Cuba shared intelligence on the United States with Saddam Hussein's regime. The reports stated that Cuban intelligence, which is known to have extensive "coverage" of U.S. military bases, supplied information to Saddam's intelligence service on the movement of troops and other military activities. The intelligence ties
are believed to be an offshoot of Cuba's covert oil-purchasing arrangement with Iraq under Saddam. Those deals have been under way since the late 1990s and involve oil tankers that were sent to Mexico. The oil then was pumped from the tankers to smaller boats for delivery to Cuba. The intelligence sharing also comes
amid reports from Cuban exiles that Cuba became a safe haven for fleeing Iraqi government officials following the U.S.-led invasion. Asked about the Cuba-Iraq intelligence-sharing, a second U.S. official said the CIA had no information about it.***
Last March, the Cuban government convicted 75 independent Cuban journalists, librarians, and human-rights defenders on trumped-up charges and sentenced them to unjust prison sentences -- an average of 20 years each -- for attempting to exercise their fundamental, internationally protected rights.
Unfair detention
The United States condemns the continued unfair detention of these individuals and calls for their immediate release. As an added injustice, the Cuban government is systematically persecuting these individuals.
Christian Liberation Movement member José Daniel Ferrer García, who was sentenced to 25 years for his role in promoting the Varela Project, a grass-roots movement that supports a national referendum calling for democratic change, was sentenced to three months of solitary confinement as punishment for protesting prison guards' mistreatment of his wife.
Illness in prison
Martha Beatriz Roque, a 57-year-old independent economist, is serving a 20-year prison term for her efforts to organize nongovernmental organizations dedicated to civic freedoms and entered prison with numerous health problems.
Independent economist and journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who is 62, remains in very poor health and suffers from severe liver disease and other ailments. He is serving a 20-year prison term for reporting news about the Cuban economy and social issues.
Neither Roque nor Espinosa Chepe have received adequate treatment for their illnesses, and their conditions are deteriorating.
Such deprivation and flagrant abuse of human rights have not been limited to the group of 75.
In February, human-rights activist Leonardo Bruzón Avila, who is in poor health due to repeated hunger strikes, will complete two years in prison without a trial.
No trial
In March, blind pro-democracy activist Juan Carlos González Leyva will also complete two years in prison without a trial. González was jailed for protesting the police beating of an independent journalist.
Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, who has worked tirelessly to express his commitment to the use of nonviolence to achieve change, was arrested in December 2002 for attempting to teach others about international human-rights practices.
We also should not forget long-suffering political prisoners like Francisco Chaviano, an advocate of peaceful democratic reforms, who was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in prison for revealing that a member of his organization was, in fact, a government agent.
Defying tyranny
We express our admiration for all Cuban political prisoners and our solidarity with their families. The United States salutes their courage in standing up to tyranny while continuing to insist that Cuba must change, democratically and peacefully.***