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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:28 PM
Original message
Cuba frees dissident imprisoned 17 years
Source: AP

HAVANA - A veteran dissident leader who wrote a book about Cuban prison conditions while behind bars was freed over the weekend after serving his entire 17-year sentence, rights groups said Monday.


Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, widely known by the nickname "Antunez," was released Sunday morning from prison in the central province of Villa Clara, the opposition group Bitacora Cubana said in a statement.

Originally arrested on charges of engaging in enemy propaganda and attempted sabotage in 1990, Garcia Perez was among the prisoners Pope John Paul II had asked the government to release. But he was not among the 14 people the Cuban government said it had freed in conjunction with the January 1998 papal visit.

more:

In Havana, another rights group confirmed Garcia Perez's release even as it reported a new case of a dissident attorney sentenced after a secret trial to 12 years in prison for painting graffiti and distributing pamphlets with an anti-government message.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070423/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_dissidents;_ylt=AiSN0SeE.bq8rUXFCFNQAYi3IxIF



oh my goodness!!! counter revolutionary graffiti. Che must be rolling over in his grave.
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William769 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. Cuba is such the Democracy!
:sarcasm:
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Ninja Jordan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Viva Fidel!!
:sarcasm:
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papau Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 09:36 PM
Response to Reply #1
10. In 2005 we released 750 1980 Marial Boat Cubans that were never charged with anything
Edited on Mon Apr-23-07 09:40 PM by papau
Of course that was just a 25 year "detainee status" -

and it does not justify Cuba's 17 year miscarriage of justice for this person.

But it does make one think a bit.
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William769 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:07 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. your right they were charged in Cuba!
I remember it well.
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papau Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. They were released into New Orleans with work cards and the shirts on their backs and nothing
else. They were not returned to Cuba after their 25 years in prison in the US - but they were also not given a green card - just a "work card".

If your point was that many had been criminals, or at least jailed, in Cuba prior to 1980, that is true - or at least we thought so.
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JVS Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 11:01 AM
Response to Reply #10
32. interesting, can I get a link?
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moodforaday Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:47 PM
Response to Original message
3. ...and Bush just freed a known terrorist
who happened to blow up a Cuban jetliner in 1976, so he's a hero, apparently:

Cuban Militant Posada Carriles Released From New Mexico Jail
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/23/1350205




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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. I agree that the US should give him up
but what does that has to do with this story?
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William769 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:58 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Have you not learned we are not to bad mouth 3rd world dictators here?
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scot Donating Member (145 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-26-07 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #7
57. Bless you!
Dictator = Bad. Right or left.
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seriousstan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Some folks can't hold 2 thoughts at once. Go easy on them.
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Igel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #5
28. He wants to show that he thinks the judiciary is
part of the executive branch. It's not an uncommon failing; I've seen a few that thought that the US attorneys were part of the judiciary.
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Freddie Stubbs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-26-07 10:54 PM
Response to Reply #5
56. Perhaps we should trade him for Joanne Chesimard
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brentspeak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:50 PM
Response to Original message
4. Where's the Castro and Che apologists?
With their obligatory links to Fidel apologist newspapers "documenting" this guy's "connections" to the CIA and the Miami exiles?
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bluestateguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
6. I'll be interested to hear what the Castro lovers here have to say about this
nt
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Big Pappa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 09:20 PM
Response to Original message
9. 17 years for enemy propaganda
and "attempted" sabotage. That will teach him! I'm pretty sure he did the full 17 because Cuba's prisons are so wonderful, as I have been told here before.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:08 PM
Response to Original message
12. Just a few choice cases
John Walker Lindh: "Defense attorneys for John Walker Lindh filed documents describing how, after barely surviving atrocities that claimed the lives of hundreds of his companions, the so-called “American Taliban” was tortured while the FBI wrangled statements out of him in violation of his Fifth Amendment right not to be a witness against himself."

20 years for being in Afghanistan at the wrong time.

How about the Cuban 5? http://www.freethefive.org/

Let's see, life in prison for keeping an eye on the Miami terrorists.

"Geronimo Pratt (born 13 September 1947), also known as Geronimo ji-Jaga, was a high ranking member of the Black Panther Party. He was targeted by the FBI program COINTELPRO, which aimed to "neutralize Pratt as an effective BPP functionary".<1> Pratt was tried and convicted of the kidnap and murder of Caroline Olsen in 1972, and spent 27 years in prison, eight of which were in solitary confinement. Pratt was freed in 1997 when his conviction was overturned. He currently works as a human rights activist."

