Posted on 04/14/2002 4:36:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
This is a LINK to articles since April 21, 2001 about Cuba and the communist threat - CHILDREN'S CODE At this LINK is a LINK to many Elian articles. Below I will post similar articles since the FR format changed and locked posts to this LINK. Please add what you wish to this thread.
Eyes Wide Open--[Excerpts] The Los Angeles kids, chosen for their photographic skills and their ability to work with others, represented the Venice Arts Mecca, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer artists together with youngsters from low-income families to nurture their creativity in areas ranging from literary arts to photography. They looked. They listened. They photographed. And they took notes for their journals.
.Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.
..Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.
..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.
In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said.
..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." [End Excerpts]
Dodd may be less interested in protecting democracy in Venezuela than in settling old scores with Reich. That seems out of character for the easy-going, politically ambitious Connecticut senator. But Dodd's longtime adviser on Latin American affairs, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer Janice O'Connell, has not forgiven Reich for his aggressive support for Nicaraguan Contras. She also sees the Cuban-born Reich as an obstacle to warm relations with Castro's Cuba. O'Connell impresses on State Department officials that she represents the permanent government whose word must be heeded by temporary presidential appointees. When Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage went to Capitol Hill to confer with Dodd last week, O'Connell was at the senator's side.****
Bolton, the State Department's top nonproliferation official, called on Cuba to cease transfers of biological weapons technology to "rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention." His remarks were prepared for delivery to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. Bolton said that despite Cuba's membership on the terrorism list, that nation's threat to American security has been underplayed.
"For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union," Bolton said. "This industry is one of the most advanced in Latin America, and leads in the production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines that are sold worldwide. Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the activities conducted in these biomedical facilities," he said. He noted an official U.S. government report in 1998 concluded that Cuba did not represent a significant military threat to the United States or the region.
Bolton said the Clinton administration may have overlooked Cuba as a potential threat because of the influence of what he called the country's aggressive intelligence operations in the United States. He said this included recruiting the Defense Intelligence Agency's senior Cuba analyst, Ana Belen Montes, to spy for Cuba. "Montes not only had a hand in drafting the 1998 Cuba report but also passed some of our most sensitive information about Cuba back to Havana," he said. Montes was arrested last fall and pleaded guilty to espionage on March 19. [End]
"The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort," Mr. Bolton said at the Heritage Foundation. "Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support [bioweapons] programs in those states." In a later interview, a senior administration official said Washington has gathered "broad and deep" evidence of Cuba's pursuit of such weapons but is "constrained" in what it can disclose publicly.***
They formed the "Group of Four" and in 1997 published the document that landed them in jail, "The Homeland is for All." Their statement criticized a draft document issued by the Communist Party before its national congress that year, saying it focused on the glories of the revolution but offered no pragmatic proposals to the nation's economic ills. The four were convicted behind closed doors in 1999. Bonne, Gomez and Roque received sentences ranging from 3 to four years, and were freed in early 2000.***
Further to the south in Latin America, Hezbollah and the terrorist Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are operating in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The suspected activities of these groups include counterfeiting U.S. currency and drug smuggling, with the area in which they function described as a "haven for Islamic extremists" by the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, in testimony before the House International Relations Committee. "The situation in the tri-border area [of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil] highlights the ease with which terrorist organizations can infiltrate and assimilate in other countries and go relatively undetected for an extended period of time," Hutchinson stated.
