From Cuba, Three Dissidents Back Bush

WASHINGTON -- Three Cuban dissidents addressed a congressional committee by telephone from Havana on Thursday, praising President Bush's policies and denouncing Fidel Castro.
...
The hearing by two House International Relations subcommittees was the latest in a series of acts of mutual defiance and outright hostility between the Bush and Castro governments.

After the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana put up a Christmas display supporting Cuban dissidents, Cuba responded with a billboard emblazoned with photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and a huge swastika overlaid with a "Made in the U.S.A." stamp.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Cuba as being among the world's "outposts of tyranny." Castro has called Bush "deranged."

At the hearing Thursday, the State Department's top official for Latin America, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, said Castro would be remembered as "a wretched old man who told too many lies."

Congress is sharply divided over policy to Cuba. Farm state lawmakers from both parties and liberal Democrats say more than four decades of U.S. embargoes have failed to end Castro's dictatorship and that policies of engagement are more likely to produce changes.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-cuba,0,7378205.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Coz only morans back bush.

the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Sorry for their trouble, but that doesn't make Bush the hero of democracy.

and don't support him.

Hell, bush invaded and occupied a nation by ignoring the majority of Americans; he won't let a majority of anyone else matter to him.

What threat does he represent to the US? Has the embargo worked? It is not the US's responsibility to get rid of Castro.

now. You need to look no further than the White House to find your tyrant and dictator.

You can't criticize another foreign dictator on DU without also reminding people that, yes, you still believe Bush is a dictator.

:eyes:

Fidel wins hands down!

You won't find religious pukes forcing their mythology down people's throats in Cuba. No Ten Commandments monuments. No abortion restrictions. No corporate press. Plus you get a guaranteed living wage, free health care, and free education.

like that US State Dept. *Human Rights* report published earlier this week without even a WHISPER about the TORTURE at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, US-supported paramilitaries in Colombia, etc, etc, etc. If it wasn't so f*ckn' pathetic it would laughable.

They are not dissidents of conscience. Of course they will say whatever they must to keep getting USAID $$$.

snippet:
For example, in 2000, USAID gave US$670,000 to three organizations to support "the publication abroad of the work of independent journalists from the island...and to distribute their writings within Cuba" (USAID report, Evaluation of the USAID Cuba Program, 2001).
The State Department's 2003 review of the Cuba Program, set up to carry out the regime change directive in the Helms-Burton Act, notes that the Cuba Dissidence Task Group "was created to support the activities of dissident groups in Cuba," especially the Group of Four--the group led by Marta Beatriz Roque. The task group received a US$250,000 grant in 1999.
US$280,000 went to the Cuba Free Press between 1998 and 2000, for "giving voice to independent journalists and writers inside Cuba."
CubaNet, which operates out of Miami, posts the work of independent journalists on its Web site. Florida International University, another USAID grantee, works with CubaNet to translate articles written by dissident journalists into English, French, and German. CubaNet received US$343,000 up through 1997.
more....
http://www.counterpunch.org/sandels04262003.html

Judi Lynn has a good overview of Cubanet's funding

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2500661#2511102

This sheds more light on the US bought-and-paid for shills--and in the Oligarchs Daily no less. :wow:

<clips>

Dissidents feud on Cuba's future

From Herald wire services

HAVANA - Differences between anti-Castro groups in Cuba have erupted into the open, with dissident leader Osvaldo Payá accusing others of trying to discredit his movement.

Payá told the Spanish news service EFE that Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonné and René Gómez Manzano, leaders of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, were engaged in a ''systematic, permanent and very aggressive'' campaign against his Christian Liberation Movement.

He said that Roque and some ''minority'' exile groups in Miami were trying to pressure his group into attending a May 20 gathering organized by Roque's movement, which also has invited figures like former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Payá said he would not take part in the encounter.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/11036454.htm

Why would the tyrant castro allow these dissidents to call the us congress? What's up with that?

He sent the originators of the Varela Project (which asked for a freer economy for small shop owners, and more civil/human rights) to 20-25 years in prison.

Get a f*ck'n reality!! They were calling from the US Intersts Section!

