, in fact, an affront to every nation in the Caribbean. It reminds all us Caribbeans of forgettable old-time imperialism."

         This photo, courtesy of Trabajadores, shows the start of the 5th annual CARICOM {Caribbean Community} Summit Monday in Cuba's Palace of the Revolution. The 15 leaders of those Caribbean nations are unanimous in their anger over the U. S. treatment of Cuba. They said such unanimity among the Caribbean nations "should register" on the United States, the world's strongest and most famed democracy. 

       The island of Cuba dominates the Caribbean. It is on friendly terms with all of its neighbors, except the nearby United States just to the north. That unique situation is based purely on this historic fact: Cuba is the only Caribbean nation that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and then suffered the indignity of having the leaders of that ousted dictatorship regroup on U. S. soil beginning way back in January of 1959. In all the decades since, the U. S. Cuban policy has been, for the most part, dictated by the remnants of that overthrown Cuban dictatorship. While Americans are not supposed to agree with that analysis, all the Caribbean nations and all the Latin American nations do agree with it. In fact, so do all the nations around the world, except U. S. dependent Israel, as depicted by the yearly vote in the UN. Yet, the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas and all other such democracy-loving organizations remain direly concerned about the harm the U. S. Cuban policy does to both democracy and the United States.

 Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was born 49 years ago in the Bronx, New York, and he has received the best educations that Princeton University and the Stanford Law School can provide. Mr. Romero is a liberal Democrat; I am a conservative Republican. But we agree on one thing -- The U. S. Cuban policy. Monday -- December 8, 2014 -- Mr. Romero authored a long Editorial in the New York Times in which he excoriated the U. S. because of its Cuban policy, most notably the cancerous U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay on 45 lush acres the U. S. un-democratically took from Cuba way back in 1903 shortly after the U. S. had wrested dominance of Cuba from Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Mr. Romero laments the image that occupation and the U. S. prison at Guantanamo presents to the region.

       This Kevin Lamarque/Reuters photo was used Monday -- December 8th -- to illustrate the Editorial in the New York Times written by Anthony D. Romero. He wrote: "Before President George W. Bush left office, a group of conservatives lobbied the White House to grant pardons to the officials who had planned and authorized the United States torture programs. My organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, found the proposal repugnant. But with the impending release of the report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have come to think that President Obama should issue pardons, after all -- because it may be the only way to establish once and for all that torture is illegal. That officials at the highest level of government authorized and ordered torture is not in dispute. Mr. Bush issued a secret order authorizing the CIA to build prisons overseas. The CIA requested authority to torture prisoners in those 'black holes.' The National Security Council approved the requests and the Justice Department drafted memos providing the brutal program with a veneer of legality." This week's Romero-penned Editorial brings to eight the number of Editorials in recent days featured in the New York Times deploring America's Cuban policy. Also on December 8th, yet another glaring New York Times Editorial blared this headline: "Release the Guantanamo Force-Feeding Videos." That Editorial stated: "Americans should be able to see the conditions of detainees at Guantanamo and decide for themselves what is needed to protect human dignity." The U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, exacerbated by a U. S. Cuban policy dictated by a few zealous Cuban-Americans in the easily bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress, overwhelms the Checks and Balances of U. S. Presidents as it also generates anti-American and anti-democracy fervor around the world, especially throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Internationally, the New York Times is America's most influential media outlet. On December 9th the giant newspaper blared an Editorial around the world entitled "The Senate Report on the CIA's Torture and Lies." That long, scathing Editorial began with these exact words: "The world has long known that the United States government illegally detained and tortured prisoners after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and lied about it to Congress and the world. But the summary of a report released Tuesday of the Senate investigation of these operations, even after being sanitized by the Central Intelligence Agency itself, is a portrait of depravity that is hard to comprehend and even harder to stomach. The report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable." It is a weakness of the U. S. democracy that politically powerful perpetrators of crimes can often hide or classify data that protects them, and often even when incriminating evidence surfaces they remain too rich and too powerful to "be held accountable," as the New York Times references in its editorial. Similarly, a prime weakness of U. S. capitalism permits employees at Wall Street banks to make hundreds of billions of dollars illegally, after which they pay a few billions in fines but never do they have to worry about going to jail, just how they are going to spend their ill-gotten billions after easily paying off the fines. A mother shoplifting food to feed her starving children does not have that luxury. The NY Times Editorial states unequivocally that the Senate-revealed torturers "lied" to Congress. If a normal American did that, their perjury conviction would be swift and harsh. For these reasons, famed whistle-blower Edward Snowden is considered a pariah by the U. S. government but a hero to democracy-lovers who yearn for transparency from their government but all too often are denied easily classified/hidden evidence of questionable or criminal acts. The New York Times Editorial cogently pointed out that the torture in the U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was much "worse" than the torture that shocked the world at the U. S. prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The Cuban equation, of course, regularly surfaces when the U. S. government tries to misrepresent or hide facts.

