Posted on 04/29/2003 12:30:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell lobbied on Monday for support for Cuban dissidents through the Organization of American States.
"We look to our friends in the OAS to live up to the ideals we share (and) take a principled stand for freedom, democracy and human rights in Cuba," Powell told the annual conference of the Council of the Americas, which includes politicians, business people and non-governmental organizations.
"We look to them to join us in developing a common hemispheric approach to supporting Cubans dedicated to building a democratic and free Cuba," he added.
Last week the United States and its allies in the Americas failed to win an OAS resolution condemning rights abuse in Cuba but said they would come back with a revised text soon.
Reflecting deep divisions within the Americas over President Fidel Castro's Cuba, many OAS members voiced skepticism over the resolution, including Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico.
The proposed text, presented before the OAS's Permanent Council by Nicaragua and co-sponsored by the U.S. and Costa Rica, called on Havana to "immediately free all unjustly arrested Cubans."
Earlier on Monday, Powell said the United States was reviewing all aspects of its policy on Cuba in response to the recent crackdown on Cuban dissidents.
In the last month, the Cuban authorities have rounded up 75 dissidents and imprisoned them for terms of up to 28 years. As part of the crackdown, Cuba also executed three men who hijacked a ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States.
The United States has condemned the sentences and Pope John Paul has written to Castro asking for clemency for the dissidents.
"We are reviewing all of our policies and our approach to Cuba in light of what I think is a deteriorating human rights situation within Cuba," Powell told reporters after talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher.
"I'm very pleased that His Holiness has also commented on the situation."
Powell gave no details of the review but a State Department official said it covered "all policy tools at our disposal." He added: "We are looking for those which best serve our interest in supporting democracy in Cuba."
Interest groups have given the Bush administration proposals for punitive measures such as bans on remittances and direct travel to Cuba, while others have recommended stepped-up efforts to promote democracy by providing items like fax machines to dissidents and beefing up U.S. broadcasts to Cuba.
The cash sent to families in Cuba by relatives in the United States is estimated to total as much as $1 billion a year and is vital source of income for many Cubans coping with economic hardship in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Powell told the Council of the Americas that Castro had condemned himself by refusing to let a U.N. human rights envoy visit the island to investigate.
"Why would Castro reject scrutiny if he has nothing to hide? We know the reason. He has everything to hide," he said.
"We are reviewing our policy in light of what we think is a deteriorating human rights situation in Cuba," Powell told reporters after meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher.
The Cuban regime "is an aberration in the western hemisphere," Powell said, referring to a recent crackdown on dissidents and the executions of three leaders of a group who tried to commandeer a ferry and escape to the United States.
Powell also voiced satisfaction with the letter sent by Pope John Paul II condemning the repression of political opponents of Castro's regime.
Otto Reich, the Cuban-born, staunchly anti-Castro special envoy for Latin America of the National security Council, told the Council of the Americas meanwhile that Cuba's is "an economy so mismanaged that Cuba is the only country in the hemisphere which has experienced a decline in its per capita caloric intake of the population over the past 40 years."
"Its current government is one of the last remaining examples that spread from the 20th century political experiment as a totalitarian state. In the last few weeks we have seen once again the cynicism and brutality of the Cuban dictator," Reich said, referring to the executions of "three young men born under the revolution ... executed for trying to flee the workers' paradise."
Though the UN Human Rights Commission this month did not issue an especially harsh condemnation of Cuba, Reich said, "Castro answered by adding fresh blood to his list of over 6000 summary executions, by filling more jails with peaceful dissidents, writers, doctors, lawyers."
"President Bush has a positive vision for the future of Cuba, where Cuban people have all the opportunities that freedom offers," he added.
In his first public address since launching a crackdown, Castro said Saturday the executions of the three ferry hijackers was an exceptional measure aimed at avoiding US military aggression against Cuba.
