TARGET: CABARET "TROPICANA"
The most ambitious terrorist plan
against Cuba in the 1990s

BY PERCY FRANCISCO ALVARADO GODOY (FRAILE)

WHEN the Tropicana was founded at the end of the 1930s, as an unusual tropical version of the Folies Bergères, situated in the tropical and paradisiacal environment of a surburban farm in Marianao – known as the Villa Mina – a few businessmen, led by Víctor Correa, bet on a promising future for their attempt to create a unique night club on this spot. However, they could never have imagined that, many years later, this dream would be involved in a macabre intrigue of terrorist attacks that would have endangered the lives of its many visitors and destroyed the magic and enchantment of its long-standing legacy.

A sporadic visitor to the "Beneath the Stars" Salon, whenever I entered the luxurious glass lobby, I would feel captivated by the music and the invitation of my occasional companion to pass the time enjoying ourselves, with love and fantasy, delight and abandonment. ‘There’s so much life here,’ I said to myself more than once; and my life was transformed into a kaleidoscope of multi-colored lights, idyllic vegetation, suggestive music and sensual bodies. Nor could I imagine then that, some time later, I would be caught up in these same criminal plans and that I would be involved in two out of the three plans that were publicly known, and were aimed at destroying such a marvelous place.

A PARADISE BENEATH THE STARS

The Tropicana cabaret is, right now, one of the largest and most famous nightspots in Cuba. It has become, without any doubt, a venue not to be missed for those visiting the island.

It is a complex of facilities offering visitors the option of getting to know the best of Cuban music and enjoying delicious cocktails and an exquisite gourmet meal. Included in this is the "Beneath the Stars" Salon, a fantasy place in which the vegetation is part of the inevitably gigantic musical show, where almost 1,000 spectators can enjoy Afro-Cuban dancing, national and international singers of incomparable quality, as well as cigars and Cuban rum.

As well as the "Beneath the Stars" Salon, there is the Los Jardines restaurant and the bohemian Café Rodney.

With more than 300 employees, it receives almost half a million visitors every year throughout its facilities.

Many famous international performers from the artistic world have appeared there including Nat King Cole, Josephine Baker, Xavier Cugat, the Chavales from Spain, Carmen Miranda, Pedro Vargas, Libertad Lamarque, Tania Libertad, Alejandra Guzmán, Cheo Feliciano, Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot, Elena Burque, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve to name but a few.

Characterized by the beauty of its interiors, the virtuosity of its dancers, the magnificent shows and many other attributes, it became a National Monument in 2002 in accordance with Decree 178 of the National Monuments Council.

TROPICANA: TERRORIST TARGET OF THE CUBAN-AMERICAN MAFIA

In 1993, during a visit to Miami to visit relatives, Orfiris Pérez Cabrera – a Cuban citizen resident on the island – was contacted by terrorist Luis Zuñiga Rey, a member of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF).

The aim of the meeting was clear: they would pay him $20,000 USD to place an explosive device in the Tropicana cabaret and to execute other violent activities inside the country.

This individual immediately devoted himself to fulfilling the orders he had received from outside the country. He studied the cabaret’s buildings down to the last detail and set about waiting for the explosives to be supplied from his bosses in Miami. Uncovered by Cuban State Security, a tight security operation was mounted around him. It was my task to act as a supposed envoy of the terrorists and, confused by an unusual confidence in himself, he explained the plans to me down to the last detail.

Thanks to this measure – and others not necessary to comment on here – the first planned attack on the famous Tropicana, involving placing a powerful explosive and/or incendiary devices in the area destined for visitors and dancers, was neutralized. The neutralization of CANF agent 18 confirmed that the Cuban-American mafia would have no opportunity at all to provoke dozens of deaths in order to damage the Revolution.

Obviously, it was an unforgettable experience for me and I felt a healthy pride in being of use to Cuba, as well as simply saving so many innocent lives. Inside I felt a great hatred towards those persons capable of killing for their own political and economic ends.

But I couldn’t guess at that point that life would once again give me the privilege of preventing another attack on the Tropicana. I could not imagine it, even when I was living with those Miami criminals in my position as an anti-terrorist fighter in the very entrails of the monster.

In August 1994, as a CANF agent in Cuba, I received orders from Francisco José Hernández Calvo (Pepe), president of that terrorist organization, to mount an explosives attack on the famous cabaret.

Immediately, guided by my officers within Cuban State Security, I devoted myself to preparing the supposed attack: filming and photographing the "Beneath the Stars" Salon – the defined object of the attack – and handed over a sketch of it. In subsequent journeys to the city of Miami the plan was drawn up.

It consisted of placing a explosive device in this area in the next few months to shock foreign tourists and affect that growing industry. The precise location was to be adjoining the stage and immediately underneath the band area, where the highest concentration of foreign visitors was to be found.

Everything was ready by November 1994.

- The device was to be placed between November 26 and 28.

- The explosion would occur in the "Beneath the Stars" salon– definitely not in any other location – where some 850 persons are located.

- The device should detonate between 11-12 p.m: at the peak point of the nightclub show.

- A suitable space of time between the device being planted and its detonation should be given to provide a means of escape without detection. (Remember that another device was to be placed in a Varadero Hotel).

- If I was captured I was on no account to make any allusion to my CANF contacts.

On instructions from my CANF chiefs, I traveled to Guatemala on November 22, 1994 and stayed at the Camino Real Hotel in the capital city’s zone 10. There I received detailed training in explosives’ management from none other than Luis Posada Carriles and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, both currently detained in Panama for planning an attempt on the life of Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit.

After returning to Havana with the explosives on November 25, everything was clear to us:

• The supposed noise bomb was in fact a 450-gram charge of the powerful explosive C4.

• If it had exploded, given its power and characteristics, it would have led to the death of some 100 persons, as well as many more wounded and mutilated.

• It would have made a strong impact on the increasing tourist flow to Cuba, the real purpose of such a sinister plan.

Once again, with various other anonymous State Security combatants, it was my honorable role to safeguard the lives of Cubans and foreigners, the innocent victims of the obsessive hatred of the Miami terrorists. The Tropicana was once again to be the innocent victim, with death threatening it once more.

When our people believed that the enemy had grown tired of damaging their tranquillity, another piece of news caught everyone by surprise: on April 26, 2002, Ihosvany Suris de la Torre, Máximo Pradera Valdés and Santiago Padrón Quintero, all of Cuban origin, were captured on the island. They had come from Miami, financed by the CANF, with one clear idea: to mount another attack on the Tropicana cabaret.