Ah, 27 years for being a Black Panther caught up in hoover/nixon's COINTELPRO

And the classic american tale: "Joshua Wolf (born June 8, 1982) is an American video blogger, freelance journalist and filmmaker<1> who was jailed by a Federal district court on August 1, 2006 for refusing to turn over a collection of videotapes he recorded during a July 2005 demonstration in San Francisco, California. Wolf served 226 days in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, California, longer than any journalist in U.S. history has served for protecting source materials"

And for mass injustice:

"Since 1973, 123 people in 25 states have been released from DEATH ROW with evidence of their innocence."

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=412


---------------------

Kettle, meet pot...
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rudeboy666 Donating Member (959 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #12
17. DU Rule #234: You must not speak ill of Castro
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #17
39. Go ahead
I don't mind. You have the right to post your delusions just like anyone else on this board.

I was just pointing out that any American dissing Cuba is like the pot calling the kettle black.

As Mr. Christ so aptly put it, "Physician, heal thyself."
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SayWhatYo Donating Member (991 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 06:24 PM
Response to Reply #39
48. Therefore, Americans and the US media shouldn't discuss anything
Why can we not be upset with problems in the US and the problems in other countries?
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:28 PM
Response to Original message
14. I notice this from the story..
Edited on Mon Apr-23-07 10:57 PM by Mika
..and attempted sabotage in 1990


And this..
From Miami, the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful political lobby, sent a message Monday congratulating Garcia Perez upon his release and praising him for his "consistency of principles."



Anyone who has followed the terrorist Louis Posada case knows that he has stated that the CANF funded his deadly ops (bombings, fire bombings, shootings, etc) in Cuba. Funny that they would be praising Garcia Perez, especially considering that he was sentenced for attempted sabotage.
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:53 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. I did NOT omit it. the third paragraph I posted included that
"charge". it did not elaborate though on what the "attempted sabotage" entailed. could it have been as bad as counterrevolutionary graffiti or handing out anti-government pamphelets??

and yes, I know the Cuban exiles and much of the cuban political community in Florida are dominated by fanatics. is it not completely obvious to you that an anti-Castro group would support and publicize the case of a jailed dissident in Cuba?????
but in no way does that ameliorate or justify political oppression in Cuba.
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-23-07 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. You're right. Sorry. I corrected my post.
Edited on Mon Apr-23-07 11:10 PM by Mika
What is obvious is that a Miami based terrorist sponsoring group is praising Garcia Perez for his "consistency of principles". Just as they praise terrorist Louis Posada for his "consistency of principles" also.

My guess is that the "consistency of principles" the terrorist supporting CANF is praising both of these men for is something less than noble, especially considering that Garcia Perez was sentenced for attempted sabotage.

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 07:50 AM
Response to Reply #16
18. "oral enemy propaganda"
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 08:29 AM
Response to Reply #14
19. Another article indicates there's more to the story than US outlets are printing....
Obviously, it's going to be hard for anyone in the States to find out what the guy was up to, but here's the original "beef" the Cuban government had with him:
Garcia Perez was sentenced to a 15-year prison term in 1993 on counts of "disseminating enemy propaganda, attempting to engage in acts of sabotage, and of being illegally in possession of arms and explosives, " his brother-in-law Alejandro Garcia said.
(snip)
http://www.xignite.com/xworldnews.aspx?articleid=LAP20040826000089

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


I'm satisfied they thought he was due a prison term. He would be here under those circumstances. Not inclined to let a bunch of right-wing clowns tell me what's permissable to think about a country which has been bullied and harrassed in the extreme sense for so very long.

They are entitled to their own way of life WITHOUT INTERFERENCE from mouth breathing fools from another country with a bloody and feared history in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 08:35 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. and if the Cuban government says so, it must be true
of course. figures you would believe them. we can't have anyone speaking out against the revolution now can we??

