[Peace-discuss] Re: Fwd: Wayne Smith: Cuba Shaping Up as Iraq II

[Stephen Denney]

At 03:44 PM 5/30/2004 -0500, Al Kagen wrote:
>FYI, from the former Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana.
>
>>Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 07:02:12 -0700 (PDT)
>>From: Ann Sparanese <sparanese at yahoo.com>
>>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:13968] Wayne Smith: Cuba Shaping Up as Iraq II
>>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
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>>Note the paragraphs on the dissidents. This is not the
>>first time that both Paya and Sanchez have spoken out
>>against foreign funding of dissidents. Wayne Smith is
>>a former Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana
>>and NOT a leftist of any stripe.
>>
>>Ann Sparanese
>>
>>***


It is also noteworthy that Wayne Smith does not share the view of Ann and 
some others within the ALA that the dissidents in Cuba who were arrested 
and imprisoned last April were punished for receiving U.S. funds. I wrote 
to him after reading an article he wrote in which he said the prisoners 
were obviously not U.S. agents. Here was his response:

"Dear Mr. Denney: I haven't really written anything on this. The thing is
that I know many of the dissidents and know that they have a firm position
against accepting any money from official U.S. sources because of the
damage that would do to their nationalist credentials -- to say nothing of
the problems it might cause them with the Cuban authorities.In any large
group of people, inevitably there will be some exceptions. There may be a
few, for example, who accepted money from State Security agents posing as
U.S. conduits, but to say the dissidents as a group were simply
'mercenaries'  is quite wrong.
         "The problem, however, is that the 1996 Helms-Burton Act calls for
increased U.S. support for internal dissidents, and since then there have
been a number of appropriations bills providing several million dollars to
help promote democracy inside Cuba. Now, as Elizardo Sanchez, the leading
human rights activist and one of those who would never take a nickel, put
it shortly after the first appropriations bill, 'the good news is that
virtually all that money will remain in the pockets of the groups in
Miami; the bad news is that even if it does, it gives the Cuban government
something to point to suggesting we are all paid agents of the U.S.'
         "What's the old saying about not needing enemies with friends like
these?"

I think within the ALA there has been a rush to judgment by some to accept 
at face value charges made against the dissidents in rigged political show 
trials in which they were deprived of the right of a proper legal defense. 
We don't accept these kind of trials as valid in the U.S., why then in Cuba?

Amnesty International has protested this crackdown and considers the 
detained dissidents to be prisoners of conscience. AI is also highly 
critical of U.S. policy toward Cuba. I think it should be possible for us 
here to adopt a similar approach, to AI or Wayne Smith.

  - Steve Denney


>>Cuba shaping up as Iraq II
>>By WAYNE S. SMITH
>>ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
>>Published on: 05/27/04
>>
>>The path by which the Bush administration led us into
>>the
>>nightmarish Iraqi quagmire is strewn with arrogance,
>>flawed
>>assumptions, faulty intelligence and downright lies.
>>It
>>seems determined to make the same mistakes all over
>>again
>>with Cuba.
>>
>>The administration listened all too trustingly to a
>>small
>>group of Iraqi exiles. We see the result. A disaster.
>>
>>Now the administration is listening to another tiny
>>knot of
>>hard-line exiles in Miami. Just a little more economic
>>pressure and Fidel Castro will be gone, the latter are
>>saying. The Bush administration will then have a great
>>victory. As Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega
>>assured Congress on Oct. 2 of last year: "The
>>president is
>>determined to see the end of the Castro regime and the
>>dismantling of the apparatus that has kept him in
>>office
>>for so long."
>>
>>On May 6, President Bush announced new measures to
>>achieve
>>that goal and supposedly assist the Cuban people after
>>the Castro regime is no more. As one reads over the
>>recommendations (all 500 pages of them), one has the
>>sense
>>that in the minds of the authors at least, the U.S.
>>occupation of Cuba has already begun.
>>
>>A U.S. "Transition Coordinator" is to be appointed to
>>run
>>the show, as Paul Bremer has run it in Iraq. He'll
>>oversee
>>economic reconstruction, setting up the right kind of
>>schools, making sure the trains run on time and all
>>such
>>matters. We can be sure that contracts for Bechtel and
>>Halliburton are already planned.
>>
>>Just as the administration ignored the United Nations
>>Security Council and trampled international
>>conventions
>>(such as the Geneva Convention) in pursuing its
>>misadventure in Iraq, so too is it following that
>>pattern
>>in Cuba. One of its principal instruments for putting
>>an
>>end to the Castro regime, it says, is aid to the
>>internal
>>dissidents. When one government assists organized
>>groups in
>>another country in efforts to oust their government,
>>that
>>is blatant intervention in the second country's
>>internal
>>affairs, and in this case a clear violation of the
>>Charter
>>of the Organization of American States, even if the
>>means
>>remain peaceful.
>>
>>And who can be sure they will? Already, U.S. Rep.
>>Lincoln
>>Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), one of the exiles from whom the
>>administration is taking its cues, is urging that
>>consideration be given to assassinating Castro, and
>>other
>>Florida politicians are calling for use of force.
>>
>>What do the dissidents inside Cuba, those the new
>>measures
>>are supposed to assist, think of this? Well, their
>>principal leaders have denounced the new measures and
>>made
>>it clear they want nothing to do with them.
>>
>>Oswaldo Paya, the chairman of the Varela Project, a
>>free
>>speech/human rights initiative, says they are
>>"unhelpful
>>and unwelcome." Elizardo Sanchez, head of the National
>>Commission for Human Rights, describes them as
>>"counterproductive meddling." And Manuel Cuesta Morua,
>>leader of a coalition of social democratic forces,
>>insists:
>>"The United States has absolutely no right to define
>>the
>>how, what or when, or the pace and timing of the
>>democratic
>>transition in Cuba."
>>
>>When measures are denounced by those they are supposed
>>to
>>support, it is a sure sign that they aren't likely to
>>work.
>>And what has been the reaction of other Cubans - those
>>who
>>aren't dissidents? More than a million demonstrated
>>against
>>the new measures a few days ago.
>>
>>Perhaps the demonstrations weren't spontaneous. Few
>>things
>>in Cuba are. But on the other hand, put yourself in
>>the
>>place of the average Cuban looking at those pictures
>>of the
>>Iraqi prisoners being abused by American soldiers.
>>Would
>>you be enthusiastic over the idea of a Bush-appointed
>>"transition coordinator" for Cuba? Probably not.
>>Cubans
>>want change, yes, but not an American-run transition.
>>Our
>>reputation for nation-building isn't very high at the
>>moment.
>>
>>It is also clear that the great majority of the
>>Cuban-American community also oppose the measures. No
>>wonder. They are the ones who will suffer most. Now
>>they
>>will only be able to visit their families in Cuba
>>every
>>three years, rather than once a year. The range of
>>relatives to whom they can send money is also reduced.
>>And
>>for what? Does anyone think such restrictions will
>>bring
>>down the Castro government? Not likely.
>>
>>Finally, the administration is going to have military
>>aircraft transmit radio and television programming to
>>Cuba
>>from international airspace. That will be expensive
>>and
>>also violates the International Communications
>>Convention.
>>Nor will it have any significant effect. Radio Marti
>>has
>>been broadcasting for some 20 years with only
>>occasional
>>jamming. It has not changed Cuban public opinion one
>>iota
>>in all that time.
>>
>>For all its bluster, the administration's revamped
>>Cuba
>>policy is even more clearly foredoomed than the Iraqi
>>policy. The latter is fast losing support across the
>>United
>>States. The Cuba policy retains only that of a tiny
>>group
>>of hard-line exiles in Florida. The will of the
>>majority at
>>some point soon will prevail.
>>
>>. Wayne S. Smith is a senior fellow at the Center for
>>International Policy in Washington and an adjunct
>>professor
>>at Johns Hopkins University.
>>
>>[]
>>
>>Find this article at:
>>http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0504/27smith.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>--
>
>
>Al Kagan
>African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
>Africana Unit, Room 328
>University of Illinois Library
>1408 W. Gregory Drive
>Urbana, IL 61801, USA
>
>tel. 217-333-6519
>fax. 217-333-2214
>e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu