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* WAR IS A RACKET - 3 messages, 2 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/527e844bc1d753b7
* About Canadian pedophile J F M e z e i - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/98b8b82dacbd0be4
* Abogados de Posada Carriles piden que lo pongan en libertad - 1 messages, 1
author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/cd5fc85a2a2d4133
* An American Intifada? - 3 messages, 3 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/655bf570fc71dac0
* CUBA: 2005-2006 Human Rights Report / 2005-2006 Reporte de Derechos Humanos -
1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/99bf517001922233
* GINEBRA: EXILIADOS CUBANOS DENUNCIAN REPRESIÓN EN CUBA FRENTE A LA SEDE DE
LA ONU EN GINEBRA - 1 messages, 1 author
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* AID TO ISRAEL MAY BE CANCELLED! - 6 messages, 3 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/9126bc5d0bc244ca
* Is there such a thing as Christian extremists? - 1 messages, 1 author
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* BUSH AND ZIONAZIS HEADED FOR THE GARBAGE DUMP - 1 messages, 1 author
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* AS AN AMERICAN.... - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/3e6ddecdf310aef0
* PHONY "INVESTIGATION" OF 911 - 2 messages, 2 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/635b6dad2392f96d
* ATTA-GRADUATE OF U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e2845d960edef642
* BUSH & CHENEY INTELLECT EQUAL TO THAT OF A GOAT! - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/b282fabc764fcffb
* El Cuento Chino de la Transición y la Guantanamera de la Sucesión - 1
messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/5dd0adfbf95011d3
* Decomisan en Miami altas sumas a militares venezolanos - 1 messages, 1
author
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e2bb4d43b8a61404
==============================================================================
TOPIC: WAR IS A RACKET
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/527e844bc1d753b7
==============================================================================
== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:12 pm
From: "serwad"
War is a Racket
By General Smedley D. Butler
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That war is a racket has been told us by many, but rarely by one of this
stature. Though he died in 1940, the highly decorated General Butler (two
Congressional Medals of Honor) deserves to be heralded for his timeless
message, which rings true today more than ever. His riveting 1935 book War
is a Racket merits inclusion as required reading for every high school
student, and for every member of our armed forces today. Below is a six-page
summary of the best of this powerful exposé.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreword
Excerpt from a speech delivered by General Smedley Butler, USMC
War is just a racket. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect
some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should
fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of
Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison.
Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in
active military service as a member of this country's most agile military
force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second
Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time
being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the
Bankers.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it.
Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my
own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended
animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with
everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make
Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I helped in
the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of
Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house
of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic
for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that
Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell
racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few
hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I
operated on three continents.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter One
WAR IS A RACKET
WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the
most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one in which the
profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At
least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United
States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in
their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their
tax returns no one knows.
Out of war nations acquire additional territory. If they are victorious,
they just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by
the few - the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The
general public shoulders the bill.
Take our own case. Until 1898, our national debt was a little more than $1
billion. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot George
Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We
acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct
result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had
jumped to over $25 billion. [Please note these are 1935 US dollars. To
adjust for inflation, multiply all figures X 10]
It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American
who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this
racket brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always
transferred to the people - who do not profit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWO
WHO MAKES THE PROFITS?
The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United
States some $52 billion. Figure it out. That means $400 [that is in 1935
dollars = over $4,000 in today's dollars] to every American man, woman, and
child.
The normal yearly profits of a business concern in the United States are six
to twelve percent. But war-time profits - ah! that is another matter -
sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent - the
sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's
get it.
Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into
speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our
shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket - and
are safely pocketed. Let's just take a few examples:
Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people - didn't one of them
testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the war?
Well, the average pre-war earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to
1914 were $6 million a year. Now let's look at their average yearly profit
during the war years, 1914 to 1918. $58 million a year profit we find!
Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were
pretty good. An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.
Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside the
making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war materials. Well,
their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6 million. Then came the war. And,
like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making.
Did their profits jump - or did they let Uncle Sam in for a bargain? Well,
their 1914-1918 average was $49 million a year!
Or, let's take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the five-year
period prior to the war were $105 million a year. Not bad. Then along came
the war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit for the period
1914-1918 was $240 million. Not bad.
