Castro Accuses Bush of Plotting to Assassinate Him

[DUreader]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0130-01.htm


President Fidel Castro accused US President George W. Bush of planning to have him assassinated to overthrow
Cuba's communist government.

Castro also warned Friday that he was ready to "go down fighting" if the United States should try to invade Cuba
at any time.

Speaking at the end of a regional meeting against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) here, Castro said
Bush had conspired to assassinate him.

"We knew that Mr. Bush had made a commitment with the mafia of the Cuban-American Foundation to kill me. I
accuse him of this," Castro told some 1,000 representatives from 32 nations.


snip

[Wetzelbill]

1. Fidel meet Mr. Hugo Chavez, you have some things in common

[jobycom]

2. Mymymy, Bush is afraid of losing after all!

This means that Bush is rolling the dice to shore up support in Florida, and maybe that he's trying to tie up loose ends before going down. Otherwise he'd wait until after the election.

I'm assuming it's true. I'd believe Castro over Bush. I'd believe Joe Isuzu over Bush.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. I Wouldn't Put It Past The Shrub

I wouldn't put it past the right wing ivory tower dreamers in charge of this reckless administration to seriously think about assasinating Fidel Castro. While I am no fan of Fidel Castro's authoritarian government and no admirer of the economic mess that the shape of the Cuban Revolution has made of the Cuban economy, I think that assasinating Fidel would be one of the biggest(Darn) fool actions this administration could take to sour relations with the rest of this hemisphere. It also strikes me as the sort of action the Cuban exiles in Dubya's entourage would advocate.

[BiggJawn]

4. Family Tradition. Viva Zapata!

Zapata Oil, that is, intelligence gathering arm of the CIA for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

One last little bit of Poppy's unfinished business. That and Dutch and Gerry....

[Osolomia]

5. Imperialists? Who Us? Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List

January 30, 2004

Imperialists? Who Us?
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
By SAUL LANDAU

Thanks to the Bush bravado, a new office pool game in Washington national security circles emerged. Organizers take bets on which country the United States will next invade. The inventors of this new boredom-cutting exercise still seek a name for their amusement: "Jeopardy" and "Survivor" are taken. How about: "Who's Next?"

In December 2003, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi narrowed the possibilities by removing his nation from competition when he eschewed nuclear, chemical and biological weapons ambitions and invited UN inspectors to Tripoli. Office bets now range from Syria and Iran in the Middle East to North Korea in the Far East, to Cuba, ninety miles south of Key West.

These "rogue nations" share the characteristic of having refused to fall into line behind Washington's dictates. Using "rogue" to describe disobedience plays well at home. It allows the Administration to convert lies into axioms. For example, Washington labels Havana "terrorist," despite the fact that the United States has launched thousands of terrorist missions against Cuba and has no evidence of Cuba initiating any retaliatory terrorist acts.

Between Spring 1961 and Fall 1962, the CIA dispatched hundreds of agents to Cuba to assassinate, blow up and burn property and cause mayhem. Terrorism against Cuba continued sporadically for decades -- well into the 1990s -- under the guise that somehow this would help the United States restore democracy to the island.

More...
http://www.counterpunch.org/landau01302004.html

[Judi Lynn]

9. The more you learn about our relationship with Latin America

the more you are forced to realize you've been totally bamboozled.

At some point, rational people start seeing through the lies, and waking up. To do otherwise would sound like a deep emotional need to see elected officials as benevolent, REGARDLESS of the evidence.

I can't imagine how mentally collapsed/dim/weak/sluggish/lazy/ill you'd have to be to NEVER start catching on about US history concerning Latin America.

Good article by Saul Landau, thank you for posting it. I appreciate this snippet particularly:

(snip) In 1952, the US supported General Fulgencio Batista after he staged his electoral coup and removed democracy from the island's political structure. But serious national security mavens rarely ruffle their aggressive feathers with facts. By repeating cliches about US motives being noble and democratic while Presidents authorize illegal wars and overthrows of foreign governments, the Administration induces the mass media to follow the line whatever it is; at least temporarily. (snip)

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Hmmmmm , with the quality of the USA' s Military "intelligence" - -

.
.

