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Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday dismissed US President Barack Obama's trip to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen as a "show," and complained that the world's poor will shoulder the burden of any summit agreement. Castro's opinion article, titled "The Moment of Truth," also criticizes the "fascist methods" used by Danish police to put down protesting environmental activists. "It is already evident that a great catastrophe threatens our species," wrote Castro, 82. Perhaps the worst part of the summit "is blind selfishness of a rich and privileged minority that intents to impose the bulk of the necessary sacrifices...

A U.S. government subcontractor was put in a high-security Cuban prison instead of a common jail after his arrest in Havana as he was about to take a flight home, U.S. congressional officials said Monday. The type of prison signaled that Cuban authorities are taking seriously the case of the U.S. citizen, reportedly detained for handing out laptops, cellphones and other communications equipment as part of a U.S. government program to support democracy in Cuba. Cuba has long regarded U.S. pro-democracy activities on the island as an effort to subvert its government, and in 2003 sentenced 75 dissidents to long...

It's too soon for Americans to plan a Cuban vacation of beach, mambo and mojitos, but the U.S. travel industry is gearing up for a return to its largest Caribbean destination before Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Tour operators held a video conference with Cuban tourism officials in Havana on Wednesday and asked them if they are ready for the "rush" of Americans if the U.S. travel ban is lifted as proposed by legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress. "Americans really want to see Cuba," said Robert Whitely, president of the U.S. Tour Operators, which together with the National...

The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen, and U.S. diplomats in Havana are trying to learn more about the case, the State Department said Saturday. The American was detained on Dec. 5, State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said. She would not release any more details, including the American's identity, because of federal privacy law. The American was working as a subcontractor for the Maryland-based economic development organization, Development Alternatives, Inc. Jim Boomgard, DAI's president and chief executive, said the person arrested is part of a new USAID program intended to "strengthen civil society in support of just and democratic...

Another scoop for Breitbart, but with a caveat. The One’s team insists that the memo’s only a draft, even if it does just so happen to jibe with news reports from last month. “This is a draft, predecisional document that lawyers at various agencies were drafting in preparation for a potential future announcement about where to house GTMO detainees,” the administration official said. “Drafts of official documents are often prepared for any and all possibilities, regardless of whether a decision has been made about the policy or if the document will be used.”… The leaked memo was met with approval...

Documentary peeks at Fidel Castro's human side Dec 10 05:12 PM US/Eastern By WILL WEISSERTAssociated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson took him to church for the first time in 27 years. Home run legend Hank Aaron asked him for autographed baseballs. Literary great Gabriel Garcia Marquez gave him a copy of "Dracula" that kept him up all night reading and smuggled ingredients into the country so he could make baklava. An international cast of luminaries who traveled to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro, as well as top members of his government and military, talk...

A few days ago, President Barack Obama made it clear ``to every man, woman and child who lives under the dark cloud of tyranny, that America will speak out on behalf of their human rights.'' Speaking out against tyrants, international resolutions and sanctions are often used as diplomacy tools. Sanctions are not uncommon when dealing with tyrants, as we have seen in the discussions weighing what to do about North Korea and Iran. The United States levied sanctions against Libya after its terrorists downed a PAM AM flight over Scotland in 1996; the world imposed sanctions on the white supremacist...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban musicians are returning to perform in the United States after a long freeze on such visits, seizing the opportunity of friendlier overtures toward Havana from U.S. President Barack Obama. Well-known Cuban musicians are being granted visas to perform at U.S. venues in a sign that Obama's administration is quietly promoting cultural contacts as part of a strategy of warmer "people to people" ties with the Communist-run island. The more relaxed atmosphere between the Cold War era enemies is perhaps most evident in the arts, which in the past has provided a bridge between the two neighbors...

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Cuba hit back Thursday at 60 prominent U.S. black leaders who challenged its race record, with island writers, artists and official journalists calling the criticism an attack on their country's national identity. The five-page signed statement, distributed by Cuban government press officials in an e-mail, defended Cuba's progress in providing social and personal opportunities for blacks and people of mixed race. But it focused more on Cuba's past than the racial inequalities of contemporary Cuban society that came under criticism from Americans such as Princeton University professor Cornel West; Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of President Barack...

