Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 26
/ 27, 2005
Noam Chomsky
Nuclear
Terror at Home
February 25,
2005
Roger Burbach
Murder
in the Amazon
Behzad Yaghmaian
Iranian Distrust of America: 50 Years in the Making
Kurt Nimmo
Conclave of the Brats
Joshua Frank
Diagnosing the Green Party
John Farley
How to Stop the War in Iraq: Punish Pro-War Politicians
Lawrence Reichard
The D'Aubuisson Memorial: Flowers of Evil
Pratyush Chandra
The Royal Coup in Nepal and Global Imperialist Designs
David Smith-Ferri
When
the Battlefield has No Borders
Website of
the Day
The 2005 Election in 3-D
February 24,
2005
Omar Waraich
The
Galloway Saga: Smearing an Anti-War Politician
Brian Cloughley
Bribing and Twisting Amerian Journalists: Valerie Plame &
30 Pieces of Silver
Tom Wright
Torture Nation: Abu Ghraib, a Year Later
Sharon Smith
The Anti-War Movement After Kerry: Learning All the Wrong Lessons
Dave Lindorff
Do These Roosting Chickens Have Flu?
Fred Feldman
Lynching Ward Churchill
James Reiss
On Hearing About a Plot to Assassinate President Bush
Diane Christian
Bad
Blood: Ritual & Sexual Torture in Iraq
Website of
the Day
The Gray Line
February 23,
2005
Werther
The
Poisoned Well: What the CIA's Nazi Files Can Tell Us About Iraq
W. John Green
A Salvador Option for Iraq? How Negroponte Changes the Ground
Rules
James Petras
A New Face to Bush Foreign Policy?
Conn Hallinan
Cornering the Dragon: the Return of the China Lobby
Joe Pietri
Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs (For Consumers and
Cops)
Louis Proyect
Hunter Thompson and the "New" Journalism
Alexander Cockburn
Hunter
S. Thompson and Gonzo
Website of
the Day
Did You Make the Blacklist? Why Not?
February 22,
2005
Naseer Aruri
The
Politics of the Hariri Assassination: Remapping the Middle East
Richard Manning
The
Economy of Hunger: Starvation is Part of the Economic Plan
William A.
Cook
Righteous
Racism Running Rampant
Paul Craig Roberts
The Agents of Instability
Ken Krayeske
Dr. Thompson is Out
Dave Zirin
How the Owners Destroyed the NHL
Kirkpatrick
Sale
Imperial
Entropy: the Collapse of the American Empire
February 21,
2005
Hunter S. Thompson
"He
Was A Crook"
John Ross
Mexico:
the Pentagon's Proxy Army in Iraq
Ward Churchill
What Did I Really Say? Why Did
I Say It?
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military Recruiting on Channel One: Geometry 101, Brought to
You by the US Navy
David Swanson
Fighting for a Living Wage, State by State
Dave Lindorff
All the News That's Fit to Fake
Stew Albert
Fear and Loathing: HST
Michael Neumann
Strategies
in Palestine: a Shrinking Pie in the Sky
February 19
/ 20, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Back
to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"
Kathleen Christison
Struggling
for Justice in Palestine
Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata
Gary Leupp
Self-Hating Gays: Welcome to the White House & Welcome to
Commit Suicide
Don Santina
Reparations for the Blues
Jennifer Roesch
John Negroponte: Dirty Warrior
Scott Richard
Lyons
Ward
Churchill and the Identity Police
Chris Clarke
Ward Churchill and Liberal Outrage
George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in
Oregon
Harry Browne
The Belfast Heist: the Plot Unravels
Manuel García,
Jr.
Who Killed Rafik Hariri?
Mark Scaramella
Lessons from the Hidden Afghan War
Michael Donnelly
Whatever Happened to John Edwards?
John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past
Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?
Surendra Devkota
The Monarchy in Nepal
Deborah Rich
How Anti-GMO Ballot Measures May Miss the Mark
Fred Gardner
When Dr. Tod Met Merle Haggard
CounterPunch
News Service
About King Mswati: Political Developments in Swaziland
Richard Oxman
CounterPunching Arthur Miller
Poets' Basement
Albert, Giebel, Tripp, Engel and Orkin
February 18,
2005
Ben Moxham
In
East Timor, the Nightmare Continues
Dave Lindorff
The
Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte
Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy
Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward
Churchill
Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
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Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
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The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
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"Things Always Get Worse"
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|
Weekend Edition
February 26 / 27, 2005
An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon (Part 3)
The
Miami Mafia: "Iraq Now; Cuba Later!"
