The New Opening With the USA by RAUL CASTRO

Learning the Art of Coexistence

The New Opening With the USA

by RAUL CASTRO

Since my election as President of the State Council and Council of Ministers I have reiterated in many occasions our willingness to hold a respectful dialogue with the United States on the basis of sovereign equality, in order to deal reciprocally with a wide variety of topics without detriment to the national Independence and self-determination of our people.

This stance was conveyed to the US Government both publicly and privately by Comrade Fidel on several occasions during our long standing struggle, stating the willingness to discuss and solve our differences without renouncing any of our principles.

The heroic Cuban people, in the wake of serious dangers, aggressions, adversities and sacrifices has proven to be faithful and will continue to be faithful to our ideals of independence and social justice. Strongly united throughout these 56 years of Revolution, we have kept our unswerving loyalty to those who died in defense of our principles since the beginning of our independence wars in 1868.

Today, despite the difficulties, we have embarked on the task of updating our economic model in order to build a prosperous and sustainable Socialism.

As a result of a dialogue at the highest level, which included a phone conversation I had yesterday with President Obama, we have been able to make headway in the solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations.

As Fidel promised on June 2001,when he said: “They shall return!” Gerardo, Ramon, and Antonio have arrived today to our homeland.

The enormous joy of their families and of all our people, who have relentlessly fought for this goal, is shared by hundreds of solidarity committees and groups, governments, parliaments, organizations, institutions, and personalities, who for the last sixteen years have made tireless efforts demanding their release. We convey our deepest gratitude and commitment to all of them.

President Obama’s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgement of our people.

I wish to thank and acknowledge the support of the Vatican, most particularly the support of Pope Francisco in the efforts for improving relations between Cuba and the United States. I also want to thank the Government of Canada for facilitating the high-level dialogue between the two countries.

In turn, we have decided to release and send back to the United States a spy of Cuban origin who was working for that nation.

On the other hand, and for humanitarian reasons, today we have also sent the American citizen Alan Gross back to his country.

Unilaterally, as has always been our practice, and in strict compliance with the provisions of our legal system, the concerned prisoners have received legal benefits, including the release of those persons that the Government of the United States had conveyed their interest in.

We have also agreed to renew diplomatic relations.

This in no way means that the heart of the matter has been solved. The economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must cease.

Though the blockade has been codified into law, the President of the United States has the executive authority to modify its implementation.

We propose to the Government of the United States the adoption of mutual steps to improve the bilateral atmosphere and advance towards normalization of relations between our two countries, based on the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter.

Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate in multilateral bodies, such as the United Nations.

While acknowledging our profound differences, particularly on issues related to national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign policy, I reaffirm our willingness to dialogue on all these issues.

I call upon the Government of the United States to remove the obstacles hindering or restricting ties between peoples, families, and citizens of both countries, particularly restrictions on travelling, direct post services, and telecommunications.

The progress made in our exchanges proves that it is possible to find solutions to many problems.

As we have reiterated, we must learn the art of coexisting with our differences in a civilized manner.

Raul Castro is president of Cuba.

This is the text of Cuban President Raul Castro’s address to the nation this Wednesday broadcast on radio and television on the recent developments in the Cuba-US relations.

Cuba. Again. Still. Forever.

More than 50 years now it is. The propaganda and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering. They can not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational. Here's the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American arrested in Cuba:

"The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen working on contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development who was distributing cellphones and laptop computers to Cuban activists. ... Under Cuban law ... a Cuban citizen or a foreign visitor can be arrested for nearly anything under the claim of 'dangerousness'."

That sounds just awful, doesn't it? Imagine being subject to arrest for whatever someone may choose to label "dangerousness". But the exact same thing has happened repeatedly in the United States since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. We don't use the word "dangerousness". We speak of "national security". Or, more recently, "terrorism". Or "providing material support to terrorism".

The arrested American works for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), a US government contractor that provides services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2008, DAI was funded by the US Congress to "promote transition to democracy" in Cuba. Yes, Oh Happy Day!, we're bringing democracy to Cuba just as we're bringing it to Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002, DAI was contracted by USAID to work in Venezuela and proceeded to fund the same groups that a few months earlier had worked to stage a coup — temporarily successful — against President Hugo Chávez. DAI performed other subversive work in Venezuela and has also been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other hotspots. "Subversive" is what Washington would label an organization like DAI if they behaved in the same way in the United States in behalf of a foreign government.⁶

The American mainstream media never makes its readers aware of the following (so I do so repeatedly): The United States is to the Cuban government like al-Qaeda is to the government in Washington, only much more powerful and much closer. Since the Cuban revolution, the United States and anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the US have inflicted upon Cuba greater damage and greater loss of life than what happened in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Cuban dissidents typically have had very close, indeed intimate, political and financial connections to American government agents. Would the US government ignore a group of Americans receiving funds or communication equipment from al-Qaeda and/or engaging in repeated meetings with known leaders of that organization? In the past few years, the American government has arrested a great many people in the US and abroad solely on the basis of alleged ties to al-Qaeda, with a lot less evidence to go by than Cuba has had with its dissidents' ties to the United States, evidence usually gathered by Cuban double agents. Virtually all of Cuba's "political prisoners" are such dissidents.

The Washington Post story continued:

"The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy cellphones just last year." Period.

What does one make of such a statement without further information? How could the Cuban government have been so insensitive to people's needs for so many years? Well, that must be just the way a "totalitarian" state behaves. But the fact is that because of the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, with a major loss to Cuba of its foreign trade, combined with the relentless US economic aggression, the Caribbean island was hit by a great energy shortage beginning in the 1990s, which caused repeated blackouts. Cuban authorities had no choice but to limit the sale of energy-hogging electrical devices such as cell phones; but once the country returned to energy sufficiency the restrictions were revoked.

"Cubans who want to log on [to the Internet] often have to give their names to the government."

What does that mean? Americans, thank God, can log onto the Internet without giving their names to the government. Their Internet Service Provider does it for them, furnishing their names to the government, along with their emails, when requested.

"Access to some Web sites is restricted."

Which ones? Why? More importantly, what information might a Cuban discover on the Internet that the government would not want him to know about? I can't imagine. Cubans are in constant touch with relatives in the US, by mail and in person. They get US television programs from Miami. International conferences on all manner of political, economic and social subjects are held regularly in Cuba. What does the American media think is the great secret being kept from the Cuban people by the nasty commie government?

"Cuba has a nascent blogging community, led by the popular commentator Yoani Sánchez, who often writes about how she and her husband are followed and harassed by government agents because of her Web posts. Sánchez has repeatedly applied for permission to leave the country to accept journalism awards, so far unsuccessfully."

According to a well-documented account⁷, Sánchez's tale of government abuse appears rather exaggerated. Moreover, she moved to Switzerland in 2002, lived there for two years, and then voluntarily returned to Cuba. On the other hand, in January 2006 I was invited to attend a book fair in Cuba, where one of my books, newly translated into Spanish, was being presented. However, the government of the United States would not give me permission to go. My application to travel to Cuba had also been rejected in 1998 by the Clinton administration.

"'Counterrevolutionary activities', which include mild protests and critical writings, carry the risk of censure or arrest. Anti-government graffiti and speech are considered serious crimes."

Raise your hand if you or someone you know of was ever arrested in the United States for taking part in a protest. And substitute "pro al-Qaeda" for "counterrevolutionary" and for "anti-government" and think of the thousands imprisoned the past eight years by the United States all over the world for ... for what? In most cases there's no clear answer. Or the answer is clear: (a) being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or (b) being turned in to collect a bounty offered by the United States, or (c) thought crimes. And whatever the reason for the imprisonment, they were likely tortured. Even the most fanatical anti-Castroites don't accuse Cuba of that. In the period of the Cuban revolution, since 1959, Cuba has had one of the very best records on human rights in the hemisphere. See my essay: "The United States, Cuba and this thing called Democracy".⁸

There's no case of anyone arrested in Cuba that compares in injustice and cruelty to the arrest in 1998 by the United States government of those who came to be known as the "Cuban Five", sentenced in Florida to exceedingly long prison terms for trying to stem terrorist acts against Cuba emanating from the US.⁹ It would be lovely if the Cuban government could trade their DAI prisoner for the five. Cuba, on several occasions, has proposed to Washington the exchange of a number of what the US regards as "political prisoners" in Cuba for the five Cubans held in the United States. So far the United States has not agreed to do so.

