[Cincinatus' Wife]

''This is as far as I go'' - Disgusted by executions, Castro ally cuts ties to Cuba*** In a bitter criticism of the executions carried out last week in Cuba, José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer considered Fidel Castro's best friend among European intellectuals, broke with the regime Monday. ''This is as far as I go,'' Saramago wrote in a short but powerful essay printed in Spain's leading newspaper, El País, as the European Union, various countries and organizations around the world continued to offer public repudiations.

Killing three men by firing squad at dawn Friday for trying to spirit a ferry boat is unacceptable -- especially since the would-be hijackers didn't hurt anybody, wrote Saramago, a communist. ``Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed me of illusions.''***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. ready in case of major exodus from Cuba *** Coast Guard cutters operating off South Florida's shores have picked up fewer Cuban migrants in the first three months of the year than Haitians and Dominicans combined. But the absence of large numbers of Cuban migrants headed for South Florida may be the calm before the storm. A wave of repression in Cuba in recent weeks has been so alarming that U.S. officials have begun to wonder whether Cuba may unleash a new Mariel-style exodus -- a typical Cuban response in times of crisis.

American officials are so worried that they have already quietly advised Cuba not to attempt any such action. But if a new exodus occurs, officials say they will activate a classified federal contingency plan designed to deal with migrant surges. Operation Distant Shore would trigger a dramatic escalation in the number of Coast Guard and other military vessels patrolling the Florida Straits -- a veritable floating wall designed to interdict as many migrants as possible at sea.

…………………. Greenhill, a research fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, said the circumstances of the current Cuban crisis should be monitored closely for signs of a possible new exodus. ''I would say that the situation bears close watching,'' he said. But he added that Castro might think twice before sanctioning a new exodus. ''I don't think it's impossible we could see another outflow,'' Greenhill said, ``but if I were Castro, I'd think long and hard about launching an engineered migration this time around, given the prevailing environment in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and Iraq. The world looks different today than it did in 1965, 1980 and 1994.''***

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Here is a partial list of some of their "friends":

Socialism in America's Congress: A Primer (Vanity)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/895421/posts

[JoJo Gunn]

This article is bogus. "Intellectuals" don't actually exist, except in the shared fantasies of snobs in a regressive animal state.

[solzhenitsyn]

"The Cuban letter blamed 'the distance, the disinformation and the traumas of failed socialist experiences' on the recent criticism from people it has counted on for support."

"The traumas of failed socialist experiences ... ". What wonderful self-parody!

[Tom Bombadil]

the letter describes the ''surprise and pain'' felt when liberal intellectuals around the world criticized Cuba for its crackdown on dissidents and the executions of three ferry hijackers.

Castro must love them for this.