"he was fired as the result of an investigation carried out by the Ministry of Labor, which classified him as "disaffected to the process". In the last days of 1983, while he was chatting with some friends at the XX Anniversary Square in the city of Placetas, he said that the sole responsible for the 23 Cubans died in combat with the US Army at Granada was Fidel Castro, and he was immediately beaten by agents of the so called National Revolutionary Police (PNR). He was taken from there to the Instruction Department of the State Security Police in Santa Clara, where he was released after being issued a "warning act". But none of this intimidation and repressive acts stopped Jorge Luis’ will to express himself accordingly to what his beliefs. On march 15, 1990, while he was again at the same XX Anniversary Square listening to a official radio transmission calling for the IV Congress of the Communist Party, he started to shout that "communism is an error and an utopia" and "we want and we need reforms like the ones performed in Eastern Europe". He was immediately beaten by agents of the PNR and the State Security Police, who took him again to the their headquarters in Santa Clara, where he was charged this time for "oral enemy propaganda"."
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 09:15 AM
Response to Reply #20
22. You are using the "Free Cuba Foundation" in Miami as your source?
So, if a Cuban "exile" supported site "says so, it must be true?"

They are not known for their devotion to honesty concerning Cuba.

VII. Free Cuba Foundation
Florida International University
University Park Campus
11200 SW 8th Street
Miami, FL 33199
(305) 348-2000
www.fiu.edu/~fcf/
Founded: 1994
Funding: USAID
Affiliates: Florida International University

APPENDIX A – NGOs Examined
vi
The Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) is a non-profit, and non-partisan organization whose
purpose is to work towards the establishment of an independent and democratic Cuba using nonviolent
means. FCF bases its philosophical outlook on the works of Felix Varela, Jose Marti, Karl
Popper, Edmund Burke, and Lord Acton. More specifically, the philosophical bases of FCF are
free markets, permanent values, and limited government.
The Free Cuba Foundation was formed out of a union of Young Cuban Americans Freedom
Foundation (YCAFF), Hijos del Exilio Cubano (Children of the Exile), Americans for a Free
Cuba, and CubaWatch.

http://www.law.upenn.edu/groups/jilp/2-1_Brady_Matthew_2.pdf

Their founder was good old Frank Calzon, darling of the right-wing "exiles."



Frank Calzon is also affiliated with "Freedom House" and he would be lost without the backing of members of the right-wing in government. Lost.
~snip~

Target Cuba

In 1995, at the same time Miami exiles and their friends in government were predicting the rapid fall of the Cuban revolution, Freedom House began its USAID and State Department-funded Cuba Program to "provide assistance to Cuba's civil society" and to "raise awareness among international audiences regarding the need for a peaceful transition process in Cuba." From 1995-1997 this program was run by Frank Calzon, a Freedom House principal since 1989.17 It is currently run by Xavier Utset in Washington, DC. Journalist Walter Lippmann says Freedom House was granted US$2.1 million for its Cuba program in 2004.18

On May 11, 2001, the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the UN lodged a complaint with the NGO Committee, alleging that Freedom House engaged in activities that violated its consultative status, objecting to "those NGOs that were being used as agents by certain governments to violate the sovereignty of other States."19 The organization was "a machinery of subversion, closer to an intelligence service than an NGO," he said. "Documents showed receipt of money by illegal groups in Cuba and evidence of clandestine activities. The current Cuba programme of Freedom House involved the recruitment and training of journalists from Eastern Europe and sending them to Cuba for subversive activities."20
(snip/...)
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/barahona030107.html
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Commie Pinko Dirtbag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:02 AM
Response to Reply #20
24. You're just doing the reverse. You believe it must be false.
I SO want to be near you when Fidel Castro comes out saying "everybody should breathe air."
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:05 AM
Response to Reply #24
25. well here is some more info for you and Judi
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070423/wl_nm/cuba_prisoner_dc_1;_ylt=AocjVMebWfhWxWbK0qiQuQq9IxIF

"Antunez was 25 when he was jailed for spreading "enemy propaganda" after he grabbed the microphone on a stage during a musical recital in Placetas and began shouting slogans against President Fidel Castro."

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:11 AM
Response to Reply #25
26. You overlooked a paragraph:
Antunez also was convicted of sabotage after authorities accused him of setting fire to sugar cane fields, a charge of violence that he denied but which meant he was not considered a prisoner of conscience by international rights groups.
(snip)
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:27 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. what are your thoughts on this??
"Antunez was 25 when he was jailed for spreading "enemy propaganda" after he grabbed the microphone on a stage during a musical recital in Placetas and began shouting slogans against President Fidel Castro."

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:41 AM
Response to Reply #27
29. You overlooked the attempted sabotage, the possession of illegal firearms
and explosives, in addition to burning down the sugar cane fields. I know you wouldn't want to be less than truthful.
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 11:06 AM
Response to Reply #29
34. no, I didn't. its even in the original post
what do you think of dissenting speech being a crime in Cuba???
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #34
35. You're mangling the information. That's o.k. It's expected. n/t
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 11:28 AM
Response to Reply #35
36. and you are completely predictable as well
fortunately we can speak out and criticize the government in this country.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:15 PM
Response to Reply #36
40. I talked to a number of Cubans
who spoke out against Fidel when I was in Cuba.