By
SAUL LANDAU
Landau: George Bush has
made freedom, democracy and human rights his issues. Simultaneously,
we read of reports of torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. In
light of this, how do you see the US criticism of Cuba for being
a human rights violator, because it locked up 75 "dissidents?"
How does Cuba's view of human rights coincide with the arrest
of those 75?
ALARCON: US
Interest Section chief Vicky Huddlestone sat where you are when
the US decided to send prisoners to Guantanamo. As a courtesy,
they informed me they would treat those prisoners in accord with
the Geneva conventions. They recognized Cuba's sovereignty over
Guantanamo and its right to demand that they not use our territory
to violate human rights. They didn't have to tell us by the way,
because we can't do anything about Guantanamo. Yet, people who
acknowledged atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo criticized
Cuba for having detained and tried individuals [the 75 "dissidents"
in March 2003] accused under a pre-existing law. Cuban defense
lawyers had contact with their families while, simultaneously,
the US denied thousands of people their most fundamental rights.
The "dissidents" were tried in a court of law.
That was March 2003. In Bush's State of the Union address, he
had referred to thousands of individuals accused of involvement
in terrorism, detained by the US and its allies. And he added:
"Others had suffered a different fate." In other words,
the "others" are no longer a problem. Big applause
from both houses! I read in The New Yorker that since
Hitler, no Western leader had publicly suggested extrajudicial
execution. Those in Guantanamo-at least someone knows they are
there. The "others"-nobody knew where they were captured
or taken.
Non-accountability is now in fashion. The principle of habeas
corpus dates from the Magna Carta, not the Human Rights Declaration.
Habeas corpus has now disappeared. In this context, Cuba was
criticized for having detained 75 "dissidents."
Some facts: March 1996, Clinton signed Helms Burton [designed
to punish foreign companies trading with or investing in Cuba].
December 1996, Cuba's National Assembly countered that law.
We used legal examples from Canada, Argentina, and Britain,
who had also adopted laws countering Helms Burton. Our law said
that Helms Burton is unlawful and we may prosecute those in Cuba
who act to implement it. Nothing more! In February 1998, we
adopted another law establishing sanctions for those Cubans who
try to implement Helms-Burton [receiving US funds, goods and
services to publicly support the law]. But there's a principle
in the law that lawyers refer to as the principle of opportunity.
There are two ways to implement a law. If you don't stop at a
red light, police fine you. You ran the light. That's the automatic
application of the law. But the opportunity principle means that
the prosecutor doesn't automatically prosecute violators of the
law. Rather, he requires political instructions.
So, although we passed the law in February 1998, nobody was arrested.
It was a message: don't work with a foreign power against your
country. We waited five years February '98 to March 2003
-- to arrest those individuals. I don't think it's fair to criticize
Cuba by taking the arrests out of context, as if they happened
on another planet.
In March 2003, the US established a new doctrine: war without
UN authorization; unilateral war; disproportionate war-- in Iraq.
At the time, Cuba sentenced three individuals to death [boat-jackers].
Like most leaders of the Cuban Revolution, I disagree with the
death penalty. We haven't used it often. It goes against our
morality. In this case, however, hijackers seized a boat to
move people to the States. But a few days before,
US Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega said, following
other cases of planes and boats hijacked to the US, that the
US would consider repetitions of such actions as acts against
its national security! Code words for bombing! Recall, Iraq
was accused of threatening US national security by having WMDs.
The boat hijacking occurred because the US promoted it by welcoming
Cuban hijackers, establishing hijacking as a way to enter your
society. At the same time, US officials suggested that such incidents
could serve as an excuse for war. Also, John Bolton, another
undersecretary of State, claimed that Cuba actually had WMDs,
had developed a bio-weapons producing program and shared it with
other rogue states. My god, you never found WMD's in Iraq, but
there you are in Iraq! The US accused us of planning an attack
and having the capability of attacking -- just 90 miles from
your shore.
LANDAU: The "dissidents?"
ALARCON: We waited five years. We couldn't afford to be
patient anymore, if the US planned to attack, and their threats
were real. In late February 2003, millions demonstrated around
the world against the impending war. The biggest demonstrations
ever in Spanish history occurred in Madrid and European and US
cities. In Miami, Florida, however, a pro-war demonstration occurred
with a four word, big banner: "Iraq now, Cuba later!"
