From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [CubaNews] CubaNews Summary 10-22-2001 CubaNews Summary 10-22-2001 ============================ CubaNews list focuses on Cuba and its relationship to the Cuban community internationally and the broader struggles for social justice everywhere. You're invited to check the list out and subscribe. It's not possible to completely separate out Cuba from the struggles unfolding elsewhere, nor would that be appropriate, even were it possible. Cuba quickly condemned the attacks and pointed out indispensible steps to eradicate the scourge of terrorism from our planet. Its position was laid out in a presentation at the United Nations on October 1, and in a speech to one million people in Havana on November 6, the day before the US bombing began. If you've not yet read these vital documents, I strongly urge you to do so. Links to these are provided at the end of today's Summary. Defenders of Cuba understand the significance of the anti-war movement and will do everything they an to educate and mobilize public opposition to the war. They can point to Cuba's experience over the past forty years as a recipient of terrorist attacks stemming from its northern neighbor to show how and why a broad international struggle against terrorism and war is necessary. =================================== HOWARD ZINN SPEAKS AGAINST WAR Thanks to the internet you can now hear Howard Zinn this weekend at an anti-war rally in Vermont. You can listen to it any time by going to http://www.webactive.com and listen to the October 22 broadcast of DEMOCRACY NOW IN EXILED hosted by Amy Goodman. If you find the material here useful, please send it on to others you know and encourage them to subscribe. Details are found at the end of this. ====================================== TOURISM FROM THE US TO CUBA GROWING: MSNBC reports: About 173,000 Americans visited Cuba last year, despite a travel ban. Some Americans can get permission to spend money in Cuba, but about 22,000 of the American visitors there last year went illegally. http://www.1stheadlines.com/cuba.htm TRACY CARL OF THE AP ALSO REPORTS: More American lawmakers -- both Democrats and Republicans -- support ending the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba. U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said during a visit to Havana in September that he thought Americans would soon be able to travel to the communist island freely. Backed by other pro-business Republicans, Flake won House approval earlier this year for an amendment to bar the U.S. Treasury Department from spending money to enforce the travel ban. The Senate had been expected to take up a similar measure, but consideration has been sidelined by the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Manolo Garcia, a spokesman for Cuba's tourism industry, says the island would welcome more American visitors. FULL STORY HERE: http://www.1stheadlines.com/cuba.htm ===================================== MIAMI "SHRINE" DEDICATED TO ELIAN Elian's former kidnappers are now trying to link their failed cause to the criminal assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Reuters and the AP give reports on the recent unveiling of the "shrine" to Elian which the rightist Miami exiles have now opened to the public: The small home where Elian Gonzalez lived while at the center of an international custody battle opened Sunday as a shrine to honor him. Elian's wooden swing set and a picture of his mother, Elisabeth Brotons, who died while trying to bring him to the United States, greeted nearly 500 people who passed through the front door of Unidos en Casa Elian, or United in Elian House. ``With all this terrorist stuff going on, we thought this would be a good time to open and give people a distraction, a relief, comfort,'' Delfin Gonzalez said. Several of Elian's Miami relatives and friends attended the opening, including a teary-eyed Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle and former guardian; Armando Gutierrez, formerly a family spokesman, and Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's cousin. Some visitors were moved to tears. "To us, this day was almost equivalent to the Twin Towers day,'' said Deyanira Solis, referring to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "My heart has been bleeding ever since for that little boy.'' The child should have remained here," said Andres Picos, a Cuban American. Also in line was a non-Cuban woman who said she was wanted to see a part of Florida history but declined to give her views on the Elian saga. "I'd prefer not to talk about it here," she said. Since last year, some Cuban exiles have tried to present a more tolerant image. On Saturday in Miami, thousands marched in Little Havana in support of the U.S. government in its war on terrorism. [these precious gems are from three different articles on the unveiling of the Elian "shrine".] [as usual, Lazaro's wife Angela seems to have been absent or else invisible.] FOR FULL TEXTS http://news.lycos.com/news/search.asp?searchFor=news&q=Cuba SUN SENTINEL'S COVERAGE http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/ AND IN THE MIAMI HERALD: For great-uncle Lázaro González -- who along with his family moved out after the raid -- the memorabilia is a way to navigate between the joys of Elián's stay in Miami, and the lingering sadness. He said he doesn't know how many people will show up, but emphasized that everyone is invited -- ``for all to know that Elián's toys are well taken care of,'' he said. http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/ ==================================== LIZ BALMASEDA CRITICIZES SOME EXILES In her column preceding the weekend mobilization of Cuban exiles in support of Washington's "war on terrorism", Liz Balmaseda, the Miami Herald's prize-winning Cuban-American columnist, took a bit of distance from the weekend's mobilization in support of the war in "Exiles expose contradictions". Balmaseda, a crusader against the Cuban revolution for decades, found herself dismayed at the crude way the rightist exile leadership is trying to hitch its dilapidated banner to Bush's war mobilization. Balmaseda favors what she thinks is a better way: I found additional signs of a Cuban-American community swept into a larger struggle. Folks who once wore ``Save Elian'' T-shirts now wore T-shirts emblazoned with American flags and messages about the United States' unsinkable strength. For this new anti-terrorist struggle, they were not exiles or hyphenated Americans. They were Americans -- at least in spirit they were. In my