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]
Regalado said he was "born in the revolution" and knew nothing else. He said life was fine in Cuba until the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had economically propped up the island. By 1991, the economy declined so much he decided to leave. The Soviet Union's collapse showed him communism "wouldn't work," he said. "I decided to get out before it was too late." Even Castro's harshest critics stress that he's smart, and, in the opinion of many Cuban-Americans, he doesn't do anything unless he stands to gain something. For this reason, they say, Carter needs to treat him with suspicion.
"He needs to understand that if the embargo is to be ended, there has to be changes in political prisoners, in human rights and in open and free elections, which is basically what the U.S. government has said from Day One," said Cuban-American Joaquin "Jack" Coello, 57, a lawyer. Rafael Andino, 37, a Lawrenceville biomedical engineer who came to the United States when he was 3 years old, is pessimistic. "I think Carter will try to press for certain freedoms, but I don't think he'll be successful. [Castro] can't allow basic freedoms because it compromises his position," he said. "We wish Carter well, but we're not hopeful."***
"Castro believes Cuba deserves to be recognized," said Sandra Levinson, executive director of the New York-based Center for Cuban Studies. The center has arranged Cuban study tours for Americans since the early 1970s. "What he will get out of this visit is the satisfaction of having one U.S. president willing to look at the situation for himself," she said. "After 40 years, you may not like the government, but you acknowledge it." ***
No human rights in Castro's Cuba? Liberals could care less. Under Castro, citizens are deprived of the most basic conceptions of human liberty -- again, lefties don't give a lick. In Cuba's brutal island prison, one-party, one-man-rule prevails: Except for Castro's Communist "party", all political parties are outlawed. The same goes for unions. The liberal media calls Castro, deferentially, the "President" of Cuba -- an utter perversion of language so grotesque it boggles the mind. By what sick, warped, convolution of "logic" can Castro conceivably be referred to as such? Only a twisted media would dare sully the title by bestowing it to Castro, a ruthless killer, filthy crook, murderous tyrant.***
_________________________________________________________________
[More info on Friendship Force:]
We all know that credibility can make a good company great. In only its first year of business, TravelSmart has already established name recognition in the industry. First, Carnival Cruise Lines has gone on the record stating their belief that we will become the largest travel company in a few years, and maybe even less, and they have welcomed us to the industry with open arms.
Second, the Friendship Force is now affiliated with TravelSmart, andTravelSmart now offers the home stay vacation as one of our exclusive products.This Nobel Prize winning organization consists of a worldwide network ofTravelers who are 200,000 strong, 80,000 of which reside in the U.S.
TravelSmart's Chairman, Mr. Nabeel Esfahani, has recently been elected to the Board of Directors for the Friendship Force, and Dr. Wayne Smith who is the founder of Friendship Force also serves on the TravelSmart board of directors.
Some of the names that now endorse TravelSmart are Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter, KirkDouglas, Mohammed Ali, Eduard Shevardnadze, Andrew Young and Ted Turner. Talk about credibility!!!]
Luis Gonzalez.
While both men spoke of the desire to improve relations, Carter's visit comes at the latest in many moments of tension, following allegations last week by Undersecretary of State John Bolton that Cuba is seeking to develop biological weapons. Castro denounced those claims as "lies" in a speech Friday and challenged the United States to provide evidence. When Carter arrived, Castro promised him "complete access" to any Cuban biotechnology laboratory.
Carter is scheduled to visit a major laboratory Monday, the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology on the outskirts of Havana.***
Carter even plans a tour of Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a high-tech facility that produces vaccines for other countries. The Bush administration created a stir last week by accusing Cuba of sharing its dual-use biotech capability with "rouge" states that are looking to create plagues for biological warfare. That charge should put into perspective Castro's own warning to the United States during his swing through the Middle East last May. "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees," Castro said at the University of Tehran. "The U.S. regime is very weak and we are witnessing this weakness from close-up."***
One month after Chavez was removed from office and then quickly restored, dissent is rebuilding in this South American nation of 24 million people - but it is leaderless and disoriented. Most Venezuelans look upon the opposition parties with disdain, considering them corrupt and incapable of proposing a viable alternative to Chavez's self-described leftist "revolution." In desperation, the parties have pledged a unified strategy for toppling Chavez: convoke a national referendum to push him out.***
Noting the vast poverty of most of the world's people, Castro compared Western-style democracies to an Athens in which a minority unjustly dominates the majority and said Cuba was striving for "a society with justice" and equal opportunity. He said his country was seeking "that dream of justice, of true liberty, of true democracy, of true human rights."***
In fact, the government's uncertain response to Varela reflects the country's uncertainty as the Castro regime seems to be drawing to a close. The Cuban dictator is about 75 years old and is rumored not to be in the best health. Although the New Class nomenclatura plans to retain control under Castro's brother and heir apparent Raul Castro, visitors to the island sense widespread feeling of patient expectation, waiting for Castro's death, anticipating regime change soon after. If so, Oswaldo Payá, age 50, may become a very important figure indeed:
"I think Castro doesn't crush Varela because he doesn't see clearly the threat it poses," says Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner, who lives in exile in Madrid. "Meantime, Payá is becoming a sort of Vaclev Havel, a well-khown man of uncompromising moral fiber whom the outside world is watching carefully."***
Fortunately, Ronald Reagan, Bush's foreign and defense policy role model, repaired much of the damage with his peace through strength paradigm. But we are still paying, diplomatically and strategically, for Carter's failings. And his comments are that of a jealous has-been, envious that in six months President Bush has had more foreign policy backbone and success than Carter ever had in his four nightmarish years.
