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MARCH 21, 2000 : (CLINTON ADMIN GRANTS VISA TO CUBAN TERRORISM COORDINATOR TO SET UP SHOP IN THE CUBAN INTERESTS SECTION OF THE SWISS EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, DC ) ".....After months of indecision, the Clinton administration has granted a visa allowing the Cuban government's former terrorism coordinator to set up shop in Washington. The State Department now considers Fernando Garcia Bielsa, a former leader of the America Department of the Cuban Communist Party, responsible for political-influence operations and operational support for terrorist groups, to be an accredited diplomat. He will operate out of the Cuban Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy on 16th Street in Washington, just blocks away from the White House. Garcia Bielsa replaces Jose Imperatori, whom the United States expelled on Feb. 26 for allegedly running a spy within the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami. ......"--------- Capital Hill Blue 3/21/00 J Michael Waller- ALAMO-GIRL'S DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON ; SECTION: BREACH OF TRUST; SUBSECTION: TERROR; Revised 1/8/01

APRIL 2000 and before : (VIVIAN MANNERUD VERBLE ARRANGES FOREIGN TRAVEL FOR DEMOCRAT SENATOR JOHN KERRY'S STAFF - See cocaine smuggler CABRERA, ELIAN CASE, CUBA) * Senator John Kerry : Massachussetts senator. Accepted campaign funds from Vivian Mannerud, a Democratic campaign donor linked to cocaine trafficker Jorge Cabrera. Even when other Democrats returned such donations, he opted to keep them. Mannerud hosted an $18,000 Kerry fund-raiser, gave $1,000 in donations and arranged foreign travel for Kerry's staff as recently as April 2000. Though Kerry's advisors warned him that Mannerud's drug connection could prove troublesome, Kerry wasn't swayed. "We accept her word she had no knowledge of Mr. Cabrera's illicit activities," the Herald quoted Kerry spokesman David Wade as saying.- Boston Herald

APRIL 9, 2004 Friday : (TEHRAN, IRAN : FORMER IRANIAN PRESIDENT AYATOLLAH RAFSANJANI COMMENTS ON INSURGENCY SITUATION IN IRAQ; BUSH'S POLITICAL RIVALS' ATTACKS ON THE US PRESIDENT ARE AIDING PROPAGANDA EFFORTS OF IRANIAN REGIME) Occupation troops, facing a June 30 deadline for restoring Iraqi self-rule, are locked in fierce fighting or forced to back off in cities west, east and south of the capital as well as the key southern port of Basra. "The scenes of combat are in stark contrast to images of confident US troops rolling through the capital a year ago, as they toppled the regime of Saddam Hoseyn", the [official Iranian News] Agency added. "Even the rivals of the American President George W. Bush are presenting him as a war criminal and call for his trial in court", [former Iranian President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani] Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani told worshippers. - " "IRAN DOES NOT WANT TO INTERVENE IN IRAQ", HASHEMI RAFSANJANI," IPS, April 9, 2004, http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Apr_04/iraq_0404.htm