Iraq - Cuba

This is most interesting. I too was wondering whether there 
is a deeper connection between the Serb situation and Iraq, 
thinking that maybe the reason is that both represent remnants 
of "hardcore" socialist states. The very thing that capitalist 
globalization is against, namely states should be soft and 
"tradable" (if you get what I mean). What I read here places 
Cuba in a similar bracket. Obviously North Korea as well. 

Berend Schuitema

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There is a close connection between Washington's 
war against Iraq and its decades-long war against
Cuba. Please read this material carefully. News of
the war shouldn't obscure a steady increase in the
tensions between Havana and Washington recently.

We're at the confluence of several critical and related
activities in US-Cuban relations which are both closely
linked and obviously inter-related. Trying to both grasp
their magnitude and to understand them isn't easy, but
the upcoming materials will, I hope, be helpful. We're
at another new and significant world-historical turning
point as Washington tries to re-draw the military and
political maps of the world. Cuba has been removed
from the focus of much of the media, except in South
Florida where anti-Cuba propaganda is continuing at
a frenzied pace in places like the Miami Herald.

Fidel Castro went on Cuban television for four hours on
Saturday. His remarks were broadcast on all three of
Cuba's TV channels and rebroadcast on Sunday. His
themes included the most recent hijacking from Cuba
of a small passenger plane. Most of the passengers
and crew have now been returned, but some have 
been kept in the US. Washington says it will try the
hijackers for their action. That would be unusual if it
does happen. One previous group of hijackers was
found innocent by a Florida jury and were released.

Fidel's remarks will certainly be translated and put
out soon and we'll bring them to you as soon as
they are available. 

By contrast, Cuba prosecuted and imprisoned those
who hijacked US airplanes and too them to Cuba,
even if Cuba eventually released them and granted
them political asylum.

The Cuban president met those hijacking survivors 
who did return at the airport in Havana and some 
were interviewed on the Cuban TV.

Washington has disrupted and now made virtually 
impossible the preparation of a defense by the five
Cuban men convicted and sentenced to extremely
long prison sentences for their activities monitoring
Cuban exile ultra-right terrorist groups in the US.

These five men have been placed into solitary
confinement, and separated into five different jails
far from one another. No claim has been made that
the men violated any prison rules. Indeed, they all
have been model prisoners by all reports.

US businesses and elected officials who want to
expand business and other ties to the island,
motivated for a range of reasons, have continued
to visit the island and make calls for a reversal of
long-time US policies toward the island continue
without interruption. On the island they make a
stream of statements calling for normalization of
relations between the two countries. 

Within this context, the recent escalation in acts
of extreme provocation against Cuba by the head
of the US Interests Section, James Cason make
political sense. Part of this is connected with the
meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in
Geneva. Cuba sent its foreign minister there to
defend the island, but more, to defend both the
UNHRC and the United Nations as a whole from
Washington's attacks on the world body. 

Unlike any other member of the diplomatic corps, 
Washington's man in Havana. James Cason, 
has gone out of his way to provoke a response 
from the Cubans. Perhaps they hope to Cuba 
will decide to close the US Interests Section in 
Havana. As usual, they haven't got a clue as 
Cuba always responds in its own time and on 
its own schedule. 

Washington's unprovoked war against Iraq is also
on the minds of people on the island, which also is
impacting on the island. The war against Iraq has
both implications for and obvious links to the war
Washington has waged for over four decades 
against Cuba. An extremely significant article 
came out Friday in the Wall Street Journal Friday
reporting on the US seizure of $1.87 BILLION in
Iraqi assets which had been held in US banks.

The WSJ directly links this seizure with previous
US seizures of Cuban assets. 

I've participated in protests and will continue to
do so, which has affected the flow of information
to this list to an extent, but will do my best to
continue to provide as much as possible to you.

To see a wide selection of coverage of Cuba and
the some of the links between the war on Iraq and
US-Cuba relations, please go to CubaNews list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages


Walter Lippmann, Moderator
CubaNews list