Yankee Doodle Castro

Havana's Karl Marx Theater rocked and rolled last month. Cuba's Communist Party put on a rollicking Fourth of July party. "In honor of the noble American people on the anniversary of their independence," proclaimed Cuba's Communist Party newspaper "Granma."

Ted Turner's "Helluva guy!" was there, Fidel himself, declaring: "The cultural, spiritual and moral legacy of the American people is also the heritage of Cuba and of the Cuban people!" And a choral group sang "Old Man River."

Wow. What happened to the U.S. as "a vulture preying on humanity!" circa 1960? What about the U.S. as "the cancer of humanity!" circa 1968? And let's not forget: "Worse than Hitler's Germany!" a Castroite staple for 40 years.

"Come on, Humberto," you say. "That's Cold War stuff. Knock it off. He's mellowed recently."

Oh? Then how about his "We will bring America to her knees!" That was last year in Teheran.

What a difference the end of that nasty ol' Cold War – and running out of creditors to stiff – make.

What a difference a fresh and enlightened view of the brotherhood of nations – and getting a credit rating below Somalia by Moody's and below Haiti by Dun & Bradstreet – make.

What a difference a genuine longing to lessen international tension by engaging in dialogue – and having your ships impounded in foreign ports by furious creditors – make.

It was a whole year ago when Fidel high-fived with the Iranians about making us cry uncle. But as we saw from Enron and WorldCom, financial unpleasantness can sneak up unannounced. You almost want to laugh. From "Fidel the Mighty Scourge of the Yankee Imperialists!" to Mr. Haney, in one year.

Remember Mr. Haney on "Green Acres"? "Mis-ter Doug-las, my card, sir. Have I got a deal for you, sir! Mis-ter Doug-las, can I interest you in ...?"

Fidel's got a deal for us all right. And it'll make Oliver Douglas' farm look like the buy of a lifetime. We're talking Credit Management 101 here, folks. He's paying cash on time right now ($70 million to such as ADM and Cargill), lulling all his U.S. vendors and infuriating his European ones. "We've been waiting years for payment!" they wail.

Soon "President" Castro's people will place a really big order with his smiling U.S. vendors, shake hands, slap backs. Then – wham! He'll stick it to 'em, as he has to everyone else.

I'm tempted to laugh. Problem is, these vendors will undoubtedly come whimpering to us taxpayers (Ex-Im Bank) for compensation. Welfare queens by any other name.

Once we had Fidel the heroic champion of Third World peoples against the capitalist exploiters. Now it's Fidel the capitalist exploiters' King Pimp ... "Psssst, Meester Canadian? Pssst, Herr German? Psssst, Signorino Italiano? … You wan' my seester? ... first time for you, meester ... here's photo ... only 12 years old ... Nice, hunh?"

Havana recently topped Bangkok as "child-sex capital of the world." Consider the human tragedy, the desperation of poor people driven to such things in such numbers, and after 43 years of "liberation" and "national dignity."

18,000 riddled by firing squads. Half a million incarcerated. 50,000 drowned or ripped apart by sharks in the Florida Straits. Thousands more slaughtered in Africa for Moscow. Two million exiled. And we wind up with a nation that in 1959 had a higher living standard than Belgium or Italy, had a lower infant mortality rate than France, had net immigration, as child prostitution capital of the world.

Friends, are you beginning to understand why we get a trifle "emotional" or "unreasonable" when we hear some imbecile professor or boneheaded politician yapping about "the good things" Castro has done for Cuba?

Imagine chumming it up with people like Daniel Pearl's murderers. U.S. citizens are doing it daily nowadays – on every "fact finding" junket and "trade delegation" to Havana. Thousands more will stand in line for the privilege at the U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition at Havana's Palacio de las Convenciones Sept. 26-30. "As many as 20,000 visitors are expected," reports the Miami Herald. Quite a hoedown.

These folks, especially those who coo and gurgle at Cuba's "literacy rate," will likely hobnob with some charming people. As a special treat, they might meet Cuba's current "minister of education," Fernando Vecino Alegret. This gentleman has an interesting background. Most probably the Communist tour guides, smiling and eager to make your stay as pleasant as possible, will neglect to mention it.

But the book "Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia 1961-1973" does – and in some pretty explicit detail, I'm afraid. So I'll pass it along.

The authors describe Hanoi's "Cuba Project" at the Cu Loc POW camp known as "The Zoo" on the southwestern edge of Hanoi. In brief, this "Cuba Project " was a Joseph Mengelese experiment by Hanoi's Castroite allies to determine how much physical and psychological agony a human can endure before cracking.

Yes, of course, the torture and humiliation of defenseless men. Now HERE was something the Castroites could REALLY show the North Vietnamese. Uncle Ho's finest never asked their Cuban friends for any advice on combat. They knew better. But torture of the helpless? By all means! Come show us how it's done, Senores Helluva guys!

For their experiment the Cubans chose 2O U.S. POWs – mostly Navy flyers, the toughest of the tough – as guinea pigs. (I don't recall PETA protesting, either.)

Unlike Pearl's murderers, the Communists had no reason to publicize their tortures. So there's no film of Lt. Col. Earl Cobeil's murder. It would have been a much longer film.

