;-}
"Cuban Attorney General Juan Escalona scoffed at the plan announced on Thursday by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to bring detainees from the conflict in Afghanistan half-way around the world to the century-old Guantanamo base.
"It's another provocation from the Americans. I hope 15 or 20 (prisoners) get out and kill them," Escalona said, with ironic laughter, on his way into the parliament meeting.
While condemning the September 11 attacks on the United States, Havana has also opposed the bombardment of Afghanistan, calling it a barbaric massacre of civilians to advance imperial goals.
Cuban President Fidel Castro and his ruling Communist Party have long opposed their decades-old political foe's military presence at the 45 square mile (116 sq km) base in Guantanamo Bay, calling the installation a "dagger pointed at Cuba's heart."
The base was founded after U.S. Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War and, under a 1934 treaty, can only be disbanded by mutual consent or if the U.S. forces pull out voluntarily.
No comment yet from Castro
With Castro still not commenting in public on the U.S. plan, and state media not mentioning the news, the comments by Vecino and Escalona were the first reaction by Cuban officials.
Their views were echoed by some ordinary Cubans.
"We don't tell the Americans what to do in their territory, so they shouldn't come here and dictate on our land," 26-year-old Julio Mier said on a Havana street. "This is a lack of respect for Cuba," added taxi-driver Herminio Herrera.
In his earlier announcement, Rumsfeld said Washington did not anticipate any trouble from Havana over the use of Guantanamo, which he described as "the least worst place we could have selected."
One senior U.S. military official said earlier this week that ultimately hundreds of captured al Qaeda and Taliban members could be brought to Guantanamo for interrogation. Washington accuses the al Qaeda network, which had been protected in Afghanistan by the former Taliban government, of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks.
One of the last front lines of the Cold War, the Guantanamo base has long been a sore point in the Unites States' tense relations with Cuba and is heavily guarded on both sides."
I wonder if the fat lady is Cuban. Don't you hope she can, at least, carry a tune?