The April 11 executions followed a week of harsh sentences -- from six to 28 years in prison -- doled out to 75 dissidents rounded up in a recent crackdown and accused of being threats to state security, after trials lasting a few hours. [End]
First, the United States must buck what is becoming a trend in the Western Hemisphere; namely, that democratic means are being manipulated by leftist leaders to preclude the United States from affecting or supporting "regime change," lest it appear to subvert the democratic process. To this end, the removal of Fidel Castro from power could provide a benchmark against which all pro-Castro leaders can judge their future behavior.
Moreover, a congressionally approved regime change in Cuba could at this moment accomplish three other important tasks: One, Fidel Castro's absence would have a detumescent effect on those leftists who exhibit a penchant for Castro-ism. Two, a positive regime change would eliminate Fidel Castro's ideational inspiration, which serves as the greatest source of intellectual, ideological, and political anti-Americanism in the region. Three, the United States would destroy one of the most powerful logistical infrastructures for supporting terrorist movements. Cuba's military and intelligence advisors would no longer be able to assist anti-U.S. regimes or terrorist organizations.
Second, The United States must demand that Brazil abandon any material attempt to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Any evidence to the contrary should result in devastating consequences. On the terror front, the United States can test the veracity of Brazil's numerous pledges to fight terrorism by requesting an unequivocal denunciation of the FARC and an exhibition of the appropriate legal measures to support this rhetorical decision.
Third, without Fidel Castro's intellectual, ideological, and political influence, Hugo Chavez would assume the status of an unimpressive despot akin to Saddam Hussein's Yasser Arafat. At that point he might be more easily contained until a future date when the people of Venezuela can be encouraged to elect someone more competent to lead that great country.
Unless the United States government adopts a coherent Western Hemispheric strategy to counter the influence of the Castro- da Silva-Chavez tripartite, one can expect to witness the growth of this "axis" and a concomitant rise in terrorist related activity in the region. As an example of things to come the Washington Times reported on 7 April 2003 that Al Qaeda terrorists had plans to enter the United States illegally through Mexico to carry our attacks against various targets. It is wholly conceivable that these terrorists could one day commence operations from secure locations in the Western Hemisphere and given enough time they may even attain a nuclear weapons capability courtesy of an anti-U.S. regime.
To borrow a phrase from the Bush Doctrine: "…the United States cannot remain idle while dangers gather."***
With this effort stalled, Castro has run out of economic options. His foreign debt has doubled since the early 1990s, and he may have finally run out of cash. With his European friends unwilling to help him now, his regime is far more fragile than many realize. Restricting or suspending all American travel and nearly $1 billion in annual remittances from Cuban Americans to Cuba is one approach. Strictly enforcing existing embargo rules is another. But tougher unilateral economic sanctions are not enough. We should strive for multilateral sanctions and diplomatic isolation similar to that used against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The time is right for international action.***
INATODAY.com - INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANALYSIS -- TODAY by Toby Westerman: "FASCIST AMERICA? Russia and Communist Cuba Join In 'Anti-Fascist-Front'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "At the Moscow meeting, Russia declared that Cuba is its "key partner in Latin America." The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a press statement referring to an "active political dialogue based on mutual trust" between Russia and Cuba. "The two countries have similar or identical stances on a whole number of global political issues. Most importantly…on the construction of a fair and stable world order," the Russian Foreign Ministry declared. The "construction of a fair and stable world order" for Cuba and Russia includes sophisticated intelligence operations against the United States. Cuban operates a sophisticated intelligence program against the U.S. One of its highly placed agents, Ana Belen Montes, worked at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency before her arrest and conviction of espionage in October 2002. The "Wasp Network," a Cuban espionage group spying on U.S. military facilities, was uncovered by the FBI and five of its leaders convicted in 2001. In 2001 the U.S. intelligence community was rocked by the discovery that top FBI intelligence agent Robert Hanssen spied on his country for Moscow for 20 years. On the island of Cuba, Russia still operates the Lourdes spy base, while Russia's close ally, China, is constructing a similar base not far away from Lourdes.") (April 29, 2003) (Read More...)