These three attempts at terrorist aggression against a Cuban tourism installation are not fortuitous or isolated actions. They are part of a terrorist wave against Cuba developed over more than 40 years, with the clear objective of destroying the Revolution. At the end of the day, they are only three incidents that have been made public. Others are still held in deepest secret and yet others, those to come, will receive the same response from our people.

SOME FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

What I have outlined in this article is no secret to anyone. Much information has been circulated in that context and various media have given it ample coverage. However, certain later investigations have allowed me to define exactly the damage to Cuba and the world as the result of such actions.

On each of the dates when the potential sabotage operation existed, approximately 850 persons were attending the show nightly. With the addition of the 300-plus persons who work there, the blast would have endangered the lives of more than 1,000 innocent citizens.

Based on studies into the kind of tourists that visit the Tropicana, it is known that on the days in question, U.S., Canadian, Mexican, Argentine, Uruguayan, Italian, British, Swiss, French, Russian, Belgian and German citizens were there, as well as fewer persons from other nations. All of them, whatever their nationality or ideology, could have been killed for the sole crime of having visited Cuba.

Independently of the fact that the United States has received ample information on these planned acts of terrorism, the government of that country has never brought those responsible to trial. They are strolling the streets of Miami in total impunity and have even been photographed with the president of that country who has promised them to do away with Cuba.

Are these potential victims somehow different to those savagely killed on September 11? Is it that these terrorists are not guilty? Or is this what they call "fighting for the freedom of Cuba?"

Percy Francisco Alvarado Godoy is a Guatemalan writer who, under the pseudonym of Fraile, infiltrated the Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami as a terrorist.

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 by Phillip Agee, former CIA agent and author

Civil Society and the Dissidents

GOING back to the Reagan administration of the early 1980’s, the decision was taken that more than terrorist operations was needed to impose regime change in Cuba. Terrorism hadn’t worked, nor had the Bay of Pigs invasion, nor had Cuba’s diplomatic isolation, which gradually ended, nor had the economic embargo. Now Cuba would be included in a new world wide program to finance and develop non-governmental and voluntary organizations, what was to become known as civil society, within the context of U.S. global neo-liberal policies. The CIA and the Agency for International Development (AID) would have key roles in this program as well as a new organization christened in 1983 The National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Actually the new program was not really new. Since its founding in 1947, the CIA had been deeply involved in secretly funding and manipulating foreign non-governmental voluntary organizations. These vast operations circled the globe and were targeted at political parties, trade unions and businessmen’s associations, youth and student organizations, women’s groups, civic organizations, religious communities, professional, intellectual and cultural societies, and the public information media. The network functioned at local, national, regional and global levels. Media operations, for example, were underway continuously in practically every country, wherein the CIA would pay journalists to publish its materials as if they were the journalists’ own. In the Directorate of Operations at the CIA’s headquarters, these operations were coordinated with the regional operations divisions by the International Organizations Division (IOD), since many of the operations were regional or continental in nature, encompassing many countries, with some even worldwide in scope.

Over the years the CIA exerted phenomenal influence behind the scenes in country after country, using these powerful elements of civil society to penetrate, divide, weaken and destroy corresponding enemy organizations on the left, and indeed to impose regime change by toppling unwanted governments. Such was the case, among many others, in Guyana where in 1964, culminating 10 years of efforts, the Cheddi Jagan government was overthrown through strikes, terrorism, violence and arson perpetrated by CIA international trade union agents. About the same time, while I was assigned in Ecuador, our agents in civil society, through mass demonstrations and civil unrest, provoked two military coups in three years against elected, civilian governments. And in Brazil in the early 1960’s, the same CIA trade union operations were brought together with other operations in civil society in opposition to the government, and these mass actions over time provoked the 1964 military coup against President Joao Goulart, ushering in 20 years of unspeakably brutal political repression.

But on February 26^th, 1967, the sky crashed on IOD and its global civil society networks. At the time I was on a visit to Headquarters in Langley, Virginia near Washington, between assignments in Ecuador and Uruguay. That day the Washington Post published an extensive report revealing a grand stable of foundations, some bogus, some real, that the CIA was using to fund its global non-governmental networks. These financial arrangements were known as “funding conduits.” Along with the foundations scores of recipient organizations were identified, including well-known intellectual journals, trade unions, and political think tanks. Soon journalists around the world completed the picture with reports on the names and operations of organizations in their countries affiliated with the network. They were the CIA’s darkest days since the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

President Johnson ordered an investigation and said such CIA operations would end, but in fact they never did. The proof is in the CIA’s successful operations in Chile to provoke the 1973 Pinochet coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende. Here they combined the forces of opposition political parties, trade unions, businessmen’s groups, civic organizations, housewife’s associations and the information media to create chaos and disorder, knowing that sooner or later the Chilean military, faithful to traditional fascist military doctrine in Latin America, would use such unrest to justify usurping governmental power to restore order and to stamp out the left. The operations were almost a carbon copy of the Brazilian destabilization and coup program ten years earlier. We all remember the horror that followed for years afterwards in Chile.

Fast forward to now. Anyone who has watched the civil society opposition to the Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela develop can be certain that U.S. government agencies, the CIA included, along with the Agency for International Development (AID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), are coordinating the destabilization and were behind the failed coup in April 2002 as well as the failed “civic strike” of last December-January. The International Republican Institute (IRI) of the Republican Party even opened an office in Caracas. See below for more on NED, AID and IRI in civil society operations.

In order to understand how these civil society operations are run, let’s take a look at the bureaucratic side. When I entered the CIA’s training course, the first two words I learned were discipline and control. The U.S. government was not a charitable institution, they said, and all money must be spent for its exact, designated purpose. The CIA operations officer that I would become is responsible for ensuring this discipline through tight control of the money and of the agents down the line who spend it. Orders to the agents on their duties and obligations are to be clear and unambiguous, and the officer must prevent personal embezzlement of money by an agent, beyond the agent’s agreed salary, by requiring receipts for all expenses and for all payments to others. Exceptions to this rule needed special approvals.