Cuba began its biggest military maneuvers in five years on Thursday, saying they were needed to prepare for a possible invasion by the United States. Despite a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and assurances last week by President Barack Obama that the United States has no intention of invading the island 90 miles from Florida, Cuba's state-run press quoted military leaders as saying there "exists a real possibility of a military aggression against Cuba." The war games, which are being called "Bastion 2009," also will get the military ready to deal with social unrest the United States may try to foment...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

Cuban nationals land at Florida nuclear plant: NRC Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:38am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of Cuban nationals who fled their country by boat landed in the cooling canal of a nuclear power plant along Florida's coast on Thanksgiving Day, according to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission event report issued Friday. The plant's operations were not disrupted by the incident, according to the report. The Turkey Point nuclear power plant control room received a call from an individual stating that he was a member of a group of 33 Cuban nationals that had landed in...

No one should be surprised at reports that at least some captured Taliban fighters have been tortured in Afghanistan. This is, after all, a country that barely is functioning. Was every single detainee handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities in 2006-07 tortured, as alleged by former diplomat Richard Colvin? We'll never know. Even a public inquiry, as demanded by the Liberals and the NDP, wouldn't be able to ascertain how every captured Taliban insurgent was treated by either Afghan prison officials or that country's infamous National Directorate of Security. It's great that Corrections Canada officials regularly monitor prisons...

Nearly 50 years after a botched US-directed invasion of Cuba, the communist nation said Saturday it is holding a military exercise next week to boost preparedness against any future US attack. "It is a necessity of the first order given the political-military situation that now defines relations between Cuba and the empire," Major General Leonardo Andollo warned, referring to the United States. He told the official Granma newspaper that the "Bastion-2009" exercises will "raise the deterrent capacity to prevent a military confrontation, under the principle that there is no better way to win a war than by avoiding it."

"Venezuela's Central Bank announced on Tuesday that the country's economy fell into a recession in the third quarter, with the gross domestic product (GDP) tumbling 4.5% from the same period last year. But not to worry. Venezuela's genius dictator, Lieut. Col. Hugo Chávez Frías, got the country out of the recession in just one day!..."

Americans shouldn’t worry. Although, the economy is diminishing, jobs are dwindling, soldiers are dying, and a new health care plan might just restructure the nation and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, our Commander-in-Chief is looking out for us. In fact, he’s in China right now—improving our relations and receiving a hero’s welcome. But, does he deserve it? After a rocky rating month, President Obama’s presidential approval rating has stabilized, states Rasmussen Reports. 28% of American voters strongly approve of his performance, and 38% strongly disapprove. However, 48%, the highest number this year, give Obama poor rankings in the way...

Out of work and willing to relocate? McDonald's is advertising for an assistant manager for its sole franchise in Cuba — serving up burgers and fries that sometimes feed detainees at the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay. The help wanted ad popped up recently at the McVirginia.com careers Web site featuring the Golden Arches, a headline "Find a Career @ McDonald's" and this enticement: "Enjoy the perks." It didn't specify salary but said, "Candidates must have restaurant management experience, possess a valid United States passport and be willing to relocate to Cuba." Other incentives include half your rent paid and,...

The Russian and Cuban governments have signed four agreements for oil exploration and production on the Caribbean island, official media reported. Under the accords, Russian state energy firm Zarubezhneft has been given permission to operate for 25 years in blocks located in the Cuban provinces of Matanzas, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara and Ciego de Avila, Cuban state television said. Cuban Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia and Russian Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Ivan Materov attended the signing ceremony, which took place at Russia’s pavilion at the International Trade Fair in Havana, which got underway on Monday. The deal represents the...

<p>HAVANA - Secret police agents abducted and beat award-winning blogger Yoani Sanchez, whose online reports chronicle the dark side of everyday life in communist Cuba, on her way to a march for non-violence, she said Saturday.</p> <p>Three agents in street clothes snatched her and friend Orlando Luis Pardo off the street in the Havana district of Vedado.</p>

Penultimos Dias has word that Yoani Sanchez and other Cuban bloggers have been arrested in Havana.Yoani Sánchez, Orlando Luis Pardo, Ciro Díaz and Claudia Cadelo among those arrested. Cadelo is reported to have already been released. Details on whereabouts of other dissident bloggers are still sketchy. UPDATE 6:46 EST: Im told all were picked up, harassed, manhandled and released at some distance away from where the march was to take place. Will keep updating as the news trickles in.UPDATE 7:15: Penultimos Dias reports the Yoani and Orlando were verbally abused and severely beaten. Yoani was told that "this is as...

