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Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 04:14:57 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC Weekend Update-15 Sept 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 15 September 2001
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*THOUSANDS CONDEMN TERRORISM, DEMAND RELEASE OF CUBANS HELD BY US
*US ACTIVIST AND PROF. NOAM CHOMSKY WARNS THE WORST IS YET TO COME
*NEGROPONTE WINS UNANIMOUS SENATE APPROVAL IN WAKE OF ATTACKS
*RUSSIAN PRESIDENT URGES WASHINGTON NOT TO ACT LIKE BANDITS
*US PLANNED TO COMMIT DOMESTIC TERRORISM AND BLAME CUBA AS PRETEXT TO INVADE
*CUBA OBSERVES WORLD DAY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE OZONE LAYER
*FIDEL HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCES IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH
*PRESIDENT OF MALI WINDS UP OFFICIAL VISIT TO CUBA
*RAUL CASTRO PRESIDES OVER 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MILITARY SCHOOL
.
*THOUSANDS CONDEMN TERRORISM, DEMAND RELEASE OF CUBANS HELD BY US
Havana, September 15 (RHC)--In the wake of Tuesday's terrorist
attacks against New York and Washington, more than 20,000 Cubans
gathered this morning in Majibacoa, located in eastern Las Tunas
Province, to demand an end to all types of terrorism.
Participants and speakers showed their solidarity with the U.S.
people for the tragedy they are suffering. Speakers recalled that
Cuba has been the victim itself of terrorism and pointed to the 1976
in-flight sabotage of a Cubana airliner with 73 people on board. Luis
Posada Carriles, currently being held in Panama, and Orlando Bosch,
walking the streets of Miami, masterminded that terrorist attack.
Teachers, doctors, young children and farmers took their turns at the
podium to voice their solidarity with the five Cubans in jail in the
US. For Cuba, the five are patriotic citizens who were helping the
island to preserve its national security in the face of terrorist
actions against Cuba, that repeatedly, and with impunity, are being
organized and financed in the United States.
The rally, which was headed by Cuban Vice President Raul Castro, also
demanded an end to the U.S. blockade against the island, the Cuba
Adjustment Act and the Helms-Burton Law.
*US ACTIVIST PROF. NOAM CHOMSKY WARNS THE WORST IS YET TO COME
Havana, September 15 (RHC)-- U.S. political activist and
academic Noam Chomsky warns that the impending military strikes by
the United States against so-called "terrorist states" overshadows
the recent attacks in New York and Washington.
In an editorial published in this morning's Granma newspaper, Chomsky
writes that the terrorist attacks against the U.S. were "major
atrocities." But he adds that "in scale, they may not reach the level
of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no
credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and
killing unknown numbers of people."
The well-known linguistics professor points out that this week's
events will "likely prove to be a crushing blow to Palestinians and
other poor and oppressed people" and "lead to harsh security
controls, with many possible ramifications for undermining civil
liberties and internal freedom" inside the United States itself.
Noam Chomsky states that the events of this past Tuesday are "a gift
to the hard jingoist right, those who hope to use force to control
their domains." While noting that upcoming U.S. military actions will
only trigger more attacks like the ones that took place against the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Chomsky writes that "prospects
ahead are even more ominous than they appeared to be before the
latest atrocities."
Chomsky contends that "this is not the war of democracy versus terror,
as the world will be asked to believe in the coming days." He said
"it is also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes
and U.S. helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in
1996 and American shells crashing into a village called Qana and
about a Lebanese militia -- paid and uniformed by America's Israeli
ally -- hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee
camps."
Chomsky concludes by saying that the U.S. people have a choice: to
seek to understand what may have led to the crimes committed on
Tuesday or blindly accept the explanations of the U.S. government and
believe that these attacks just came out of the blue. And he warns
that with the impending military strikes by Washington, the worst is
yet to come.
*NEGROPONTE WINS UNANIMOUS SENATE APPROVAL IN WAKE OF ATTACKS
Washington, September 15 (RHC)-- John Negroponte, the controversial
nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has won unanimous
Senate approval following the recent terrorist attacks in the United
States. Negroponte, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from
1981 to 1985 under the Reagan administration, was strongly criticized
for his role in Honduras during the contra war against Nicaragua. But
he received full support Friday by the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
Nominated six months ago for the post, his approval was said to be in
trouble. Since March, numerous senators have requested declassified
CIA documents that demonstrate Negroponte's role in the dirty war
against the Nicaraguan Sandinista government, as well as human rights
violations by the Honduran government.
