All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.
Paul Ryan?!? Bad pick. Romney just threw the election, just like John McCain. Back in the early 80's, Devo made fun of this stereotype creating this image for themselves:
The image has become only more and more of a mockable stereotype in the years since.
That the Republican Party believes this is a winning image in this day and age, is sad. It's a demographic/psychographic thing. Romney and Ryan are two white guys. Mitt Romney is the perfect stereotype of white guy, and Ryan is almost that as well. Whites are a minority in this country. Yet whites make up a large portion of those who would vote for a Republican for President. White men are pretty much wrapped up. If Romney wanted to win he had to bring in other constituencies, which he could have done by picking Rubio or Jindahl. Instead, he doubled down on his own stereotype. It is not that a white man can not win the Presidency. It is that a stereotype white man stands little chance of winning the Presidency if he continually doubles down on stereotype. As Romney does, and has done, and has now proven he will do again and again. This is yet another boneheaded, tone-deaf, and impotent choice by the Republican party. Say goodbye to the election, and say goodbye to the economy. We're in it for the long haul. Cuba, here we come.
Ramallah gets five star luxury hotel: The hotel, a franchise of the Swiss-based Movenpick chain, has 171 rooms and suites, an outdoor pool, and a fitness center, and cost $40 million.
Iran: Life of Jailed Human Rights Lawyer at great risk: On Sunday, 31 October, Nasrin Sotoudeh, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights lawyers went on a dry hunger strike protesting her detention and ill treatment inside Tehran’s Evin prison. Her family reported that her health is quickly deteriorating.
UN: Cuba, Venezuela, Iran top the list of countries lining up to scrutinize US Human Rights during UN review: ccording to diplomats cited Wednesday by a Geneva-based NGO, U.N. Watch, Cuban officials “took the lead last week in circulating an advance sign-up sheet.” “We are concerned that Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and other non-democracies are planning to hijack the session to score propaganda points and drum up anti-American sentiment worldwide,” said the organization’s executive director, Hillel Neuer.
UK: Al-Qaeda terrorist arrested: Talking to the Royal United Services Institute, May revealed that an associate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was arrested earlier this year and is suspected of planning an attack on the country. This terrorist unit has been blamed for the cargo bomb plot on the US just last week, which was intercepted. The bombs were found in printer cartridge packages in Dubai and Britain and were being mailed to the US. It’s believed that Anwar al-Awlaki, a US national and al-Qaeda leader, was the mastermind behind the attack from his base in Yemen.
"Nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."
Honduran President Roberto Micheletti Bain
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this material, but I had some personal issues and have been involved, to a certain degree, directly in the occurrences in Honduras over the weekend.
For the record my father was a "company" man for many years and conducted a plethora of activities in Latin America, especially Honduras during the Contras period in the '80's.
He has, moreover, been engaging in business in that Central American nation for well over 40 years...I know all aspects of Honduras quite well.
Let me commence by dispelling what many, even some on the right, have categorized as a "coup".
Amongst the best analysis which I can associate myself with, I cite the following links:
And last but not least I am honored to report to my fellow Infidels that Gateway Punditelevated one of my comments yesterday and incorporated it into his post today:
Gateway, this is not a coup, this is the Honduran Armed Forces carrying out an order of the Supreme Court of Honduras and the congress, as well as military leaders that refused to buckle to Zelaya's attempt to fully Chavez-ize the nation....Today is a day of liberty in Honduras.
Yesterday was a Day of Days in Honduras.
I thank God that Roberto Micheletti Bain, former leader of the National Congress (as mandated by the Constitution) is now the de jure President of Honduras.
Whom would have ever advanced an argument that one day, the nation pejoratively referred to as a "banana republic", would by their actions demonstrate to United States and to the world an unbinding resolve and adherence to liberty, order and justice.
God Bless the glorious armed services of Honduras (whose special forces are trained by Americans and Israelis) which upheld the honor and decency of a nation which refused to condemn itself to darkness and tyranny.
As a final aside, today our dear family friend, whom had just met with my father on Thursday in Tegucigalpa, has been named Foreign Minister of Honduras, Dr. Enrique Ortez Colindres.
He is a career, senior level Ambassador with long tenures in France, under different administrations, and at the United Nations. A staunch anti-communist and pro-American to boot! (of course not Barry's Amerika)
So today, like yesterday, I exclaim, "God Bless Honduras y Viva Honduras Libre!!!"
Oh, and by the way, I have been apprised through back channels that the "Ambassadors" from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc. had been forcibly expelled and in the case of both the Cuban and Venezuelan diplomats, they were the recipients of thundering violence due to their obstreperous nature!!!
Humberto Fontova, the pre-eminent Cuban American historian, just had his book translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian market where the adoration of Ernesto "Che the Scumbag" Guevara is as great and as revered as in Tinstletown and the MSM.
Fontova is a contributor @ Babalu Blog, where I am proudly a "cubiche". I highly recommend this site and its founders & contributors as stalwart, upstanding defenders of freedom and liberty.
If you REALLY want to know what is happening in Cuba, Venezuela, South Florida, Latin America, etc., that site is definitely for you.
And all the while Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet& others remain incarcerated in the most heinous fashion, while the Left and their handmaidens in the US & Europe feign outrage over Gitmo. (117 square kilometers)
Of course avoiding the other 110,860 square kilometers of the island which has lived under a barbaric, criminal, and Stalinesque regime for the last 50 years...
State sponsors of terrorism provide critical support to non-state terrorist groups. Without state sponsors, terrorist groups would have greater difficulty obtaining the funds, weapons, materials, and secure areas they require to plan and conduct operations. The United States will continue to insist that these countries end the support they give to terrorist groups. Sudan continued to take significant steps towards better counterterrorism cooperation. Iran and Syria have not renounced terrorism or made efforts to act against Foreign Terrorist Organizations and routinely provided safe haven, substantial resources, and guidance to terrorist organizations. Cuba continued to publicly defend the FARC and provide safe haven to some members of terrorist organizations, though some were in Cuba in connection with peace negotiations with the Governments of Spain and Colombia.
On October 11, the United States rescinded the designation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a state sponsor of terrorism in accordance with criteria set forth in U.S. law, including a certification that the Government of North Korea had not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period and the provision by the government of assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.
State Sponsor: Implications
Designating countries that repeatedly provide support for acts of international terrorism as state sponsors of terrorism imposes four main sets of U.S. Government sanctions:
1. A ban on arms-related exports and sales.
2. Controls over exports of dual-use items, requiring 30-day Congressional notification for goods or services that could significantly enhance the terrorist-list country's military capability or ability to support terrorism.
3. Prohibitions on economic assistance.
4. Imposition of miscellaneous financial and other restrictions, including:
Requiring the United States to oppose loans by the World Bank and other international financial institutions;
Exception from the jurisdictional immunity in U.S. courts of state sponsor countries, and all former state sponsor countries (with the exception of Iraq), with respect to claims for money damages for personal injury or death caused by certain acts of terrorism, torture, or extrajudicial killing, or the provision of material support or resources for such acts;
Denying companies and individuals tax credits for income earned in terrorist-list countries;
Denial of duty-free treatment of goods exported to the United States;
Authority to prohibit any U.S. citizen from engaging in a financial transaction with a terrorist-list government without a Treasury Department license; and
Prohibition of Defense Department contracts above $100,000 with companies in which a state sponsor government owns or controls a significant interest.
CUBA
Although Cuba no longer actively supports armed struggle in Latin America and other parts of the world, the Cuban government continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists. Members of ETA, the FARC, and the ELN remained in Cuba during 2008, some having arrived in Cuba in connection with peace negotiations with the governments of Spain and Colombia. Cuban authorities continued to publicly defend the FARC. However, on July 6, 2008, former Cuban President Fidel Castro called on the FARC to release the hostages they were holding without preconditions. He has also condemned the FARC's mistreatment of captives and of their abduction of civilian politicians who had no role in the armed conflict.
The United States has no evidence of terrorist-related money laundering or terrorist financing activities in Cuba, although Cuba has one of the world’s most secretive and non-transparent national banking systems. Cuba has no financial intelligence unit. Cuba’s Law 93 Against Acts of Terrorism provides the government authority to track, block, or seize terrorist assets.
The Cuban government continued to permit some U.S. fugitives—including members of U.S. militant groups such as the Boricua Popular, or Macheteros, and the Black Liberation Army to live legally in Cuba. In keeping with its public declaration, the government has not provided safe haven to any new U.S. fugitives wanted for terrorism since 2006.
IRAN
Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy.
The Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad. The Qods Force provided aid in the form of weapons, training, and funding to HAMAS and other Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hizballah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Iran remained a principal supporter of groups that are implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process. Iran provided weapons, training, and funding to HAMAS and other Palestinian terrorist groups, including Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Iran’s provision of training, weapons, and money to HAMAS since the 2006 Palestinian elections has bolstered the group’s ability to strike Israel. In 2008, Iran provided more than $200 million in funding to Lebanese Hizballah and trained over 3,000 Hizballah fighters at camps in Iran. Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah conflict, Iran has assisted Hizballah in rearming, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Iran’s IRGC Qods Force provided assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Qods Force provided training to the Taliban on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons. Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives to select Taliban members.
Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continued to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to Iraqi militant groups that targeted Coalition and Iraqi forces and killed innocent Iraqi civilians. Iran’s Qods Force continued to provide Iraqi militants with Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, and mortars that have killed Iraqi and Coalition Forces as well as civilians. Tehran was responsible for some of the lethality of anti-Coalition attacks by providing militants with the capability to assemble improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that were specially designed to defeat armored vehicles. The Qods Force, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah, provided training both inside and outside of Iraq for Iraqi militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology and other advanced weaponry.
Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its al-Qa’ida detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some al-Qa’ida members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Senior IRGC and Qods Force officials were indicted by the Government of Argentina for their alleged roles in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Argentine Israel Mutual Association which, according to the Argentine State Prosecutor’s report, was initially proposed by the Qods Force.
SUDAN
Sudan remained a cooperative partner in global counterterrorism efforts. During the past year, the Sudanese government continued to pursue terrorist operations directly involving threats to U.S. interests and personnel in Sudan. Sudanese officials have indicated that they view their continued cooperation with the United States as important and recognize the benefits of U.S. training and information-sharing. Though the counterterrorism relationship remained solid, some hard-line Sudanese officials continued to express resentment and distrust over actions by the USG and questioned the benefits of the bilateral cooperation. Their assessment reflected disappointment that Sudan's counterterrorism cooperation has not resulted in its removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Nonetheless, there was no indication at year’s end that the Sudanese government will curtail its counterterrorism cooperation with the United States.
Al-Qa’ida (AQ)-inspired terrorist elements, and elements of both Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and HAMAS remained in Sudan. In light of the continuing hybrid UN-AU deployment to Darfur, various terrorist threats against this mission have emerged, and AQ leadership has called for “jihad” against UN forces in Darfur. In the early hours of January 1, 2008, attackers in Khartoum sympathetic to AQ shot and fatally wounded two U.S. Embassy staff members – an American and a Sudanese employee – both of whom worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Sudanese authorities cooperated closely with the USG in investigating this terrorist crime. On February 1, five alleged conspirators were arrested and put on trial for murder on August 31. Their trial was ongoing at year’s end. Other extremist groups also have threatened attacks against Western interests in Sudan. The July 14 request by International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges related to atrocities committed in Darfur has further inflamed tensions. Therefore, the terrorist threat level remained critical in Khartoum and Darfur, and potentially other parts of Sudan.
Elements of designated terrorist groups remained in Sudan. With the exception of HAMAS, whose members the Sudanese government consider to be “freedom fighters” rather than terrorists, the government does not appear to openly support the presence of extremist elements. We note, however, that there have been open source reports that arms were purchased in Sudan's black market and allegedly smuggled northward to HAMAS.
The Sudanese government has prevented foreign fighters from using Sudan as a logistics base and transit point for extremists going to Iraq. However, gaps remained in the Sudanese government's knowledge of and ability to identify and capture these individuals. There was evidence to suggest that individuals who were active participants in the Iraqi insurgency have returned to Sudan and were in a position to use their expertise to conduct attacks within Sudan or to pass on their knowledge. There was also evidence that Sudanese extremists continued to participate in terrorist activities in Somalia, which the Sudanese government has also attempted to disrupt.
SYRIA
Syria was first designated in 1979 as a state sponsor of terrorism. Syria provided political and material support to Hizballah and allowed Iran to use Syrian territory as a transit point for assistance to Hizballah. HAMAS, Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), among others, based their external leadership within Syria's borders. The Syrian government insisted these groups were confined to political and informational activities, but groups with leaders in Syria have claimed responsibility for deadly anti-Israeli terrorist attacks.
Over the course of the year, Syria's public support for the Palestinian groups varied, depending on Syrian national interest and international pressure. President Bashar al-Asad continued to express public support for Palestinian terrorist groups. HAMAS Politburo head and defacto leader Khalid Meshal and his deputies continued to reside in Syria. Syria provided a safe haven for Meshal and security escorts for his motorcades. Meshal's use of the Syrian Ministry of Information as the venue for press conferences this year could be taken as an endorsement of HAMAS's message. Media reports indicated HAMAS used Syrian soil to train its militant fighters. Though the Syrian government claimed periodically that it used its influence to restrain the rhetoric and activities of Palestinian groups, the Syrian government allowed a Palestinian conference organized by HAMAS, PFLP-GC, and PIJ to occur in January, and another HAMAS organized conference, reportedly funded by Iran, to take place in November.
Highlighting Syria's ties to the world's most notorious terrorists, Hizballah Operations Chief Imad Mugniyah, perished in a February 12 car bombing near Syrian Military Intelligence (SMI) headquarters in the Damascus neighborhood of Kafr Sousa. Among other atrocities, Mugniyah was wanted in connection with the 1983 bombings of the Marine barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed over 350. Despite initial attempts to cover up the incident, the Syrian government reluctantly acknowledged some days later that one of the world's most wanted terrorists had been present and died on Syrian soil.
Syrian officials publicly condemned some acts of terrorism, while continuing to defend what they considered to be legitimate armed resistance by Palestinians and Hizballah against Israeli occupation of Arab territory, and by the Iraqi opposition against the "occupation of Iraq." Syria has not been directly implicated in an act of terrorism since 1986, although an ongoing UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri continued to investigate Syrian involvement.
Syria itself was the location of at least one major attack. On September 27, the car-bombing of a Syrian government facility reportedly injured 14 and killed at least 17 individuals, marking the first significant attack against regime institutions in nearly 20 years. Not since the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the early 1980s had Syrian institutions been targeted by terrorists. Regional media reports indicated this bombing was directed at the Palestinian Branch of the Syrian Military Intelligence; the perpetrators remained unknown at year’s end.
Throughout the year, Syria continued to strengthen ties with fellow state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Syria's Minister of Defense visited Tehran in May and initiated a Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation. Syria also allowed leaders of HAMAS and other Palestinian groups to visit Tehran. President Asad repaid a 2007 visit to Damascus by Iranian President Ahmadinejad with a visit of his own to Tehran in early August, his third visit since 2005. Asad continued to be a staunch defender of Iran's policies, including Iran's "civil" nuclear ambitions.
Syria increased border monitoring activities, instituted tighter screening practices on military-age Arab males entering its borders, hosted two Border Security Working Group meetings with technical experts from the Iraqi Neighbors group, and expressed a desire to increase security cooperation with Iraq. At the same time, Syria remained a key hub for foreign fighters en route to Iraq.
The USG designated several Iraqis residing in Syria and Iraqi-owned entities, including Mishan Al-Jaburi and his satellite television channel Al-Ra'y, under Executive Order 1348 for providing financial, material, and technical support for acts of violence that threatened the peace and stability of Iraq. The United States also designated known foreign fighter facilitators based in Syria, including members of the Abu Ghadiyah network, that orchestrated the flow of terrorists, weapons, and money from Syria to al-Qa’ida in Iraq, under Executive Order 13224.
Despite acknowledged reductions in foreign fighter flows, the scope and impact of the problem remained significant. Syria continued to allow former Iraqi regime elements to operate in the country. Attacks against Coalition Forces and Iraqi citizens continued to have a destabilizing effect on Iraq's internal security. Though Syrian and Iraqi leaders met throughout the year both publicly and privately to discuss border enhancements and other measures needed to combat foreign fighter flows, there were few tangible results. While Syria has taken some positive steps, the Syrian government could do more to interdict known terrorist networks and foreign fighter facilitators operating within its borders.
Syria remained a source of concern regarding terrorist financing. The Commercial Bank of Syria remained subject to U.S. sanctions. Industry experts reported that 70 percent of all business transactions were conducted in cash and that nearly 90 percent of all Syrians did not use formal banking services. Despite Syrian governmental legislation requiring money-changers to be licensed by the end of 2007, many money-changers continued to operate illegally in Syria's vast black market, estimated to be as large as Syria's formal economy. Regional "hawala" networks remained intertwined with smuggling and trade-based money laundering, facilitated by notoriously corrupt customs and immigration officials, raising significant concerns that Syrian government and business elites are, at the very least, complicit in illicit financing schemes.
Syria's government-controlled press continued to tout Syrian regime efforts to combat terrorism. The Syrian government, using tightly-controlled press outlets, was quick to blame a Lebanon-based, al-Qa’ida-affiliated group, Fatah al-Islam, for the September 27 attack against a prominent military intelligence installation. Syrian TV broadcasted a November 7 program featuring the confessions of some 20 Fatah al-Islam members, including the daughter and son-in-law of Fatah al-Islam leader Shakr al-Absy, of their involvement.
It remained unclear why Fatah al-Islam would have launched an attack against Syrian security elements, but media reports suggested Absy's disappearance inside of Syria as a possible motive. In response to the September 27 bombing, the Syrian security services conducted at least one reported raid on an alleged terrorist cell residing in the Damascus area, killing and arresting several suspected militants and confiscating a cache of weapons and explosives.
I. FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 1. The International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”) has repeatedly requested access to prisons in Cuba, one of the few countries to deny it permission to visit political prisoners. The ICRC “has not been able to visit prisons since July 1959, seven months after Fidel Castro came to power.” (“Red Cross Seeks Access to Cuban Prisons,” AFP, December 7th, 2006).
2. According to the 2008 State Department Report on Human Rights Practices, "The government [of Cuba] continued to deny its citizens their basic human rights and committed numerous, serious abuses. The government denied citizens the right to change their government. At year's end there were at least 205 political prisoners and detainees. As many as 5,000 citizens served sentences for 'dangerousness,' without being charged with any specific crime.
The following human rights problems were reported: beatings and abuse of detainees and prisoners, including human rights activists, carried out with impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care; harassment, beatings, and threats against political opponents by government-recruited mobs, police, and State Security officials; arbitrary arrest and detention of human rights advocates and members of independent professional organizations; denial of fair trial; and interference with privacy, including pervasive monitoring of private communications.
There were also severe limitations on freedom of speech and press; denial of peaceful assembly and association; restrictions on freedom of movement, including selective denial of exit permits to citizens and the forcible removal of persons from Havana to their hometowns; restrictions on freedom of religion; and refusal to recognize domestic human rights groups or permit them to function legally. Discrimination against persons of African descent, domestic violence, underage prostitution, trafficking in persons, and severe restrictions on worker rights, including the right to form independent unions, were also problems."
3. Afro-Cuban pro-democracy leader, Jorge Luis Perez Garcia "Antunez," who already spent over 17 years as a political prisoner before his release in 2007, has been on a peaceful hunger strike in his home since February 17th demanding the cessation of torture in Cuba's political prisons. Cuban authorities recently assaulted Antunez' home with tear gas (Amnesty International Miami Herald, March 26, 2009).
4. "Day and night, the screams of tormented women in panic and desperation who cry for God's mercy fall upon the deaf ears of prison authorities. They are confined to narrow cells with no sunlight called "drawers" that have cement beds, a hole on the ground for their bodily needs, and are infested with a multitude of rodents, roaches, and other insects…In these "drawers" the women remain weeks and months. When they scream in terror due to the darkness (blackouts are common) and the heat, they are injected sedatives that keep them half-drugged." Testimony of Juan Carlos González Leiva, State Security Prison, HolguÃn, Cuba, October 27, 2003.
5. The Cuba Archive Project (www.cubaarchive.org) has rigorously documented over 90,000 non-combat deaths that can be attributed to the Cuban regime through executions, extra-judicial assassinations, deaths in political prisons, missing and disappeared. To put this in perspective, the brutal regime of General Augusto Pinochet was attributed over 3,000 murders, executions and disappearances during its 16-year rule.
6. Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, one of Cuba’s best known and most respected pro-democracy and Afro-Cuban leaders, was sentenced to 25-years in prison on April 7th, 2003. Dr. Biscet was arrested on December 6th, 2002 while trying to hold a seminar on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seventeen other people were arrested together with him. He was arrested only 37 days after being released from a first three-year sentence that he served on a charge of “disrespect”.
7. Plainclothes police kicked their way into a Roman Catholic church in eastern Cuba, beat and used pepper spray on a group of dissidents, church officials and human rights activists. Seven people were arrested when police entered the parish church of Santa Teresita in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city, in search of government opponents. (Reuters, December 5th, 2007)
8. "I have never been charged in court yet I am condemned not to leave this Island. This restriction has not been dictated by a judge, nor could I have appealed it to jury, rather it comes from the great prosecutor—with full rights—in which he’s set himself up as the Cuban State. That severe magistrate determined that the old woman sitting next to me would not receive the ‘white card’ because her son ‘deserted’ from a medical mission. The boy who waited in the corner couldn’t travel either, because his athlete father plays now under another flag. The list of the punished is so long and the reasons so varied, that we could establish a huge group of forced islander 'stay-at-homes.' It’s too bad that the vast majority are silent, in the hopes that one day they’ll be allowed to leave, as one who receives compensation for good behavior," writes Cuban (Generation Y) blogger Yoani Sanchez, named as one of Time Magazine's 2008 Most Influential People in the World, after being denied permission to travel abroad for the third time this year alone.
9. It would be exceedingly presumptuous for U.S. policymakers to ignore the pleas of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet in Cuba - similar to those of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma - that the United States continue not to recognize, and therefore not legitimize, these regimes in a political, diplomatic or commercial capacity.
10. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a bricklayer and plumber, was arrested on March 20th, 2003 while taking part in a hunger strike at the Fundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier in Havana to demand the release of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and other political prisoners. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in 2003 on charges of showing “contempt to the figure of Fidel Castro,” “public disorder” and “resistance.” In November 2005 he was sentenced to an additional 15 years for “contempt” and “resistance” in prison. In May 2006, he was again tried on the same charges and sentenced to an additional seven-year term. He is now serving a prison sentence of 25 years and six months. (“Newly Declared Prisoners of Conscience,” AP, January 29th, 2004).
11. “In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994, three boats belonging to the Cuban State and equipped with water hoses attacked an old tugboat that was fleeing Cuba with 72 people on board. The incident occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast, outside the port of Havana. The Cuban State boats attacked the tugboat with their prows, while at the same time spraying everyone on the deck of the boat, including women and children, with pressurized water. The pleas to stop the attack were in vain, and the old boat-named the ‘13 of March’ - sank, with a toll of 41 deaths, including ten children.” Ted Koppel, ABC’s Nightline, January 21st, 1998.
12. On April 26th, 2006 a mob organized by the Cuban regime’s secret police assaulted Marta Beatriz Roque, a prominent dissident and former university professor of economics. According to the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), “several members of the para-police mob attacked her verbally and physically, threw her to the ground and then attacked her inside her house, where a very hefty individual slugged her hard in the face.”
13. In Cuba, all print and broadcast media are under state control. Also, access to the Internet is severely limited outside of governmental offices and educational institutions. During 2006, there was a rise in the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists and librarians. From January to August 2006, journalist Guillermo Fariñas staged an intermittent hunger strike to obtain access to the Internet, without success. (“Guillermo Farinas Ends Seven-Month-Old Hunger Strike for Internet Access,” Reporters Without Borders, September 1st, 2006).
14. The Cuban regime forbids the country's citizens from leaving or returning to Cuba without first obtaining official permission, which is usually denied. Unauthorized travel can result in criminal prosecution. The regime also bars citizens engaged in authorized travel from taking their children with them overseas, essentially holding the children hostage to guarantee the parents' return. Given the widespread fear of forced family separation, these exit travel restrictions provide the Cuban government with a powerful tool for punishing defectors and silencing critics.
15. On March 18, 2003, a severe wave of repression broke over Cuban opposition leaders. For three days, 90 peaceful human rights, democracy and political activists were arrested in the spring of 2003, summarily tried and sentenced to jail terms of up to 28 years.
16. “I can only hope that in their deliberations, Mr. Bush, Congressional lawmakers and the farmers they represent will consider the ‘freedom of movement’ I and the other wives of Cuban political prisoners will enjoy for years to come: traveling every three months to spend just two hours with our husbands.” Written from Cuba by Claudia Marquez Linares, “Free Trade Won’t Free Cuba,” New York Times, November 6th, 2003.
17. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees have tried to flee the regime and navigate the Florida Straits in flimsy rafts made from rope and old inner tubes and in rickety boats constructed from old car parts and bus roofs. Experts believe that for every refugee rescued, two or three are captured by Cuban authorities or have perished at sea.
18. Francisco Chaviano, an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, who attempted inside Cuba to collect information on political disappearances, including those of captured rafters, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1995.
19. On April 2nd, 2003 Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla, and Jorge MartÃnez -- three young Afro-Cubans -- attempted to hijack a Havana ferry in an attempt to flee to the United States. They were caught, summarily tried in closed-door proceedings, and executed by firing squad nine days later in a case condemned by Amnesty International, the United States and other governments.
21. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who taught us all about the horror of the Soviet gulag, noted "we are slaves there from birth, but we are striving for freedom. You however, were born free. If so, then why do you help our slave owners?"
Humberto Fontova
