Open your eyes - Cuba belongs on list

Sunday's Orlando Sentinel brought the news Cuban- Americans have been expecting. A group of 16 organizations have questioned if Cuba should be on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist-supporting nations. It was only a matter of time.

The tragedy of Sept. 11 was unprecedented and paralyzing, especially for someone like me, who cherishes the freedom this country so graciously provided some 40 years ago. I stand united.

Yet I cannot help but remember thousands killed by terrorists in the past 20 years in Northern Ireland, or by car bombs in Colombia and Spain, as well as those killed in the 1950s by Fidel Castro's "urban guerrillas." Some people would classify those terrorists as "freedom fighters." Funny. That's what some people call Osama bin Laden.

The fact that Cuba has been -- and most likely still is -- a safe haven and training ground for the FARC, ETA and IRA "freedom fighters," or that just a few months ago Castro was the only "president" who didn't sign a document denouncing the ETA and its terrorism, does not make a difference to the 16 distinguished organizations looking to support him.

The fact that Castro has harbored, and still harbors, individuals who have committed acts of terrorism in this country is irrelevant. Rep. Maxine Waters and others may romanticize them as " '60s radicals," but they committed despicable acts just the same.

Even the fact that Castro despises us as much as bin Laden does -- that he indoctrinates his children against "the enemy to the north" -- is also, apparently, irrelevant.

In the following weeks we will see the "pacifists" emerge from their caves. We already saw some of them in Washington last Sunday. It is just a matter of time before the Rangels, Serranos and Dodds resurface, locking arms with Rep. Barbara Lee, who recently cast that sole dissenting vote against President George W. Bush.

But we Cuban-Americans -- and these days, there's an emphasis on Americans -- who the press favors calling "extremist" and "reactionary" will remain on watch in Orlando, New York, New Jersey, Tampa and, of course, South Florida. And we will continue to denounce the hypocrites, the apologists and the cave-dwellers.

Delighting in the dictator--[Excerpt] What has always absorbed me about Fidel's fans in the West is not that they settled their admiration on such absurd deceptions as Communism's superior health care and -- even more absurd -- superior educational systems. Can one really have education without freedom? I said education, not indoctrination. Rather, what intrigues me is his fans' terms of praise. Fidel has been sexy, witty, shy, kindly, idealistic, and on into the wild blue yonder of idiocy. Now why would one say such things about a brutal dictator who made no effort to conceal his hatred of the American system of government and economics, a system that in its worst moments still was infinitely superior to Fidel's Communism?

Given the vagaries of the human mind, I can offer no single explanation. I can recall that similar attributes during the century of the dictator were attributed to all the century's dictators, even Hitler for a time. One other point: these are the attributes progressives never detect in, say, a George W. Bush or a Ronald Reagan. At home they find them in Kennedys, Clintons, and other dynamic Democrats. It makes you wonder, does it not? [End Excerpt]

Why the Double Standard for Castro?-- [Excerpt] Thanks to communism, Cuba - once one of the wealthiest Caribbean countries - is now one of its poorest. Cuban society is ruthlessly regimented by a police state modeled on those of Stalin and Mao. Much of the Cuban population has been forced to flee in successive expulsions since the 1960s.

The response proposed by American liberals? The United States should be nicer to Fidel Castro. Today almost all liberal politicians, pundits and journalists, joined by many in the American business community, claim that ending U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba will promote political freedom and ultimately democracy in Castro's bankrupt police state.

Curiously, the American left made the opposite claim in the 1980s, when it backed the economic sanctions that played a role in ending apartheid in South Africa. And few liberals show interest in easing sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. [End Excerpt]

Islamic World Warns of Backlash, U.S. Forces Deploy-- Washington is trying to build a global coalition that would not only back retaliation for the worst single attack on U.S. soil but root out extremist networks, led by bin Laden's shadowy al Qaeda organization, by cutting off their financial lifelines.
Although several countries -- Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and Libya among them -- were said to be harboring thousands of members of these shadowy networks, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was broadening its investigations into their financial sources.

Facing an enemy operating in 60 countries, including in Europe and the United States, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said troops would not be engaged in a conventional war.

CASTRO AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM -- For as long as this unjust hatred for the U.S. persists and rogue nations, such as Cuba, among others, give sanctuary to international terrorists and collaborate by providing training, intelligence, and logistic support, despicable and unforgivable acts like the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, will continue. Do not get confused by the hypocritical messages of condolence sent by Castro and many of our cowardly enemies who aid and give sanctuary to terrorism and now fear the might of this nation and its people.

How much more evidence do you need?

I have to imagine the ruling infrastructure is ready to topple, and psyops with clever infiltration and tactics could make Cuba a free land once again.

Background on Arrest of Castro's Pentagon Spy --One is that she could leak relevant information about our intended response to the terrorist attacks to the Cubans, who in turn could pass it on to bin Laden. The other is that there was a turf battle inside the administration between the Bush Justice Department and leftover elements from the Clinton administration at the Pentagon on how to deal with Cuba.

We need to find all these traitors in our government. She was feeding Castro intelligence and advising us on Castro, and guess what? She saw no threat!

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