Warm Goodbye From Castro to Oliver Stone in Cuba

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Director Oliver Stone and Cuban leader Fidel Castro are seen Thursday Feb. 21, 2002 after wrapping up shooting of a documentary in Ernest Hemingway's prefered bar "La terraza" in Cojimar near Havana, Cuba. (AP Photo)

Lisa Valanti, president of the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association, left, kisses Cuban leader Fidel Castro during an annual U.S.-Cuba sister cities conference in Matanzas, Cuba on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, right, delivers a speech after an annual U.S.-Cuba sister cities conference along with Lisa Valanti, president of the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association, in Matanzas, Cuba on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002. In the back at left, Rep. Michael Diven, D-Allegheny, Pa., and Cuban legislator Nilo Diaz look on.
(AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

I was going to say something funny, but by the time I finished reading I felt sickened.

A pair that beats three of a kind.

Rep. Michael Diven, D-Allegheny, Pa.

Any FReepers from this smirkers district?

Call me a nitpicker, but Reuters ought to do some editing. Castro's brother is Raoul, not Ramon. He's the Minister of Defense who reportedly has a fondness for Havana Club rum.

Of course. Good catch.

...in Cuba, where he is well-known and highly respected by the Caribbean island's cinema-savvy public.

You'd think they were going to the movies every Saturday night.
With everything being handpicked by Castro, that ought to be a real enlightened line-up!

Bump!

Castro's brother is Raoul, not Ramon. He's the Minister of Defense

Bump!

In the first top picture I believe the one at the left of Fidel seems to be his Iraqi comrade in terrorism, Hussein Saddam. It is remarkable that Castro went to the airport to give a warm farewell to Oliver Stone, something he did not had the courtesy to extend to Mexican President Fox, the representative of the only nation in the world that has remained supporting him even after 43 years of human rights violations by Castro’s murderous regime. This denotes how much Castro values his Hollywood puppets.

I really, really try not to let my politics dictate which artist (or art) I will view.
But I will not allow any of my money to support anything connected with Oliver Stone.

Representative Michael Diven

mdiven@pahouse.net

February 22, 2002

Rep. Diven:

You have shown extraordinary contempt for our country and the victims and families of those murdered on 9/11 after you have wine and dined with the dean of the international terrorism. This is the same dictator who tried to nuke our cities during the 1962 Missile Crisis and whose henchmen brutally tortured our POWs in Vietnam. Castro, in order to demonstrate the disdain he feels for people like you, recently asserted "I cannot condemn him (Usama bin Laden) with solely a video as proof." Castro would never betray his comrades in the drug and terrorism network. Seventy-four terrorists, criminals and fugitives of the American justice in the F.B.I.’s list are enjoying the protection of the Castro’s regime in Cuba.

I realize that while you were feasting with Fidel Castro, you had to put aside any scruples that you might have about the many tens of thousands of Cubans murdered by this brutal tyrant. You preferred to overlook the fact that Castro is a cold-blooded murderer who approved the death by firing squad of each one of over 40,000 Cubans, including some Americans, who opposed his reign of terror. Also, the more than 500,000 thousand political prisoners, men, women and even children who were tortured in his dungeons, and over thirty thousand who died trying to cross the Florida straits in fragile makeshift rafts in their pursuit of freedom in what might be recognized as an unprecedented mass suicide. Still now, after 43 years, there are hundreds of prisoners of conscience whose human rights are being violated every day in Castro’s dungeons. Add to this horrific picture, the more than 2 million Cubans that were forced into political exile from a population of 7 million.

I also realize that what happened to these unfortunate people had no bearing on your conscience. But, I expected that as representatives of the American people, regardless of any other considerations, you must have been concerned that Castro’s Cuba is the main haven and sponsor of terrorism in this hemisphere and those politicians and business people, in dealing with Castro, are aiding and abetting terrorism.

Just today, British intelligence exposed Castro’s relationship with the IRA, the Colombian guerrillas, the Spanish Basque and Chilean terrorists, provoking a strong protest to the Cuban regime by the Chilean socialist administration.

With President Chavez, a Castro’s subrogate in power in Venezuela, cooperating with Cuba’s terrorist designs, the U.S. is confronting the worst menace since Castro’s puppets in Central American were defeated in the 1980’s thanks to President Reagan’s policies. Venezuela is one of our main providers of oil. To secure another source of oil, in case Chavez stops the flow of oil to our country, our government just provided $90 million dollars in order to reinforce the protection of the Colombian oil pipelines, which are under constant attacks by the Castro’s supported Marxist guerillas.

A few weeks ago, six pilots working in the U.S. with Venezuelan passports and who were flying airplanes with different American companies were detained. An informant alerted the American authorities that they had sophisticated false credentials that allowed them to bypass all security checks while going in and out of our airports. Was this grave security break another undercover operation of the Cuban terrorist network? We have in this hemisphere another “axis of evil” in the troika Castro/Chavez/ Colombian guerrillas.