In the CIA, activities to penetrate and manipulate civil society are known as Covert Action operations, and they are governed by detailed regulations for their use. They require a request for money in a document known as a Project Outline, if the activity is new, or a Request for Project Renewal, if an on-going activity is to be continued. The document originates either in a field station or in Headquarters, and it describes a current situation; the activities to be undertaken to improve or change the situation vis-à-vis U.S. interests; a time-line for achieving intermediary and final goals; risks and the flap potential (damages if revealed); and a detailed budget with information on all participating organizations and individuals and the amounts of money to go to each. The document also contains a summary of the status of all agent personnel to be involved with references to their operational security clearance procedures and the history of their service to the Agency. All people involved are included, from the ostensible funding agencies like officers of a foundation, down to every intermediate and end recipient of the money.

In additional to these budget specifics, a certain amount of money without designated recipients is included under the rubric D&TO, standing for Developmental and Targets of Opportunity. Money from this fund is used to finance new activities that come up during the project approval period, but of course detailed information and security clearances on all individuals who would receive such funding is always required. A statement is also required on the intelligence information by-product to be collected through the proposed operation. Thus financial support for a political party is expected to produce intelligence information on the internal politics of the host country.

Project Outlines and Renewals go through an approval process by various offices such as the International Organizations Division, and depending on their sensitivity and cost, they may require approval outside the CIA at the Departments of State, Defense, or Labor, or by the National Security Council or the President himself. When finally approved the CIA’s Finance Division allocates the money and the operation begins, or continues if being renewed. The period of approvals and renewals is usually one year.

Both the Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy without doubt have documentation requirements and approval processes similar to the CIA’s for project funding in the civil societies of other countries. All the people involved must receive prior approval through an investigative process, and each person has clearly defined tasks. An inter-agency commission determines which of the three agencies, the CIA, AID or NED, or a combination of them, are to carry out specific tasks in the civil societies of specific countries and how much money each should give. All three have obviously been working to develop an opposition civil society in Cuba.

One should note that the high-sounding National Endowment for Democracy has its origins in the CIA’s covert action operations and was first conceived in the wake of the disastrous revelations noted above that began on February 26^th, 1967. Two months later in April that year, Dante Fascell, member of the House of Representatives from Miami and a close friend of the CIA and Miami Cubans, together with other Representatives, introduced legislation that would create an “open” foundation to carry on what had been secret CIA funding of the foreign civil society programs of U.S. organizations (e.g., the National Students Association) or of foreign organizations directly (e.g., the Congress for Cultural Freedom based in Paris).

The Fascell idea failed to prosper, however, because of the breakdown of the bipartisan approach to foreign policy that had prevailed since the administration of Harry Truman after World War II. Differences since the late 1960’s within and between the two parties over the war in Southeast Asia, then in the 70’s over Watergate and the loss of the Vietnam war, and finally over revelations of assassination plots and other operations of the CIA by Senate and House investigating committees, prevented agreement and resulted in several years of isolationism. Only the successes of revolutionary movements in Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Grenada, Nicaragua and elsewhere brought “cold warrior” Democrats and “internationalist” Republicans together to establish in 1979 the American Political Foundation (APF). The foundation’s task was to study the feasibility of establishing through legislation a government-financed foundation to subsidize foreign operations in civil society through U.S. non-governmental organizations.

Within APF four task forces were set up to conduct the study, one for the Democrats, one for the Republicans, one for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and one for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Together their work became known as the Democracy Program. They consulted a vast array of domestic and foreign organizations, and what they found most interesting were the government-financed foundations of the main West German political parties: the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung of the Social Democrats and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of the Christian Democrats. When these foundations were first set up in the 1950’s, their task was to build a new German democratic order, a civil society based on the Western parliamentary model while lending their weight to repression of communist and other left political movements.

From early on the CIA channeled money through these foundations for non-government organizations and groups in Germany. Then in the 1960’s the foundations began supporting fraternal political parties and other organizations abroad, and they channeled CIA money for these purposes as well. By the 1980’s the two foundations had programs going in some 60 countries and were spending about $150 million per year. And what was most interesting, they operated in near-total secrecy.

One operation of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung shows how effective they could be. In 1974, when the 50-year-old fascist regime was overthrown in Portugal, a NATO member, communists and left-wing military officers took charge of the government. At that time the Portuguese social democrats, known as the Socialist Party, could hardly have numbered enough for a poker game, and they all lived in Paris and had no following in Portugal. Thanks to at least $10 million from the Ebert Stiftung plus funds from the CIA, the social democrats came back to Portugal, built a party overnight, saw it mushroom, and within a few years the Socialist Party became the governing party of Portugal. The left was relegated to the sidelines in disarray.

Ronald Reagan was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Democracy Program, describing his plans in a speech before the British Parliament in June 1982. This new program, he said, would build an “infrastructure of democracy” around the world following the European example of “open” support, furthering “the march of freedom and democracy…” Of course the German programs were anything but “open,” nor would the American programs be “open” once they began. In fact even before Congress established the NED, Reagan set up what was called Project Democracy in the U.S. Information Agency under direction of the State Department. A secret Executive Order at the time, soon leaked to the press, provided for secret CIA participation in the program. An early grant was $170,000 for training media officials in El Salvador and other right-wing authoritarian regimes on how to deal with the U.S. press---the Salvadoran program to be carried out through the Washington public relations firm that had represented the Somoza dictatorship.

In November 1983 Dante Fascell’s dream finally came true. Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy and gave it an initial $18.8 million for building civil society abroad during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1984. Fascell became a member of NED’s first Board of Directors. Whereas the CIA had previously funneled money through a complex network of “conduits,” the NED would now become a “mega-conduit” for getting U.S. government money to the same array of non-governmental organizations that the CIA had been funding secretly.

The Cuban American National Foundation was, predictably, one of the first beneficiaries of NED funding. From 1983 to 1988 CANF received $390,000 for anti-Castro activities. During the same period the separate political action committee (PAC) run by CANF directors to fund political campaigns, gave a nearly identical amount for the campaigns of Dante Fascell and other friendly politicians, a clear trade-off based on funds received from NED.

Legally the NED is a private, non-profit foundation, an NGO, and it receives a yearly appropriation from Congress. The money is channeled through four “core foundations” established along the lines of the four original task forces of the Democracy Program. These are the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Democratic Party); the International Republican Institute (Republican Party); the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (AFL-CIO); and the Center for International Private Enterprise (U.S. Chamber of Commerce). The NED also gives money directly to “groups abroad who are working for human rights, independent media, the rule of law, and a wide range of civil society initiatives.” [Quote from NED web site May 2003.]