Cuban American Congresspeople and state officials held that banner.
A committee headed by well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch called
the demonstration. Bosch promoted it on local radio and published
an ad in a Miami paper. So that's the context. Noriega saying
hijacking would be tantamount to Cuba attacking the US, others
referring to Cuba as being like Saddam Hussein with WMD's.
Landau: So you're connecting the Iraq situation with the "dissidents?"
Alarcon: A paid agent of another government trying to overthrow
your government receives a severe sentence in many countries.
But only in Cuba does the US have an open policy of promoting
that behavior, -- paying, organizing, supporting groups inside
our country for the interest of the most powerful country --
also our neighbor.
Cuba faced a national security threat from the US, as it has
since the 19th century. The US' Cuba program [Plan for Assistance
to a Free Cuba], includes secret ops of the CIA, going on for
years, and the new policy of promoting and fabricating an opposition
inside Cuba working openly through AID. Do you expect to
have all that without a legal reaction from Cuba?
We acted legally and we did not precipitate these arrests. We
waited patiently, like Job, the biblical figure. And we had to
act at a very serious moment for us and the world. Nobody was
tortured or had their rights violated, although the press has
claimed it. Raul Rivera, the most famous of the so-called "dissidents"
recently came out of prison. Many people, including his wife,
had accused us of torturing him. He said as he left prison:
"I was never tortured, nor ill treated physically or psychologically."
Nor did any of the 75 suffer torture. I suspect that we were
a scapegoat to distract attention away from the real violations
still going on in Guantanamo. Nobody in Congress asked Bush about
the fact that torture and disappearing people had become a normal
practice; nor did European parliaments question it. Instead,
people discussed Cuba's jailing of poets, journalists, intellectuals.
They exaggerated. Only Rivera was a poet. Some of the others
are poorly educated. We took criticism for doing what was our
right, our obligation. Any country does what's necessary according
to law to protect yourself. We did that when you were torturing
hundreds in Guantanamo; without lawyers, without charges -- still
without defense lawyers, incommunicado.
Landau: While the 75 dissidents received wide support, did
the five Cubans in US prisons also get much support from Europe?
How do you see the case of five convicted of espionage?
Alarcon: There has been some
support. The US detained 5 Cubans, 2 of them US citizens, in
September, 1998. They were tried, convicted and sentenced essentially
for the crime of having penetrated terrorist groups of Cuban
origin openly operating from Miami. These groups carried out
bombings and killings in Cuba and in the US. That's what happened.
In the original indictments you'll see they were also accused,
as additional minor accusations, of being undocumented, having
forged documents. If they'd said that their mission was to fight
US-backed terrorism against Cuba they'd have to be crazy.
The US Attorney Generals office
of Southern Florida insisted that it didn't want to discuss the
five's motivations. Read the indictment. It's in the court documents.
"We know their motivations," the prosecutors said.
"They came here to penetrate terrorist groups and we don't
want that to be the substance of the trial. We want to focus
on the violations of US law that they committed in order to perform
their goals. They didn't register as foreign agents and changed
their identity. Those were the big crimes."
The defense lawyers called that the "necessity principle."
Under certain circumstances an individual may violate a law to
stop a greater threat or danger -- the lesser evil philosophy.
To save a life, a defendant may allege in court that he had to
ignore some law because he had a more important purpose. That
was the issue here. To protect lives from terrorists, the five
had to violate laws.
You can't do that openly. Ironically, those five Cubans were
condemned for doing what the FBI was supposed to do and didn't.
Instead of investigating terrorism, the FBI investigated them.
Miami is a special place where
terrorists have links to local business people and politicians.
It's mafia style. So, to protect itself, save lives and reduce
damages, Cuba had no option but to send individuals, real heroes,
to perform that infiltration duty in that area. That was the
issue.
Before doing that we informed
the US government about the terrorists' activities. I remember
speaking privately with US officials, asking them to please try
and stop this. They knew we had our own sources inside those
groups. We never denied that. And no one complained. They knew
that we were gathering information to defend ourselves.
Once in court, however, the
context of Cuba-US relations was ignored. Indeed, most importantly,
in written and verbal form during the trial, the US even admitted
to condemning these people precisely because they were trying
to act against the terrorists. You'll find it written in Rene
Gonazalez' sentencing, December 14, 2001, three months after
the twin towers attack. The government asked the judge to do
something special in that Rene's case because he was born in
Chicago, he's a US citizen.