6. For more details on DAI, see Eva Golinger, "The Chávez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela" (2006) and her website, posting for December 31, 2009 ^↩
7. Salim Lamrani, professor at Paris Descartes University, "The Contradictions of Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez", Monthly Review magazine, November 12, 2009 ^↩
8. http://killinghope.org/bblum6/democ.htm ^↩
9. http://killinghope.org/bblum6/polpris.htm ^↩

–

Espionage in the United States and franchised U.S. foreign policy

Spy for Israel: get a get out of jail free card.

Spy for Cuba, go to jail and have the key thrown away.

In dropping the espionage case against former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman and dropping the prison sentence for their convicted Pentagon and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) mole, Larry Franklin, the Obama Justice Department has sent a message to American citizens who possess security clearance or obtain classified information form those who do: "It is perfectly okay to spy for Israel. You will not face dire consequences if you violate your pledge to safeguard classified information. And you will not be held responsible for causing grave and serious damage to the national security of the United States if you commit espionage for Israel."

The reason why the Obama administration has given a free pass to American spies for Israel is clear: the Israel lobby, led by AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Jewish caucus in Congress has received a "franchise" to handle U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The franchisees also have the power to grant amnesty to Americans accused of espionage for Israel.

The espionage case involving Franklin and his AIPAC and Mossad contacts did extremely grave damage to the national security of the United States. Among the classified information passed to Israeli intelligence was Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) CIA files dealing with U.S. policy toward Iran and U.S. counter-terrorist activities in Saudi Arabia. By nature, such information yields the identification of sensitive sources and intelligence gathering methods, thus compromising those sources and methods to an Israeli intelligence structure, which has already has penetrated the inner circles of every major U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agency, including the CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), DIA, FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and others.

In the Bush administration's indictment of Rosen and Weissman, a picture of a deep penetration Israeli intelligence operation was revealed. In addition to Franklin, David Satterfield, the former US ambassador to Lebanon and then the Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad under ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, was identified as USGO-2 [U.S. Government source number 2] and as someone who discussed classified national security information with the non-cleared Rosen on two occasions, January 18 and March 22, 2002. Two other people identified in the indictment, USGO-1, a senior government official, and DOD-B, a Department of Defense official, remained unidentified but suspicion as to the identity of DOD-B centered on Douglas Feith, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, who was also under investigation for leaking classified information on Iraq and "Al Qaeda" to the neocon Weekly Standard. It is also known that then House Intelligence Committee member Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) tried to interfere in the Justice Department's probe of Rosen, Weissman and their American and Israeli co-conspirators however it was never revealed whether she was USGO-1.

The indictment of Rosen and Weissman also mentioned Foreign Officials 1, 2, and 3. (FO1, FO-2, FO-3) as being involved in the espionage conspiracy. One of the "foreign officials" (F0-3) was Franklin's main Mossad contact, Naor Gilon, the Mossad station chief at the Israeli embassy in Washington and the man who is now the right-hand man as foreign ministry chief of staff for Israel's racist/fascist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The other "foreign official" (FO-2) was "retired" Mossad officer Uzi Arad, who is now the national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Both Gilon and Arad were involved in a major illegal foreign espionage operation in the United States and now serve at the top of the foreign policy and security infrastructure of the Israeli government. The identity of FO-1 is thought by many intelligence specialists to be Danny Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, who now serves as Deputy Foreign Minister under Lieberman and is back working with his old Mossad station chief from the AIPAC espionage operation, Gilon, the ministry's chief of staff. The result of their present status is that Israel has become a top hostile intelligence and counter-intelligence threat to the United States.

The Obama administration and its predecessor have taken a hard-line approach to any U.S. government official who is suspected of communicating anything of a possible national security value to Cuba, a nation that unlike Israel has posed no hostile intelligence or national security threat to the United States since the end of the Cold War.

The hard-line approach to those who liaise with Cuba is due to more "franchising" of U.S. foreign policy to pressure groups. In the case of Cuba, the franchisees are the powerful and right-wing Cuban exile community centered in south Florida.

The most recent targets of the Cuban exile lobby, which patterns its influence-peddling after its ideological bed-partners at AIPAC, are a retired husband and wife from the State Department. Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, both in their early 70s were arrested by the FBI in a dubious sting operation and charged with being long-time agents for the government of Cuba. It appears that their only crime was that they lived near the Cuban Interests Section in northwest Washington and likely accepted some invitations to interest section receptions and those thrown by the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York, and more egregious to the Cuban exiles, traveled to Cuba via Mexico in 1995 using aliases, a practice that is common among many Americans who want a hassle-free visit to Cuba and not face the problem of breaking U.S.-imposed sanctions on the country.