four decades here, I have never seen such a clearly defined ``American'' identity in Miami's Cuban exile population. YET BALMASEDA ALSO SAYS: The enormity of the terrorist attacks -- crimes against not only America, but against humanity -- outweighs any one community's political agenda. It just goes without saying. But for days now, Spanish-language radio stations have been promoting a ``solidarity march'' by Cuban exile organizations. They're calling it the ``God Bless America Solidarity March.'' AND For whatever good intentions they may have, their exile march translates as separatist. ``We'' support ``you.'' It also seems to go against the stronger current in the Cuban-American population, the one that flows into a larger ocean and washes away borders. Yes, it's a good thing to support the ``American Way of Life.'' But sometimes it's a lot stronger to simply live it, from the inside. Read it all by clicking here for Liz Balmaseda: http://www.miami.com/herald/content/opinion/ ================================== In the midst of the media-pushed anthrax scare the media are trying to tie this to Cuba, too... MSNBC: CUBA IS A BIOTERRORIST THREAT: With help from the Soviet Union's massive secret biological weapons program, Castro was able to build one of the world's most sophisticated biotechnology industries which can also be used to build weapons of mass destruction. In his book, Biohazard, former Soviet scientist Ken Alibeck says he helped to train Cubans in this technology. It is something he now regrets. Dr. Ken Alibek: "This work would be used for developing biological weapons or biological agents. As a result of this, we helped Castro develop biological weapons. It was such a stupid decision to just do this." Gen. Charles Wilhelm, a former Southcom Commander says: "The indications we have is that they have the capability to produce those type of substances." http://www.msnbc.com/local/wtvj/nbc6e201fsc.asp ====================================== CANF ALSO PUSHES "CUBA-TERRORISM" LIE Having lost significant ground by supporting the kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez, the rightist Cuban exile minority is trying to recoupt its losses by mobilizing support for Washington's war against Afghanistan, though their ranks are in somewhat disarray these days and their groups have been splitting in recent months. The main traditional political organization of the wealthy right wing of the Cuban exile community is tooting its horns, filling its site with efforts to generate support for the war against Afghanistan. They provide a detailed, annotated version of the Miami Herald editorial filled with clickable links to even more "documentation" of their claims. Scan their front page and see the extensive campaign they have been making on this. http://www.canfnet.org/ (Parenthetically, this demonstrates how little genuine difference there is between their new, repackaged self and their old familiar self. (It's more of the same hardly dressed differently. Granma newspaper analyzed this split earlier under the heading "Dancing Among Wolves") http://www.granma.cu/ingles/julio4/30danza-i.html ===================================== VLADIMIR PUTIN AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Just before leaving for the APEC summit, Putin issued another signal of goodwill, promising to shut down an electronic spying center at Lourdes in Cuba and a naval base in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam - two outposts which symbolized Soviet global reach during the Cold War. The decision to scrap bases has already drawn strong criticism from the Cuban government and from some Russian lawmakers. In preparation for the Bush-Putin meeting, their foreign ministers met late Thursday and reportedly agreed that any replacement government in Afghanistan should be multiethnic and democratic. The talks on Afghanistan are in stark relief to those of the 1980s, when the Soviet Union was waging war in Afghanistan, and the United States was arming the opposition, which then included Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. He and his al-Qaida terror network are based in Afghanistan and harbored by the Taliban. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS also reported that, ``We have announced our direct support of the United States, and that has not changed,'' Putin said at a gathering of business executives on the periphery of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The Russian leader said the world needs stronger global legal tools to root out terrorist groups. AND The United States, in turn, has hailed Putin's economic reforms and pledged to support Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization. =================================== CNN CHALLENGED OVER WAR COVERAGE Control of the media is so vital to US companies, their government and their interests, that once again Cable News Network is being attacked by some of its competitors in the media for its coverage of the war on Afghanistan. Today's New York Times says these competitors dredged up old stories about how CNN got access to Iraq and Cuba which their competition couldn't obtain: They similarly criticized CNN's reports out of Baghdad made by Peter Arnett, the correspondent. They said the network too readily accepted restrictions placed upon it by Baghdad - which closely monitored Mr. Arnett and limited his movements to places and events that supported its version of events - in return for access. More recently, CNN's competitors accused it of using the friendship between the founder of CNN, Ted Turner, and Fidel Castro (the two famously went on a duck hunting trip in Cuba in the 1980's) to help win a coveted news bureau in Havana FOR FULL TEXT http://www.nytimes.com/ Not every voice in the mainstream media has bought into this, fortunately. Howard Rosenberg the TV critic of the Los Angeles Times today came out in support of CNN. His commentary "Let's Review Strategy Before Attacking CNN" provides a health corrective to the others: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/printedition/calendar/ ================================== IMPORTANT REFERENCE MATERIAL FILE OF MAJOR CUBAN STATEMENTS: http://www.granma.cu/documento/ingles01/index-i.html ================================== This summary prepared by Walter Lippmann in Los Angeles, California. I am active with the Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba in Los Angeles. Read my essay TWO MONTHS IN CUBA linked at my website: http://www.walterlippmann.com =================================== _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
