I Still Think of Elian

Jewish World Review ^ | April 29, 2003 | Nat Hentoff

[William Wallace]

As soon as Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, I saw on television the firing squad execution of an array of political prisoners, which he ordered. He then began filling his brutal prisons with Cubans whose sole crime was a desire to breathe freedom after the Batista dictatorship -- only to find themselves in another totalitarian quicksand.

At one point, interviewing the already legendary Che Guevara -- an international Cuban revolutionary icon -- at the Cuban mission to the United Nations, I asked him if he could foresee, anytime in the future, free elections in Cuba. Crisply dressed in his military outfit, Guevara burst out laughing at my callow naivete.

Having interviewed Cubans who survived Castro's gulags, I have never understood or respected the parade of American entertainers, politicians and intellectuals who travel to Cuba to be entranced by this ruthless dictator who, for me, has all the charisma of a preening thug, akin to any killer on "The Sopranos."

These Castro-philes are among those who discredit liberalism because they're unable to recognize and be repelled by unbridled evil. Consider Steven Spielberg, who has developed impressive resources through his Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to keep alive the horrifying presence of the Holocaust. Yet, as quoted in the April 11 Wall Street Journal, Spielberg described his audience with Castro last November as "the eight most important hours of my life."

Was Spielberg's life that barren until those gloriously transcendent hours with the chief warden of Cuba's prisons?

From time to time, I still think of Elian Gonzalez, so vivid a free spirit here until condemned by Janet Reno and Bill Clinton to a land where schoolteachers must keep a record of any signs of their charges' lessening fealty to the relentless light of their lives. I wish the American press would pay more attention to the ongoing lawsuit alleging that Doris Meissner -- head of Clinton's Immigration and Naturalization Service -- ordered the destruction of evidence that would have contradicted the Clinton administration's forcible removal of Elian to Castro's continuation of Stalinism. Judicial Watch in Washington has the information on that lawsuit.

In any case, the next batch of fawning celebrities and members of Congress who party with Castro, will try to evade the recent show trials of independent journalists, human rights advocates, poets and other dreamers of democracy who have been sentenced by Castro's kangaroo courts to punishments of up to 27 years. Britain's Economist magazine notes that "since many of the dissidents are aged between 50 and 60, in practical terms they are being put away for life."

One prisoner of conscience packed into the gulag is the internationally respected independent journalist Raul Rivero, director of Cuba Press agency, and a board member of the Inter American Press Association. In the Castro courtroom -- from which foreign journalists and diplomats were barred -- Rivero, suffering from phlebitis and other ailments, was sentenced to 20 years for being an independent journalist.

"This is so arbitrary for a man whose only crime is to write what he thinks," his wife, Blanca Reyes, said in an April 8 New York Times article. "What they found on him was a tape recorder, not a grenade."

The Clinton administration -- which has so much to answer to history for -- promoted "people-to-people" trips to Cuba, which have continued. The American tourists and the participants in educational and cultural exchanges will not be able to engage in person-to-person visits with Raul Rivero, and other Cubans whom the Castro "justice system" has turned into non-people. Not even such an eminence as Spielberg will be free to show Rivero videos of Holocaust survivors.

Spielberg, immersed in pre-production of his next film, was not available for comment on Castro's latest eradication of dissenters. But his representative, Andy Spahn of Dreamworks, told The Wall Street Journal that Castro had been "provoked" to order the crackdown, because the head of the American mission in Havana, James Cason, had been meeting -- can you imagine? -- with Cuban dissenters in their homes last February.

And if an American official had, however discreetly, been meeting with Jews in Berlin who still hoped that the world would come to their rescue -- if it only knew of the design for the Final Solution -- would that diplomat have exceeded his responsibilities to humankind by "provoking" Hitler?

HBO has wisely cancelled the May showing of Oliver Stone's Castro-admiring "Commandante." During production, says the Journal, Fidel was "given the power to stop filming at will."

The show would have been a fitting complement to HBO's "The Sopranos."

[William Wallace]

One of the few liberal journalists with moral clarity, intellectual honesty and the courage of his convictions.

[William Wallace]

FYI

[moneyrunner]

bump

[xsmommy]

Thanks, WW!