A little copper, perhaps. Anaconda, for instance. Average yearly earnings
during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10 million. During the war years
1914-1918 profits leaped to $34 million per year. Or Utah Copper. Average of
$5 million per year during the 1910-1914 period. Jumped to an average of $21
million yearly profits for the war period.
Let's group these five, with three smaller companies. The total yearly
average profits of the pre-war period 1910-1914 were $137 million. Then
along came the war. The average yearly profits for this group skyrocketed to
$408 million. A little increase in profits of approximately 200 per cent.
Does war pay? It paid them. But they aren't the only ones. There are still
others. Let's take leather.
For the three-year period before the war the total profits of Central
Leather Company were approximately $1.2 million a year. Well, in 1916
Central Leather returned a profit of $15 million, a small increase of 1,100
per cent. That's all. The General Chemical Company averaged a profit for the
three years before the war of a little over $800,000 a year. Came the war,
and the profits jumped to $12 million, a leap of 1,400 per cent.
Listen to Senate Document No. 259. The 65th Congress, reporting on corporate
earnings and government revenues. Considering the profits of 122 meat
packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment makers, 49 steel plants, and
340 coal producers during the war. Profits under 25 per cent were
exceptional. For instance the coal companies made between 100 per cent and
7,856 per cent on their capital stock during the war. The Chicago packers
doubled and tripled their earnings.
And let us not forget the bankers who financed the great war. If anyone had
the cream of the profits it was the bankers. Being partnerships rather than
incorporated organizations, they do not have to report to stockholders. And
their profits were as secret as they were immense. How the bankers made
their millions and their billions I do not know, because those little
secrets never become public - even before a Senate investigatory body.
But here's how some of the other patriotic industrialists and speculators
chiseled their way into war profits.
Take the shoe people. They sold Uncle Sam 35 million pairs of hobnailed
service shoes. There were 4 million soldiers. Eight pairs, and more, to a
soldier. My regiment during the war had only one pair to a soldier. When the
war was over Uncle Sam had a matter of 25 million pairs left over. Bought -
and paid for. Profits recorded and pocketed. There was still lots of leather
left. So the leather people sold your Uncle Sam hundreds of thousands of
McClellan saddles for the cavalry. But there wasn't any American cavalry
overseas!
They sold your Uncle Sam 20 million mosquito nets for the use of the
soldiers overseas. Well, not one of these mosquito nets ever got to France!
There were pretty good profits in mosquito netting, even if there were no
mosquitoes in France.
Airplane and engine manufacturers felt they, too, should get their just
profits out of this war. Why not? Everybody else was getting theirs. So $1
billion - count them if you live long enough - was spent by Uncle Sam in
building airplane engines that never left the ground! Not one plane, or
motor, out of the billion dollars worth ordered, ever got into a battle in
France. Just the same the manufacturers made their little profit of 30, 100,
or perhaps 300 per cent.
The shipbuilders felt they should come in on some of it, too. They built a
lot of ships that made a lot of profit. More than $3 billion worth. Some of
the ships were all right. But $635 million worth of them were made of wood
and wouldn't float! The seams opened up - and they sank. We paid for them,
though. And somebody pocketed the profits.
Undershirts for soldiers cost 14¢ [cents] to make and uncle Sam paid 30¢ to
40¢ each for them - a nice little profit for the undershirt manufacturer.
And the stocking manufacturer and the uniform manufacturers and the cap
manufacturers and the steel helmet manufacturers - all got theirs.
Why, when the war was over some 4 million sets of equipment - knapsacks and
the things that go to fill them - crammed warehouses on this side. Now they
are being scrapped because the regulations have changed the contents. But
the manufacturers collected their wartime profits on them - and they will do
it all over again the next time.
It has been estimated by statisticians and economists and researchers that
the war cost your Uncle Sam $52 billion. Of this sum, $39 billion was
expended in the actual war itself. This expenditure yielded $16 billion in
profits. That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires got that way.
This $16 billion profits is not to be sneezed at. It is quite a tidy sum.
And it went to a very few.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THREE
WHO PAYS THE BILLS?
