Posted on 02/11/2008 12:48:51 PM PST by bshomoic
Castro, McCain spar over Cuban torture in Vietnam
Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:39am EST
HAVANA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro took on front-running U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday, accusing him of lying about Cubans torturing American prisoners of war in Vietnam.
At a campaign stop in Miami last month, the Arizona senator told anti-Castro exiles that American POWs held with him in Hanoi were tortured by "a couple of Cubans."
"His accusation against the Cuban revolutionaries ... are completely unethical," Castro wrote in an article published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma.
"The commandments of the religion you practice prohibit lying," he said of McCain, who was raised an Episcopalian and calls himself a Christian.
McCain, a Navy pilot when he was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, says he was tortured by his Vietnamese captors over more than five years in captivity. Cuba and North Vietnam were Cold War allies of the Soviet Union at the time.
McCain has vowed to keep up decades-old U.S. pressure for political change in Cuba's one-party state. That has included a travel ban and trade and financial sanctions enforced a few years after Castro's 1959 revolution on the Caribbean island, which lies just 90 miles (135 km) from the U.S. coast.
Castro's criticism brought a sharp retort from McCain as he campaigned in Annapolis, Maryland.
"For me to respond to Fidel Castro, who has oppressed and repressed his people and who is one of the most brutal dictators on Earth, for me to dignify any comments he might make is certainly beneath me," he said at a press conference.
"It's a matter of record and you can ask several of the POWs who had direct contact with some, some thug that came to Hanoi with an underling assistant."
In Miami on Jan. 25, McCain had said: "There's a person I want you to help me find when Cuba is free, and that's that Cuban that came to the prison camps of North Vietnam and tortured and killed my friends. We'll get him and bring him to justice, too."
Castro, in Monday's article "The republican candidate," said he ordered the translation of McCain's 1999 book "Faith of My Fathers" into Spanish and rejected its account of a Cuban nicknamed "Fidel" who could "torture a prisoner until death."
Castro, 81, has not appeared in public since emergency stomach surgery forced him to hand over power to his brother Raul more than 18 months ago. But he has kept himself in the minds of Cubans with a prolific flow of articles.
Castro visited North Vietnam in 1973 to show his support for the communist-led country in the midst of its war with the United States. Cuba provided doctors and military engineers who took part in the widening of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Castro said the Vietnam War ended in a disastrous withdrawal by the United States.
"All they achieved was a candidate for the Republican Party 41 years later," he wrote. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Andy Sullivan in Annapolis; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Can’t wait to see how many on here take sides with Castro over McCain like they have with Hillary/Obama vs McCain.
And we've all been waiting breathlessy for another noob to waltz in here and make a breathtakingly stupid statement like this...
Thanks for taking care of that for us.
L
“Can’t wait to see how many on here take sides with Castro over McCain like they have with Hillary/Obama vs McCain.”
I think their busy on another thread calling Huckabee a socialist for ten thousandth time.
Seems strange that it comes up now.
OK, Fidel.
So we have two individuals, one of whom professes Christianity (which teaches that lying is always wrong) and one of whom professes Marxism-Leninism (which teaches that lying is not only acceptable but sometimes necessary to advance the cause).
Who is more motivated to lie?
Ah Reuters. They can't confirm that McCain was actually tortured by the reds - he just says he was. But of course they KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT BUSH tortures terrorist suspects.
Castro’s day will come soon enough.
November 8, 1999
CANF Challenges Cuban Official to Answer POW Accusations of Vietnam
Torture :: High-Ranking Minister to Give Monday Speech in New York
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ — The Cuban American National Foundation today challenged the president of Cuba’s rubber-stamp National Assembly to answer accusations by former American prisoners of war in Vietnam that American servicemen were subjected to systematic torture by Cuban officials while imprisoned in Hanoi. Ricardo Alarcon is scheduled to give a speech in New York on Monday before the Americas Society (680 Park Avenue, 212-249-8950).
The accusations were reiterated Thursday in Washington in an emotional hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, which is seeking to re-open the decades-long issue known as the “Cuba Program.” Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Ray Vohden and Air Force Col. Jack Bomar gave chilling testimony on their treatment by three Cuban officials at a Hanoi prison camp known as “the Zoo.” “I was beaten three or four times a day until I became demoralized,” said Capt. Vohden. “. . . I didn’t care if I lived or died.” They said that one of their colleagues, Air Force Capt. Earl G. Cobeil was beaten so badly by the Cuban agents that he lapsed into a coma and subsequently died.
The former war heroes said that the torturers were Caucasian and spoke English with Spanish accents, and knew them to be Cuban because that is how they were referred to by the Vietnamese.
The issue of Cuban torture of American POWs in Vietnam has been known for decades, after returning prisoners in 1973 reported it to Defense Department officials. The issue has received renewed attention with the recent publication of a Defense Department book, Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973, which provides extensive details on the Cuba Program. In his recent bestseller, Faith of My Fathers, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former POW, also recounted the torture of American servicemen by Cuban agents.
Hmmm. I’d say since McCain was THERE, and Castro WASN’T, I’ll go with McCain on this one.
I recall reading about this from another account, years ago, that the most sadistic of the lot was a Cuban in his late teens, who even told them he learned his English working at Gitmo.
So McCain wants to take down the Castros specifically because a few of their agents tortured him and his cellmates back in the Hanoi Hilton and for no other reason.
This is unfortunately, how his ferret brain functions. If, however, his son marries a Cuban woman who professes love for Castroism he may do a 180.
“They said that one of their colleagues, Air Force Capt. Earl G. Cobeil was beaten so badly by the Cuban agents that he lapsed into a coma and subsequently died.”
Yet simulating drowning of terrorist is torture.
Wow, you’re really piling up support for your guy there with such brilliant and subtle satire. Wait, no, sorry. No satire there, just a cupful of stupid.
I believe McCain but that doesn’t mean I’ll forgive him for spitting on the Constitution with McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and the rest of his crimes; nor does it mean that I support that monster Fidel Castro.
After all, Kerry served in Vietnam too - does that mean YOU have to support HIM? Of course not. It is absurd. So was your repulsive statement.
I’m watching what McCain does here. If he boldly can offer proof that Castro was misinformed or a liar, it might get him some votes.
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