His death came slowly, in agonizing stages, as he held his ground against his Castroite torturers, as he refused to budge, as he glared in defiance at the Cuban Communist they nicknamed "Fidel," the man a 1999 Miami Herald article and congressional hearings have identified with great probability as Fernando Vecino Alegret, Cuba's current minister of education.

"I could hear the thud of the belt falling on Earl Cobeil's body again and again," recalled fellow POW Col. Jack Bomar. "I wanted to throw up. I didn't think any human could endure such a thing, his buttocks, lower back and legs hung in shreds, as Fidel screamed "you son of a beech! You weel kneel down before me! ...You WEEEEL KNEEL DOWN before me!"

Twenty U.S. POWs were tortured horribly. One died. That's always been a hang-up with Castro's people – that kneeling bit (recall his ravings in Teheran), not just murdering Americans, but humiliating them in the process.

"Kneel and beg for your life!" They taunted the bound and helpless William Morgan as he glowered at Castro's firing squad in 1961. Not one of these Reds (especially Che "the Lionhearted" Guevara himself, who had shared a battlefront with Morgan against Batista) dared talk to Willie that way when he had his hands free – even one hand.

But now they were all snarling tigers, just as they'd been while taunting him through the bars of his prison cell. "I kneel for no man!" Morgan snarled back.

"Very well, Meester Weel-yam Morgan." His executioners were aiming low, on purpose – FUEGO!"

The first volley shattered Willie's knees. He collapsed snarling and writhing. "See, Meester Morgan?" giggled the same people now celebrating the Fourth of July and backslapping with U.S. trade delegations. "We made you kneel, didn't we."

Four more bullets slammed into Morgan, all very carefully aimed to miss vitals. POW! They slammed into his shoulders. POW! They slammed into his legs. They took their sweet time. Long minutes passed. Finally one of Helluva guy's executioners walked up and – BL-A-A-A-M! – emptied a Tommy gun clip into Willie's back.

Howard Anderson fared no better. "Death to the American!" screamed his Communist prosecutor at his farce of a trial on April 17, 1961. "The prosecutor was a madman!" says a Swiss diplomat who witnessed the trial, "leaping on tables, shrieking, pointing, as Mr. Anderson simply glared back."

Howard Anderson was a U.S. citizen but a resident of Cuba since WWII, when the Navy stationed him there. In April of 1961 Helluva guy's goons dragged him from his home in a dawn raid. They had quite a catch here.

Anderson was a successful businessman owning a chain of service stations and a Jeep dealership. He was a happy family man with four children. He was president of the American Legion's Havana Chapter. He was beloved in the Cuban community. Howard Anderson embodied in his athletic 6' 2" frame everything the Castroites most hated and resented (and envied.)

Enduring horrible tortures, this noble man refused to rat-out his Cuban freedom-fighter brothers. Two days after his "trial," his turn came. They say he whistled on his way to the stake and refused a blindfold – to glare at his executioners. "FUEGO!!"

They dumped Howard Anderson in a mass grave. His wife had to sneak over to place a cross over it, lest Helluva guy's police catch her in the act.

Howard Anderson's family recently sued Helluva guy in U.S. federal court for wrongful death. Let's pray that they win.

When Doug McArthur waded ashore on Leyte he grabbed a radio: "People of the Phillippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil – soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples."

After the volley at La Cabana's blood-spattered wall, Howard Anderson's blood soaked into the same bricks as that of Rogelia Gonzalez, Virgilio Companeria and Alberto Tapia, students and members of Catholic Action, none over 21 years old. They refused blindfolds too, and perished yelling, "Long Live Christ the King!"

Cuba was on fire that year, from tip to tip. Helluva guy's firing squads were working overtime. At one point, one of every 17 Cubans was a political prisoner. Over in the Escambray mountain range Helluva guy's police and militia resorted to less formal methods of execution.

Mass murder was the order in Cuba's hill country. It was the only way to decimate so many rebels. These country folk went after the Reds with a ferocity that saw Fidel, Che and Raul running to their Soviet sugar daddies and tugging their pants in panic. Think "Braveheart" with Spanish subtitles. Think "The Patriot" with a backdrop of palm trees. Think Kulaks with guns. It took almost 100,000 Castro troops and Soviet advisers to finally defeat these heroes – WAIT ... did I say "defeat"?

No more than the Brigadistas who went down in a blaze of glory at Playa Giron. To say such men were "defeated" is surely to pervert the word. Betrayed? Perhaps. Abandoned? Surely. Overwhelmed and crushed by sheer number? Certainly.

You'd swear that Churchill had known them when he came up with his famous phrase "bloodied but unbowed."

Helluva guy's firing squad taunted guajiro (Cuban for redneck) Carlos Machado in Las Villas during the rebellion. "Are you going to crack?" they giggled while tying his hands.

Carlos was 15 years old. He died in the same volley alongside his twin brother and father.

For me, "family night" means a few bucks off at some restaurant. In the Escambrays it meant half your family murdered by Helluva guy's firing squads in one crack. The Milian family lost 12 men in the freedom fight. Think the Sullivans of WWII, but triple the heartache.

Don't look for this on any CNN "special report," friends. But it's all in Enrique Encinosa's "Cuba En Guerra" (sadly, available only in Spanish). On page after page you'll encounter a roll call of courage, honor and glory. Friends, are you beginning to understand why we get a little "worked up" when we see so many people toasting and backslapping with this cowardly butcher?