Who provides the profits - these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500
and 1,800 per cent? We all pay them - in taxation. We paid the bankers their
profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and sold them back at $84 or
$86 to the bankers. These bankers collected $100 plus. It was a simple
manipulation. The bankers control the security marts. It was easy for them
to depress the price of these bonds. Then all of us - the people - got
frightened and sold the bonds at $84 or $86. The bankers bought them. Then
these same bankers stimulated a boom and government bonds went to par - and
above. Then the bankers again collected their profits.
But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.
If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields
abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a
tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing,
I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are a
total of about 50,000 destroyed men - men who were the pick of the nation 18
years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at
Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality
among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home.
Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and
factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded;
they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the
order of the day. They were put through mass psychology and entirely
changed. We used them for a couple of years, and trained them to think
nothing at all of killing or of being killed.
Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about
face!" This time they had to do their own readjustment. We didn't need them
any more. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed,
mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.
In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in
pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all
around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been
mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the
looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are
gone.
In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription.
They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army. So vicious was
this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions
our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans.
God is on our side. It is His will that the Germans be killed. And in
Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies...to
please the same God.
Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This
was the "war to end all wars." This was the "war to make the world safe for
democracy." No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going
and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American
soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers
here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross
might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were
just told it was to be a "glorious adventure."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FOUR
HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET!
WELL, it's a racket, all right. A few profit - and the many pay. But there
is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't
eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups
can't wipe it out by resolutions.
To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket:
1. We must take the profit out of war.
2. We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide
whether or not there should be war.
3. We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIVE
TO HELL WITH WAR!
I am not a fool as to believe that war is a thing of the past. I know the
people do not want war, but there is no use in saying we cannot be pushed
into another war. Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in
1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war." Yet, five months later
he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.
In that five-month interval the people had not been asked whether they had
changed their minds. The 4 million young men who put on uniforms and marched
or sailed away were not asked whether they wanted to go forth to suffer and
die. Then what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly?
Money.
An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war
declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a group of
advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic
language, this is what he told the President and his group:
"There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is
lost. We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American
manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion
dollars. If we lose (and without the help of the US we must lose) we,
England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't.
So..."
Had secrecy been outlawed as far as war negotiations were concerned, and had
the press been invited to be present at that conference, or had radio been
available to broadcast the proceedings, America never would have entered the
World War. But this conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in
utmost secrecy. When our boys were sent off to war they were told it was a
"war to make the world safe for democracy" and a "war to end all wars." And
very little, if anything, has been accomplished to assure us that the World
War was really the war to end all wars.
There is only one way to disarm with any semblance of practicability. That
is for all nations to get together and scrap every ship, every gun, every
rifle, every tank, every war plane.
So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To read the entire booklet online (only about 20 pages), go to:
www.veteransforpeace.org/war_is_a_racket_033103.htm
To order the booklet:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0922915865/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/102-8123938-9404104
For reliable information and resources on other major cover-ups:
www.WantToKnow.info/resources
For news on war related cover-ups from mainstream sources:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/coverupnews#war
Important Note: Please copy and send this empowering information to all your
friends, or use the "email this page" link to spread the word. With your
help, we can and will build a brighter future together.
== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:39 pm
From: "Jim E"
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:xU_Zf.7980$yh.88@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
> War is a Racket
> By General Smedley D. Butler
>
Very old shop worn liberal propaganda flushed.
== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:43 pm
From: "serwad"
April Sunday 9th 2006 (03h47) :
As an American
As an American citizen,I look around me,and I listen to what other American
citizens are saying,and like me, how they are trying to survive in corporate
owned America,and I have to tell you,it"s not easy.The deck is,as they
say,stacked against us.We are not represented and our voices are not
heard.As an elderly lady said to me recently,"we know who the real
terrorists are".We may indeed know,but the laws that our corporate owned
politicians have passed only benefit the politicians and their corporate
owners.The vast majority of us working folk who pay the majority of taxes
are not considered when bills are passed in congress that give breaks to
Drug companies,banks,utility companies,or their friends,the wealthy
elite.They simply pass the costs on to us citizens and then brag on
television to their bought media about how wonderful it is to live in a
democracy.I would"nt know because I"m one in a great mass of American
workers that is being robbed from on a daily basis by my so called "public
servants",and I use that title very loosely.Don"t get me wrong,I believe in
paying my fair share of taxes,and I always have paid them because I feel
that it"s my duty as an American citizen to support my government,and most
every working American I know feels the same way.It"s common for folks to
complain about it and joke about it,but when it gets right down to it there
is something in the American psyche that makes us proud to do our part,even
if it"s a struggle or a hardship to do so.That is what is so very despicable
about our present unelected officials.I say unelected because of voter fraud
and redistricting that has made a mockery of the word "Democracy".The fact
that they have broken the trust with their citizens and lied to us
repeatedly has given us a bad heart ,and I"ll be honest with you,it has
really surprised a lot of people ,who did have faith in our leaders having
the understanding and ability to do the right thing.But now those same
people are saying "man, this is nothing but one big mess, led by a bunch of
fools".Americans need to know more about our own history,our real history
and they would realize that any rights and freedoms that we had gained in
the past were hard won.Freedom must be fought for and a constant vigil kept
for liberty.Any act,no matter how small,in the fight for freedom,is
honorable.We are Americans and we will fight for freedom,even if the
Government chooses not to stand with us .It is our duty to ourselves and to
the world.
By : D.Millan
April Sunday 9th 2006
begin 666 rien.gif
M1TE&.#EA" `(`( ``.3DY ```"'Y! $`````+ `````(``@```('A(^IR^U=
#```[
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end
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TOPIC: About Canadian pedophile J F M e z e i
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/98b8b82dacbd0be4
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sun, Apr 9 2006 3:14 am
From: A Guy Called Tyketto
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
In rec.travel.air Gregory Morrow <gregorymorrowEMERGENCYCANCELLATIONARCHIMEDES@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Phillip Helbig wrote:
>
>> In article <1143580328.440962.269600@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>> "Sue" <susan_skonetski@hotmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > Can't we stop this kind of posting in this newsgroup? I am all for
>> > freedom of speech but this way off topic.
>>
>> Unfortunately, probably not. The reason such people post such things is
>> that they WANT to annoy people. Also, they might not be who they claim
>> to be.
>>
>> By the way, this has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
>>
>
>
> JF claims that us USAin's don't have "freedom of speech" anymore...
>
He isn't too far off...
BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email: tyketto@sbcglobal.net
Unix Systems Administrator, | tyketto@ozemail.com.au
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! :) | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF
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TOPIC: Abogados de Posada Carriles piden que lo pongan en libertad
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/cd5fc85a2a2d4133
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:06 pm
From: "PM"
WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald
El militante anticastrista Luis Posada Carriles solicitó ayer su liberación
al gobierno de Estados Unidos por considerar que mantenerlo detenido
indefinidamente viola sus derechos constitucionales.
En un recurso de habeas corpus presentado ante el Tribunal Federal del
distrito oeste de Texas, en El Paso, el abogado Eduardo Soto argumentó que
la detención de su cliente por más de 180 días es ilegal y violatoria de la
decisión establecida en el 2001 por el Tribunal Supremo en beneficio de
individuos en proceso final de deportación.
''ICE [oficina de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas] no ha logrado probar sus
alegaciones de que el solicitante [Posada] representa un peligro para la
comunidad o para la seguridad nacional'', indica el documento de 112
páginas. 'Las evidencias de ICE para señalarlo como una amenaza comunitaria
o la seguridad nacional están basadas en `fuentes abiertas' de información,
es decir, declaraciones no verificadas que han aparecido en la prensa,
libros y entrevistas''.
Sin embargo, el veredicto del Tribunal Supremo de la nación contiene
excepciones para liberar a aquellos extranjeros que sean calificados como
''especialmente peligrosos''. Una carta enviada por el ICE a Posada, el
pasado 22 de marzo, le niega la opción de libertad condicional tomando como
argumento las acusaciones que pesan en su contra por acciones violentas,
como el atentado a un avión cubano con 73 pasajeros en 1976.
El ICE --dependencia del Departamento de Seguridad Interna-- se limitó a
decir ayer que sus representantes legales ``revisarán la petición''.
Posada, de 78 años, está en un centro de detención de El Paso desde el
pasado 17 de mayo. Un juez de inmigración lo consideró deportable el pasado
año, pero determinó que no podía ser enviado a Cuba ni a Venezuela en virtud
del Convenio Internacional contra la Tortura (CAT).
La petición incluye un voluminoso anexo donde se relaciona la trayectoria de
Posada como luchador frontal contra los movimientos y gobiernos totalitarios
en Latinoamérica desde los años 60, y particularmente contra el régimen de
Fidel Castro, así como sus misiones como miembro de la CIA y del Ejército de
EEUU.
Se añade, además, un sumario de su condición de salud, afectada por
problemas cardiovasculares, hipertensión arterial, frecuentes dolores de
pecho, cataratas, atrofia de un disco lumbar y cáncer de piel.
''Aquí confluyen no sólo razones legales y médicas, sino también una
dramática historia humana'', apuntó Soto. ``Este hombre ha vivido separado
de su familia por más de 20 años, sin ver crecer a sus hijos, por dedicar
sus energías a servir a los intereses de este país y a luchar contra Fidel
Castro''.
La decisión judicial sobre el habeas corpus puede proceder a partir de los
documentos presentados por ambas partes, sin necesidad de nuevos argumentos
orales.
wcancio@elnuevoherald.com
==============================================================================
TOPIC: An American Intifada?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/655bf570fc71dac0
==============================================================================
== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Sun, Apr 9 2006 3:23 am
From: Fay
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:9i_Zf.7970$yh.6128@bignews3.bellsouth.net:
> They have been expelled 150 years ago, this fact does not
> diminish their claim to their ancestral lands!
>
They sold their land. They took their gold and left, just as the French
took their gold and left Louisiana. I sold some land with a house in 1962,
I gave up ownership when I was paid.
== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:34 pm
From: "serwad"
"Fay" <Fay@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:Xns979FE388E7329Faynospamnet@216.168.3.44...
> "serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in
> news:9i_Zf.7970$yh.6128@bignews3.bellsouth.net:
>
>> They have been expelled 150 years ago, this fact does not
>> diminish their claim to their ancestral lands!
>>
>
> They sold their land. They took their gold and left, just as the French
> took their gold and left Louisiana. I sold some land with a house in 1962,
> I gave up ownership when I was paid.
YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT IDIOT!
== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:47 pm
From: "Jim E"
If it happens you will be one of the first assuming ambient temperature.
Jim E
==============================================================================
TOPIC: CUBA: 2005-2006 Human Rights Report / 2005-2006 Reporte de Derechos
Humanos
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/99bf517001922233
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:09 pm
From: "PM"
Objet: Date: 7 avril, 2006 01:46
(Español abajo)
REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CUBA
2005-2006
Cuban Foundation of Human Rights
(Ciego de Avila, Cuba)
This report is only a brief general summary of the critical situation that
the Cuban people suffer in matters concerning human rights, as well as
public freedoms.
It is impossible here to shape detailed information about the types of daily
abuses committed by the government, much less make an enumeration of each
person who has been savagely beaten or incarcerated without committing a
crime. We only cite some of the cases as an illustration. We do not tackle
numerous other themes like worker's rights and the environment. We have
tried to place our greatest efforts in calling attention to the most
contemptible and dangerous crimes that are taking place at this time in our
county and that can, without any doubt, lead to bloodshed.
CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
1a. Political Rights
The Cuban nation remains under a military regime that dominates everything
by armed force and that has submitted the Cuban people to a totalitarian
government over the last 47 years. This is done through a one-party system,
using methods of repression by the police, terror, and disinformation in
order to stay in power.
The nation is run by a Chief Commandant who is, at the same time, President
of the Councils of State and Government and First Secretary of the Communist
Party of Cuba.
Every five years, using pressure and fear, the government holds elections
that are a farce in order to deceive national and international public
opinion. In these elections, the non-violent dissident movement is excluded;
the government fails to recognize it. The presence of international
observers during the elections is not permitted either.
1b. Civil Rights
After the celebration in Havana of the Assembly to Promote a Civil Society
in Cuba on May 20, 2005, the Cuban government unleashed a wave of
persecutions and terror that is currently getting worse and reaching
spine-chilling levels never lived before in the history of our country. The
government waited for the easing of sanctions by the European Union to begin
acts of repudiation like those of 1980 in June, 2005, acts that in the
following months became more severe in terms of violence and vandalism.
On February 16, 2006, five human rights activists were stoned in public in
the Paquito Rosales Central in Santiago de Cuba. They had to be
hospitalized. There was one woman among these persons: Maura Iset González
Jurquet, president of FLAMUR (the Latin American Federation of Rural Women).
She remains completely bedridden because the paramilitary mobs ruptured two
vertebrae of her spinal column in the stoning, they fractured her right leg,
and she suffered bruises at their hands all over her body. When she fell
unconscious on the ground as a result of being stoned, the mob continued to
beat her with a stick. When her husband tried to stop the beating, a
paramilitary person fractured the man's right index finger and continued
beating the rest of the activists who had to run three kilometers under a
steady shower of rocks and sticks. Maura Iset González remained unconscious
for about six minutes, and since then, she has not been able to walk.
Doctors anticipate the formation of a tumor on her spinal column as a result
of the stoning. Maura Iset González resides at Calle Céspedes entre General
García y Máximo González in the municipality of San Luis in Santiago de
Cuba. Her telephone number, whose service has been interrupted for more than
a month by State Security, is +53-2283604.
On October 14, 2005, several persons suffered injuries in the city of Santa
Clara, among them three activists who received fractured collarbones.
Alberto Gutiérrez suffered a detached left kidney after being kicked.
Through these acts, the government is desperately trying to wipe out the
burgeoning civil society since the failure of the wave of repression of the
Black Spring (March, 2003) in Cuba. The government has also invaded the last
niche of personal intimacy of the Cuban family. Government representatives
have arbitrarily broken into the bedrooms and other rooms of private
dwellings with the purpose of thwarting peaceful meetings, although at some
of these meetings there are fewer than five people who are in attendance. At
these places, the authorities arrive very unexpectedly and even prohibit the
family members from entering the houses of the opposition members.
Acts of repudiation are the main weapon of repression and terror currently
used by the Cuban government, and in the last ten months, the government has
carried out over 100 of them. During these acts, numerous people have been
beaten in a pre-meditated fashion, which causes profound psychological
damage as well to Cuban families, particularly to dozens of children. Among
them are: Javi Rosa Domínguez Perdigón, eight years old, and a resident of
Calle Obdulio Morales #50, Las Tosas, Sancti Espíritu, and Lorena Moraima
Mayet González Jurquet, the nine year old daughter of Maura Iset González
Jurquet.
All types of blunt objects are used in the beatings: sticks, stones, iron
rods, tubes, cables, and other things, with the purpose of cultivating panic
in the dissident movement and the community. All the power and resources of
the State are used, and at the same time, the State transforms military
personnel, prostitutes, alcoholics, and prisoners into the people who carry
out these acts. Other tactics that characterize these acts include
vulgarity, moral corruption, and pornographic references that are more
appropriate for the orators and participants in the acts. All of this
results in a complete educational and cultural aberration imposed by the
government for almost a half-century now.
Other forms of repression against the non-violent dissident members and
independent journalists that are not directed at family members and friends
but rather at a much broader sector of the populations exist. In order to
impose its totalitarian rule, the regime arrests, threatens, interrogates,
and jails opposition members. At times, the government fabricates common
crimes, such as disobedience, resistance, disrespect, attempts on someone's
life, and public disorder, against them. The government admits that some
opposition members have not committed any crime but declares the individuals
prone to commit them, referring to them as dangerous to society. Through
this judicial monstrosity, more than 1,000 young people were sent to jail in
the last twelve months, where they received sentences of up to four years in
prison in summary trials and in courts lacking guaranteed due process.
People are thrown in jail without any just cause or accusation.
Approximately fifty non-violent dissidents, suffering in maximum-security
conditions, find themselves in limbo from this sort of repression. They are
serving sentences in this situation of up to three years without their cases
having been heard by any public defender or court. Dr. René Gómez Manzano
and more than twenty opposition members arrested last July are among this
group.
Around 18 dwellings were broken into over the course of January and February
of this year (2006), and large numbers of independent libraries were
destroyed by State Security, the National Police, and paramilitary mobs.
Huge numbers of books, magazines, documents, fax machines, radios, and other
means of mass communication were confiscated. In the majority of the cases,
the searches were carried out in a way that violated the established laws of
the socialist government. The government also represses people through fines
of up to 3,000 pesos, the confiscation of land and property and other ways
not mentioned here. Thus, the regime tries to stifle independent
associations. This procedure has been used against Gualdimar Parra Santana,
Manuel Guerra Rodríguez, and Israel Pérez Díaz, all of whom are directors of
the Cuban League of Independent Farm Workers. Yoandri Quintana Sarría, who
is deaf and who has had a very delicate operation on his skull, has been
locked in a narrow and dark, insect infested, dungeon-like cell without
water and electricity . This cell is located in Instrucción Policial, known
as "Everyone Sings," in the city of Ciego de Avila. Yoandri Quintana Sarría
was locked up for founding and presiding over the Association of Independent
Deaf People in Cuba. He was kept in the cell for a week. Currently, the
government keeps him under harsh harassment through fines and the
confiscation of his bicycle in which he kept the deed to his property. He
has demanded it back through every legal avenue. Many other deaf people who
belong to this organization and live in extreme necessity and terror were
threatened as well.
The members of the Cuban Christian Movement suffer similar acts. The
government accuses them as being counterrevolutionaries and threatens them
with prison, telling them that they will all pay, along with the pastor and
president of the Cuban Christian Movement, Delmídet Hidalgo López. This
institution has its national headquarters in Batey Ognara in the
municipality of Primero de Enero in Ciego de Avila. Pastor Luis Enrique
Cervante Leiva was evicted from his home by the Department of Housing. This
eviction took place in neighborhood of Vicente in Ciego de Avila, and when
Pastor Cervante Leiva protested at the provincial Popular Poder, staying
there with his family, he was physically beaten and arrested by officials of
State Security and the government. He remained there for several days in the
Police Station of State Security in Ciego de Avila, threatened with
incarceration and a lawsuit. Pastor Adventista Arnaldo Expósito Zaldívar
from Holguín in Banes was beaten by groups of governmental paramilitaries in
plain view in public during the first days of March. The attackers ran over
him with a motorcycle and then grabbed him by the neck and punched him
several times. This happened on March 2, 2006. Pastor Jesús Manuel
Rosabarencibia was jailed at the Police Station in Matanzas around the
middle of 2005 for holding a Christ-centered convention of his religious
denomination that took place against the will of the government in San José
de Las Lajas in Havana Province. Pastor Rosabarencibia is currently in a
delicate state of health, suffering from peripheral neuritis.
The Cuban authorities place all sorts of obstacles on the preaching of the
gospel, restricting preaching exclusively to religious temples and
maintaining closed access to radio, television, and other media. They
repress all preaching in parks, streets, and public plazas, as well as
restricting the distribution of tracts and religious material from house to
house. The opening of houses of worship and new churches is extremely
limited and selective, and a policy of seizing houses of worship and
religious temples is maintained, even when they have been built in
accordance to the law. Agents of State Security keep watch on religious
groups, and if the pastors or priests express criticism of the government,
they are visited by an official on the provincial level of the Communist
Party of Cuba who threatens them severely.
Prisoners have been denied religious assistance on numerous occasions, and
they are prohibited in many cases from even reading the Bible.
II. Jails and Prisons
More than 500 political prisoners remain locked in Cuban prisons. Close to
one hundred of them are prisoners of conscience. Almost daily, military
officials in all the prisons of the country deal savage beatings to the
prisoners in general, and they do not distinguish between common prisoners
and prisoners of conscience, or that the beaten ones are handicapped, ill,
old people, women, or those who suffer from psychological disorders. The
prisoners are beaten with whips made from marabou, rubber straps, and hoses:
they are also kicked and slapped. Large numbers of guards participate on
every occasion; then the prisoners are dragged and thrown into narrow
dungeons where they are deprived of all their belongings, including their
clothing and mattress. Their food and water is cut back to insignificant
quantities. The prisoners' cells are enclosed (without light) with a hole in
the floor for their bodily functions. Food is scarce and poorly prepared in
prisons, and a practice has been made of serving them soured and rotten
food. Breakfast is water with sugar or wheat water that at times is
accompanied by a small piece of bread. At lunch and dinner, prisoners
receive several tablespoons of rice without oil or corn flour and boiled
pasta without dressing. This causes the prisoners to organize huge protests.