Thank G-d, Jimmy Carter was only a one-term president. Now, if only he could end his classless dissing campaign and shut up. Or stick to something he actually knows something about. Like peanuts.***
_______________________________________________________
May 14, 2002 - Shut up, Jimmy Carter*** Mr. Carter also criticizes U.S. sanctions against Cuba, whose dictator regards him as the friendliest of all U.S. presidents to have held office during his reign. This month Mr. Carter will be the highest-profile U.S. figure, the first president - former or sitting - to visit the prison island since its 1959 revolution. As such, will he speak up for democratic change while he tours Cuba's hospitals and schools on Mr. Castro's arm? Will he appeal to Mr. Castro to not kill the 11,000 dissidents as soon as Mr. Carter leaves, who last week presented a petition for reforms? Will he look in on Elian Gonzales?
More likely the trip will bolster the anti-embargo lobby here which, like Mr. Carter, insists that a policy of engagement is the best road to democratizing the island. Unlike the "simplistic" tactics of the current president, Mr. Carter's complex style as president was to lift restrictions on travel to Cuba and establish diplomatic missions. Which turned out to be almost as effective as the engagement tactics the Carter Center employed with Hamas and Yasser Arafat in 1996. Granted, the big success story of his more sophisticated approach to the presidency did concern the Middle East, when in 1978 he paid off Egypt to not attack Israel.
It must be because his own ideas have worked so well that Mr. Carter still feels entitled to an opinion, as well as to a role in international missions. And it must be because he's always had a soft spot for despots and terrorists - his recent op-ed refers to Palestinian bombers and Hamas not as terrorists, but as "misguided" - that he feels he can impose his politics on a mentally sound administration. Indeed, if Jimmy Carter is really worried about the state of the world, particularly carbon dioxide emissions, he should stop talking.***
Carter reveals democracy effort( Varela Project) *** Former President Jimmy Carter last night told Cubans for the first time of a fledgling democracy effort under way in their country, while Bush administration officials directly contradicted his assertion that he had asked about biological weapons in pre-trip briefings.***
Cohen's letter concludes by telling Thurmond that the Department of Defense "remains vigilant to the concerns posed by Castro's Cuba." Attached to the letter was the defense secretary's classified report, "The Cuba Threat to U.S. National Security." The report's publicly released summary read: "Cuba's biotechnology industry is one of the most advanced in emerging countries and would be capable of producing biological warfare agents."
Concurrent with Cohen's letter, the CIA released a much-overlooked 1998 report that warned of the dangers of a biological terrorist attack on the U.S. The report explained that such an assault, if launched by a country with sophisticated means, could go undetected and be erroneously attributed to natural causes. The report listed a little over a dozen smaller nations as suspected of possessing biological weapons. Included high on the list was Cuba.***
Here's a little jab at Bush:
Democracy is a framework that permits a people to accommodate changing times and correct past mistakes. Since our independence, the United States has rid itself of slavery, granted women the right to vote, ended almost a century of legal racial discrimination, and just this year reformed its election laws to correct problems we faced in Florida eighteen months ago.
In the Senate, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have led the charge for an easing of U.S. restrictions on trade and travel. The Cuba Policy Foundation, said spokesman Brian Alexander, "is a centrist organization that shares the U.S. goals of freedom and prosperity for the Cuban people. We just don't believe U.S. policy has served to advance those goals, and we do believe it has had a negative impact on the U.S. economy and does not prepare Cuba for a peaceful and stable transition" to a free society.*** [Mostly it's to help U.S. guaranteed loans to help subsidize trade with Castro and shore up his communist regime]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.