[prairiebreeze]

But his representative, Andy Spahn of Dreamworks, told The Wall Street Journal that Castro had been "provoked" to order the crackdown..

Horse hockey.

Prairie

[widowithfoursons]

Someone with the skill should post the Elian picture (gun in his face), and the Waco burning. Janet Reno should spend eternity watching a nonstop recording of those two events.

[ewing]

So do I, Nat..so do I

[q_an_a]

Nat writes well on jazz and is not afraid of either the right or the left. Too few people can take a moral stand.

[ventana]

Easter memory bump. V's wife.

[bmwcyle]

I wish some of the Freepers understood the stupidity of their support to send Elian back. Their "send the boy to his father" held no water.

[FairOpinion]

"From time to time, I still think of Elian Gonzalez, so vivid a free spirit here until condemned by Janet Reno and Bill Clinton to a land where schoolteachers must keep a record of any signs of their charges' lessening fealty to the relentless light of their lives.

I wish the American press would pay more attention to the ongoing lawsuit alleging that Doris Meissner -- head of Clinton's Immigration and Naturalization Service -- ordered the destruction of evidence that would have contradicted the Clinton administration's forcible removal of Elian to Castro's continuation of Stalinism. Judicial Watch in Washington has the information on that lawsuit. "

I still think of poor Elian as well and the Clinton Administrations brutal strong arm tactics of kidnapping Elian to hand him over on a silver platter to Castro. It's unforgivable.

[Irene Adler]

Nat Hentoff is the one and only honest and clear-thinking leftist I know of. I wish he could live and write forever.

[T'wit]

On that recent "world's richest people" list, Castro showed up with $110 million. Not to mention that he owns his own island and the usual palaces and women and stuff. Pretty good in a small, half-starving country whose people are on perpetual food rationing and power blackouts.

Under the "terrible" Batista, Cuba had the third-highest standard of living in the western hemisphere, behind the U.S. and Canada (but ahead of such powers as Argentina & Brazil).* Now it is a dreary third-world place, off the charts. Other than government limos, the only cars on the streets are ancient 50's models or even earlier -- pre-Castro. My daughter was there and I looked at the photos she brought home with wonder and sorrow. (*So I've read. I don't have the stats.)

[ewing]

Castro has also said that he intends to make Elian his successor as leader.

[keithtoo]

Sometimes the light of truth makes its way down the mirky corridors of the Village Voice offices, to Nat's office.

Its always refreshing to see the result.

[Billthedrill]

For the love of God, not another Elian thread!

Actually, I agree with Nat. But Elian is only one little boy in a country full of people more oppressed, even, than he. Fidel is, to Central and South Americans, in somewhat the same role Saddam was for the Arab peoples - "he may be a bastard but he's our bastard." (FDR, believe it or not). While I would be the last to send my Sudamerican brothers and sisters into an existential crisis, it may be time for Beardo the Weirdo to join Pol Pot in the Rogues Gallery of failed 20th-century despots. Lord knows it'd free up enough TV time for an entire new fall lineup every time the guy decides to treat them to a speech.

[FairOpinion]

"But Elian is only one little boy in a country full of people more oppressed,"

---

But the point was that Elian was here, he was free, his Mother died to bring him to freedom and he was SENT BACK by the Clinton regime, even though according to the law, Elian was supposed to get asylum. And in the meantime, we have millions of ILLEGAL aliens in this country.

[holyscroller]

"On that recent "world's richest people" list, Castro showed up with $110 million."

And what good will it do him where he's going? He sure isn't going to take it with him. All those poor people living in deprivation so that their money can sit in Castro's bank account. Thanks Kennedy.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

..ELIAN's -Cold Dead Eyes- in Cuba..

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a395a99a7020f.htm
(Aricle)


DONATO in America 5 wks after the Raid..

http://impeachreno.org/images/donatandaloharonnie.jpg
(Photo)

[k2blader]

From time to time, I still think of Elian Gonzalez, so vivid a free spirit here until condemned by Janet Reno and Bill Clinton...

... and all the conservatives who joined Clinton, Reno and the other leftist vermin.