Posted on 08/24/2007 12:31:34 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes. Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media. Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again or if today is the birth date of Cuba's liberty.
Update: Here's the deal and what I know up to now, as of 1500 hours, August 24, 2007:
First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead.
Im also told Local and State government agencies have food, bottled water, and other necessities - valued in the millions - stored and/or staged in Homestead at or near the EOC.
I am presently verifying whether Coast Guard and DHS and Border Patrol agencies are on high alert. (Verified 01445)
Local News stations are abuzz, mostly on reports very much like the above, with massive law enforcemnt mobilizations throughout Dade county.
Local emergency medical services notified to be on alert by law enforcement agencies.
Im told - and still awaiting confirmation - that buses in Havana have been recalled to terminals and that Cuban workers have been sent home. (still unconfirmed 1500)
Again, I am loathe to publish the title as I did in this post, but I would be remiss in not telling you all what I know, right now. All of my sources are good but the Cuban government, as we all know, is masterful at controlling media and information and we should not rule out that this and last Friday's "news" have been and are feelers to see what the reactions are here, as well as who reacts within the island. If we've been duped we've been duped. If not, then bust out the champagne.
Once again, these may all be rumor to discredit us and other media sources. All we can do is exactly what we've been doing for quite some time now: wait and see.
More from Killcastro, with sources from within Cuba.
That's what I think -- he's been dead for quite awhile. According to the Drudge story posted, he hasn't made a public appearance for a year. Cowardly communist bastards have to lie about it in order to keep their power.
I'll be happy when it's "shallow grave".
“Weekend at Fidel’s” has now turned into “Year at Fidel’s.”
Let’s hope so.
The contingency planning from 2006 for this eventuality:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/24/wcastro24.xml
Emergency planners in the United States have been rehearsing for a range of “nightmare scenarios” that they fear could unfold on their doorstep after the death of Fidel Castro.
With the 80-year-old Cuban president believed to be terminally ill and his brother Raul, 77, who now runs the country, showing little appetite for democratic change, authorities believe that Florida could be hit by a tidal wave of refugees from the communist island once the sickly dictator dies.
In the biggest exercise of its kind, 520 officials from 75 federal, state and local agencies have been running through their plans for such a crisis, wary that Castro’s demise could prompt an exodus on a scale unseen since the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when 125,000 Cubans took to the sea.
“If Raul lets people go and there’s not a naval blockade to stop them, we estimate as many as 500,000 people will leave in the first year,” said Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, which has been involved in the planning.
He added: “The pressure on the social infrastructure here will be unbearable.”
In a series of table-top exercises held in a convention centre in Fort Lauderdale, emergency officials from agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, police and Coast Guard, worked through simulated scenarios.
They included the Cuban military fighting bloody running battles with pro-democracy protesters in Havana, and a mass migration north across the 90-mile wide Florida Straits that would bring chaos, drownings, and force the Sunshine State to declare a civil emergency.
Other concerns centre on pledges by some Cuban exiles in the US that they will head south in boats to pluck stricken refugees to safety, or even to lead an uprising.
The drill resulted in the fine-tuning of contingency plans for thwarting outbound exiles. Measures would include shutting down marinas in Florida, stopping road vehicles seen towing boats, and even restricting fuel sales.
Meanwhile hurricane shelters and detention centres would be used as temporary accommodation.
Authorities emphasise that the plans being drawn up relate to a “worst case scenario”. But few have confidence that the transfer of power from one Castro to another will bring any significant let-up in the repression of Cubans.
Despite Raul Castro’s recent hints that he wants to talk with Washington, nearly five decades after President Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations, the US State Department says it has nothing to discuss until he restores democracy and opens a dialogue with his own people.
~~~~~
I could see how at least the housing market could definitely get a boost if this is true.
La Cucaracha, la Cucaracha, ya no puede caminar...
Very appropiate for the times!
Isn't what the officer said when the destroyer reported firing on a Japanese minisub at the entrance to Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941?
BETTER DEAD THAN RED!
Osama Bin Laden is dead too!
I don’t know why but I believe it this time. Viva!
“It is said that Castro was making a speech to a large assembly. And he was going on at great length and then a voice out in the crowd said, ‘peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks.’ and he went on speaking and again the voice said, ‘peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks,’” Mr. Reagan said. “And about the fourth time this happened, he stopped in his regular speech and he said, “the next time,” he said, “I’m going to find out who that is and kick him all the way to Miami.’ And everybody in the crowd said, “peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks.’”
-Ronald Reagan
Is me or what but now Dan Rather be consider Freeper little b***h after Memo scandel
Fidel Castro is in stable condition after dying in a Cuban hospital.
Come think of it he was in Godfather 3
I bet all Classic car owners be happy when Fidal kick it
“Im also told Local and State government agencies have food, bottled water, and other necessities - valued in the millions - stored and/or staged in Homestead at or near the EOC.”
WTH for?
Im in Homestead right now and there are lots and lots of Mexicans here but not too many Cubans.
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