Bush's Cuba Pickle: Castro is evil, but the embargo is foolish

There will always be useful idiots.

The sanctions imposed on Cuba were kept in place largely as a memorial to JFK. Believed widely, but never conclusively proved, Castro had a more than casual connection with the Kennedy assassination. Therefore, to properly honor the passing of JFK, Castro HAS to be shunned and shut out by the US. Not that there are a lack of already perfectly good reasons to never do business with Castro (who exports mostly revolution and stiffs anyone who is so naive as to think that goods offloaded at Havana should be paid for), but the continuation of the Cuban embargo by the US is almostly exclusively emotional at its base. Goods can easily be transported to Cuba, through Canada, or Mexico, or Venezuela. The rest of the world can get in that way, if they so want to.

Castro is free to buy from us if he pays cash. So what's the problem? If American companies want to give Castro goods on credit, they'll take a hit, which means higher prices for the U.S. consumer. If American companies want U.S. govt. backed loans in order to sell their product to Castro, the American taxpayer will take the hit.

I have no intention of propping up Castro as he helps install Hugo Chavez as Casto II and turns an oil rich country into Cuba II and Venezuela as the staging ground for anti-American activities in this hemispere.

Castro knows nothing will change so long as he lives. So be it.

elieved widely, but never conclusively proved, Castro had a more than casual connection with the Kennedy assassination.

Actually, the persistent yet unproven "Castro helped kill JFK" story originated with L.A. mobster John "Handsome Johnny" Rosselli, shortly after JFK's death. Rosselli did this in an attempt to deflect suspicion of Mob complicity in JFK's death in Dallas. Authors Charles Rappeleye and Ed Becker (the latter a close acquaintance of Rosselli) detail this "fabricated Cuban connection" at some length in their 1995 book "All American Mafioso: The Johnny Rosselli Story." Rosselli was an interesting but obscure Mob figure whose high-level connections in the entertainment industy, Las Vegas, with Howard Hughes's front man Robert Maheu, the CIA (most notably CIA officer William Harvey) and other powerful mobsters were quite extensive.

In fact, at the time of his death, JFK was engaged in informal talks with Castro via a French journalist, Jean Daniel, in the hope of some rapprochement between the two nations. Ironically, Castro was meeting with Daniel in Havana the moment Kennedy was killed. Daniel later reported Castro's sudden shock at JFK's assassination, saying, "This is not at all good. At least Kennedy was an adversary I knew how to deal with."

Rosselli himself was brutally killed in June 1976, (his mangled body found in an oil drum floating off Miami's Biscayne Bay) shortly before he was to testify in front of a Senate committee chaired by the late Idaho Sen. Frank Church investigating CIA activities, among them the Castro assassination plots.

Missing from the article is the fact that the "embargo," by itself, imposes only a minor trade cost on US items exported to Cuba. There is apparently a small industry of middlemen in Latin America who make a living by buying US goods, pretending to ship them to Latin America, then diverting them to Cuba. Just to be upfront about this: I have no documentary proof, but I have met a number of people in Chile who claimed to make a living by doing this for airplane parts and industrial parts.

THERE ARE POWERFUL REASONS FOR NOT TRADING WITH CASTRO

When Castro sees American Congressman, Jeff Flake, he keeps “laughing day and night” at this valuable and useful idiot who works diligently for him, perhaps without pay, instead of representing the best interest of the American taxpayers and the security of his own country.

Flake maintains that Castro “is not a man who has missed too many meals because the embargo.” Certainly no, Castro is among the richest chief of state in the world with over 1.5 billion personal fortune. Cuba can freely trade with the rest of the world, but he starves his people as Stalin did with the Ukrainian peasants. The big problem is that whoever trades with Castro is never paid back. Flake, wants you, American taxpayers, to feed and maintain Castro’s repressive apparatus.

THERE ARE POWERFUL REASONS FOR NOT TRADING WITH CASTRO.