The linkage among various terrorist groups and nations associated with support of terrorism in Latin America combines considerable financial resources and technological expertise. In addition to the vast oil wealth of Iran, the South American terrorist network can rely upon South American drug money to finance its activities. Colombia alone produces 90 percent of the cocaine and "at least" 70 percent of the heroin sold in the U.S., according to estimates of the House International Relations Committee.***
*** Michael Powers, an analyst at the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute in Washington, said weapons experts usually have included Cuba on lists of countries with germ-warfare capability. But "it was never clear that they were using their biomedical infrastructure to produce agents or to try to turn them into weapons," Powers said. There is disagreement on how much proof exists that Cuba is developing a dangerous germ-weapons capability. Stephen Johnson, a specialist on Latin American affairs at Heritage Foundation, said some Cuban emigrants have pointed to dangers. He said Jose de la Fuenta, an emigre scientist who formerly worked at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, has reported that Cuba sold Iran technology to produce the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. The equipment could also be used to produce germ-warfare agents, he said. Johnson said U.S. officials' suspicions have been aroused by the fact that Cuba has spent millions on sophisticated biomedical gear, even though it often has shortages of basic medical products. Some analysts scoffed at the suggestion Cuba is trying to develop such weapons.
Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington research center on Latin American affairs, said there has been scant evidence that Cuba was developing such a program. "This is just nuts," he said. "If [Bolton] has any evidence . . . he ought to make it public. Otherwise it's just a smear tactic." Julia E. Sweig, deputy director for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based research center, speculated that the U.S. government had debriefed many Cuban exiles in search of information on the program but had come up with little. She said the remarks suggest the Bush administration, under pressure from anti-Castro Cuban Americans to support for their cause, is looking for a way to make its Cuba policy more distinctive from the Clinton administration's.***
His trial was a farce. It was closed to the public, but the courtroom was packed with state security agents. Chaviano was not allowed to see the evidence against him or to call witnesses in his own defense. His conviction was a foregone conclusion; his sentence was 15 years. That was eight years ago. Today he is locked in the maximum-security Combinado del Este prison; his wife is permitted to visit him once every two months. His health has deteriorated - he suffers from an ulcer and respiratory problems - but his ideals remain intact. ''His spirit is strong,'' his wife told me recently. ''He gives me strength.''***
Iran was branded by President Bush this year as part of an "axis of evil" bent on promoting terrorism. Some Cuban exile organizations in the United States have charged the Karaj complex is a front for biological weapons development. Cuba says the Iranian plant will produce vaccines, interferon, and other pharmaceuticals it has developed, for sale in Iran and to neighboring countries.***
Named for the Rev. Felix Varela, a Cuban independence hero, the petition drive differs greatly from Paya's first one, which simply called for a national dialogue between the government and its opponents. During that effort in 1991 Paya gathered signatures only in Havana, from his home. Although Paya's group first talked about Project Varela in 1996, it wasn't until the last year that volunteers begin collecting signatures in earnest.***
. "There is an advance in the sense that this issue is now on the agenda in Central America," says Miguel Angel Sandoval, a Guatemalan political analyst, who is part of the signature-collecting campaign. "People are saying that this can't go on. We are heading in the right direction."***
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"We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. And we fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach." President George W. Bush, March 22, 2002.
There was no immediate response from Castro's government to the move. Asked by reporters in April about the campaign, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he doubted it will succeed and he accused its organizers of being on the U.S. government payroll. Campaign coordinator Oswaldo Paya of the Christian Liberation Movement and two other men, identified as Antonio Villa Sanchez and Andres Regis Iglesias, entered the offices of the National Assembly shortly before 11 a.m. with two white boxes filled with the petitions. The words "Citizen Petition" could be seen on the side of the boxes.
Paya, who says the project has received no money from any government or group outside Cuba, has said state security agents have harassed the petition drive, particularly as the campaign was near its goal. He said agents had confiscated several thousand signatures, but volunteers had gone out and collected more. Carter, who arrives Sunday at Castro's invitation, plans to meet with Cuban activists to discuss human rights and religious matters next Thursday, his staff has said. A visit with the organizers of Project Varela is considered likely.***
"Already it is a success because over 10,000 Cuban citizens have risked their futures by signing a petition that calls for free speech ... private enterprise, release of political prisoners and an opening to democracy," Ms. Huddleston said. "Unfortunately the government has already begun to try to discredit the project by falsely claiming its organizers are paid by the U.S. government. This is untrue. Project Varela is a homegrown project born of frustration with the present and hope for the future." ***
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