You are demanding the normalization of commercial and diplomatic relations with a terrorist Stalinist regime that has state of the art biological, chemical and cyber warfare capabilities, and the will to use it against us. As a matter of fact, Cuba has more than 3,000 biological and chemical warfare researchers trained in the Soviet Union and East Germany who has been working in tandem with Iraq and Iran in the development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

We should keep in mind that in May 2001, Castro visited the main centers of terrorism in the Middle East, Iraq, Libya, and Iran, reinforcing his ties with the “Axis of Evil.” Castro sold Iran one of his biological research laboratories as part of their cooperation in the production of biological weapons. Iran has well-developed facilities in their own country, why do they need one 90 miles from U.S.?

Was Castro also giving the necessary intelligence information to the Al Qaeda terrorists that made the successful attacks of September 11th possible? The Russians have a spy base in Cuba that is their main source of intelligence. During his visit to Cuba In August 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Fidel Castro, visited the Lourdes spy center. At a meeting with center specialists, Putin noted that their work is very much needed, "not only by the military, but also by the political leadership of the country."

Putin said at a press conference in Havana that both Russia and Cuba are currently interested in continuing the operations of the Lourdes base. According to Putin, this center serves the interests of the Russian military and also provides some information obtained for appropriate Cuban government agencies. Such information might have been also very valuable for Al Qaeda and the terrorist network.

Why did the Russians decide to close their spy base in Cuba immediately after the attack without even consulting with the Cuban regime? After several postponements, and in spite of Castro’s public tantrums and opposition, the base was dismantled and returned to Russia. Were the Russians trying to disassociate themselves from Castro and the Al Qaeda partnership?

During one of those pilgrimages to Cuba that have become fashionable among American politicians, Senator Specter recognized the extraordinary intelligence capabilities of the Cuban regimen, a service that rivals the Mossad and the CIA. In one instance, the Pentagon’s most trusted analyst in charge of evaluating Castro’s menace to the U.S. was found to be a mole working for the Cuban intelligence. Are we going to put our security in the hands of one of our worst enemies?

Nevertheless, some American legislators went so far as to ask that the American taxpayers provide Cuba with state of the art radar under the pretense that Castro, whose main source of personal income is drug trafficking, would cooperate with us in the interdiction of drugs coming into the U.S. That is absolutely insane. In fact, this will further facilitate the importation of drugs into the U.S. and enable him to easily fulfill his dream of obliterating our country.

It is unconscionable that you are advocating a policy of abject appeasement toward Fidel Castro’s regime, while undermining President’s Bush war against terrorism. You are advocating relations with a terrorist state whose leader pledged on May 2001 at the University of Tehran, that their alliance would bring U.S. down to its knees. This was an ominous threat that came to fruition in September 11 with the brutal terrorist attacks to our country. Was Castro aware of the attack? Was he part of the planning? Russian Prime Minister Putin’s reaction after the attack attests to that possibility.

In a recent visit to Cuba, Rep. Diane Watson, attacking the U.S. bipartisan policy toward Cuba for more than four decades, arrogantly affirmed: "That might be the executive branch's view, but that is not the legislative branch's view, and we make policy…More and more lawmakers are coming here for themselves, seeing for themselves, developing good will." I always thought that, according to our Constitution, the President was in charge of U.S. foreign policy.

You and your colleagues in the U.S. Congress are single handedly removing from the terrorist list of the Sate Department a regime that has been one of the main sponsors of terrorism in the world for 42years, abrogating upon themselves the duties of the Secretary of State and of the President of United States by deciding our foreign policy and undermining our war against terrorism.

Although Castro, with a personal fortune of over 1.5 billion dollars is among the richest chief of state in the world according to Forbes magazine, Cuba, nevertheless, has defaulted on all its international debts. But, according to Rep. Farr if the American taxpayers finance Castro’s purchases, Cuba “would buy a billion dollars worth of American food each year.”

American taxpayers beware! Lenin affirmed that we would be the ones selling the rope to the communists in order for them to hang us. These American representatives go much further; they want to provide the rope free of charge to Castro.

Let me know if you hear from the bum.

Willing dupes, fellow travelers, and stupidity are everywhere in the halls of Congress.

After WWII, when the armchair quarterbacks looked back and finally tumbled to Mein Kampf, they vowed to never forget the lesson.

Islamists have been telling and showing us what they want, which is the downfall of our world, loudly for the last twenty-five years, Castro for over forty. I believe the western hemisphere is now under invasion, and half our government haircuts are still saying, "Well, it's only a few fanatics. Islam is a religeon of peace."

Thank God for President Bush. He's not only more intelligent than America's foreign and domestic enemies give him credit for, he's also craftier and more streetwise than they think.

Head down, eyes open.

I will not allow any of my money to support anything connected with Oliver Stone.

Bump!

Yes he does resemble Saddam and as you say, how telling of his special treatment of the Hollywood left.
Castro knows how much pop-culture and the sickening cult of celebrity sways Americans.

That is such a complete and articulate letter Dqban22. Truly outstanding.

Might I add:

Representative Michael Diven

mdiven@pahouse.net

February 22, 2002

Rep. Diven:

Are you a moron or a Marxist? There are no other choices.

Sincerely,

Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks on TV, March 5, 2002. Castro commented on the scandal around the Mexican embassy in Havana, stormed last week by a group of 21 Cubans in a hijacked bus. The men were later expelled by authorities. REUTER