<clips>

US Code Title 18, 951. Agents of foreign governments

a) Whoever, other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attache, acts in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General if required in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

...d) For purposes of this section, the term “agent of a foreign government” means an individual who agrees to operate within the United States subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official, except that such term does not include—

http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000951----000-.html

I would! Likewise, these Cuban rightwingers that you confuse with freedom fighters get money from CIA and the Miami terrorists.

See message above. Paya (originator of Varela Project) was invited to participate in May with the US paid "dissident" Beatriz Roque, and he has refused.

If they love Bush, they should be willing to die for the sob.

We need to hear that the embargo is stupid and wastefull. And that opening up Cuba's economy will lead to the overthrow of that monster's government, and his gulag.

None of the parties on either side of the Gulf Stream want Castro to be gone.

No Castro means no anti Castro US tax dollar funding (in the millions of $$ per year).

No embargo means no anti embargo campaign funding.


This is how US "democracy" works. The real agenda is money for both the pro and con participants (politicians and foundations and "dissidents") in this issue.

This is why all parties will do everything in their power to maintain the standoff with Cuba (and hopefully encourage the Cuban people to support Mr Castro) - this is what keeps the money (our tax money) rolling in to them.

Without Castro here's what would happen in Miami:

Radio Mambi and the other RW propaganda machines would fold.

The Ditzy Ballistic brothers (Fidel's favorite nephews) and the SheWolf with their one-agenda rhetoric who run unopposed wouldn't have anything to rant about in the US congress.

Terrorists like Bosch wouldn't get days named after them.

El Nuevo Herald would have to dream up something else to lie about and the entire Evil Industry, as Francisco Aruca calls it, would fold.

Free speech would return to Miami after being in exile since 1959!!

Violence, intimidation, and murder would drop significantly.

Dead people would cease to vote.

Yep folks, the anti-Castro business (Evil Industry) is BIG $$$$$ in Batistaville aka Miami and it thrives on corruption, intimidation, and murder.



April 1976: Severely injured WQBA news director Emilio Milian is assisted after a car bomb exploded beneath him

From the article:

..``I am simply a soldier for freedom and democracy,'' said Felix Bonne, speaking over a crackling phone line from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. ``I don't want to go back to prison. None of us do. But I wouldn't hesitate in returning if it were necessary to defend the rights of the Cuban people.''

---

Do this kinda shit in the USSA and they fine you and haul your ass off to jail for 10 years.

<clips>

US Code Title 18, 951. Agents of foreign governments

a) Whoever, other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attache, acts in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General if required in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

...d) For purposes of this section, the term “agent of a foreign government” means an individual who agrees to operate within the United States subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official, except that such term does not include—

http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000951----000-.html

(1) Center for a Free Cuba $5,049,709

(2) Grupo de Apoyo a la Disidencia $4,650,000

(3) Cuba On-Line $4,240,000

(4) Int'l Republican Institute $2,773,825

(5) Freedom House $2,100,000

(6) UM: Cuba Transition Project $2,045,000

(7) CubaNet $1,333,000

(8) FIU Journalism Program $1,164,000

(9) Pan-American Dev. Foundation $1,520,700

(10) Acción Democratica Cubana $1,020,000

(11) Loyola Univ: NGO Development $424,771

(12) Georgetown Univ. Scholarships $400,000

(13) Plantados: Support for Prisoners $400,000

(14) Mississippi Consortium Int'l Dev $399,952

(15) Latin American Mission: Dry Milk $392,976

(16) Carta de $Cuba 289,600

Completed projects 5,806,570
TOTAL: $34,010,103

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs051.html

Comment from a poster:

What happens is that the USA gives this money to these organizations many of whom then give huge portions of it to Cuban nationals who end up working on behalf of USA interests inside Cuba.