   As expected, the Bush-aligned Cuban-American right-wingers in the U. S. Congress were exceedingly quick to vehemently denounce the Senate's report on the revelations related to the Bush-connected torture scandal. Senator Marco Rubio from Miami, for example, said, "It's just intended to embarrass the Bush administration." Well, Senator Rubio, it does embarrass the Bush administration as well as the Bush political dynasty, and deservedly so. It also embarrasses democracy-loving Americans. And it also embarrasses America's best democracy-loving friends around the world. Senator Rubio, as you so strongly campaign to be the next President of the United States in 2016, it might be appropriate for you to drift a bit to the middle and discard at least some of your blatant right-wing, Cuban-focused partisanship. 

  

  Dilma Rousseff has just been re-elected President of Brazil, the Latin American superpower. She is Cuba's dearest friend; she is not too fond of the U. S. but, of course, acknowledges America's unique economic and military power. Like President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, who made anti-U.S./pro Cuban headlines this week, President Rousseff of Brazil once was tortured in a military prison by a U.S.-backed dictatorship. It is convenient that Americans today know very little of such Uruguayan and Brazilian history, although in modern times it surely has impacted democratic elections throughout the region. President Rousseff made this comment regarding the U. S. occupation of Quantanamo Bay: "Every Caribbean and Latin American nation sincerely believes Quantanamo labels the United States as the region's only imperialist bully. It is surprising to me that there apparently are not enough democracy supporters in the United States to seriously discuss what is right, and what is right is the return of Quantanamo Bay to its rightful owner, Cuba, and if the U. S. wants an unpopular prison in the region, the prison should be on U. S. soil, not Cuban soil. And as for military bases, it has more than enough in Florida and all around the world. Both the prison and the military base at Guantanamo Bay are superfluous and, in the eyes of the world, anti-American."

          The U. S. flag was first posted over Guantanamo Bay in "perpetuity" -- America's word -- in 1903. That dastardly occupation remains an albatross around America's neck to this day, especially since the expensive military base came into existence and, most especially, since the Bush-Cheney administration installed the infamous prison on the base. All other nations in the region believe that, if the U. S. needs such a prison, it should be on U. S. soil, not Cuban soil. Beyond that, all other nations in the region believe that the plush 45 acres of Guantanamo should belong to Cuba, not the powerful United States of America.

        This week -- the first full week of December, 2014 -- the U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay is back in the world headlines as the U. S. Senate releases its report on U.S.-sanctioned torture. Good Americans, like Secretary of State John Kerry, tried their best to block disclosure of the findings because of the damage that will accrue to America's image and the propaganda America's enemies will derive from it. Yet, the New York Times and most other defenders of democracy believe such reports should see the light of day so "Americans can make proper judgments on their government and its leaders." One problem, many unbiased observers believe, is the apparent fact that this generation of Americans, inexplicably, doesn't care.

     Josefina Vidal is Cuba's very astute and influential Minister of North American Affairs. It is her comments, not those of her U. S. counterparts, that resonate across the width and breadth of the Caribbean and Latin America regarding such things as Guantanamo Bay. She says: "We are David vs. Goliath. But like Celia Sanchez said decades ago, don't give us too much credit for surviving against the nefarious intent of our superpower neighbor. Truth be known, we are not super men or super women on this island. We survive primarily because our superpower neighbor is nothing more or less than an imperialist bully when it comes to Cuba. If most Cubans on this island and most people around the world didn't believe that, America would have easily swallowed up our anti-imperialist revolution years ago. The U. S. policy is wrong, cruel, and out-dated. The other nations in the region and around the world understand that. But as long as the American people are not concerned enough to even weight in on the subject, the chasm between two neighbors that should be best friends will persist -- for at least another six decades and two more generations, I imagine. The insults the U. S. absorbs because of Guantanamo Bay's criminal occupation is self-inflicted, especially the ghastly prison. When the torture photos circled the world a few years ago, the U. S. began what it called a rendition program -- flying prisoners to unsavory foreign nations that tortured them and then supposedly relayed information derived from that process back to the U. S. So, tell me. Does the U. S. government believe that having the prison unfairly on occupied Cuban soil is less of a bad thing than having it on free U. S. soil? Sometimes I wonder if Americans care enough about their government to ask such questions? That wonderment always surprises me."