Cuban refugees are dominating arrests in Florida's indoor marijuana trade in what investigators call a nearly punishment-free crime. ....young Cubans throughout the state are turning to the lucrative business of raising ultra-potent pot worth up to $4,500 a pound, without fear of deportation or lengthy prison sentences. Probation is a common sentence for anyone convicted in state court of running a growhouse, drug agents say. And, unlike other foreign-born felons, U.S. policy prevents the deportation of Cubans. South Florida groups identified by law enforcement as Cuban Drug Trafficking Organizations control hundreds of growhouses that have sprung up from Miami to...

HAVANA (AP) - Michael Douglas staged an impromptu walking tour of the Cuban capital's historic district Tuesday, posing for photos with construction workers and surprised residents. His visit came two days after fellow Oscar-winner Sean Penn arrived in Cuba, reportedly seeking an interview with 82-year-old Fidel Castro, who has been little seen since announcing he was suffering from an unspecified illness in July 2006. He stepped down as Cuba's president in February of the following year and was replaced by his brother Raul. Penn traveled to the Isle of Youth, off mainland Cuba on Monday to meet with local artists....

Sean Penn is exercising his journalistic skill, reporting from inside Cuba. The Oscar winner has embarked on a short trip to the island on assignment for Vanity Fair and The Huffington Post. Rumours have circulated that he might interview Fidel Castro. But his rep told E! News that there were no plans to meet up with the ailing former leader. If he were to, it would not be the first such encounter. In 2005, his family held a lengthy meeting with Castro whilst holidaying in Cuba. ... Past overseas assignments for the actor turned journalist include stints in Iraq, Iran...

Juanita Castro, sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro, cooperated with the CIA in the 1960s -- a time when the U.S. agency was plotting to assassinate Fidel and overthrow his revolution -- according to an exclusive Univisión-Noticias 23 report on her newly published book. The report also revealed that Juanita, who broke with her brothers' revolution in 1964, hid government opponents in her home; that Fidel refused to visit her because the house was ``surrounded by worms;'' and that their mother often intervened with Raúl to help Castro critics, jailed or fugitive. Described as the Castro family's best-kept...

The younger sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, Juanita Castro, collaborated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency against her brothers' rule in Cuba before going into exile in Miami in 1964, she said on Sunday. Juanita Castro, 76, who has not spoken to either of her brothers for more than four decades, made the revelation to the Spanish-language TV channel Univision-Noticias 23 on the eve of the publication of her memoirs about Fidel and Raul Castro. The book in Spanish entitled "Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History," co-written with Mexican journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, is being published on...

MADRID - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. Six days after their meeting on October 13 at the White House, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Caribbean island and met President Raul Castro. "Have (Moratinos) tell the Cuban authorities we understand that change can't happen overnight, but down the road, when we look back at this time, it should be clear that now is when those changes began," Obama told Zapatero, according...

"Obama asked Spain to send a message to the Castro brothers Oct. 25 - President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday..."

Anita Dunn—Pots and Kettles By Humberto Fontova Friday, October 23, 2009 So Obama’s Communications director, Anita Dunn, bashes Fox as a “propaganda arm” for the Republican party? Considering that Gregory Craig serves as Obama’s chief White House counsel, Ms Dunn’s rant shames most accusations from pots to kettles. When a Republican administration uses their chief counsel to scheme with a Stalinist dictator to shanghai a little boy and then collude with a major network in a Potemkin TV show to bamboozle America—when we have any proof of anything resembling this criminal swinishness—then we’ll take Anita Dunn’s accusations quasi-seriously. To wit:...

As he returns to New Orleans today after a six-day junket in Cuba, Mayor Ray Nagin almost certainly will face questions about the latest addition to his collection of controversial comments. Nagin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he thinks Cuba's repressive regime does "a much better job" than U.S. officials of identifying citizen needs and deploying resources in the face of hurricanes, which routinely batter the Caribbean nation. Though Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma all struck the island last year, only seven Cubans were killed, in part because authorities use soldiers to close highways and enforce evacuations. Harking...

If Americans want a glimpse of all of the good that can be done for children if our Senate decides to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), we need look no further than 90 miles off the coast of Florida. For a shining example of the success of internationalism, Cuba is the United Nation’s latest poster child. In articles released this week by official Cuban news agencies, UNICEF representative José Juan Ortiz praised Cuba for being “able to apply the UN Convention on Children’s Rights in a way which is truly a model.” Cuba? --...