But on Friday, Senate Committee Chairman Jesse Helms rose to defend
the nomination and called on his fellow senators to give President
George W. Bush everything he asks for in light of the recent attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Without further debate, even those senators who had previously voiced
strong opposition to the nomination gave in and voted unanimously to
award the seat of U.N. ambassador to the controversial nominee.
*RUSSIAN PRESIDENT URGES WASHINGTON NOT TO ACT LIKE BANDITS
Moscow, September 15 (RHC)-- Russian President Vladimir Putin has
urged Washington not to act like bandits in its impending retaliation
for the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. last
Tuesday.
The Russian leader also urged the U.S. government to act only after
they have collected sufficient evidence.
During a press conference on Saturday in Moscow, the Russian
president stated that the international community should not act
hastily, although he added that those responsible for the attacks
must be punished.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the issue could be
discussed at upcoming Russia-U.S. summits and in future consultations
with the European Union and NATO.
*US PLANNED TO COMMIT DOMESTIC TERRORISM AND BLAME CUBA AS PRETEXT TO INVADE
Washington, September 15 (RHC)--U.S. military leaders proposed a
secret plan in 1962 to commit terrorist acts and blame Cuba, designed
to create a pretext for an invasion of the island.
Written by James Bamford and published by Doubleday, "Body of
Secrets" contains documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act or found in government archives.
Bamford, a former investigative reporter for ABC News, wrote a book
on the National Security Agency called "The Puzzle Palace" in 1982.
His latest book provides a history of the eavesdropping agency based
at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Bamford said that he was most surprised by the anti-Cuba terror plan,
code-named Operation Northwoods. The secret plan outlined a number of
possible scenarios to be carried out by the United States in order to
justify an invasion of the island and the destruction of the Cuban
Revolution.
Citing a White House document, the Bamford writes that the idea of
creating a pretext for the invasion of Cuba might have started with
President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the last weeks of his
administration, when the plan for an invasion by Cuban mercenaries,
trained in the United States and Central America, was hatched. The
Bay of Pigs invasion was carried out in April 1961 and failed in its
objective to create a beachhead by U.S.-backed forces.
According to "Body of Secrets." the Northwoods plan proposed the
sinking of a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida and blaming it on
Havana. Yet another idea involved the shooting down of a CIA plane
designed to resemble a passenger aircraft and then announcing that
Cuban forces shot it down. And it was even suggested that if the 1962
launch of John Glenn into orbit were to fail, resulting in the
astronaut's death, the U.S. government would publicize fabricated
evidence that Cuba had used electronic interference to sabotage the
space flight.
The also reveals that while several Joint Chiefs of Staff signed-on
to Operation Northwoods, U.S. President John F. Kennedy rejected it
because he reportedly did not want any actions against Cuba that
could be traced back to the United States.
Bamford's book contains many other revelations in its detailed
account of the National Security Agency, the biggest U.S.
intelligence agency and Maryland's largest employer, with more than
25,000 personnel at Fort Meade, site of its global eavesdropping
efforts. Among them: the NSA has recently listened to Osama bin
Laden's unencrypted telephone calls. Agency officials have sometimes
played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother to impress members of
Congress and select visitors to the agency.
When U.S. troops evacuated Vietnam in 1975, "an entire warehouse
overflowing with NSA's most important cryptographic machines and
other supersensitive code and cipher materials" was left behind. It
was the largest compromise of such equipment in U.S. history, Bamford
writes, but the National Security Agency still has not acknowledged
it.
According to "Body of Secrets," when Israeli fighter jets attacked
the NSA eavesdropping ship USS Liberty in the Mediterranean in 1967,
killing 34 Americans and wounding 171, an NSA aircraft was listening
in and heard Israeli pilots referring to the U.S. flag on the ship.
Officials, including President Lyndon Baines Johnson, decided to
forget the matter, Bamford writes, because they did not want to
embarrass Israel. Bamford says the reason for the strike was Tel
Aviv's desperate effort to cover up its attack on the Egyptian town
of El Arish in the Sinai. The Liberty was sitting offshore and the
Israelis feared that the ship would detect the operation, which
included the shooting of civilians.
When James Bamford wrote "The Puzzle Palace" in 1982, he was attacked
by NSA officials, who said his revelations gave U.S. adversaries too
much information on the secret agency. One former director of the NSA
referred to him as "an unconvicted felon."