However, in Cuba they do have rules against armed insurrection.
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #40
44. yeah, I've had friend tell me they speak out privately
against the goverment too in conversation. Not publicly though, and not VERY publicly like the political prisoner who was just freed.

my friend relayed to me he was with a tour guide and passed one of the propaganda bill boards that stated "Vamos bien!" my buddy said it out loud and she said, "vamos bien jodido".

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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 09:50 PM
Response to Reply #36
45. Only in "free speech" zones.
Try going to a GOP event and grabbing a microphone outside of a "free speech" zone to protest the GWB admin. You'll be arrested as quick as lightning. I'll be at an A28 protest in Miami this weekend when GW comes to town, I guarantee we'll be herded like cattle to a zone or face arrest.

Always interesting to see Americans blasting Cuba with their USA #1 blinders on.

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 10:31 AM
Response to Reply #45
47. try doing that anywhere
can you tell the difference between say disorderly conduct and "oral enemy propaganda"???


Cuba sounds perfect for you.


http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/12/31/cuba7002.htm

The government severely curtails basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, movement, and to a fair trial. While it has long sought to silence its critics by using short term-detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, threats, surveillance, criminal prosecutions, politically motivated dismissals from employment, and other forms of harassment, the government's intolerance of dissenting voices intensified considerably in 2003.

Cuba's legal and institutional structures are at the root of rights violations. In 2003, the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, movement, and the press were strictly limited under Cuban law. By criminalizing enemy propaganda, the spreading of "unauthorized news," and insult to patriotic symbols, the government curbed freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. The government also imprisoned or ordered the surveillance of individuals who had committed no illegal act, relying upon laws penalizing "dangerousness" (estado peligroso) and allowing for "official warning" (advertencia oficial). The government-controlled courts undermined the right to fair trial by restricting the right to a defense, and frequently failed to observe the few due process rights available to defendants under domestic law.
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 06:42 PM
Response to Reply #34
49. He had explosives (and plans to use them), had burned crops, as well as denounced the gov.
So you focus exclusively on his denounciation of the gov, as if that was the reason he was incarcerated.


What do you think about about bombing and arson being crimes in Cuba???

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #49
50. I think its fine
its the lack of personal and political freedom and the police state that worry me. who knows what charges have been fabricated against political dissidents. hell, its a crime to BE a dissident.
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 07:58 PM
Response to Reply #50
51. Link please.
Please post something reasonable to back that up.

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 08:55 PM
Response to Reply #51
52. like being charged for "oral enemy propaganda"???
why don't you live there? it seems the perfect place for you.
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-26-07 06:11 PM
Response to Reply #52
53. So, no link to back it up I see.
Actually, I've spent more time in Cuba than most all other DUers, I do like Cuba very much - especially the many friends and in-laws I have there.

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-26-07 09:28 PM
Response to Reply #53
54. I posted the original link and from human rights watch
you of course simply ignore those. so why not move there? start an objective website besides the state run media? why don't you?

did you know that France and Canada have high literacy rates and universal health care and are not totalitarian states?
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-26-07 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #54
55. Their source? Cubanet and Free Cuba Foundation.
Might as well be citing Free Republic on Cuba.

AI and HRW are just not reliable sources when it comes to Cuba, because their sources on Cuba are wingnut anti Castro groups/foundations with axes to grind and questionable motives in their anti Cuba rhetoric and lies (a la Ahmad Chalabi & the Iraqi National Congress on Iraq).

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INDIA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #19
23. Ya know...
If every once in a while you conceded that Cuba has faults, or that Castro isn't perfect (i.e., he had a couple of political opponents murdered along the way,) then I would take the time to read your articles and try and see your point of view, although it is different than mine.

But the fanatical defense of the indefensible that you exhibit every time a Cuba thread pops up shows me that you have firmly placed your blinders on, and are every bit as fanatical toward defending Castro as the Bushbots are to defending their dear leader here in America.

My favorite posters can take an objective look at any situation, and criticize if necessary, without viewing it through their ideological tinted sunglasses. You are obviously incapable of that.

Is it so hard for you to admit that the Cuban Government is at fault here? For jailing someone strictly for political reasons, and trying to speak freely?