ALERT...INATODAY.com - INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANALYSIS -- TODAY by Toby Westerman: "NEW RED TERROR" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "China maintains "high level military contacts" with Cuba, and is constructing an electronic spy base eight to ten miles from Russia's Lourdes intelligence facility, according to Dennis Hays, Executive Vice President of the pro-democracy exile group, the Cuban American National Foundation. The Chinese spy base, which would be capable of intercepting, and possibly jamming, U.S. electronic signals, "should be a security concern" to the U.S., urged Hays in an interview with INA Today. Hays also warned that the communist Chinese are active throughout the South American continent. The Cuban state-run press is openly discussing the "very strong ties with the Cuban military," said Perez, who notes that several Chinese generals have recently visited Cuba. In addition to China, Cuba's traditional friend and supporter, Russia, is still involved in the island.") (April 18, 2003) (Read More...)
Sept. 29, 2001, 11:53PM/ Analyst at Pentagon arrested on charges of spying for Havana / FBI says espionage goes back 5 years By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS / New York Times - [Full Text] WASHINGTON -- A few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Ana Belen Montes, a top Defense Department intelligence analyst, sent an e-mail note to an old friend saying she was all right and had not known anyone who died at the Pentagon.
"I could see the Pentagon burning from my office," she wrote. "Nonetheless, it pales next to the World Trade Center. Dark days ahead. So much hate and self-righteousness."
The days darkened especially quickly for Montes. A week after she signed off, sending love to her friend's family, federal agents surprised her at work and charged her with spying for Cuba. She is the highest-ranking official ever accused of espionage at the Defense Intelligence Agency, which, as a sister agency to the CIA, handles analysis for the Pentagon.
The arrest, on Sept. 21, left her friends and colleagues at a loss to explain what might have motivated her to risk everything, should the charges prove true. Friends described Montes, who is 44 and single, as a loyal companion, doting aunt, and an avid traveler. She had no evident money problems, and was apparently content dating a man who either was in the military or did business at the Pentagon, they said.
She was warm and funny, friends said, and seemed apolitical, even back in college. Her remark about "self-righteousness" was as ideologically pointed as she had ever been, said Lisa Huber, who had attended the University of Virginia with Montes and received the e-mail message.
"I can't picture her being involved in something like this," said Huber, a Louisville, Ky., resident who has seen Montes at least twice a year since their college days. "It goes against everything I know about her. She has a lot of integrity."
Montes, who had been the DIA's top intelligence analyst for Cuba since 1992, left a different impression among colleagues. She came off as rather severe, they said; at meetings, she sat rigidly in her chair and rarely spoke. Some associates viewed her as struggling to advance in a culture dominated by men.
"She was a very strange person, very standoffish, extraordinarily shy," said a U.S. diplomat.
But professionally, Montes seemed above reproach. She spoke fluent Spanish because of her Puerto Rican heritage, and in 1990 she was tapped to brief Nicaragua's new president, Violeta Chamorro, about the Cuban-backed Sandinista military.
In 1992 or 1993, she pulled off what seemed to be an intelligence coup. She traveled to Cuba and interviewed Cuban generals about economic reforms on the island. In 1998, she played an important role in drafting a widely cited analysis that found that Cuba's much diminished military posed no strategic threat to the United States. As recently as the week before last, she briefed top Pentagon policy-makers on Cuba.
According to the FBI affidavit, Montes, who had a high-level security clearance, spied for Cuba for at least five years, and possibly longer. She identified at least one U.S. undercover agent to the Cubans, disclosed a top-secret intelligence-gathering program and reported on U.S. training in the Caribbean, the FBI said.
Current and former U.S. officials say she was in a position to tell have told Havana virtually everything the intelligence community knew about Cuba's military and might even have disclosed U.S. contingency plans for taking the island by force.
"I would think, if damage was done, it would be about what she learned about the U.S., how it was militarily prepared vis-a-vis Cuba," said Richard Nuccio, who was President Bill Clinton's special adviser on Cuba. [End]
I think the OAS is about as useful to us in dealing with Cuba as the UN was in dealing with Iraq.
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