*CUBA OBSERVES WORLD DAY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE OZONE LAYER
Havana, September 15 (RHC)--Cuba will commemorate the World Day
for the Protection of the Ozone on September 16. A special program
has been developed to eliminate pollution and promote a program of
environmental education.
Cuba's ozone technical office, created in the second half of the
1990s, is the main organizer of work in the field; it leads the
research associated with the care of the ozone layer and promotes the
gradual eradication of polluting substances.
Provincial delegations of the Ministry of Science, Technology and
Environment are also part of the project for the protection of the
ozone layer. These institutions are in charge of taking inventory of
refrigeration centers, the substitution of freon with a natural gas
refrigerant, as well as the management and recycling of gases
extracted from the equipment with the aim of avoiding contamination
of the atmosphere.
Among the tasks developed to protect the ozone layer, there is the
elimination of methyl bromide in tobacco seeds through tested
alternative products. In addition to this, environmental education in
the schools is also an important element in the further preservation
of the environment.
The thinning of the ozone layer over the Antarctic provoked a world
reaction against the countries emitting freon gases. It led to the
Vienna Convention in 1985 and, two years later, to the Montreal
Protocol -- signed by 168 nations, including Cuba. The agreement
calls for the elimination of the use of polluting substances that
damage the ozone layer.
*FIDEL HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCES IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH
Havana, September 15 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro has
pointed out that the island is taking firm steps forward in health
and education, despite economic difficulties as a result of the
disintegration of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S.
blockade.
The leader of the Cuban Revolution spoke Friday evening at the
inauguration of the Training School for Nurses, located in Havana's
Cotorro municipality. The Cuban president indicated that the island
has made important progress in these areas over the last two months.
Health and education have been a top priority for the Cuban
government since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.
Fidel recalled that Cuba had to face a deep economic crisis following
the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tightening of Washington's
blockade during the 1990s. He said that although the island has not
yet come out of the Special Period, there has been notable progress.
Regarding nurses' training, the Cuban leader stressed that there is a
shortage of nurses around the world, due to neo-liberal policies and
privatization. In Latin America, he said, there are only 10 nurses
for every 10,000 inhabitants and contrasted that to more than 74
nurses for every 10,000 in the Cuban health system.
He added that a new school similar to this one is now under
construction. Both will train no fewer than 4,000 nurses over the
next two years. This, he went on to say, will help face the shortage
of specialized personnel in the capital, the only place on the island
needing to increase its ranks.
*PRESIDENT OF MALI WINDS UP OFFICIAL VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, September 15 (RHC)--The President of the African nation of
Mali, Alpha Oumar Korane, wound up his official visit to Cuba on
Saturday. Yesterday, the African leader visited Havana's
International School for Sports and Physical Education, as well as
the Museum of Fine Arts.
At the center for the training of athletes, opened in February of
this year, the African leader was welcomed by the president of the
Cuban National Sports Institute, Humberto Rodriguez, and the school's
board of directors.
He was briefed about the development of sports on the island and
facilities at the school. It was noted that there are currently 883
students from 61 countries studying at the center. Some 97 students
come from 29 African nations; and Mali is represented by five
students. In addition, seven Cuban sports specialists are currently
lending their services in Mali, covering boxing, judo, track and
field, volleyball and basketball. In all, 44 Cuban specialists have
worked in Mali in the field of sports.
President Alpha Oumar Konare recalled the time when he served as
Sports Minister in his country and the attention he has paid since
then to bilateral ties with Cuba in the field of sports. He also
highlighted Cuba's support in the training of athletes and to Third
World nations in general.
During his four-day visit, the African president and his delegation
visited areas of economic, scientific and historic interest. He came
to Cuba at the invitation of President Fidel Castro.
*RAUL CASTRO PRESIDES OVER 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MILITARY SCHOOL
Havana, September 15 (RHC)-- Cuban Vice President and Minister of
the Armed Forces, Raul Castro, has expressed great satisfaction to
see how students currently studying in the Camilo Cienfuegos'
Military School, established 35 years ago.
Raul Castro spoke with members of the institution, journalists and
government officials who attended a ceremony to celebrate another
anniversary of the military school on Friday. He recalled that more
than 74,000 students have graduated from the school over the past 35
years.
According to figures from the Minister of the Armed Forces, three
brigade generals, nearly 100 colonels, thousands of officials of the
Armed Forces and many Cuban leaders and professionals have graduated
from the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School. The center has an annual
enrollment of 2,700 young people.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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