Well, I guess there's no point in Helluva guy making Americans kneel anymore. Not when he's tantalizingly close to getting his hands on our tax money (Ex-Im Bank).

And oh ... Ted? Are you out there? You know, they've come out with some new software nowadays. It translates Spanish to English. That Havana Bureau of yours must be expensive and we've got a recession looming, I hear.

Your people are great transcribers and translators. But they can do that in Atlanta, Ted. Just ask Castro's propaganda ministry to e-mail you its documents. This software translates them in a jiffy. Think of the savings!

You might want to leave a skeleton crew down in Cuba. I'm sure Helluva guy can find other step-'n'-fetch jobs for y'all. He always has his eye out for good help. And lately he must be saying to himself, "Sure getting hard to get good hired help these days!"

But you've never let him down before, Ted. He's a big-time duck hunter, as you know. Maybe your people can retrieve his ducks. "Go get 'em, boy! ... There! ... That's it! ... Good boy! Gooooood bo-oy!"

Your people will still get that affectionate little pat on the head from Helluva guy. They can still squat in front of him and wiggle their tails in joy and pride at a job well done.

Humberto Fontova holds an M.A. in history from Tulane University. He's the author of "Helldiver's Rodeo," described as "Highly entertaining!" by Publisher's Weekly, "A must-read!" by Booklist, and "Just what the doctor ordered!" by Ted Nugent.

Should the World Maintain Sanctions Against the Castro Regime?

By John Suarez

The Cuban Exile continues to support sanctions against the Castro regime, and advocates for its expansion and its entrenchment. Our support of sanctions rests on several pillars: distrust of United States and its Corporate interests, opposition to rewarding a tyrant, the Canadian example, and having some form of leverage against the Castro regime.

Our distrust of the United States government is based in its treatment of other totalitarian despots. During the Bush Administration, Brent Scrowcroft showed the US government's response to the massacre in Beijing in June of 1989 by toasting champagne to those who had butchered students demonstrating for democracy. President Clinton, a candidate at the time, denounced this immoral policy.

Upon becoming President, he has detached human rights and commercial dealings with China completely. Human rights have been placed on the backburner. According to Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch, "the Clinton Administration simply collapsed, Chinese officials were given every reason to conclude that for the rest of the world, access to Chinese markets far outweigh concern for the rights of Chinese citizens."

Recently President Bill Clinton invited the Chinese General, who issued the order for the 1989 Tiennanmen Massacre, to tour the US Capitol and receive the honors due a foreign dignitary. One of the members of the general's entourage had just this past year threatened Los Angeles with nuclear annihilation. We cannot have trust in the "principled leadership" of such a government.

When Fidel Castro visited the United Nations he was dined and entertained by America's corporate elite. In addition these business leaders were eager to discuss trade opportunities with Mr. Castro. For example, Wayne Andreas, the chairman of Archer Daniels Midland, said, " I talked to him most of the time about business. He seems to know what he's doing, I'd say. It was like talking to the president of AT&T." Castro was literally embraced by one of the Rockerfellers. These businessmen would exploit Cuban labor, and plunder Cuba's natural resources along with the Canadians, Europeans, and Mexicans who currently in collaboration with the Castro regime pay their workers about $10 a month.

The United States has a history of rewarding Latin American dictators ranging from Castro's predecessor Fulgencio Batista, to Manuel Noriega in Panama. Fulgencio Batista controlled Cuba and was able to terminate the Platt Amendment which had long outraged Cubans as an assault on their sovereignty. This gave Batista a huge propaganda victory which the US never offered Cuba's authentic democratic governments. In Panama, President Carter handed the Panama Canal over to a Military dictator, thus offering a huge propaganda victory which had been denied the previous democratic governments. Now some Americans want to reward yet another tyrant with the lifting of sanctions and the return of the Guantanamo military base to the Castro regime.

Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba with an iron fist for over 37 years. Cuba presently has a penal population totaling 289,000 men, women and children in 241 prisons and concentration camps distributed throughout the island. As far as we can tell, 54,000 people have died for political reasons in Cuba--among them 12,486 executed by firing squads--in the last 37 years. 39,200 women are incarcerated in 27 prisons. 56,500 minors have been confined in 73 prisons. During the last four years, Cuba has been condemned by the Human Rights Commission of the UN. This organization even named a special investigator, ambassador Carl Johan Groth, whom the Cuban government has never permitted to enter the island.

Occasionally an outsider can look beyond the smoke and mirrors and see the Castro regime in action:

In the summer of 1993 Cuban marine patrols, determined to stop refugees from reaching the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, were repeatedly tossing grenades and shooting at fleeing swimmers and recovering some of the bodies with gaff hooks. At least three Cubans had been killed as Cuban patrol boats attacked swimmers within sight of U.S. Navy personnel at Guantanamo. The killings are the latest sign that Cuba is resorting to violent means to stop a torrent of desperate people from fleeing the impoverished island. "This is the most savage kind of behavior I've ever heard of," said Robert Gelbard, deputy assistant secretary of state for Latin America. The United States has no previous record of such activity in Cuba, he added, calling the practice "even worse than what happened at the Berlin Wall."