Under Cuba's communist system, the government calls all the shots all the time — but during monster hurricanes that may not be such a bad thing, New Orleans' mayor says. In an interview during his six-day trip to Cuba's capital to study the island's disaster-response system, Ray Nagin told The Associated Press that "one of the biggest weaknesses we had during Hurricane Katrina is it wasn't clear who was the top authority." "The president and the governor were going back and forth. ... in Cuba you don't have that problem," Nagin said Tuesday evening. "The government says, 'This is what...

Come for the Disaster Preparedness Lecture, Stay for the Totalitarianism   [Mark Hemingway] It was in the web briefing yetserday, but my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I finally read "New Orleans mayor learns about disaster response in Cuba." So one day after President Obama is in the Big Easy, Mayor Ray Nagin heads off to Cuba to learn about disaster preparedness? What does the Cuban government possibly have to teach us? Here's the Cuban disaster preparedness plan in a nutshell: Kill off the private economy for 50 years so that when a hurricane comes you don't have...

New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin arrived in Cuba late Friday on a mission to learn about how to deal with storms, a spokeswoman said. "We understand we may have a lot to learn from the Cubans in terms of disaster preparedness and how they have dealt with hurricanes," spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said. Cuba is internationally applauded for exceptional disaster management, according to a news release from Nagin's office. In the Cuban capital, Havana, Nagin plans to meet with several officials, including some from the Latin American Medical Centers for Disaster. He will also learn about preparations the Cuba Defense...

I am a little delusional. Until a minute before the Maria Moors Cabot prize ceremony – held yesterday – I thought the Cuban government would change its decision and let me leave. So I saved the recording I made at the Immigration Office on Monday, October 12. Today, seeing that I am in the same place, I have decided to publish it, thinking especially of all those who are going through the same experience. Emotion – having so much to say – did make me speak at a velocity difficult to subtitle, but I feel the relief of having said...

A fugitive who has been living in Cuba for four decades to avoid prosecution for his role in an airline hijacking surrendered to federal law enforcement authorities in New York on Sunday, ending his distinction of being one of the F.B.I.’s longest-known fugitives. Louis Armando Peña Soltren, 66, was arrested at 1:30 p.m. after debarking his plane from Havana...An F.B.I. spokesman said Mr. Soltren had arranged his return to Kennedy International Airport with the F.B.I. and State Department because he wanted to see his family, including his wife, who lived in either Puerto Rico or Florida.*** Nearly 41 years ago,...

An Aeroflot Airbus A330-200, registration VQ-BBF performing flight SU-334 (dep Oct 7th) from Havana (Cuba) to Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia), was enroute overhead the Atlantic at FL350 about 320nm southeast of New York, when the crew talking very good English reported a passenger (German citizen) had become sick and requested to divert to New York's JFK Airport, but changed their diversion destination to Toronto,ON (Canada) just before reaching the top of descent into JFK about 120nm southeast of JFK. The airplane landed safely on Toronto's runway 24R about 2.5 hours after the first decision to divert and about 4.5 hours after...

Former Cuban leader says award is a "positive measure" Former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro celebrated President Obama's controversial Nobel Peace Prize win early Saturday, saying the commander in chief's honor was a "positive measure" that was intended to criticize past U.S. leaders -- not Obama's achievements in particular. Castro wrote in a column for Cuban media that he didn't generally agree with the Nobel Committee's decisions but that their choice on Obama was one he could throw his support behind. "I'm obligated to recognize that in this instance it was, in my judgment, a positive measure," he wrote. The former...

One question that has repeatedly been asked vis-à-vis the Honduran situation (it doesn't seem quite fraught enough to be termed a "crisis") is why so many members of the Western elite, governmental and otherwise, insist on backing Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, despite any number of reasons not to. A quick recap: Mel Zelaya, evidently acting out of a form of Chavez-worship, attempted to carry out a referendum that would allow him to run for another term as president. Honduras, like many other Latin countries, has endured the malignant phenomenon of the "president-for-life", which the U.S., partially excepting FDR, has been spared,...

Che Guevara: Assassin, Coward, Imbecile Humberto Fontova Thursday, October 8, 2009 “SENTENCE first – VERDICT afterwards,” said the Queen. “Nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. – Alice In Wonderland They say Lewis Carroll was a serious dope fiend, his mind totally scrambled on opium, when he concocted “Alice in Wonderland.” A place where the sentence comes first and the verdict afterward? Where people who protest the madness are sentenced to death themselves? What lunacy! If only Carroll had lived a bit longer. If only he’d visited Cuba in 1959...