But when it comes to talking to Cuba, the Cuban exile lobby can be extremely tough on those who feel that it is proper and in the interests of the United States to maintain contact with the government in Havana.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro called the indictment of the Myerses "ridiculous." However, the exile Cuban lobby's chief cheerleader, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) used the incident to call for a halt in any talks between the Obama administration and Cuba. The Cuban exile lobby has also railed against leftist governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua and in doing so have a strong ally in AIPAC, which never fails to try to link Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and other progressive governments in Latin America to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and whatever other bogeymen the Israeli propaganda and influence-peddling factories of disinformation and deceit in Washington can dream up. Recently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, acting as if she is a leftover functionary of the Reagan-Bush administration, slashed U.S. economic aid to Nicaragua, which is governed by onetime arch-foe of the United States, the democratically-elected President Daniel Ortega. Ortega's sin is his diplomatic recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a slap at the Israeli, U.S., and neocon supported stooge regime of Mikhael Saakashvili in Georgia.

A former DIA analyst, Ana Belen Montes, was arrested by the FBI a little over a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks and charged with espionage for Cuba. In a plea deal, Montes pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, which she is serving at the Federal Medical Center at Carswell in Texas, a specialized medical and mental health center for female prisoners. Montes was also accused by prosecutors of having access to intelligence about Afghanistan that could somehow aid Cuba, a rather nonsensical notion considering that Cuba had nothing to do with the Taliban or "Al Qaeda." It is also noteworthy that Montes's defense attorney was Plato Cacheris, the same lawyer who represented Franklin in the AIPAC case. Cacheris's brother is James Cacheris, the senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and a one-time member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

It is ironic that Montes's DIA colleague, Franklin, has been spared a prison term whereas Montes's prison release date is July 1, 2023. The imbalance is a result of the suffocating influence of two lobbies, the Israel lobby and the Cuban exile lobby, over United States foreign policy.

It is also noteworthy that it was the Carswell facility where Susan Lindauer, who was maintaining a back channel to Saddam Hussein's government before the 2003 U.S. invasion on behalf of her controllers at the CIA and DIA, was sent by then-U.S. Judge Michael Mukasey for "psychiatric evaluation." The case against Lindauer, who was accused of acting as an agent for Iraq, was later dropped. Lindauer spoke of the mistreatment and forced drug use employed by federal Bureau of Prisons officials on female inmates at the Carswell facility.

And while three Israeli government officials who committed espionage against the United States causing serious damage to the safety and well-being of every American citizen are now serving in top positions in the government of Israel, five Cuban intelligence agents who were trying to protect their nation from terrorist attacks being planned withn the ranks of the Cuban exiles in south Florida, are rotting in an American prison. The five Cuban nationals, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González, were convicted of espionage and a dubious charge of conspiracy to commit murder. However, they were monitoring Cuban exile groups in south Florida who had previously committed terrorist attacks in Cuba, including deadly attacks on foreign-owned hotels, and were planning additional attacks.

An appeal of their case before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals result in the Cuba Five's conviction being upheld and remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The 11th Circuit decision was drawn up by Judge William Pryor. An appeal by the five to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in Obama administration Solicitor General Elena Kagan filing a brief requesting the Supreme Court to deny the Cubans' petition for a writ of certiorari. Kagan's decision provides yet another bellwether indicator of the connections between the Israel lobby and the Cuban exile lobby in meting out diametrically opposite justice in espionage cases. The unevenness in the scales of justice serve the interests of Israel and the Cuban right-wing exiles in Florida.

Infiltrating Alpha 66 By SAUL LANDAU

Infiltrating Alpha 66

An Interview with Gerardo Hernandez, Leader of the Cuban Five

By SAUL LANDAU

This conversation took place on April 1, 2009. Our film crew received Justice Department approval to talk with “the prisoner,” with a prison official in the room. Before his 1998 arrest, Gerardo Hernandez directed the operations of the other Cuban State Security agents who infiltrated violent groups in the Miami area for the purposes of stopping them from carrying our terrorist attacks on tourist sites in Cuba. We took complete and careful notes.