On July 13, 1994 the Cuban government massacred their own civilians. Seventy-two people were on board and set out for the United States when the tug was surrounded and hit by four newer and bigger Cuban tugboats. The 13 de Marzo sank seven miles north of the Cuban coast and 41 people drowned, 10 of them children. Survivors say the four boats ambushed them as they left Havana Harbor, used their powerful fire fighting water cannon to force most of the escapees inside the tug's hold and then rammed it repeatedly until it sank. ``Evidence clearly shows the sinking of the tugboat 13 de Marzo was not an accident but a premeditated and intentional act,'' said a report by the OAS' Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.

On February 24, 1996 the Cuban government purposely shot down two civilian planes over international waters. The planes were conducting a search for Cuban rafters to supply them with water, supplies, and contacting the Coast Guard to rescue them. Four young men died that Saturday afternoon at 3:20pm as Cuban MiGs shot down these aircraft on a humanitarian mission. At the same time in Cuba, the Cuban government continued its crackdown on dissidents seeking to meet together peacefully, and discuss a non-violent transition to democracy and the rule of law.

Finally, when Cuban exiles sought to send humanitarian aide to victims of Hurricane Lili, the Cuban government refused it for political reasons. After Lili pounded Cuba more than 30 tons of aid was collected and flown to the island. It was then held up by the Cuban government. Finally, the Cuban government said it would return one-fourth of the aid, stating that the boxes were marked with ``counter-revolutionary propaganda.'' The words ``Exile'' and ``For Cuba, love conquers all'' were written on some of the boxes.

Canada's record in Cuba is one of exploiting Cuban workers and polluting Cuba's environment while plundering it. At Moa Bay, in Eastern Cuba, Canada's Sheritt Mining Company runs a nickel mine and smelter. Buildings in the area are beginning to show a reddish tint, the result of emissions from the smelter. Cuban mothers warn their kids to keep their shirts on to avoid skin rashes, and untreated discharges into the bay have killed much of marine life.

Sheritt has no labor troubles in Cuba. Sheritt - and other foreign capitalists-don't pick their workers. That is a service provided by the government. Sherritt pays Castro $9,500 a year per worker, and Castro pays the workers the equivalent of $10 a month. None of this is new. It's how the old imperial powers dealt with natives of Latin America and Africa. They concentrate instead on extractive industries such as nickel and petroleum exploration, providing services for foreign tourists, and export-oriented industries that net hard currency for the Castro regime and little for the Cuban people.

The Cuban government has focused all its propaganda efforts and assets on lifting sanctions. They'd like to offer the American business class the same opportunities to exploit and pillage the Cuban people that the Canadians have. Fidel Castro wants hard currency to finance his state security apparatus, and maintain himself in power. Cuban exiles want to see democratic reforms, an amnesty for all political prisoners, and the return of the rule of law to Cuba. In addition, to the Cuban exiles a number of internal opposition groups have supported supported sanctions comparing it with the embargo against South Africa, and as a necessary feature to a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba.

The Castro regime has passed Law 88 which threatens them with 20 years in prison for expressing such opinions. The question is not " Should sanctions be maintained on the Castro regime," but "Why hasn't the rest of the world placed sanctions on this despotic and murderous regime?"

CASTRO'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN IN CUBA
La Nueva Cuba
9/9/2002
Dan Christensen

CASTRO'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN IN CUBA

By "Dan Christensen" Colaboración: Paul Echaniz E.U. La Nueva Cuba Septiembre 9, 2002

It is no secret that Cuba has been in bed with Iraq and other hostile Muslim states for more than 30 years. In the past, this relationship was overlooked. After September 11, nothing is ignored, and everything is scrutinized and analyzed. How did Cuba's love affair with Iraq begin? It probably began as a feature of the general strategy of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to gain recognition and stature among the satellites and third-world clients of the Soviet Union. A "bad boy" posture would have carried little political risk and set Cuba above the pack as an active supporter of Soviet foreign adventures. While it is not easy to pin down distinct elements of Cuban strategy at that time, it is not difficult to identify a major implementer: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambra.

Who is this man? Alvarez Cambra began his international career in early 1965 at age 30 as a medical doctor in the small Cuban guerrilla army formed by Che Guevara in an attempt to make a second Cuba out of Congo. This young Cuban doctor was virtually unknown in his country. The son of a Spanish immigrant raised in a middle-class Havana family. Alvarez Cambra was born in 1935 and his father died when Rodrigo was still a child.

Although he graduated from the Havana University medical school, he was not a public figure until he surfaced in Congo Brazzaville in one of Che Guevara ' guerrilla bands. This Congo trip started his career in international activities, and provided at the same time an introduction to French language and culture. While there, he met his future wife, Cristina Hauville, a young French woman living with her family in Brazzaville.

By 1968, the young doctor was in Paris doing graduate work in medicine. While in France, he learned the language, became familiar with French culture and began a second career as a Cuban intelligence agent. The myth of Che Guevara was starting to grow in those days. The French student revolt was underway, and the political parties of the left saw the Cuban Revolution as a role model and an icon to be venerated. A few years later, Carlos Ilich Ramirez Sánchez, nicknamed the Jackal, began to terrorize Europe. It is not known with clarity whether Alvarez Cambra and Carlos knew each other. Some observers believe that it is almost impossible that they missed each other. Both men had many things in common and worked in the same Paris environment, and for the same country: Cuba.