The NED’s non-governmental status provides the fiction that recipients of NED money are getting “private” rather than U.S. government money. This is important because so many countries, including both the U.S. and Cuba, have laws relating to their citizens being paid to carry out activities for foreign governments. The U.S. requires an individual or organization “subject to foreign control,” i.e., who receives money and instructions from a foreign government, to register with the Attorney General and to file detailed activities reports, including finances, every six months. The five Cuban intelligence officers were convicted for failing to register under this law.

Cuba has its own laws criminalizing actions intended to jeopardize its sovereignty or territorial integrity as well as any actions supporting the goals of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act of 1996, i.e., by collecting information to support the embargo or to subvert the government, or for disseminating U.S. government information to undermine the Cuban government.

Source: Granma

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The thieves of Baghdad and the destruction of a culture

By Vicky Peláez

It has been said that man is the fiercest predator on this planet.  It should be added, however, that historically, in his battles of conquests the conqueror with his weapons and leaving a trail of death has always tried to destroy the knowledge and the history of the vanquished.  

In these moments when the world is going through dark times, when the few items remaining of ancient knowledge were made ashes and looted by an invading army, we must remember the hoards of those savages that centuries ago destroyed cultures.  In 1258 the Mongols, under Genghis Khan, in a war destroyed the libraries in Baghdad to build the bridges necessary to cross the Tigris river; interesting enough these are the same areas now occupied by the US occupational forces.  It has been said that the Iraqis had so many books then as to make the waters of the river Tigris black with the ink of the papyrus.  In that barbaric act, most of the knowledge and history accumulated up to that time was lost; although archeologists in later periods uncovered some history, most of the books and history of the Ottoman empire were lost for ever. 

The burning of the National Library in Iraq, last April 12 and 13, was devastating as the library was considered a patrimony of humanity.  The soldiers did not have any knowledge of this as they were just following orders; orders that encouraged the ransacking and the destruction so as to later depict it as Iraqis acting wildly because of the fall of Saddam.  They were also interested in stealing the treasures of the museum as well as the money in the banks.  This was amply demonstrated when 4 soldiers were caught with 800 thousand dollars in their pockets, while some others tried to steal 12 million.  Many of them were found to have gold artifacts; not knowing that the non-gold artifacts they had let the Iraqis take in the looting were perhaps more valuable.   

The very first day after the Museums of Baghdad, of Mosul, Basra, Uruk and Babylon among others were ransacked; historical artifacts were sold in the Internet.  It is not difficult to conclude who were the real looters and thieves.  It is well known that the only thing the US army guarded well was the oil fields; the other like banks and museums were opened with tanks.  

It is important to realize the profound significant the burning of the National Library has for the invaders.  The sole purpose of the destruction of the library was to erase their historical identity; to destroy the grandeur of their culture and history.  The same occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina when in that war the National library was intentionally burned.  

If we again go back to ancient history, the Spanish conquistadors did the same thing as they destroyed the Inca civilization, burning the temples, the houses and the knowledge of the Mayans, Aztecs, etc.  The ultimate aim of the invaders has always been the assimilation of the invader's culture by the conquered.

Humanity has suffered great losses these days.  Among the losses was the oldest edition of the Coram in the world, written by the most prestigious calligraphers of those times.  Also lost were the stone tablets of the Sumerian work Gilgamesh; a work which is considered to be the first written work in the world; written by an author who lived between 4000-2500 B.C.  This great work was either burned, looted or is in the hands of a trafficker of art.  

Also missing is the first edition of the famous "1001 Arabian Nights".  It shouldn't surprise anyone if this book along with other works and artifacts start to appear in the libraries of collectors in this country.  It will not be the first time this has happened.  The museums and the libraries are full of treasures stolen from other civilizations.  A good example of this is the Code of Hamurabi and the total ransacking of the temples of Machupichu - including the skeletons - by Hiram Bingham; all of this looting coming under the pretext that he took them to the US to study them.  

This is not all; as the reporters who were there to inform on the Iraq war but who in reality were mouthpieces of the invaders - as their reporting had to go through the armed forces first, gave the real surprise.  Many reporters were also looters as they were caught with Iraqi treasures.  The first group of reporters not identified was detained on April 19 in Jordan.  These reporters had 42 paintings robbed from the Iraqi museum.  They try to pass it off as souvenirs.  It should be added that these "souvenirs" were worth millions.  The New York Post wrote that at least seven reporters were detained when they returned to the US as they tried to pass through customs works of art taken out during the ransacking of the museums in Iraq.  Some of the museum pieces included historically valuable ancient weapons.  The sound engineer for Fox News, Benjamin James Johnson, for example, had in his luggage 12 ancient paintings.  The reporter for the Boston Herald, Jules Crittenden had hidden among his personal belongings millions in souvenirs as he returned to the US.  His argument was the same as the other reporters’ arguments:  Iraqis gave the treasures as a token of appreciation for having their nation "liberated".  Can you imagine what loot the invading army will bring back? An army which no one will dare inspect.

Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization; a civilization were mathematics was born, were agriculture and the domestication of animals began, were ceramics was invented, etc.  To the invaders this is of no importance, what is important to them is that to expand their empire, to gain control of other's riches they must destroy the cultures of others and impose the Western culture as the only one.  They are wrong if they think they will succeed!   

Note from Cuba Socialista:  The New York Post an extremely right wing reactionary newspaper, owned by Rudolph Murdoch, ran an editorial recently lamenting that stolen artifacts were confiscated by customs.  According to the editorial, the stolen artifacts should be allowed to be kept because historically in wars there was always a "booty".  This kind of thinking clearly shows the mentality of the neo-fascists who have stooped to the lowest levels of humanity.

Source: el diario/LA PRENSA

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Rigoberta Menchú, Nobel Peace Prize winner: It is unjust to criticize Cuba while remaining silent on the genocide of the Iraqi people

Julio Gómez Lluciá

Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú criticized the resolution against Cuba before the Human Rights Commission when there is a total silence in regards to the genocide against Iraq and the vast amount of suffering that occurred, specially among children, in that nation  

In her arrival to Cuba to participate in the forum Health for All, the indigenous leader and UN ambassador declared that the plight of the Iraqi people, "provokes indignation around the world." 

She pointed out how Washington was not able to persuade people from seeing the attack on Iraq as an act of aggression and how no one with any feelings could not help but repudiate the war.  

She added that the British-American aggression aside from being unjustified will be very costly.  

