Ailing Castro's Cuba signals crackdown on pirate TV

Reuters/Yahoo ^ | Aug 9, 2006

[ncountylee]

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's communist government has signaled a crackdown on black-market satellite dishes used by citizens to get news and views from its arch enemy, the United States, nine days after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language TV programs from the exile bastion of Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.

"They are fertile ground for those who want to carry out the Bush administration's plan to destroy the Cuban revolution," said the newspaper, the official voice of the government. Similar articles in Granma usually signal that action can be expected.

The article decried an "avalanche" of capitalist advertising in the commercial programs.

Since Castro provisionally relinquished power to his brother Raul on July 31 after undergoing stomach surgery, Cubans have been anxious for information.

U.S.-funded TV and Radio Marti, run out of Miami, have pumped up their output of anti-Castro programming, but few Cubans are believed to have access to the stations because of successful jamming by the Cuban government.

By contrast, there may be as many as 10,000 illegal TV satellite dishes in Cuba, each one linked to perhaps hundreds of televisions by cables that their owners snake over rooftops and between buildings, charging other users $10 a month.

Many who get black-market U.S. television watched with astonishment as exiles in Miami danced in the streets when they heard on July 31 that Fidel Castro had undergone surgery and handed over power to his brother.

[ncountylee]

Why not add Radio Marti to satellite?

[1rudeboy]

ARRRRR!

[Constitution Day]

Interesting.

[2banana]

U.S.-funded TV and Radio Marti, run out of Miami, have pumped up their output of anti-Castro programming, but few Cubans are believed to have access to the stations because of successful jamming by the Cuban government.

You would think that all that free health care and great educational schools - that the Castro regime would welcome debate...

[Peach]

I just finished reading the book by Castro's daughter about life in Cuba. It's worse than I'd thought there and I'll never let anyone in my presence talk about Castro's grand experiment.

[headsonpikes]

They saved this juicy bit 'til last:

French actor Gerard Depardieu added his name to a list of 400 international personalities, including leftist commentator Noam Chomsky and South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who signed a statement against U.S. interference, Granma said.

I'm going to hunt for that 'statement'.

[nmh]

Paranoia sets in.

Is he dead yet?

[weegee]

Dan Rather wishes he could've jammed the internet

[John Will]

Time for a shot of rum to celebreate.

[reagan_fanatic]

..nine days after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily permanently relinquished power to his brother

There, that's better.

[GeronL]

He is DEAD. Fidel is DEAD.

[AdvisorB]

Peach, I was there in 1996 and it was worse than I could have ever imagined. In Santiago de Cuba, the preferred mode of transport was the covered wagon. Yes, in Cuba's second largest city people were getting around in a modified horse and buggy. Buggy whips could make a great comeback wherever leftist/socialist/RAT/commie/pinkos organize the economy.

BTW, Fidel sleeps with the fishes.

[headsonpikes]

t looks like they just transfered the signatures from a previous 'statement':

"US must stop abuse at Guantanamo, say world’s artists - 15/03/2006
In this edition of Cuba Update:

1. US must stop abuse at Guantanamo, say world’s artists
2. Cuba has 25,00 doctors on missions abroad

---

1. US must stop abuse at Guantanamo, say world’s artists

HAVANA, March 14: More than 400 intellectuals from all over the world, including
Harold Pinter from the UK, on Tuesday denounced the hypocrisy of the United
States and its European Union (EU) allies on the issue of human rights, calling
on Washington to close its illegal prisons.

On behalf of the celebrities, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, head of Cuban cultural
organisation Casa de las Americas, made the statement at a press conference
here.

"The United States and its EU allies have successively prevented the UN
Commission on Human Rights from condemning the massive and systematic violations
of human rights promoted in the name of the so-called war against terrorism, "
the statement said.

It also accused the EU governments of refusing to admit the "testimonies and
evidences submitted by citizens of their countries, who have been victims of
several forms of torture at the Guantanamo navy base."

"They have also allowed the flight of CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency)
aircraft carrying prisoners to illegal detention centers in Europe and
elsewhere," it said.

The statement called on the Commission on Human Rights or the Council, which
will replace it, to demand the immediate closure of the U.S. detention centers
and "ceasing of all violations of human dignity."

The statement was issued one day after the 62nd session of the UN Commission on
Human Rights opened in Geneva, which coincided with the broadcasting of news
footage of U.S. military torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The statement was signed by more than 400 intellectuals from Argentina, Brazil,
Britain, Canada, Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United States and other
countries, including eight Nobel Prize laureates.

Fernandez said the statement was not a document to be presented to the UN
Commission on Human Rights, but a moral judgement made the intellectuals to gain
political effectiveness.

The statement would be published in major newspapers of Europe and the United
States on Wednesday, Fernandez added. The Guardian in the UK published it as a
letter (See below)

About 500 detainees are being held in the Guantanamo prison, east Cuba. Most of
them were captured in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001.

Organizations across the world have condemned Washington's move of indefinite
detention without charge. The United States argues, however, it has the right to
hold people it describes as enemy combatants because it is effectively at war
with al-Qaida.

The United Nations urged Washington last month to release all detainees in
Guantanamo prison, or bring them to trial and shut down the facility.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/15/content_4305873.htm

End illegal detention centres

Published Wednesday March 15, 2006 in the Guardian, UK

We, the undersigned writers and artists, demand that the US immediately cease
using the Guantánamo Bay base as an illegal detention centre and to close all of
its arbitrary detention centres where the systematic abuse of human rights and
dignity are still taking place. As we write, the 62nd session of the UN
commission of human rights in Geneva is about to begin and new images of the US
military torturing prisoners in Iraq are being published. Yet the US and its
allies in the EU have thus far prevented the UN commission from condemning the
massive and systematic violations of human rights that have taken place in the
name of the so-called war on terror.

EU countries have ignored the testimonies of even their own citizens who have
been victims of torture in Guantanamo. Several have allowed the overflights of
CIA aircraft carrying prisoners to detention centres and elsewhere. The UN
commission on human rights (or the council proposed to replace it) must end this
hypocrisy and demand the closure of Guantánamo Bay and all the detention centres
created by the US, as well as the cessation of torture and the deliberate
violations of human dignity.

José Saramago
Nadine Gordimer
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Rigoberta Menchú
Wole Soyinka
Harold Pinter
Dario Fo
Danielle Mitterrand
Harry Belafonte
Danny Glover
Gerard Depardieu
Alice Walker
Manu Chao
Eduardo Galeano

And 407 other writers and artists

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1730867,00.html

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news.asp?ItemID=698

To sign the petition:

[L98Fiero]

"He is DEAD. Fidel is DEAD."

Oh yeah.

"Push the little daisies and make 'em some up!"

[Peach]

It's so sad to read how bad things have gotten there; worse and worse every decade. Glad you got out.

[wyattearp]

"They are fertile ground for those who want to carry out the Bush Kennedy administration's plan to destroy the Cuban revolution,"

There hasn't been a Cuban revolution is over 40 years. The Bush administration wants to encourage a Cuban revolution!

[kabar]

But Castro is fine. He is up and walking.

[wyattearp]

Fidel is DEAD.

He died the moment he transferred the power to his brother. "There can be only ONE".

[BurbankKarl]

castro is dead