However, unlike his late leader, Che, Alvarez Cambra did not give up his medical career. In Paris he continued to improve his skills as an orthopedic surgeon. He did, however, become involved in Arab politics. Maybe by chance, and a natural attraction to adventure, rather than by design or orders from his Cuban intelligence superiors. As he became more proficient in the French language he turned more of his attention to the Arab culture.

In 1978, we find him in Havana as an established and well-known surgeon and well-enough placed in Cuban government ranks that he received a visit of dignitaries from Iraq. A very credible witness we interviewed reported that Saddam Hussein was among the visitors to the house of Dr. Alvarez Cambra. I recall that Havana was hosting an international youth festival at the time and taking great pains to honor numerous foreign delegations. Saddam was then Vice President of his country, but was not noted among the dignitaries from Iraq. Saddam reportedly had a problem with one leg from a wound suffered years before.

Knowing that the Cuban press had not reported a visit by Saddam to Havana, I repeated the question to this exceptional witness. The answer was an unequivocal "yes," it was Saddam Hussein. This is the first time I have heard of his quiet trip to Cuba. Two years later, Hussein took complete power in Iraq. And Dr. Alvarez Cambra later visited him there. Apparently, this visit was medical rather than political. Dr. Alvarez Cambra operated on Hussein and fixed his leg problem.

The visits of the Cuban doctor to the Iraqi leader continued over the years. Castro and Hussein used Dr. Alvarez Cambra as their personal emissary. Exchanges of presents took place between the dictators. Castro sent to Hussein a Cuban parrot, cigars and a rare specimen of a banana tree developed in Cuba. Among the flow of gifts, Saddam made presents to Castro and his doctor of black Mercedes sedans, expensive rugs and money. Dr. Alvarez Cambra obtained Iraqi international help to Cuba. It is not known what kind of personal messages are going via Dr. Alvarez Cambra between the two leaders.

However, US intelligence sources have seen the Cuban Intelligence Service (DI) as a provider of intelligence to the Iraqi government. Is Hussein involved in the last terrorists attacks against the US? Is it Cuba also involved? Up to now nobody can answer this question with concrete evidence. Maybe, the answer is buried inside the most secret files of the intelligence services of the world. My sources up to now are not providing concrete evidence one way or the other. Cuba is known to have advanced very much in the development of chemical and biological agents. It is known also that Cuba has strong ties with Iran and Iraq in this field, but it is difficult to establish with certainty that a terrorist connection exists among these nations.

However, there is not doubt that Dr. Alvarez Cambra should be in a position to know some answers. This Cuban physician is emerging as a fascinating figure in the present world crisis. He knows well the Arab radical world. He personally knows Castro, Hussein, Muamar Kaddafi, other heads of state and principal figures of the Islamic world.

Not too much is known about the private dealings of Dr. Alvarez Cambra. However, there is abundant data of his intellectual and professional achievements. There is no question about his dedication, knowledge and prestige in the medical field. His professional success and love for his career has enabled him to invest part of his private fortune in the hospital he directs in Havana. He has invented and patented orthopedic devices which can be acquired in the US.

In the spring of 2001, he visited the United States to attend medical meetings. He maintains personal and business contacts with medical and other colleagues in the US and France - where his former wife Cristina has lived since 1994. He is a frequent traveler, and lives a quiet and intensely- dedicated professional life in Havana. In addition to his medical practice and teaching duties at the university, he reportedly spends many nights reading the latest medical literature. It is said that he has an extensive collection of works by Wilfredo Lam, the famous and internationally admired Cuban painter - and a former patient.

This modern medical, diplomatic and intelligence figure personifies a bona-fide story of success in many fields. When the real history of the present international drama is written, it will be interesting to see where Dr. Alvarez Cambra will fit in. If one were writing novels, he could easily appear as a central figure in many interesting plots.

Should American Taxpayers Subsidize Fidel Castro?
by Frank Calzon

Executive Summary

At the end of July, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on two amendments, each approved by 95 vote margins, to end restrictions on travel and lift restrictions on financing exports to Cuba. The Senate will consider the legislation soon.

While the White House has threatened to veto any legislation that would “bolster the Cuban dictatorship,” the anti-Embargo lobby argues that US tourism will benefit Cubans without strengthening Castro, and that trade with Havana will mean substantial American profits. These arguments are misguided at best and disingenuous at worst.

Fidel Castro is broke, and at issue is not trade, but extending American export credit and export insurance to his regime, both of which are funded by American taxpayers. Since last year, American companies are allowed to ‘trade’ with Castro’s government on a cash and carry basis. But when Castro defaults on his purchases, under the proposed policy American taxpayers will have the burden of picking up his tab.

Agriculture Subsidies

Nine American presidents, from both political parties have supported restrictions on travel to Cuba. And while the anti-Embargo lobby and many editorial pages across the nation try to explain away this long-lasting U.S. policy in terms of domestic political considerations (i.e., the Cuban American vote), the facts prove otherwise.

In a July 11th letter to the House Committee on Appropriations, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill said that: “Trade by other nations with Cuba has brought no change to Cuba’s despotic practices, and it has frequently proved to be an unprofitable enterprise.”