The moral of this essay:

      From 1953 till she died of cancer in 1980, Celia Sanchez on the island of Cuba had more guts, more intelligence, and more love of sovereignty than all of her enemies -- the Batistianos, the Mafia, and the United States -- possessed collectively. After she masterminded the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, she immediately created {or co-created with fellow rebels Vilma Espin and Haydee Santamaria} the two pillars that sustain Revolutionary Cuba to this day -- the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Federation of Cuban Women. Of course, Americans are not supposed to comprehend the lasting brilliance of Celia Sanchez because the transplanted Batistianos have effectively controlled the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959. However, even the canniest Batistiano will today not be able to explain why, even hiding behind the unmatched economic and military power of the United States, they have not been able to regain control of the island, an island where Celia Sanchez in 1959 proclaimed: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She died at age 59 on January 11, 1980; Fidel is 88 and unwell. How long will her proclamation live after Fidel dies? It remains to be seen.

      But Josefina Vidal -- in the tradition of Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, and Haydee Santamaria -- appears today to also be capable of out-smarting and out-fighting her far more powerful adversaries. And like Celia, it appears Josefina has the support of most Cubans on the island, most people in the region, and most people around the world. Thus, the demise of Revolutionary Cuba will probably not occur on the very day the Little Havana section of Miami wildly celebrates the passing of their self-proclaimed boogeyman -- Fidel Castro. Maybe later, but not the very day he dies. The Cuban stalwart, Ms. Vidal, once surprised a Reuters journalist with this comment: "I believe the revolutionary government of Cuba will survive, and it should, at least until regional and world opinion agrees with America's Cuban policy. I know one thing. As long as we have the support of most nations in our region, I will fight to the last breath to protect my country, Cuba, against whatever threatens us, be it small or large."

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

      ........................a hearty congratulations to 21-year-old Caitlyn Ricci {Photo via Facebook}! Caitlyn attended Rowan College in Pennsylvania and she believed her well-to-do parents should have helped pay her expenses. When they didn't, she sued -- AND WON! And guess what? Caitlyn is now attending Temple University in Philadelphia and she has sued her parents for $16,000 to cover what she owes to Temple! Hopefully, she will win that lawsuit too. In the U. S., college students owe bankers over a trillion dollars {yes, trillion with a "t"} on the dreaded capitalistic scheme known as "student loans." Caitlyn Ricci left Rowan College unburdened by student loans and she doesn't plan on having hefty student loan payments when she graduates from Temple University. One day, Caitlyn would make a great Secretary of Commerce on the way to the Oval Office. I bet every American saddled with student loan debts would eagerly campaign and vote for her. Perhaps Caitlyn's generation can gently steer the U. S. government away from one that currently is bought-and-paid for by rich lobbyists, lawyers, and bankers. Go girl! Improve the world. 

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Unbiased Cuban Experts

Hard, But Not Impossible, to Find
Monday, December 8th, 2014 

       My friend Tracey Eaton {on the left} is one of America's best, fairest, and most unbiased experts on anything related to Cuba. When he headed the Dallas Morning News Havana bureau, I not only read but clipped out all of his articles, which I still have. When I had questions, I emailed Tracey and he never failed to respond with precise answers. I told him I had permission in 2004 from the George W. Bush administration to visit Cuba for the purpose of researching the island's revolutionary icon, Celia Sanchez. Tracey gave me some tips, including a good, reasonably priced place to stay -- the Victoria Hotel. He met me at the Victoria Hotel the morning after my arrival. Since 2005 Tracey has been back in the U. S. as a Professor at Flagler College in Florida. But he returns often to Cuba because he remains one of the most quoted Cuban experts...by the New York Times, USA Today, etc. Also, he has a myriad of blogs related to Cuba including Along the Malecon, Cuba Money Project, and Tracey Eaton Photography. He is presently America's best investigative blogger regarding U.S.-Cuban relations. In recent days on Along the Malecon, for example, he has posted a plethora of data and documents regarding the astounding amount of money the Miami-based, tax-funded Radio-TV Marti has spent and is spending to undermine the Cuban government. I, of course, have been aware of this boondoggle since the 1980s when the Bush dynasty anointed Jorge Mas Canosa the leader of the Cuban exiles, after which Mr. Canosa, on his way to becoming a Miami billionaire, founded the unmatched and unchecked Cuban American National Foundation as well as the unmatched, unchecked, and ongoing Radio-TV Marti fiasco. But Tracey's recent postings reveal some of the exact amounts of tax money Radio-TV Marti has spent and is spending to wreak havoc in Cuba along with other tax-paid havoc including the embargo, unending USAID plots, etc. Also, till I read those recent postings by Tracey I had no idea how much of those hard-earned tax dollars are being sent to foreign contractors hired to do some of the anti-Cuban uncover dirty work.

