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history favours the intrepid. - Ruz.<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 02/24/2015 03:11 AM, David Johnson
via Peace-discuss wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Denying History: Cuba in
the German Liberal Press<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">By: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/staff/fzollmann"
title="Florian Zollmann"><span style="color:blue">Florian
Zollmann</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><img id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:part2.05050006.00030700@pigsqq.org"
alt="Description: Hundreds of thousands turned out to
listen to President Raul Castro" width="600" height="340"
border="0"></span><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Hundreds of thousands
turned out to listen to President Raul Castro's messaged
on the 55th anniversary of the Cuban revolt. | Photo:
Reuters<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Published 21 February 2015 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">0<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><img id="Picture_x0020_2"
src="cid:part3.06030104.06070507@pigsqq.org"
alt="Description: Coments" width="27" height="23"
border="0"></span><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The U.S.-Cuban negotiations
were extensively discussed in the liberal German press. A
closer reading of the news indicated a slant in coverage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">On 17 December 2014, U.S.
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro
announced “normalization” of U.S.-Cuban relations. As a
first step of rapprochement, an agreement between both
countries included the release of political prisoners. It
was also announced that at a later point in time
restrictions on trade, travel and exchange were going to be
eased. Obama was also considering to discuss in Congress as
to whether the embargo imposed on Cuba in 1962 should be
dissolved. Already in 1961, US President Dwight D.
Eisenhower had terminated diplomatic relations with Cuba in
reaction to the Cuban Revolution. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The U.S.-Cuban negotiations
were extensively discussed in the liberal German press. A
closer reading of the news indicated a slant in coverage:
Cuba was depicted as a terror state and a nefarious actor.
The USA, on the other hand, was described as a benign actor
with noble aims such as to bring democracy and reforms to
Cuba. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">This was suggested by the
following exemplary quotes: The <i>Süddeutsche Zeitung </i>argued
that the Cuban regime was “undemocratic” and “conducts human
rights violations.” (Süddeutsche.de, 17 December 2014) The <i>Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung </i>referred to Obama who had asked
“his Foreign Secretary John Kerry to assess Cuba’s status as
a ‘terror don’.” (FAZ.NET, 17. December 2014) <i>Die Welt </i>highlighted
how “Washington seeks a new way: trade, tourism and (…)
unprecedented communication freedoms are assumed to
encourage reforms” in Cuba (Welt.de, 18. Dezember 2014). The
<i>Frankfurter Rundschau </i>contextualized Cuba and
terrorism: “Since 1982, the island is on Washington’s list
of states which, in the eyes of the USA, support terrorist
activities.” (FR-Online.de, 20. Dezember 2014). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Terrorism</span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Since the Cuban Revolution
led by Fidel Castro in 1959 and the disposal of
U.S.-supported Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, numerous
Cuban exiles have settled in the state of Florida. To a
significant extend, Cuban exiles constitute political
refugees who seek to establish an alternative political and
economic system in Cuba. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The USA has been supporting
Cuban exile groups with political and financial means. In
fact, the CIA has aided exiles in conducting subversive
activities against the Castro regime. Noam Chomsky argues in
his book <i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1027/tomgram%253A__noam_chomsky_on__terrorizing_cuba/"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Hegemony or
Survival</span></a> </i>that shortly after the Cuban
Revolution in March 1959, the National Security Council
(NSC) “considered means to instigate regime change” in Cuba.
Already in May 1959 “the CIA began to arm guerrillas inside
Cuba,” Chomsky further writes, and in Winter, CIA-led Cuban
exiles conducted bombing raids. Chomsky describes such
policies as “international terrorist attacks against Cuba.”
In <i>Hegemony or Survival</i>, Chomsky further documents
how similar policies had been conducted by U.S. successor
governments. For instance, Chomsky writes the following
about the government of U.S. President Richard Nixon:
“Terrorist activities continued under Nixon, peaking in the
mid-1970s, with attacks on fishing boats, embassies, and
Cuban offices overseas, and the bombing of a Cubana
airliner, killing all seventy-three passengers. These and
subsequent terrorist operations were carried out from US
territory, though by then they were regarded as criminal
acts by the FBI.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The U.S.-American politician
Bill van Auken wrote on the <i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/12/18/cuba-d18.html"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">World Socialist
Website</span></a> </i>that the USA has sponsored and
protected Cuban exile terrorists” whose attacks “have
claimed thousands of lives.” To label Cuba as a terrorist
state would thus constitute “a grotesque inversion of the
real relationship.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Castro’s Idea</span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Such views are hardly
disseminated by the German liberal press which rather
associates Cuba with terrorism. Press coverage demonizes
Cuban society and this framing serves U.S. interests. Who
remembers that before the Revolution, the Cuban people were
subjugated by a US client regime? U.S. historian <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://zcomm.org/zcommentary/the-narrow-media-spectrum-on-us-cuban-relations/"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Paul
Street argues this in an article for <i>ZNet</i></span></a>:
“Mid-20th Century Cuba was a desperately impoverished island
scarred by savage economic inequality, military
dictatorship, and related scourges of racism, disease, and
illiteracy all reinforced by U.S. control in service to
great U.S. business interests. The Batista era (1952-1959)
witnessed the nearly total domination of the Cuban economy
by U.S. corporations and the related political domination of
the island by Washington.“ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">After the Revolution, the USA
was concerned about Cuba’s independence, which could have
served as a model for other countries in the Latin American
hemisphere. This is evidenced by John F. Kennedy advisor <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1027/tomgram%253A__noam_chomsky_on__terrorizing_cuba/"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Arthur
Schlesinger’s </span></a><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1027/tomgram%253A__noam_chomsky_on__terrorizing_cuba/"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">warning</span></a>about
“the Castro idea of taking matters into one's own hands.
“Schlesinger wrote in a report for the Kennedy
administration that “Castro’s idea” could be particular
effective in areas where “the distribution of land and other
forms of national wealth greatly favors the propertied
classes,” because in such regions, the poor could be
“stimulated by the example of the Cuban revolution” and
demand “opportunities for a decent living.” Accordingly, it
could be argued that the subversive policies against Cuba
and the economic sanctions were designed in order to counter
progressive developments in Cuba. This was so because in
practice, “Castro’s idea” included the nationalization of
industries at the expense of U.S. business interests. This
critical context has largely been ignored in the German
press. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">But if we assess the current
rapprochement between Cuba and the USA, the historical
background and its implications need to be considered. U.S.
interests in Latin America have not changed. As <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/12/19/regime-change-cuba-paul-craig-roberts/"
target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Paul Craig
Roberts</span></a> comments: “Normalization of relations
with Cuba is not the result of a diplomatic breakthrough or
a change of heart on the part of Washington.” In fact,
Roberts further argues: “Normalization is a result of U.S.
corporations seeking profit opportunities in Cuba.” Together
with “normalization,” foreign currency and a U.S. embassy
will settle in Cuba. This has the broader goal of taking
over Cuba’s political and economic affairs: “In short,
normalization of relations means regime change in Cuba.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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