Oh and by the way, "I'm satisfied they thought he was due a prison term. He would be here under those circumstances."

I think even YOU don't believe that. I think you're just trying to convince yourself. Good luck with that.

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ronnie624 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:43 AM
Response to Reply #23
30. "Ya know...
If every once in a while you conceded that Cuba has faults, or that Castro isn't perfect (i.e., he had a couple of political opponents murdered along the way,) then I would take the time to read your articles and try and see your point of view, although it is different than mine."

So, you have never bothered to read the articles About Cuba that Judi Lynn has posted, but you don't hesitate to express your 'opinion' about them.

:rofl:
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INDIA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #30
33. Nice try. Nice spin.
I used to read the articles, until I relized they were being posted by a raging ideologue. NOW I completely ignore them.

What I DO know, is that although Cuba isn't the scary evil commie island the rwingers make it out to be, it certainly has huge faults worthy of criticism, and I have yet to see this poster do ANYTHING but defend Castro and the government, even when the actions are INDEFENSIBLE. Like this man for example. Jailing someone for expressing their political opininon, especially for such a cruel amount of time, is INDEFENSIBLE, but in JL's world, "ohh, but look at the source, he would be jailed in America too, we do bad stuff too, I'm sure he did something really bad to get so much jail time."

Give me a friggin break.

I appreciate centered views that see fault on both sides of the issue. I'm skeptical of those who defend their side under any and all circumstances.

Beware the person who insists their side is infallible. They are usually dead ass wrong. The truth usually lies a lies a little left of center.

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ronnie624 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #33
37. They're your words,
not mine.
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INDIA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 01:35 PM
Response to Reply #37
38. Thanks Captain Obvious. n/t
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ronnie624 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-25-07 12:20 AM
Response to Reply #33
46. An ideologue
is one who espouses a particular ideology.

I'm a regular reader of Judi Lynn's posts, and I do not recall her ever lauding the virtues of communism.

Her posts, when dealing with Cuba, seem to be more of an attempt to correct the massive record of distortions and misinformation about Cuban society, a record you seem to echo. As well, she provides information about the history of meddling in Cuban affairs by the US government.

Clearly, she believes that Cuba has a right to determine its own political and economic destiny.

I have learned a lot from Judi Lynn's posts. Yours, not so much.

Your distortions damage your credibility. You also inadvertently admitted, that you do not read the articles to which Judi Lynn links. Your position is quite clear to me.



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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:20 PM
Response to Reply #23
41. You have not and never will hear us
when we do speak about any of the Cuban Government's shortcomings. I've detailed some of them in the past but that doesn't count, eh?

I defend Cuba because, on balance, between their form of burgeoning Socialism, their amazing work in the area of green, organic agriculture, their GREAT health care system and their widely dispersed and participatory Democracy -- we could learn a lot from them.

Of course, here in the belly of the beast of Corporate Capitalism we'd never be allowed to practice any of their brilliant solutions to life's problems. This benighted country's too busy being an Imperial Power!
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robcon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 08:49 AM
Response to Original message
21. It's good to hear Castro's gulag let someone out.
That's not often the case.
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Igel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 10:49 AM
Response to Reply #21
31. I wonder if it'll be the same with Cuba as it was with the USSR.
Anti-USSR folks kept making claims. "Neutral" folks kept defending the USSR and saying that since the Soviet government denied them, the claims must be false. Of course, many of the "neutral" folk, when speaking off the record, admired many aspects of the USSR.

Open the archives ... some of the claims were understated. Numerous people that had vanished, with disputation over whether they died in camps or simply stopped being noticed, were shown to have been shot or otherwise killed. The estimates for the number killed by Stalin were provided with facts, and the arch-conservatives were right while the self-avowed truth seekers were anywhere from 50% to 70% under the mark ... many conservatives were under the mark, as well. And the wild estimates for one prison were shown to be conservative ... because the USSR took out insurance on its ships with Lloyd of London.

Many of the archives have since closed (Thanks, putyonok!). And there are already peeps that since the hundreds of documents cited in such-and-such a book or article can't be verified, there's doubt as to the conclusions. Dogs returning to their vomit.

What *will* we find when Cuba's archives are opened?
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #31
43. How about a peek at the CIA files?
Edited on Tue Apr-24-07 03:23 PM by ProudDad
They'd probably make Stalin look like a piker.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-24-07 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #21
42. Gee, I wonder when
the repuke/Dem gulag will let the Cuban 5 out...

http://www.freethefive.org/
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