And the funny thing is that no one in the USA is allowed by law to accpet money, directly or indirectly, from Cuba to work on their behalf. That makes one an "unlawful registered agent" of Cuba. I bet if some USA citizen got locked up for accepting money from the USA, no one would call him a "dissident."
(snip)

http://havanajournal.com/politics_comments/A2850_0_5_0_M/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is no secret that the US government funds dissident and "human rights" groups in Cuba. See, for example, the official USAID website. There you see budgeted items for groups such as Cuba Free Press and CubaNet (often the source of anti-Cuban "news" at the soc.culture.cuba news group). These items, even in themselves being several thousand times the average Cuban's annual income, are an enormous sum of money. Try to imagine the reaction of the FBI to an amount several thousand times the average American's annual income from a foreign government to subversive groups in the USA. And these items were certainly not the first nor last of such allocations. At this writing, the US government is considering additional funding for dissident groups in Cuba totaling $100 million!

In addition to the considerable resources of the US government, there is the funding from private groups like the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), with its known links to anti-Cuban terrorist groups. On September 14, 2000, The Washington Post reported that the CANF was planning to "quadruple the amount of money it sends to dissident leaders on the island." And that "a portion of the group's $10 million annual budget -- he declined to say how much -- will begin flowing to the island through sympathetic dissidents by the end of the year."

Remember that these sponsoring groups -- the US government and fanatical elements of the Cuban exile community -- have sponsored or participated in a military invasion, countless terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage, and a universally condemned, genocidal embargo against the Cuban people.

The Strange Case of "Dissident," Armando Valladares
To give just one example of the machinations of the US propaganda machine, Noam Chomsky, in his book, Media Control, (see excerpts) writes about one of the most famous Cuban "dissident" exiles and US media darlings, Armando Valladares and his equally famous prison "memoirs." One of Batista's former henchman convicted of placing bombs in a public place, he was portrayed by media and human rights groups as some kind of romantic figure -- a prison poet -- confined to a wheelchair as a result of abuse suffered in prison. He was miraculously "cured" the day of his release from prison, and soon afterwards, was appointed by Ronald Reagan as US representative to the UN Human Rights Commission. There he quickly distinguished himself as an apologist for human rights violations on a massive scale perpetrated by US-backed regimes in Guatemala and El Salvador.
(snip/...)

http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ105.html

Here he is, the little brave dissident, sitting close to the deceased rightwing looneytoon Miami Cuban "exile" "Godfather," Jorge Mas Canosa, sitting on far side of the blowhard speaker.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From an amused Canadian, google-translated from his French remarks on Valladares:

Viktor Dedaj
1-09-2002
Cuba Solidarity Project

Doesn't Armando Valladares, that say anything to you? Go, famous "the imprisoned poet of Castro". Its famous best-seller "In the Prisons of Fidel". Valladares is in wheel chair in prison (result of tortures). Valladares is a poet. Valladares is thus in prison for its poetries. French president Mitterand and Régis Debray which makes the feet and the hands to make it release. Here is history. Any forgery.

Armando Valladares is a former police officer of Batista. Valladares is arreté and imprisoned to have made bombings.

Ten years later, leaves a book Co-signed with Pierre Golendorf "Captive of Castro" (1979).

Valladares meanwhile would have written poetries. I am very touched by it. Valladares thus becomes a "imprisoned poet" - CQFD. Valladares arrives at the end of its sorrow. Begin a campaign to make "release" the poet. The poet is in wheel chair, result of the ill treatments, says it. The Cubans say that it is bluff for the media. The Cubans say that Valladares will leave upright while going or will not leave. The Cubans discreetly film it in his cell making exercises. Nothing made there. Valladares is poet, imprisoned, sick and it is necessary to make it leave. Everyone of mèle, of Yves Montand in Ronald Reagan.
(snip)

http://www.stopusa.be/scripts/texte.php%3Fsection%3DBFAB%26langue%3D0%26id%3D15054&prev=/search%3Fq%3DArmando%2BValladares%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN">~~~~ link ~~~~

Sorry this link is screwed above, here it is in French:
http://www.stopusa.be/scripts/texte.php?section=BFAB&langue=0&id=15054

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On edit: Adding more food for thought on the irrepressible Armando Valladares:

VALLADARES, ACTOR OF STAGE AND SCREEN
From "HUMAN RIGHTS AS THEATRE"
By Karen Lee Wald,
Z-magazine (1989)