"All of this occurred because Iraq unfortunately was sitting on top of oil reserves", she said.

"The Cubans have the right to dream of a sovereign nation and no one has the right to punish the island and its people",  said Menchú. 

Discussing her participation in the forum Health for All, she said that she along with other people are engaged in a national campaign in Mexico to aid those stricken with the AIDS and cancer in acquiring medicine, chemotherapy and affordable treatment.

We aspire to create a Latin American alliance to promote Health; a right that the immense majority of the lacks. 

The Nobel Prize winner pointed out that, with the exception of Cuba, the majority of Latin American do not have the right to affordable medicine. 

Cuba is the first nation in our continent to have made advances in science; advances that is shared with Latin American brothers.  Cuba is also a nation whose solidarity is demonstrated by the thousands of students - many of them from Guatemala - studying in the Latin American School of Medicine.

The world known personality arrived in Cuba with the actress Araceli Arambula and  Alfonso Alen, Executive Director of  the  Rigoberta Menchú Foundation.

Granma

Nobel Prize winner: The United States should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity

Buenos Aires, April 10 - The Permanent Tribunal of the People (TPP) is studying the possibility of having a trial for the war crimes committed by the United States.  "They cannot be treated with impunity", commented Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

If the United Nations or the International Court does not indict the invaders of Iraq, then TPP will.  "We will indict for crimes against humanity not only the United States but Great Britain, Spain and Australia as well" said Mr. Esquivel.

"They are responsible for the genocide against a people, a genocide whose victims are basically women, children and newsmen", said the well known human rights activist.

Visibly angry by the events in Iraq, Pérez Esquivel pointed out that in the US, "there was a danger posed to those who wished to report on that which the invaders did not wanted reported.  There was a censuring of the press." 

"And they are still talking about democracy arguing that the aggression's objective was to defend democracy and the life of the Iraqi people.  I have never seen so much hypocrisy", he said.

Esquivel who is also the President of Peace and Justice reminded the press that, "other empires were clear on what they wanted but that the United States, using lies and hypocrisy try to hide their real intent, namely, global domination."

The 1980 Nobel Prize winner declared that the invasion of Iraq was affront to human dignity and cautioned at the dangers of a "silenced UN".

"It worries me the silence of the UN, and that the General Assembly had not convened to denounce this barbaric aggression.  It also worries me that the Secretary General, Kofi Annan is trying to justify the unjustifiable", he said. 

"If he does not have the courage to confront the United States, to condemn the invasion then he should leave because he is not upholding the mandate given by the member nations in the UN; a mandate which is to preserve peace and to find ways of avoiding conflicts", he emphasized.  

At the same time he maintained that the UN had become so marginalized as to "not even have the courage to repudiate this invasion that has left thousands of dead and injured, which has left a country destroyed, an invasion which has trampled human rights and international law and has trample the sovereignty of a nation", adding that, "the concepts of peace that humanity had worked so hard to establish after World War II had vanished, to be replaced by an empire which has unmasked itself". 

According to Pérez Esquivel the events that have occurred did not begin with George W. Bush, but rather many years ago. "It has been demonstrated that those that behind the mask of those who speak about democracy and liberty is globalized totalitarianism", he said.

The Nobel Prize winner, "This presents a danger to the people of the world as today anyone who is considered a threat by the super power can be a target for invasion".

He concluded by saying that, "no one knows what the security of the rest of the world is when it is confronted by a terrorist state like the United States.  We have to revise the role of the UN, international organizations and these war mongers who have totally changed the world."   

Source: Trabajadores digital

Foto: RENÉ PÉREZ MASSOLA

Nobel Peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchú declared in Havana that, "at this moment the UN seems to be a private company of the US.  A company that will clean up the mess after the war. 

In a press conference given by the Cuban Institute of Solidarity between Peoples, she said she was in solidarity with the 5 Cuban political prisoners held in US jails.

Menchú, who is of Mayan descent, met with the families of the 5 Cuban political prisoners who at this moment are being held in 5 different states.  "What is important is that they get a fair hearing."

Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González, are 5 Cubans who were unjustly convicted and given long sentences by Miami court system, as they were trying to defend both nations against terrorism, are currently waiting for an appeal from the Federal Court in Atlanta.

Speaking on NAFTA she emphasized that the concept of free trade was being used by the powerful nations as a means of obtaining benefits; benefits at the expense of the poorer nations.

“The integration of Latin America has to be based on ethical morals and within the context of a world order which respects justice and equality among all people", she said.

Speaking about the current international events, she assured that as a Mayan she is saddened for what has transpired in Iraq - an ancient civilization and that all of this goes against world peace and stability.

“We need to plan international codes based on sanctioning those who commit crimes against humanity", she said.

Speaking about her presence in Cuba, a country which she, "shares a long friendship", the Nobel Prize winner declared that she was participating in the forum Health for All.  A forum which proposes to create a health organization for Latin America.

Source: Granma

The United States could not condemn Cuba before the UN Human Rights Commission.  The puppets and the blackmailed of  the Empire were exposed.     

Juana Carrasco Martín
Foto: Franklin Reyes

Even with the great effort put forth by the United States and it's political puppets before the UN Human Rights Commission they could not get their resolution passed.  After suffering a humiliating defeat Wednesday, the hypocritical condemnation of Cuba, in terms of the voting and the language, was not obtained.  Although they saw a water downed resolution pass, they suffered a moral defeat.  

The Bush administration was able to get a resolution passed.  A resolution presented by three marionettes, Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica.  The three water downed paragraphs were supported by NATO's Europe, a Canada dependent on US trade and third world countries who couldn't resist the threats and the economic pressures.

The US obtained what it called "anything against Cuba", when it managed to pass the resolution, with 24 votes in favor, 20 against and 9 abstentions.  The resolution calls for the High Commission to designate an observer to monitor so called human rights abuse and for Cuba to allow the observer to carry out hi/her work. 

All said and done Cuba who has always been firm in it's convictions and principles, has reiterated it's decision as no to allow for such observer.  "Cuba will not cooperate with the imposition placed on this commission", said Juan Antonio Fernández, Cuban representative before the commission, adding, "We will not be accomplices of those who lie and cheat and try to accuse the island of violating human rights".

It is evident that what occurred Thursday in Geneva, exposes a fascist world tyranny that has no allies, which has little respect for the sovereignty of any nation, which has no respect for the UN, and which has shamed the Human Rights Commission with it's obsessive anti-Cuban politics.   

The US needs this cynical resolution so as to justify and maintain it's genocidal embargo; an embargo, which tries to defeat the Cuban people, and it's Revolution by starvation and sickness. 

It should be pointed out that the debates and the voting in Geneva were initiated when a resolution written in English was presented by Costa Rica - Costa Rican puppets didn't even think of translating it into Spanish.  The resolution tried to use the HRC to condemn Cuba's judicial processes - all within the framework of the Constitution -, which recently condemned some political mercenaries as well as three terrorists.  

The voting on this resolution presented by Costa Rica demonstrated that Cuba is not alone as the resolution was overwhelmingly defeated.  In the voting on this resolution an immense majority of the HRC nations voted with Cuba, defeating the resolution, with 31 votes against, 15 in favor, with 7 abstentions.  

The Cuban delegation also presented two resolutions, one condemned the embargo as a gross violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, while the other condemned the more than 40 years of terrorist acts against the Cuban people, initiated from the US. 

The voting on the resolution condemning the genocidal embargo, in which 17 voted in favor, and 26 against, unmasked the real faces of the "defenders of human rights"; it exposed them for the hypocrites they really are.  As Cuba realized the cynicism of some of it's members it decided to withdraw the second resolution relating to US sponsored terrorism.       

A revealing debate

The most interesting part of the proceedings took place in the debates preceding the last two resolutions.  More than a dozen diplomats condemned the embargo while the US remained silent.  They could not argue because they lacked the moral and legal grounds to do so.  They are orphans of ideas and as such have to revert to disinformation and deceit.  

 Libya made it clear that the legal proceedings in Cuba were legal and that it had the right to protect itself from political mercenaries and terrorists.  The representative of that nation rejected the embargo, denouncing it as unjust, violating the human rights of the Cuban people; a people who has freely chosen it's government and it's economic and social structure.  

On the other hand the representative of Vietnam, classified the US sponsored resolutions as bizarre, severely criticizing the resolution presented by Costa Rica, Uruguay and Peru.  The representative also criticized the confrontational language used in the resolution.  Lastly, the representative of Vietnam made it clear that his nation understood well what an embargo meant - having suffered by a US embargo for many years - and as such rejected the anti-Cuban resolutions and backed the Cuban resolutions.  

Mexico and Chile were incapable of contradicting their trading partner - the US - and as such backed US sponsored resolutions.

China pointed out that the resolution presented by Cuba - condemning the embargo - offered an excellent opportunity for those who sponsored and backed Resolution L-2 - assigning an observer to monitor supposed human rights violations in Cuba - to demonstrate that L-2's presentation was not political.  However, the US and 25 other countries voting down of the resolution condemning the embargo, showed the political nature of the voting.  It also holds them responsible for an unjust and genocidal blockade. 

Zimbabwe indicated that the Cuban people's principles did not warrant US sanctions.  "We will vote for both of Cuba's resolutions", said the representative of that nation. 

The representative of Sudan stated that his country was against any kind of sanctions, especially when they were unilateral in nature.  "We in Sudan suffer from the same types of sanctions and embargoes", adding, "They violate the human rights of the Cuban people". 

The representative of South Africa stated, "We will vote in favor of Cuba's resolution condemning the embargo which has been condemned by the international community".  The same ideas was expressed by the representative of Algeria, who argued that his country new well unilateral embargoes and all those sanctions which violate the human rights of people.  He said it was within the legality of the HRC to, "try to end all those embargoes and sanctions that exists in different parts of the world".  

Malaysia and Russia also supported the Cuban resolution condemning the embargo.  

RIGHTEOUSNESS VS. SHAME

The head of the Cuban delegation before the HRC, Juan Antonio Fernández, pointed out that the 59th session of the HRC was going thru one of the most critical moments in the history of humanity.  He also pointed out the lack of credibility of the HRC as the member nations were being coerced by blackmail and economic pressure coming from the US.   The Cuban representative also declared that the anti-Cuban resolution, brought forth by Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica was clearly a US fabrication.

The Cuban representative was explicit when he asked, Why is the victim being condemned instead of the aggressor?, Cuba knows that at the end no one will be able to stop the truth.  They will not have a leg to stand on in their attacks on Cuba...Why hasn't there been any criticism of the political prisoners the US now holds in the occupied area, in the  US naval base at Guantanamo?  A crisis of boat people or any kind of incident is being planned to start an aggression against Cuba...The shame and the tears of the mothers of the more than 3000 that have died as a result of acts of aggression and terrorism against Cuba will fall on them..." 

What transpired in Geneva has led us into two conclusions:  Cuba achieved its purpose of unmasking the true intentions of the embargo and those who support it.  Those who voted against the Cuban resolution condemning the embargo expressed publicly their hypocrisy.  It has been a victory for the Cuban revolutionary diplomacy as well as being a humiliation and an embarrassment for imperial politics.  You can see the face of defeat of the US delegation during the debates.  

Speaking to the press, about what transpired on Thursday, April 17, the Cuban representative, Juan Antonio Fernández, said, "We see it as a victory of our ideas, as well as a victory for the valor of a number of nations that stood with us until the end.  As far as the embargo is concerned, as the overwhelming majority of nations around the world reject the embargo, the US is at a minority in this issue.  The whole world condemns the embargo, now that they don't respect world opinion and the UN is another matter." 

Despite all the arm twisting, blackmail and pressure on the part of the US on member states, the best the US could do is get a watered down version of an anti-Cuban resolution passed.  But they will accept even this because they can use it to justify the criminal economic war - embargo and sanctions - they wage against Cuba and it's people.

Translated from juventud rebelde

U.S. treatment of aircraft hijackers provokes further serious incident

AS anticipated and publicly exposed, the unthinkable treatment proffered by the U.S. authorities to those responsible for the hijacking of a DC-3 passenger plane with 37 people on board, diverted at knifepoint in mid-air while traveling from Nueva Gerona to Havana on March 19, constituted a powerful incitement for the terrorists who hijacked another airplane at extremely grave risk to life.

As is known, many accomplices of the assaulting group were exonerated of all responsibility and granted residence in the United States. Moreover, other passengers were offered similar privileges as a means of keeping them there.

The six hijackers were accused of air piracy and detained in prison. Several days later, the cables announced that they would soon be freed on bail. Although they remain in jail, the Miami terrorist mafia is actively working in their favor. The DC-3 was immediately confiscated.