The government asked for the maximum sentence for all five. For
Rene that meant 15 years. But read the transcript of the court
session. The Miami Assistant Attorney General called him a man
with such strong convictions and motivations that he would emerge
from prison still young and attempt to again penetrate the terrorists
to learn their plans and inform the Cuban government. "You
have to do something to put him out of action, judge." Page
46 of the transcript. The judge added: "As a further
special condition of supervised release the defendant is prohibited
from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals
or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating
violence, and organized crime figures are know to be or frequent".
When this man gains his freedom,
he will be barred from visiting places where individual or terrorist
groups are known to frequent. What does it mean? That the US
government knows the identity of Miami crime figures and terrorists
and which places they frequent.
The sentencing took place in December 2001, 3 months after the
terrible attacks against New York. The government didn't arrest
organized crime figures, violent people or terrorists. Rather,
they punished a US citizen and prohibited him from "bothering
our terrorists, our organized crime figures."
Antonio Guerrero was about to be sentenced on December 27, 2001
to a maximum of life plus ten years. But that didn't satisfy
the Attorney General. He asked for more. If Guerrero has two
lives he will not be allowed to visit places that terrorists
frequent. Americans should know about this. They have the right
to know. It's an insult to those who died on Sept 11 to have
a government so connected, so engaged, with terrorists, that
they protect them. That's the substance of the case against the
five Cubans.
Landau: How have the Five been treated in prison?
Alarcon: Serious violation of the people's most fundamental rights
occurred. The US did not allow the wives of two of the five
to visit. Rene's six year old daughter was born in the US, a
citizen, hasn't been able to see her father. She saw him twice
when she was four months old. Rene's a poster father; she's seen
his poster after she was deprived of paternal protection.
The US Government did that because the American people didn't
know about it. If the people knew I'm sure they'd ask questions
like: "how come the government is so friendly with well
known terrorists? Why does the government treat so harshly those
who fight against terrorism? Is the US government for or against
the terrorists? Mr. Bush."
Landau: What is Bush's Cuba policy?
Alarcon: In May 2004, President
Bush presented the Program for Assistance for a free Cuba to
"accelerate the end of the Castro regime," to force
regime change. First, increase "our support to our people
inside Cuba." That was not exactly the wording, but its
aim was to augment support to US-backed groups inside Cuba.
At the White House website you'll find his words. They increased
support from $7 to $59 million. Those who receive funds are
part of a foreign design to bring regime change. That means overthrowing
our government and imposing another one. But not just another
one! They want to end the Revolution quickly, to do what? Establish
a new regime in Cuba, based on two principles: restitution of
property to former owners and complete privatization. The US
government will guarantee the expeditious restitution of property
and establish a US, not a Cuban, Commission on Restitution of
Property rights. And that's the end of Cuba. Restitution and
privatization, controlled by a foreign government! The new plan
lists even minor details on transportation, environment, agriculture,
with advisors sent by Washington to supervise.
Of course, by privatizing education and health care, retired
persons will no longer get pensions. When the Cuban Revolution
ends, retirees will no longer be paid. Washington will organize
them into an old people's corps and put to work as long as their
health permits. Americans should read that. It's on the US
government website. We're quoting from it. The US has two experiences
in remaking regimes, Afghanistan and Iraq. It will be difficult
to implement such plans here. That's why in the institutional
reforms section, their first priority is creating a new police
force, trained and equipped by the US and under the control and
leadership of guess who?
And what would remain of Cuba?
After property has been privatized and returned to its former
owners, after older Cubans have died laboring in public works,
without health care or education, the US holds elections for
the new authorities. After the Revolutionary regime is dismantled,
the US will substantially expand the Cuban budget to promote
new political parties be based on current "dissident"
groups in Cuba.
This shows the "dissidents' are instruments of a foreign
government. Can we be accused of being harsh in dealing with
them? Or have we been patient Jobians waiting for them to rethink?
Cuba is the only country facing such a plan. How would another
country react if a big power dared to do that against them?
Imposing the will of a foreign power over the legitimate wills
of the people themselves. That's a democracy?
Ricardo Alarcon is Vice President of Cuba and President
of its National Assembly.
Saul Landau has made several films in Cuba, FIDEL
and THE UNCOMPROMISING REVOLUTION are available through
The Cinema Guild in New York City.
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