The center-piece of the US delegation's theatrical performance was Armando Valladares, a former political prisoner, poet and paralytic, -- or policeman, terrorist and imposter (depending on whose version you believe). In any case, an apt protegee of the film-actor president who appointed him.
(snip)

To make sure that the international community did not again snub his best spokesman against the Castro regime, this year Ronald Reagan appointed Valladares ambassador to the Human Rights Commission, thus guaranteeing that everyone would have to listen to him (whether or not they believed him).
(snip)

Roa supplemented his remarks in the hall with a press conference repeating the charges that Valladares was a member of the pre- revolutionary Batista dictatorship's police force and a post- revolutionary terrorist band convicted for placing bombs in public centers. He bolstered his arguments with an array of time-yellowed, worn documents and newspapers -- and a copy of a purloined US State Department letter from Secretary of State George Schultz to all US missions abroad, trying to "rehabilitate" the image of Armando Valladares.

This was more a diplomatic coup than anything else. The US was forced to admit that the document in Cuban hands was the real thing --embarrassing mostly because the Cubans had gotten hold of it, and because it showed a number of countries with whom the US maintains diplomatic relations the derogatory way in which the State Department refers to them in private.

Aside from this, the stolen US document probably did far less than the documents the Cuban government itself brought out to demonstrate that the current HRC ambassador had lied when he denied membership in the Batista police force and about his claimed paralysis while in jail. (Videos the Cubans played for the press at their Geneva Mission showed Valladares getting up and walking out of the room after being shown films taken secretly in his cell while he was doing exercises, at a time when he was still supposedly "paralyzed".)
(snip/...)

http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/Documents/KWald-theatre.shtml

_{George H. W. Bush} still took time from his busy day to make these comments:

For Cuba can claim many, many heroes -- those who struggled valiantly almost 90 years ago and those who struggle today -- unsung heroes, for example, like longtime political prisoner Alfredo Mustelier Nuevo, who refuses to give up; heroes like Dr. Claudio Benedi, here on stage, who has condemned eloquently -- repeatedly -- Castro's violation of human rights; or another great patriot of the Western Hemisphere, a hero of mine, a hero of our times, and I'm referring, of course, to Armando Valladares. Let the American people see him now -- 22 years in Castro's prisons. And he wrote a book about that ordeal. It meant a lot to the entire Bush family and has certainly been an inspiration to me. You've all read it, I hope. And if not, why, we can boost the sales by recommending it. It's called ``Against All Hope,'' and it describes how he, how Armando, survived beatings and starvations and unspeakable horror. And I'm sure many of you have read it, but it's a tribute to the arching human spirit, to that will to live, which helped endure the cruelest of regimes; a tribute, also, to the courage of the Cuban people, resolute and unafraid.

I had a discussion -- I told Armando, I think, this -- with one of the great leaders in this hemisphere. And he wondered why we were doing what we were doing in Central America. And I said, ``Well, I'll tell you why. It's a book called `Against All Hope.' That book relates to the deprivation of human rights in Cuba.'' And he said, ``Well, what does that have to do with Central America?'' I said, ``Read the book, and you'll see. Read the book, because you'll understand that a deprivation of human rights in a Cuban prison is no different than the deprivation of human rights in a prison in Nicaragua.'' And he did, and I hope it's made a difference in that country's approach to foreign policy. But whether it did or not, the respect I have for Armando and the courage he has shown really knows no bounds. It is absolutely without limits, and the fact that he headed our delegation fighting for human rights, I think, said an awful lot about our commitment, the commitment of every American to human rights and to freedom.

And so, the courage that is demonstrated by these -- and I risk offending by failing to mention others right here in this room -- but that courage has helped you and your families endure. And one day it will, I am convinced -- I really believe this -- unite a million free Cuban Americans with their long-suffering Cuban brothers. And if hope can stay alive in the heart of Armando Valladares, surely we will see Cuba free again.
(snip/...)

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1989/89052200.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't it cute how his speechwriter found a way to start from reference to Valladares, and spin it wildly enough to include a "mandate" to keep on bullying Latin America! Awwwwwwwww.