Are we all happily connfident that all those silos discovered during the Cuban Missile Crisis are EMPTY ???

or that they even found them all in the first place ?

hmmm . . .

[Osolomia]

7. Dream on

February 13, 1996
Assessment on Cuba

A group of senior retired U.S. military and diplomatic officials have returned from a five day tour of Cuba (February 5-9) with observations of a nation slowly liberalizing its political and economic structures at the same time their shrinking military forces are assuming a new role.

Led by Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll, U.S. Navy (Ret.), now Deputy Director of the Center for Defense Information, and Ambassador Robert White, Director of the Center for International Policy, formerly U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay, the group visited a number of military facilities as well as the partially completed nuclear power plant at Juragua near Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Other members were Major General Edward Atkeson, U.S. Army (Ret); Brigadier General William Lanagan, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret); Vice Admiral Ralph Weymouth, U.S. Navy (Ret); and Jack Mendelsohn, a retired foreign service officer, now Deputy Director of the Arms Control Association.

... "There is nothing going on in Cuba today which poses any threat to the security interests of the United States in military, political or nuclear terms."

More...
http://www.cdi.org/issues/cuba/cubatrip.html

[Judi Lynn]

10. What an eye-opener. We haven't been hearing stories like this ordinarily

concerning high-ranking U.S. military and government figures, invited to Cuba during Bill Clinton's Presidency. This is fascinating. I doubt they share _Bush's contrived image of Cuba as a "terrorist" problem, given their spokesman's observation.

(snip) Led by Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll, U.S. Navy (Ret.), now Deputy Director of the Center for Defense Information, and Ambassador Robert White, Director of the Center for International Policy, formerly U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay, the group visited a number of military facilities as well as the partially completed nuclear power plant at Juragua near Cienfuegos, Cuba. Other members were Major General Edward Atkeson, U.S. Army (Ret); Brigadier General William Lanagan, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret); Vice Admiral Ralph Weymouth, U.S. Navy (Ret); and Jack Mendelsohn, a retired foreign service officer, now Deputy Director of the Arms Control Association.

Hosted by the Chief of Staff of the Cuban military forces, General Rosales del Toro, the group was given full access to active military bases and schools as well as sites formerly occupied by Soviet forces during the Cold War. A major conclusion is that Cuba is finally beginning to recover from the severe dislocations suffered when the Soviet Union suddenly withdrew its military and economic support in 1992. This recovery has been aided by considerable relaxation of previous restrictions on private enterprise within Cuba and by inviting foreign investors to participate in joint economic ventures, particularly in tourism and mining. Farmers' markets are flourishing and small family businesses are springing up everywhere.

The Cuban military budget is now down to $600,000,000 annually (less than the U.S. spends in one day) and numbers approximately 150,000 active troops (10% of U.S. strength). More importantly, about 60,000 of these troops are young conscripts who are assigned to Youth Army units primarily engaged in running farms and construction tasks. Overall, the Army now produces between 20 and 25% of Cuban food supplies. The Army is actively engaged through GAVIOTA, the official Cuban tourist agency, in building hotels.
(snip)

(from the article)

Thanks for taking the time to create some educational opportunities for the willing, Osolomia.

[Dirk39]

8. I still have doubts...

this would be the most stupid thing, the people behind Bush could ever do. There would be so much hate against the U.S-government all over the globe, that none of these fashists could ever sleep calm again.
Even old-europe-style kind of cowards and pacifists might turn into something, you better not force them to become. Another war against terror would start, but this time against real terrorists,the most dangerous gang of terrorists in the history of mankind.

The american elites will wait 'till Castro dies, I guess. And maybe they will be surprised that even then, the people of Cuba will not buy into their free-market fundamentalism with a democratic façade of corporation and US-investions puppets.

Altough I'm not sure about this. If they turn about 15% of the Cubans into halfway middleclass wealthy people, feed a small corrupt elite with dollars, while the rest of the Cubans starve into the streets without education, healtcare and something to eat, begging wealthy americans to fuck them for 2 dollars, it might work for some years untill the next revolution....
Dirk

[lazarus]

11. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=338396