Saul Landau: What was your mission and why?

Gerardo Hernandez: In the US in general and Florida specifically, many groups contemplated and carried out acts of terrorism in Cuba. We were collecting information on Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue. Many years have passed and I hope that nothing has escaped me but I think those were the principal groups in which we working [infiltrating].

SL: What did you learn through your infiltration?

GH: The first thing that struck me was the impunity with which these groups operated, violating the laws of the US: The Neutrality Acts [of the 1790s] that supposedly means no organization can use American soil to commit terrorism against another country.

In the case of Alpha 66, the operatives would take a fast boat and shoot at targets along Cuba’s coast. When they would return to Miami, they would hold a press conference lecture and openly say what they had done.

And when someone would ask, “Hey, doesn’t that violate the neutrality laws,” they would reply: “Not really, because first we went to one of the Keys somewhere in the Caribbean and then we went to Cuba. So technically, we didn’t leave from the US.” They did this openly and no US agency took responsibility.

SL: In what years?

GH: This has been going on since 1959. I personally began dealing with this in the 1990s. Since I’ve been here in prison in Victorville [California] about 3 years ago, I think in 2005 they arrested a Cuban right here in this county with an arsenal, all kinds of weapons in his house. And the first thing he said was, “Well, I am a member of Alpha 66 and I’m using these weapons in the struggle for Cuban freedom.” That was his defense.

SL: Were the Cuban Five all volunteers? How does one prepare to infiltrate an enemy group in an enemy country? And then act as if you were enemies of your country and friends of them?

GH: Yes, all volunteers. In my case, I’m not a career military man. I studied to be a diplomat. It took me 6 years to complete my degree in International and Political Relations. Afterwards, I went to Angola, as part of a voluntary international mission. And while I was in Angola it seems I sparked the attention of the Cuban intelligence services, and when I got back, they approached me with this mission. They said, “We know you studied to be a diplomat, but you know our country has a certain situation with these terrorist groups that are coming from Florida to commit all kinds of crimes and we need someone to go and fulfill these tasks.”

I could have said “No, I studied diplomacy, I want to be a diplomat,” but Cubans, those who were raised with the Revolution, know that during the past 50 years our country has faced almost a war environment. In Cuba, he who doesn’t know personally a victim of terrorism, at least knows about the plane that exploded over Barbados, killing 73 people [October 1976]. Who doesn’t know about the bomb [in 1997] that killed Fabio di Selmo [an Italian tourist and guest at Havana’s Hotel Copacabana detonated by a Salvadoran who said he was hired by Luis Posada ] just to mention a few acts? There was a pre-school where the counter revolutionaries lit a [gas] tank on fire. These actions are part of the Cuban conscience. So, I told the Intelligence officers, “Yes, I am prepared to fulfill this mission.”

SL: How did you manage to infiltrate these groups? How did you convince them, people like Jose Basulto [head of Brothers to the Rescue], for example?

GH: For Cubans in this country, everything is connected. Cubans in the United States have enormous privileges, ones that no other citizens of the world have. Cubans arrive by any route, including with false passports, and the only thing they have to say is, “I come seeking freedom,” and right away the US gives them all the documents they need. So, in the case of Basulto, for example, one of our comrades who infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue had originally “stolen” a plane from Cuba. Rene [Gonzalez, another of the Cuban Five] flew his plane here and, as is the custom, he was received as a hero. He got lots of attention and, later joined the Brothers. His job was collecting information about that organization.

So, if you ask me how, I say that we used as our foundation for infiltration the very privileges all Cubans receive when they arrive in this country; even those who took others with them, and have hijacked airplanes, or have put a gun up to a pilot’s head. Look at people like Leonel Matias, who [in 1994 he hijacked a boat in Cuba and killed a naval officer in the process] killed someone on a boat, arrived here on that boat, with his gun -- and the body was even discovered. But despite all of that, he didn’t have to face any processes in the U.S. justice system. Those people are automatically pardoned. So using exactly that kind of advantage, we were able to penetrate to a certain level, these organizations.