The United States and Cuba are taking baby steps toward each other. Since President Obama called for a ``new beginning,'' his administration has allowed unlimited family travel and remittances, resumed migration talks, proposed direct-mail service and given its blessing to the concert by Colombian pop star Juanes. In the past 10 months, the State Department issued 5,500 more visas for Cubans to visit the United States than in the same period before October 2008. When news leaked that Bisa Williams, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, had traveled to Cuba, eyebrows were raised. Over six days,...

Aired Live on October 5, 2009- Michael Savage has a direct message for Michael Moore.

Cuba is ready to use just about everything at its disposal, from its well-oiled civil defense system to the soldiers of a totalitarian government, to keep swine flu cases to a minimum. Everything but a vaccine. As the U.S. prepares an extensive health survey for side affects from its extensive inoculation plans, Cuba’s No. 2 health official says relying on a shot to contain a world pandemic is risky as best — and demoralizing at worst. "Nobody knows if it would work," said Dr. Luis Estruch. "How safe would it be?" Cuba’s sophisticated public-monitoring system and geographic isolation as an...

SPY THREAT: CATCH AND RELEASE -- A Veteran Counterintelligence Officer Warns America International News Analysis Today September 30, 2009 By Toby Westerman America is about to be forced into a dangerous game of catch and release with deadly spies, threatening both national security and the morale of the U.S. intelligence community, warns veteran counterintelligence officer Christopher Simmons in a exclusive interview with International News Analysis Today. Christopher Simmons is director and founder of the Cuban Intelligence Research Center. International coercion, attacks on national security, lies and misinformation spread in the media, and the murder of American citizens are part of...

A senior American diplomat has held high-level talks with the Cuban government in Havana, state department officials are reported to have said. The talks between the two nations were the first of their kind in years, the Associated Press news agency reports. State department official Bisa Williams held the unannounced talks with Cuba's deputy foreign minister during a visit to Cuba earlier this month, AP says. A US trade embargo on Cuba remains, but there are signs relations are easing. Earlier this month, Ms Williams, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was part of a US...

On the eve of the French Revolution, the aristocrats inhabiting the palace of Versailles enjoyed, “as an ironic lark, sporting the clothing of the working classes,” according to writer Charles Stenson. These pampered elites were undisturbed by the fact that their peasant getups mocked the real peasants, many of whom were dying as a result of the elites’ self-serving policies. These clueless aristocrats have descendents in spoiled college kids who think it’s trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che’s face is emblazoned on T-shirts, he was glamorized by the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and Time magazine described him...

HAVANA — President Raul Castro is taking a bold gamble to ease communist Cuba's cash crunch by eliminating a costly government lunch program that feeds almost a third of the nation's population every workday. The Americas' only one-party communist government, held afloat largely by support from its key ally Venezuela, is desperate to improve its budget outlook; the global economy is slack, and Havana is very hard pressed to secure international financing. Raul Castro, 76, officially took over as Cuba's president in February 2008 after his brother, revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, stepped aside with health problems. Though some wondered if...

El Libro Sensacional! Castro's Sis Dishes on Bro in New Book Exiled sister will publish book about brother Fidel Castro The world will soon get a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most controversial political figures of the past half century when the sister of Fidel Castro publishes her tell-all book next month. Juanita Castro has lived in Miami since 1964, when she fled her native Cuba, and now her book, Fidel y Raul, Mis Hermanos (Fidel and Raul, My Brothers) will finally hit store shelves on Oct. 26,according to the Miami Herald. The 432-page Spanish language...

Cubans began taking a hard look this week at entrenched customs like food rationing, pilfering on the job, cradle-to-grave subsidies and black market trading in a national debate called by President Raul Castro.

HAVANA, Sept. 20 -- Rock-and-roll diplomacy came to the communist isle on a smoldering afternoon, as hundreds of thousands of Cubans filled the Plaza of the Revolution on Sunday and sang along to a dozen international musical acts led by the Colombian singer and peace activist Juanes. The free "Peace without Borders" concert was criticized by hard-line Cuban exiles in Miami as a propaganda coup for the Castro brothers, and that it might have been. But for thousands of young Cubans, it was a rare treat to hear Latin music stars such as Olga Tanon of Puerto Rico and Miguel...