Unprofitable, indeed. France, Spain, Italy and Venezuela have suspended official credits to Castro’s Cuba -- not because of the Cuban communities in those nations -- but because Cuba has failed to make payments on its debt, including debt incurred on agricultural purchases. Powell and O’Neill wrote that, “two governments have approached the U.S. to complain that Cuba’s payments of cash for U.S. agricultural products have meant that they are not getting paid at all.”

Reuters reported on July 8, 2002 that, “Direct foreign investment in Cuba plummeted to $38.9 million in 2001 from $488 million the year before.” And earlier in the year, despite Castro’s tantrum, Russia closed its spy facility near Havana, thus denying his government $200 million per year in rent payments.

Castro’s current creditors are far from happy with these circumstances, as many have not received payment on interest or principal credit since 1986. Without even counting Castro’s debt to Russia, which he will not pay because he declares his debt as to a country that “no longer exists,” Havana owes billions of dollars to western banks and former socialist countries.

The situation in Cuba is thus much more a problem of policy than politics. President Bush announced his “U.S. Initiative for a New Cuba” on May 20, 2002, and declared that, “Cuban purchases of U.S. agricultural goods ... would be a foreign aid program in disguise.” And who pays for aid to foreign governments, but the American taxpayers who will eventually foot the tab for the defaults on his debts.

If this is not enough evidence, those lobbying for American credits and imminent subsidies should ask the Canadians for their advice. On August 7, 2002, the Montreal Gazette reported that, “Lilac Islands, a 15,000 ton Cuban-owned ship, has been held in the port of Conakry, the Guinean capital, for the past month while an Ontario company, armed with legal judgements, pursues Cuba for more than $3 million U.S. Last week, Guinea’s Court of Appeals upheld the continuance of the steel-laden ship’s detention-pending the payment of more than $275,000 in debt to Adecon Ship Management of Mississauga. Adacon claims the total debt on several judgements exceeds $3 million.” Imagine U.S. companies chasing down Cuban cargo ships in international waters to collect payment, while American taxpayers sit on the sidelines knowing that they’ll pick up the bill when the debtor doesn’t pay.

Trade with Cuba does not represent trade with Cuban business owners, entrepreneurs or consumers; Trade with Cuba is trade with the Castro government itself, which monopolizes virtually all enterprises and exploits Cuban workers as their sole employer. Said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security advisor, “In Cuba, Fidel Castro is still the one man through whom everything has to go. Any trade that goes through Cuba is going to strengthen Cuba’s regime.”

Regime Supporting Terror

While the anti-Embargo lobby insists on the right of American tourists to travel to Cuba, they ignore other rights and national security considerations. Each right must be weighted against its impact on other rights. As John Stuart Mill once said, “one man’s right to swing his arm ends where my nose begins.” And in the case of Cuba, the desire to travel must be weighed against the risks inherent in subsidizing a regime that poses a national security threat to the United States.

Consider: In their July 11th letter to the Appropriations Committee, Secretary Powell and Secretary O’Neill said that, “A relationship of continuing hostility exists between Cuba and the United States;” that “Cuba has long been listed by the State Department as a state-sponsor of terrorism;” and that, “[Cuba] continues to harbor fugitives from the American justice system, and it supports international terrorist organizations.” Castro has provided a safe haven for more than 70 fugitives from U.S. justice, including several accused of killing American police officers.

Due to the end of Soviet subsidies and his disastrous economic policies, Castro is bankrupt. His lack of cash restricts his ability to engage or support anti-American actions around the world.

But his anti-American commitment remains. On May 10, 2001, Agence France Presse quoted Castro’s speech at the University of Tehran, where he stated: “Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees.”

What, specifically, does Castro have in mind? In a May 6th speech, John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, warned Americans that “Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort ... [and] has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states.” Few are demanding that the administration produce a “smoking gun” to prove its assessment of the threat posed by Iraq, Iran, or North Korea, but the evidence is surely in on Castro, who needs American tourism to make up for Soviet money lost, so he can once again pursue a more active anti-American role in the world.

What Opening the Travel Ban Will Do

Some say that the opening of U.S. tourism to Cuba will bring the two cultures together, but the reality is far different. Currently, Castro sets aside hotels, beaches, stores, restaurants, and even hospitals for foreigners, and prohibits his own people from staying in those hotels and patronizing those facilities. U.S. tourism under current conditions would freeze in place Castro’s tourist apartheid, and likely exacerbate it. People-to-people contact under Castro’s regime is far from likely.

But contact between cultures of a different, and often nefarious, kind is much more likely. A March 2002 report released by Johns Hopkins University says that Cuba is “increasingly reported to be a major destination for sex tourists from North America and Europe. The increase is attributed to a concurrent drop in political restrictions on travel to Cuba and a crackdown on sex tourism in Southeast Asia, causing sex tourists to seek out alternative destinations. According to general news reports, Cuba is one of many countries that have replaced Southeast Asia as a destination for pedophiles and sex tourists ... Canadian sex tourism is also cited as largely responsible for the revival of Havana brothels and child prostitution.”