When I mention Brothers to the Rescue, some might think, “This is a humanitarian organization that rescued balseros [rafters].” On the contrary, while their activities were limited to rescuing balseros, they had no problems with the Cuban authorities. What people tend not know is that Jose Basulto, the head of that organization, has a long record as a terrorist. He trained with the CIA, and infiltrated Cuba in the 1960s. In 1962, he came to Cuba on a fast boat and fired shells at the Cuban coast, including targeting a hotel. Even Basulto, with all his known history, had no problems while he limited his actions to rescuing balseros. In 1995, however, the United States and Cuba signed migratory agreements specifying that boats intercepted at sea would no longer be brought to the United States; rather they would be returned to Cuba. At that point, people stopped contributing money to Basulto and his organization because, they said: “Why are we going to give money to Basulto’s organization? When he calls the coast guard, they are just going to return those balseros to Cuba?”

So, when Basulto saw his business in danger, he invented this invasion [in 1995] of Cuban airspace as a way to keep people donating money. We presented this evidence in our case. If the press hasn’t wanted to pay much attention to this…well, they don’t want to touch such material. It doesn’t behoove them. I am referring to the corporate press. The documents are all there showing how Basulto and the Brothers to the Rescue were trying out handmade weapons in order to introduce them in Cuba.

When Basulto testified at our trial [2001], our attorneys asked him what he intended to do with all those weapons. All this is in the trial record, though no one seems to want to pay attention to it. People tend to talk about the Brothers to the Rescue as if they were a humanitarian organization, omitting the part about terrorism; like they omit the facts that the FBI had penetrated that organization as well. The FBI had someone inside the group giving them information on the Brothers’ activities. Why would the FBI penetrate a humanitarian organization?

Saul Landau is currently making (with Jack Willis) a film on the Cuban Five. His other films are available on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com. He is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and autho of A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD (Counterpunch A/K).

The Cuban 5 Must be Freed

One of the oddest “espionage” cases on record is that of the so-called “Cuban 5.” The US Supreme Court is presently being petitioned to hear this case, a petition that has been accompanied by twelve amicus briefs from significant individuals and organizations. The essence of this case is in some respects quite straight forward. Terrorist attacks have been conducted against Cuba, in one form or another, since the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. These terrorist attacks have ranged from assassinations, to bombings, to an ill-fated attempt in the mid 1960s to set up anti-government guerrilla bases within Cuba itself. What these terrorist attacks have had in common has been the explicit or implicit support of the US government. What they have also had in common has been the support of right-wing Cuban exiles in the USA. In that context it should come as no surprise that the Cuban government would have an interest in knowing - in advance - of the plans by right-wing exile groups to carry out terrorist attacks. This is no different than any of the rhetoric we have been subject to by the US government since 11 September 2001 regarding the need to get ahead of the curve in knowing about terrorist assaults. Yet when the Cuban government deployed 5 individuals to investigate exile activity directed against the government of Cuba, and not investigating anything connected to the US government, arrests were carried out and convictions brought about in what can only be described as a kangaroo court. Although there is a committee organized for the defense of the Cuban 5 (National Committee to Free the Cuban Five:), the case has received little objective attention in the US and there has been almost no US public awareness of the efforts to bring the case to the US Supreme Court. The activities of the Cuban 5 have been treated as if they were out of a Cold War Soviet spy operation, rather than being a response to nearly fifty years of aggression by the US government and its right-wing Cuban exile allies. The arrest and conviction of the Cuban 5 was a hypocritical action by the US, particularly in light of its rhetoric regarding a war against terrorism. Yet fear of an indictment for hypocrisy has never dissuaded the US from taking actions that the rest of the world condemns. This is all old news. We now have a new President - President Obama - and confronting him is not only the challenge of whether he will continue Bush’s so-called war against terrorism, but whether he will alter the on-going, hostile approach of the US against Cuba. Step #1 should be the freeing of the Cuban 5. They have been imprisoned under inhumane conditions after their convictions and their imprisonment stands as testimony to a foreign policy that has lost all credibility in the eyes of the global community. President Obama has sent signals to the effect that US policy toward Cuba will change…slightly. It may become easier for families to reconnect and ultimately travel restrictions may be eased. But this is insufficient. The totality of US policy toward Cuba must be revamped. After all, it has not been Cuba that has launched attacks against the USA. Had Cuba carried out periodic incursions into the USA; had it supported individuals who bombed airplanes and hotels; and had it carried out assassination attempts against US Presidents, we would not even be having this discussion: Cuba would be a cinder. President Obama: the “Cuban 5” must be freed. BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and co-author of, Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher.