Cuban Exile Group Demands More Scrutiny Of Castro-Terrorism Link

(CNSNews.com) - The Cuban American National Foundation, a vehement critic of the Castro government, urged the Bush administration Monday to increase its scrutiny of Fidel Castro's alleged links to the international terrorist network.

What alarmed the foundation was a recent summit meeting in Havana, which Radio Havana described as a "four-day gathering of left and progressive forces from Latin America and the Caribbean."

CANF said the meeting "featured representatives of states and groups which Secretary of State Colin Powell has identified as sponsoring and carrying out terrorism.

The Havana meeting ended with a declaration condemning "free-market neo-liberal globalization, poverty, unemployment and corruption." It also denounced Washington's proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement.

The FTAA negotiations - still ongoing - are intended to create a hemispheric free-trade area made up of the 34 democratic countries of North, Central, and South America. Cuba was left out of the FTAA because it rejects democracy.

The exclusion continues to rankle Cuban Leader Fidel Castro, who closed the Havana meeting by denouncing the FTAA agreement as nothing more than a U.S. attempt to economically annex Latin America and the Caribbean.

CANF Executive Vice President Dennis Hays said, "While our national attention is focused on Afghanistan, representatives from a who's-who of anti-American, anti-democratic groups have been meeting and forging links in Cuba."

"We have seen time and again that when terrorist groups work together, their ability to undermine democracy and human rights is greatly magnified. It is not surprising that such a group would come together on the initiative of Fidel Castro, who for forty years has advocated violence and terror to achieve his ends," Hays said. Hays concluded, "As the president and his administration continue to prosecute the war on terrorism, we urge them not to overlook Castro's extensive ties to America's enemies abroad."

CHRISTOPHER DODD FREE OTTO REICH ----[Excerpt] While the eyes of the world focus on the Middle East, the war on terror has its targets in this hemisphere, too. Unfortunately, President Bush's designated envoy to the Americas must fight this country's shadowy enemies with both hands tied behind his back. Otto Reich, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, is being held hostage by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) who refuses to hold a confirmation hearing on Reich's candidacy. Dodd apparently would rather brood over Reich's performance in the Reagan administration than permit him to address these clear-and-present dangers today:

Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, the increasingly erratic president of this key U.S. oil supplier, has declared himself "a Maoist" and befriended pro-terrorist dictators. A Caracas-based, anti-Chavez group called the National Emergency Coalition published a veritable Chavez photo album in the September 25 Washington Times. In one picture, Chavez rides in Saddam Hussein's Mercedes with the Iraqi thug at the wheel. During an August 2000 visit, Chavez called Iraq "a model" for Venezuela.

In another snapshot, Chavez hugs Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and says, "We have sister revolutions with equal struggles and the same destiny." Elsewhere, Chavez embraces Muammar Qaddafi and calls Libya "a model of participatory democracy." Chavez greets Fidel Castro as well and says that Cuba and Venezuela are "swimming together toward the same sea of happiness."

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez

Chavez also appears to be arming Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Colombian defense officials say that between January 1998 and July 2000, they captured 470 clandestine FAL rifles stamped with the insignias of Venezuela's military and its arms manufacturers.

Cuba: Castro's worker's paradise seems to be a giant O'Hare Airport for suspected terrorists. As counterterrorism consultant Paul Crespo reported in the Nov. 5 issue of Insight, three Afghans detained in the Grand Caymans shortly after the September 11 attacks allegedly arrived there from Cuba. Two others, allegedly linked financially to al Qaeda, were stopped in Panama bound for Cuba.

…Snip…..

"I need Otto Reich in place," Secretary of State Colin Powell pleaded with senators on October 3. Eight weeks later, Reich's State Department office literally remains empty, its desk unoccupied and bookshelves bare. Even as an overworked career diplomat juggles crucial security and economic matters in Reich's absence, Dodd could care less.

"That nomination's not going anywhere. That's the end of it," Dodd recently snapped. He has hurled at Reich a number of easily refuted ethical charges pertaining to his 1980s service as director of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and as Ambassador to Venezuela. However Dodd will not let his subcommittee hear Reich defend himself. Perhaps Dodd fears looking foolish once Reich demonstrates his innocence. [End Excerpt]

Jiang Zemin and Hugo Chavez

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