As a result of this policy, 12 days later, on March 31, a sinister terrorist, who threatened to blow up the aircraft with a grenade, hijacked an AN-24 traveling the same Gerona-Havana route with 46 passengers. In both cases, as in all of them, the demand was to be taken to the United States, where these individuals know that they will be greeted with applause, honor and privilege in virtue of a murderous law in place for 37 years: the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Almost miraculously there were no fatalities, and the death of all passengers in both cases was avoided.

Today, April 2, in the early hours of the morning, when just over 24 hours had passed since the last hijacking, another incident occurred: the hijacking of a ferry used to transport passengers from Havana to Casablanca, at the time carrying a large number of people. At approximately 1:30 a.m. it was seen leaving the bay in the direction of what is the usual destination in these cases: Florida. Once detected, two Border Patrol vessels left to company it, as is usual in these cases, given that it has always been policy not to intercept them at sea in order to avoid accidents, and simply to follow in order to give assistance in the case of a vessel capsizing or any grave risk to the lives of those on board, usually including women and children.

At 2:40 a.m. the head of the Border Patrol Service, as is also usual, communicated with the Seventh District of the U.S. Coast Guard located in Miami.

At 3:00 a.m. the hijackers of the ferry, measuring 15.38 meters in length, nearly five meters in width and with a 100-person capacity, communicated by radio with the Cuban Border Patrol Service, informing that they had 50 persons aboard, among them six to eight children; that they were armed with weapons (three pistols: a Makarov and two caliber 38’s, and knives); and demanding a vessel to continue their crossing to the United States. If this demand was not met, they announced that they would begin throwing people overboard.

At 3:15 a.m. the details were communicated to the U.S. Interests Section’s liaison with the Cuban Border Patrol and the U.S. Coastguard Service via fax.

At 4:45 a.m. the Interests Section’s liaison officer informed that two naval units had departed to intercept the ferry.

The terrorists responded negatively to reiterated pleas made to them during the early morning hours to abandon their hijacking attempt due to severe risks to those aboard, given the obscurity of the night and the maritime conditions, with winds fluctuating from force one to force three during that time period, and the fact that the ferry is designed for internal waters.

At 7:30 a.m. the Ministry of the Interior notified that the hijacked ferry was lying in international waters about 30 miles from our coasts, and that the hijackers were demanding fuel to continue their journey. The Cuban Border Patrol units were in close proximity, continuing to plead with the abductors to abandon their plans and allow the ferry and its kidnapped passengers to return to our country, and were prepared to assist in the case of an accident.

This is the level of blackmail to which the terrorists and delinquents are prepared to go, stimulated by a policy of tolerance, resources, benefits, privileges, refuge and propaganda applied by the U.S. government for over 40 years in its objective of creating and supporting counterrevolutionary movements to destroy the Cuban Revolution.

At 11:09 a.m. Dagoberto Rodríguez, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, informed that at 11:05 a.m. (Cuban time) Kevin Whitaker, head of the State Department’s Cuba Bureau had communicated that they had studied the situation and decided to apply, in this case, the 1988 Suppression of Illegal Acts against Maritime Navigation agreement, which establishes that the responsibility to act and solve the problem with whatever means are available to them lies with the country whose flag the vessel carries. They considered that we would have to assume our obligation, and that they would not act in the area with the means available to them.

On the other hand, in relation to the AN-24 hijacked on March 31, the aircraft, crew and kidnapped passengers have still not been returned.

No country abides as vigorously by its agreements, obligations, principles and international law as Cuba does.

It is obvious that the case of the ferry and passengers hijacked and the situation created is not the responsibility of the United States to resolve in terms of the geographical point where it took place. The ferry and the kidnapped passengers are Cuban and therefore it is Cuba’s responsibility to take the concrete measures previously explained and others we might need to take. What we will not do in any case is to utilize forceful measures that could endanger the lives of the persons on board.

The information offered to the U.S. Coastguard Service corresponds to measures adopted, agreed upon and applied throughout the years in relation to drug and immigrant trafficking, assistance to vessels and other activities.

Both countries are obliged, by agreement, to combat illegal immigration, with which Cuba rigorously complies. We offer our services to the U.S. Coastguard Service when we communicate any information that may affect them. Hijacked vessels always head for the United States. We have not asked them to save the kidnapped passengers and return the boat to Cuba. In any case, we have been asking for decades for an end to criminal acts against Cuba and, among other things, to murderous laws that give rise to such lamentable incidents.

Source: Granma   

The 5 Cuban who were unjustly convicted in a Miami court for spying - their only crime is that they had infiltrated Cuban terrorists groups in Miami - are currently having their rights violated.  Below is a complain charged by the Cuban National Assembly.

As of February 28th, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González have once more been placed in solitary confinement, locked up all day and denied contact with other prisoners and the outside world.

They have been forbidden to receive any visits - including those of their attorneys and Cuban consular officials - and their telephone privileges withdrawn, completely depriving them of communication with not only their attorneys but their families as well.

By blocking access between the Five and their defense attorneys, the Government of the United States is violating the basic principles and norms of law.

The authorities knew that the attorneys were meeting with their clients and had made the necessary arrangements to meet with them in the coming week to review the documents for their defense to be presented before the Eleventh Circuit Court in Atlanta no later than April 7th. This action was adopted by Washington with the deliberate intention of impeding a fair appeals process.

In this crucial stage when the attorneys need to focus their attention on the appeal briefs, not only are they seriously obstructed from doing so, but they are obliged to waste time in unsuccessful attempts to communicate with their clients.

We condemn this new development and demand that our five Cuban compatriots are granted access to their attorneys and given the right to meet with them once again.

The Cuban National Assembly
Havana, March 9th, 2003

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President Fidel Castro speaking before the closing of the V International Forum on Globalization and Development, in Havana, Friday, described the war plans by the United States as a concrete threat to peace for mankind, adding that humanity is now going through an important moment in history.     

We have the privilege to live in one of the most extraordinary and decisive eras in the history of mankind, adding that we live in a world where capitalism, imperialism and globalization, which now prevails, were imposed.

In his analysis of the historical and political development that has taken place he said that the world couldn’t be re-divided as it is now in the sole possession of the world's only superpower and in the hands of the most powerful nation that has ever existed.  We should ask ourselves where the conditions of equality and justice gone to.   