             The very last Tracey Eaton article from Cuba for the Dallas Morning News remains one of my favorites. It recounted a nostalgic last ride around the island before he relocated back to America. The article was perceptive regarding everyday life on the island and even gave a hint of why decades of a superpower's exalted efforts to overthrow the revolutionary government have failed. Tracey drove his jeep all over the island on that nostalgic trip. In the beautiful colonial coastal city of Trinidad in southern Cuba, he stopped for gas. At the pump, he noticed a young girl eyeing him and also jotting down some pertinent data, such as, I suppose, "PEXT*412" -- the license plate on his jeep. In 1959 the two most indispensable Cuban rebels -- Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin -- concocted the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. The young girl who took note of Tracey's trip to Trinidad, like most Cubans, undoubtedly belonged to a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. Having read Tracey's articles, on my travels around the island I was not surprised to notice everyday, very watchful Cubans with notepads in their hands. Tracey's article as well as my own experiences on the island helped explain to me why the Bay of Pigs attack, the embargo, and all other schemes to overthrow the revolutionary government have failed for going on six decades. Most Cubans are investigators, not dissidents.

        This historic photo captured the Big Four of the Cuban Revolution and the Big Four in Revolutionary Cuba. If that doesn't compute with what you have been told, then you have been conveniently lied to. Left to right is Vilma Espin, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and Celia Sanchez. Fidel Castro and other insiders rated the Big Four in this order of importance: #1 Celia Sanchez; #2 Fidel Castro; #3 Vilma Espin; and #4 Raul Castro. Again, if that doesn't compute with what you have been told, you have been conveniently lied to.

Now back to my friend Tracey Eaton. 

Did I mention that he is a great photographer?

       Tracey Eaton aptly named this photo "Morning Out." It shows a young Cuban woman performing a morning ritual common to everyday people around the world -- taking their house-broken dog outside so he/she can do what they need to do. Yes, decent and beautiful everyday people populate the island.

         Tracey Eaton named this photo "Hitchhiker." It, too, captured everyday life in Cuba and epitomized a pervasive fact of life that is far more common and ubiquitous in Cuba than elsewhere. Cubans, including young ladies like this, routinely hitchhike to get from one place to another. It is uncommonly safe in Cuba, which is a non-rich society whereby everyday Cubans routinely help others. So, if you have private transportation in Cuba you are expected to oblige hitchhikers, and that includes, as I noticed, police cars and other government vehicles, even trash trucks. When I was in Cuba I hired a driver, Jose, and he explained why he was obligated to stop and pick up hitchhikers unless our Honda was already over-loaded. Sitting in the passenger seat, I noticed Jose used his headlights to signal oncoming cars or trucks. It was, he said, like Morse Code. "I was telling that last car," Jose said, "to be on the look-out for two motorcycle cops parked on the right side of the road three miles back." Those of us who have been to Cuba soon picked up on such nuances endemic to the island. And those of us who want a fair appraisal of Cuba, be it good or bad, depend on journalists like Tracey Eaton -- journalists who have been to Cuba, who know Cuba, and who are not inclined to throw hand-grenades at the island out of revenge or for money.

By the way....................

         The 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games is over and 32 nations participated in the event held in Veracruz, Mexico. Little Cuba won the team championship with a whopping 123 gold medals. Mexico, the host country, finished second. The photo above shows the Cuban baseball team celebrating its 9-3 victory over Nicaragua in the title game. In the past two years, U. S. Major League teams have signed a plethora of Cuban baseball stars with some initial contracts exceeding $72 million guaranteed dollars. Cuba allows its best players to sign professional contracts in baseball-mad Japan and stars such as sluggers Yadier Hernandez, Alfredo Despaigne, Yulieski Gourriel, Frederich Cepeda, and ace pitcher Hector Luis Mendoza returned from Japan in time to help Cuba win the baseball title in the just-completed Central American and Caribbean Games. These popular Games are played every four years. Back in 2010 Cuba did not participate because the Games were played in Puerto Rico, a U. S. territory. Mexico, the 2014 site, is not a U. S. territory despite the major disagreement at the Alamo in San Antonio back in 1836.

        This Havanatimes.org photo shows Freddy Asiel Alvarez, the winning pitcher for Cuba in the championship game at the 2014 Central American And Caribbean Games. Cuba opened its regular baseball season recently -- Friday, December 5th -- and all 16 professional teams were in action on Opening Day. 

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