1st. Cuba is, and has been a terrorist state for 43 years, and counts with advanced chemical, biological and cyber warfare capabilities aimed against our country. The cooperation between the Cuban regime with Iraq and Iran in the chemical and biological research is well documented. Just a few days ago the Bush administration made public their deep concern about Castro’s menace to our security. A few months before the September 11 attack Castro affirmed at the University of Tehran that their cooperation would put the U.S. down to its knees. That was an ominous threat that materialized on the 9/11 attacks to our country.

Castro plays a central role in the international terrorist network as recognized by the U.S. State Department, with strong nexus with the Islamic terrorism. Right after the attack without even counting with Fidel Castro, Prime Minister Putin dismantled their most important Russian spy and electronic base, which was located in the outskirts of Havana. Castro went berserk when he found outabout it by the media. Did Castro’s partners in the Islamic terrorism gather the necessary intelligence for the success of the attack through Castro’s access to the Russian spy base?

Castro once tried to nuke our cities and he has the means and the will to fulfill his dream of destroying our country. If we are involved in a worldwide war against terrorism, Cuba at 90 miles from our coast should be a prime target in that war; so, those involved in appeasement policies towards Castro and in the promotion of the lifting of the commercial embargo against Cuba are in fact aiding and abetting our worst enemy.

2nd. Cuba has defaulted in all its international financial deals and Castro encourages other Third World nations to follow his example. Why are we going to sell to someone without the expectation to ever be repaid. The American taxpayers should be aware that they are the targets of the scam by which the multinationals sell to Castro whatever he needs and we, the taxpayers, end footing the bill. Castro for 42 years has been with commercial ties with over 150 nations. Now when he has exhausted the patience of nations foolish enough to have given him credit. Castro’s puppets in the media, and the congress in cahoots with some greedy commercial circles are wanting for the American taxpayers to shoulder the heavy burden of subsidizing his regime to the tune of 9 billion dollars annually.

Is not enough the billions of dollars in pork just approved by the Congress for the benefit of ADM and the powerful agriculture lobby? How much blood does Rep. Flake and Castro’s lobbyists want to extract from the overburdened American taxpayers.

3rd. The American companies can not legally conduct business with Cuba without violating several American laws.

A.- Trading with the Enemy Act.

B.- U.S. Commercial Embargo Against Cuba.

C.- Helms- Burton Law.

D.- Involvement in bribes in commercial dealings with another nation. Foreign companies must hire the worker through Castro who keeps 96% of their salary for himself and the repressive apparatus.

E.- Involvement in slave labor of foreign workers in connivance with the local authorities. This is another factor necessary to reconcile with. Every deal; every investment in Cuba is a “joint venture” in partnership with the Cuban tyrant, and that includes being part of slave labor practices, for which those entrepreneurs and multinationals, sooner or later, will pay dearly just as it happened with the companies involved in slave labor during the Nazi era. The scam consists that for each worker they employ, the foreign companies must pay Castro $300 to $500 monthly in dollars and the Cuban dictator pays them 500 to 600 worthless Cuban pesos, which is the equivalent of $12 to $20 dollars or 96% bribe, an outrageous bribe without parallel in the world.

That outrageous business practice is in violation of international and American labor laws and will expose those companies to huge law suites for the slave labor exploitation of the Cuban worker in cahoots with the corrupt communist regime.

We have to wonder why there are so many American politicians promoting the violations of our trading laws, and in the process, they are endangering the security of the U.S. Why is the Treasure Department authorizing all those business trips and all kind of conventions in Cuban soil by which American citizens circumvent and break the U.S. laws? Why is Rep. Flake betraying President Bush’s war against terrorism and stabbing the American taxpayers in the back?

As senator Jesse Helms rightly stated: "Unfortunately, some in Washington are all too willing to give Castro what he wants. At the least they should stop pretending that they are doing this to promote Cuban democracy and American values.

The axis of evil is broke...good---needs a replacement not a lube job!

Thank you for the information!

MRC Special Report. "Megaphone for a Dictator: CNN's Coverage of Castro's Cuba, 1997-2002."