Conclusion

In their same May letter to the House Appropriations Committee, shortly before the body passed two amendments ending restrictions on travel and financing exports to Cuba, Secretaries Powell and O’Neill stated that, “Current economic circumstances in Cuba do not support changing our position on trade with Cuba. Moreover, the lack of a sound economic rationale makes it more likely that Castro would use any liberalizing of our trade position for his political benefit.”

Providing trade benefits to America’s enemies, especially those on the State Department’s list of terrorist nations, makes as much sense as selling U.S. scrap metal to Japan in the 1930s -- some of which was used to build up the Japanese military and, later, attack Pearl Harbor.

But apart from security policy, one of the greatest advantages of the U.S. embargo on Cuba is that it has saved U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars in unappropriated export insurance and subsidies. American banks aren’t among the consortium of creditors, like those in France, Spain and Canada, who have been waiting for years to be paid what they are owed.

Fidel Castro is broke. He can’t pay his debts, and several of his most important trading partners have suspended credits and export insurance. Yet, like the second to last scene in a bad Hollywood western, some are out trying to muster a cavalry to save his regime. This time, it is a cavalry of American tourists and special interests whose objectives will only strengthen the Western Hemisphere’s most enduring dictatorship.

Capital markets lie only when con artists run the show. And forcing American taxpayers to subsidize Cuba, which has seen a 92% decrease in foreign investment (from $488 million in 2000 to $39 million in 2001) is a leap from a precipice trumping Enron and Worldcom combined. A policy of moving exports from a cash-and-carry basis to credit extensions is like sentencing taxpayers to investing in Enron or WorldCom right before those stocks plummeted. American taxpayers did not have to bail out those companies. And they should not be forced to bail out the head of an openly hostile government, especially when his default is more a question of “when” than “if.”

If you are interested in contacting your senator or representative on this important issue, please write to:

Your Senator
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510 Your Representative
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

You can also call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121, and ask for your senator or representative by name.

Frank Calzon is executive director of Center for a Free Cuba.

DO NOT FORGET CASTRO'S TERROR NETWORK

Center for the Study of a National Option
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2001

Rafael Artigas and Ana Carbonell provided research support for this article.

It was not hard to guess what common foe brought the Supreme Leader and the Comandante together for their summit meeting in Tehran in May. The statements made by Fidel Castro during his visit to Iran are chilling when read in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

According to news reports, during the visit Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei "assured Castro that Iran and Cuba can defeat the U.S. hand in hand,” to which Castro agreed, adding that America was "extremely weak today,” and that "we are today eyewitness to their weakness, as their close neighbors.”

At Tehran University he stated to the thunderous applause of students and faculty, "The imperialist king will finally fall,” (AFP, May 10, 2001). Immediately afterward the Iranian Press Service proudly proclaimed that "Iran and Cuba reached the conclusion that together they can tear down the United States.” (IPS, May 10, 2001)

Some have argued that Cuba’s well-documented sponsorship and instigation of international terrorism is a thing of the past, to be understood in light of the Cold War context.

However, irrefutable evidence indicates that to this day:
The Castro dictatorship continues to actively harbor international terrorists,
The Castro dictatorship continues to pursue a strategic alliance with terrorist states so as to create an ‘anti-Western’ international front, and
The Castro dictatorship has engaged directly in terrorist attacks and espionage against Americans. As recently as July 1999 Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban government official said to have exceptional information about the Cuban government, wrote: "For U.S. interests, the closeness of the [Cuban] relationship with Iraq and some of the more militant terrorist groups in the Middle East is troublesome. Can Cuba be used to carry out terrorist acts against U.S. targets? Is there any cooperation between Sadam Hussein and Castro in the development of chemical and bacteriological weapons? What remains from the close cooperation between Castro and the more militant terrorist groups in the region?” (University of Miami Middle East Studies Institute, July 1999).

Evidence indicates that Cuba today continues to serve as a base for coordination and mutual support among transnational terrorist organizations. In August, Colombian authorities arrested three suspected IRA terrorists who were providing specialized training to the FARC terrorist organization. One of the men, Nial Connolly, had lived in Cuba since 1996 as the IRA’s representative. (The Times, Aug. 16, 2001; BBC News, Aug. 17, 2001)

It is believed that it was in Cuba where the IRA established contact with the FARC and ELN terrorist organizations. These two organizations, according to the State Department’s 2000 report on global terrorism, have "… maintained a permanent presence in the island.” It is further believed that the IRA men were training the Colombian rebels in the development of powerful anti-personnel explosives destined for the proposed FARC "urban offensive."

There is additional information that indicates that the Colombian territory under FARC control has become a haven for Terror International. Argentine journalist Julio Cirino, an expert on international terrorism, has written about the existence of a logistical support base "in a small city near the Colombian border with Venezuela,” where "Middle Eastern types” receive fake Colombian passports and move on to other unspecified destinations. In October 1998, Interpol arrested Egyptian extremist Mohamed Enid Abdel Aal, in Bogota, Colombia. Abdel Aal, a leader of one of the most dangerous of the Islamist terrorist organizations, told authorities under questioning that "he planned to stay in Colombia for a few days and then head to Venezuela over land.” (El Nuevo Herald, Sept. 16, 2001)

The Castro regime has not only continued to provide support for the vicious Basque terrorist organization ETA, known for its ghastly car bomb attacks on civilian targets, but it has also publicly attempted to scuttle diplomatic efforts to condemn it. In a 1995 raid by French police on ETA hideouts, computer files were found which clearly indicated that Cuban intelligence aided members of the group wanted for terror attacks in Spain. According to the files, Cuba’s Communist Party "considers its relations with ETA to be ‘fraternal, sustained, strategic and increasingly deep.’" (The Miami Herald, Dec. 27, 1997)

Cuban covert support for terrorism in Spain has been accompanied by attempts at diplomatic protection. Castro not only refused to join the other Ibero-American heads of state in condemning ETA terrorism at the 2000 Ibero-American summit, he also "slammed Mexico for its support of a statement against terrorism at the Ibero American Summit in Panama.” (The Miami Herald, Nov. 11, 2000).

The Cuban dictatorship’s continued relationship with bloody terror groups and the use of Cuban territory and diplomacy to protect them has long been a mainstay of Cuban foreign policy. As State Department reports indicate, Americans sought for crimes linked to 1960s radical groups have long received sanctuary in the island. What proves even more worrisome however, has been the recent effort by the Cuban regime to forge an "anti-Western" front with terrorist states in the Middle East.

'I Will Not Reconcile'
On Sept. 18, 2000 in an exclusive interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, Castro stated that "We are not ready for reconciliation with the United States, and I will not reconcile with the imperialist system.” He further added that his government had defended Cuba against "a Western cultural invasion,” echoing one of the key themes of fundamentalist Islamic groups in the region.

In May 2001 Castro undertook a round of visits to Syria, Libya and Iran. Speaking at Tehran University, he insisted that "people must be informed and awakened; they must not allow themselves to be pillaged by the West.” On July 26, 2001, Castro marked another anniversary of the beginning of his revolution by marching in Havana alongside the Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson, now a high-ranking Iranian official.

Biological War
The Iran-Cuba link has long worried intelligence and security analysts in the U.S. Soviet Colonel Ken Alibek, formerly second-in-command of the U.S.S.R.’s bacteriological arms development program, has long insisted that the Castro regime has such weapons at its disposal. In his book "Biohazard," Alibek quotes his former boss, Gen. Yuri T. Kalinin, as having told him that Cuba had an active bacteriological arms program.

Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen stated in May 1998: "Cuba’s current scientific facilities could support an offensive biological warfare program in at least the research and development stage.”

In October 2000, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and the Iranian vice minister of health inaugurated a biotechnological research and development plant outside Tehran. Experts expressed doubts about the supposed medical objectives of the installation, because Iran already produces 97 percent of the medicines its population consumes.

It is feasible to establish the links of the bin Laden network with the Iranian government and to identify its common interests with the Castro regime. Castro and bin Laden work hard to build a common front to bring down the United States and to develop biological weapons of mass destruction.

In its indictment of bin Laden, the Justice Department stated that the Al Qaeda terrorist organization under his command sought to "put aside its differences with Shiite Muslim terrorist organizations, including Iran and its affiliated terrorist group Hezbollah, to cooperate against the perceived common enemy, the United States and its allies.”

The indictment further alleges that Al Qaeda "also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hezballah.”

In February 1998 Osama bin Laden announced the creation of an "international front” against the United States. According to a document obtained by the PBS program "Frontline," bin Laden "regards an anti-American alliance with Iran and China as something to be considered.”

But there may be more to the Castro-bin Laden connection than the Iran link. In a March 4, 2000 story the Associated Press reported: "A young Afghan who trained this winter at a camp in mountainous Kunar province, in northeastern Afghanistan, said he saw men from Chechnya, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Cuba and North Korea. The North Korean, he said, had brought chemical weapons, which were stored in caves and in the dozens of sunbaked mud-and-stone houses.”

In an official statement Sunday, the government of Grand Cayman reported that in August 2000 it had arrested three Afghan nationals who had illegally entered the country from Cuba using fake Pakistani passports.

The New York Times reported in September 1998 that advisers provided then-President Bill Clinton with evidence that "bin Laden is looking to obtain weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons to use against U.S. installations.” Is it that far-fetched to see that the ideological affinity between Cuba and Al Qaeda and the allure of bin Laden’s money for Castro’s cash-strapped regime could easily result in the worst of scenarios?

As America prepares to build a global coalition for a definitive assault on international terrorism, it must come to grips with the fact that the enemy is a step ahead. Policy makers, legislators and analysts must not dismiss Cuba’s insistent efforts aimed precisely at building an anti-Western alliance, its continued support and encouragement for international terrorist organizations, or its latent capacity for biological warfare and its propensity to share it with other terrorist states directly linked to U.S. enemies.

Above all, Castro’s continued virulent rhetoric against the U.S. and the Western world in general must not be overlooked. It was not too long ago that Americans were the direct targets of Castroite terrorist attacks. On Feb. 24, 1996 two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft were shot out of the sky in plain daylight in international air space, murdering three US citizens and one resident. A group of Cuban spies in Florida were recently convicted of conspiring to murder U.S. citizens, seeking to penetrate US military installations, spying on members of the U.S. Congress and providing information on Miami International Airport.

Turning a blind eye to Castro on the eve of the "first war of the 21st century" would be tantamount to ignoring the Nazi and fascist alliance with Japan the day after Pearl Harbor. The enemy is 90 miles south of Key West. And he does not hide his hatred for us.

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