I consider neo-liberal globalization to be the most shameful colonization of the world, with NAFTA meaning the annexation of our nations by the US.  This will mean that the US, the most powerful nation on earth will devour the most weak.  Even nations like Canada and Mexico will be devoured.  "With respect to Cuba we are Socialist and we will continue to be Socialist", he added.     

During a little more than an hour he spoke about the historical events shaping the social, political and economic aspects now prevalent in the world.  He said that nobody can predict what the reaction of the Iraqi people would be in an eventual attack by the United States and that no one could foresee the duration of the war.

Speaking on the new economic world order he said he believed that this economic order imposed on the world was unsustainable and that it cannot be able to continue.  He had the conviction that a better world was possible and that the time had come for humanity to start making history.

Against the war they try to impose on us

A resolution condemning the unilateral imposition of war and in defense of peace was approved in this forum.  The resolution condemns the principle of one nation having the right to decide for humanity and to go against the ideas of pluralistic societies, stating that,  "Humanity should rise up against this irrational and immoral war". 

"Men and women of the XXI century who proscribe to this document say that we all have the right to peaceful coexistence without having to sacrifice our lives or compromise our future." 

In the final session the 500 participants, from 41 nations, pronounced that the forum was formed within the framework of political and academic debates and contributed to the principle proclaimed in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre that other alternatives to solving world problems are possible.  

In reference to the participation of the IMF and World Bank in this forum, their participation demonstrates that a confrontation of ideas makes more profound the ideas of justice and equality, as well as, enriching with a different vision those promoters of the actual economic system. 

The document points to the negative consequences of non-equality among member states and the speculation of financial markets, as the causes for the deepening economic crisis that is evidence between the developed North and undeveloped South.  

The forum acknowledged the failure of neo-liberalism, and recognized the importance of the state to regulate the forces of globalization.  It also recognized the importance of the use of different formulas to better achieve economic and social advancements, and to make people the prime objective in this development.  Finally, it was stressed that the faith of the people must be rescued and that a social conscience of the masses must be constructed.

The students of Economics rejected, in this forum, neo-liberal globalization NAFTA and the war against Iraq.  They also expressed their solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela, adding that is was of utmost importance to work for a transformation of society through ideas and conviction.

Translation of an article in Granma

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In his most famous work Oswald Spengler wrote, "Americans are the Romans of today".  Foreseeing the birth of a new imperialist power he wrote this before the second world war, 1910-1912.  Almost a century later the US has taken possession of the world.  Each day it becomes more apparent the similarities if the US with the Roman Empire.  In his book the Decadence of the West Spengler describes the living conditions of the Roman citizens while the troops dominated the world.  The average citizen lived in buildings consisting of five to six floors in squalid conditions, separated by streets which measured less than 3 meters.  Most of the population lived a life of misery and hunger.  It was a gross Plutocracy where the wealthy lived far from the plebs.    

American troops, in the same fashion as the Imperial Roman troops, are stationed all over the world.  With president Bush giving himself almost total control in declaring war and attacking other nations and proclaiming the most dangerous of doctrines: you are either with us or against us, and as the world power and domination is extended around the planet, as their power becomes more brutal, more and more misery befalls the common people of the US.   

That is to say as more and more they engage in wars of conquest, all to gain control of oil, the masses of the American people are seeing more and more their rights taken away, many of them falling behind and ending up in poverty.  The lives of the poor in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, among others, is getting worse each day.  The Republican plan consists of eliminating the poor.  It is a Darwinian law of the survival of the fittest, that is, the wealthy.  Miami for example is one of the poorest cities in the US; a city full of Cubans living at or near poverty, living in slum areas.  The same occurs with the Blacks; only they are always harassed by the police.  The same sad story holds true for the Nicaraguans, Mexicans, Haitians, Peruvians, among many other groups.  On top of this inhumane society of Southern Florida are the wealthy Cubans, allies of the Republicans, who live behind the impenetrable walls of their mansions.  Meanwhile the poverty a few blocks from the White House is incredible.  Such is the poverty in many US cities.  Like the Roman Empire the US is full of painful contradictions.       

The Republican program, which Bush would like to implement, and which these days is embraced by the Democrats, is to minimize or do away with most of the programs that benefit the masses of American people; they would like to do away with programs like Medicare, Medicaid, while privatizing Social Security.  Undoubtedly, destiny is taking the nation into the same sad final days of the Roman Empire. 

Currently there is a commission being formed headed by Henry Kessinger and ex senator Mitchell, a Republican and a democrat - although I suspect they are the same - to investigate the tragic events leading to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  It must be added that 8 Republicans and Democrats will also be on the commission.   

And what will they investigate?  Will they ask Osama Bin Laden why he attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon?  And where is Osama Bin Laden?  Wouldn't it be better if they examined the actions of the Bush administration from the time he took office on the 15th of January 2001 to September 11th 2001 when the attacks took place?  What responsibility must the Bush administration share for these attacks?  Why doesn't this commission investigate the actions taken by intelligence agencies to protect the country from these brutal attacks?  What actions and attitudes did Bush take in regards to the Palestinians that may have guided Osama Bin Laden to attack the US?  Why is it that Bush periodically welcomes murderous Sharon, accused by the world for his brutality against the Palestinian people?  Is it not obvious that the unconditional support Washington has given Sharon made the Israeli-Palestinian issue irresolvable?  Is it not evident that the revolt in the Arab world is related to the treatment given to the Palestinians by the White House?     

This commission, presided by such a man as Kissinger, a shadowy figure, is hard to understand.  We cannot hope, even in our wildest dream, that these people will ever confront the truth.  It is apparent that Washington operates within deceit.  

It is curious that in it's battle against terrorism the Bush government does not look to develop an investigation into the roots of terrorism where it began: oversea.  It is apparent that it has no real intention of investigating the conduct of the US government in relation to the acts of terrorism.  What is really going on is the intent to stifle dissent within the US, to submit citizens to political harassment, to limit their rights, to set into motion repressive mechanisms such as spying, to set up an atmosphere of fear and hate.  Organizing a police state, with an agent behind every citizen is not going to resolve the issue which is strictly political in nature.  How is the whole problem which is political and revolves around the issue of US politics around the world going to be addressed in this fashion?  US foreign policy which essentially calls for the domination of the world, placing the world at the mercy of the US corporations, places it's people in danger of aggression by people of other nations.  It is quite evident that the US government is turning on it's own people.

Translated from an article in el diario/LA PRENSA New York

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