In the excrement hole, fecal material accumulates in heaps until from time
to time, there is enough water to carry it away. Rats, cockroaches, ants,
and other insects enter through the hole, contaminating everything.
The prisoners' mattresses are made of nylon or a burlap sack filled with
straw that contains bedbugs and other biting insects that, along with the
heat, stench, and mosquitoes, prohibit the prisoners from being able to
sleep. Because of these conditions, a great majority of the prisoners lose
their will to live and experience a loss of their teeth and a noticeable
loss of vision after being in jail for three or four years. They also suffer
from other illnesses related to malnutrition and vitamin deficiency.
In the Provincial Prison of Canaleta in Ciego de Avila, there is no drain
for the sewage that runs underneath the buildings. For this reason, this
area is known as "El Patineo."
Medical assistance is abysmal and in many cases, prisoners are denied it.
The state of health of approximately 60 prisoners of conscience from the
"Group of 75, the majority of whom are very sick in spite of being very
healthy and full of life when they were jailed three years ago, requires
special attention. Their illnesses, in our opinion, are the result of their
treatment by State Security that deprives them of rest in order to destroy
the physical and psychological health of these prisoners of conscience.
Among the most seriously ill are Pedro Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco Avila,
Lester González Pentón, Alejandro González Fraga, Dr. José Luis García
Paneque, Jorge Luis González Tanquero, Normando Hernández González, Juan
Carlos Herrerra Acosta, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Dr.Oscar Elías Biscet, Dr.
Luis Milán and others.
Cuban political prisoners suffer constant cruel, inhumane, and degrading
treatment, and State Security places them with the most dangerous common
criminals so that the prisoners will be attacked. They are inspected and
their rights to religion, correspondence, information, adequate food are
violated. In addition, they are not allowed to be outdoors in the sun. It is
a governmental practice to send them more than 500 km from their houses in
order to also punish their family members with this and other forms of
repression. They are also denied benefits such as conditional release and
minimum severity.
III. Death sentences
More than 50 people in Cuban jails are in death row waiting to be executed
by firing squad. We do not know of any executions during 2005 or of any
other sentences to death. Nevertheless, those who are condemned to death are
tortured psychologically and live in narrow and cold, dungeon-like cells.
For example, prison officials have simulated three executions by firing
squads on Héctor Santana Vega in the Maximum Security Prison Kilo 8 in
Camagüey. Héctor Santana Vega, a resident of Jagueyal, in Ciego de Avila
province, is asthmatic and in a wheel chair.
CONCLUSIONS
We want to emphasize our profound concern for the current increase in
violence and terror carried out by the Cuban government, as well as the use
of the National Revolutionary Police and bands of paramilitaries who are
responsible for the violent mobs that physically beat members of the
peaceful opposition movement. We are also concerned about the destruction of
independent libraries, the interference by the government in private homes,
and the critical state of the health of the prisoners of conscience and
prisoners in general, as well as the general deterioration of the prison
population. We regret that a report like this one cannot further detail the
situation of the violations of human rights in Cuba. What is worthy of
mention is that this document has been possible thanks to a year's work of
hundreds of activists and collaborators with the Cuban Foundation of Human
Rights (FCDH) and other institutions of the civil society in Cuba.
Juan Carlos González Leiva
President of the National Association of the Cuban Foundation of Human
Rights
March 13, 2006
Given from Ciego de Avila, Cuba, the national headquarters of the FCDH
Honorato del Castillo #154, entre República y Cuba, Ciego de Avila, Cuba.
Tel: +53-33-222235
Taped, transcribed, and translated into English by the Coalition of
Cuban-American Women in the US
Tel: 305-662-5947 Fax: 305-740-7323
Email: Joseito76@aol.com
Transcription: Laida Carro
Translation: Tanya Wilder
------------------------------------------------
INFORME DE LAS VIOLACIONES A LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN CUBA
2005-2006
Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos
(Ciego de Ávila, Cuba)
El presente informe solo recoge un breve resumen general de la crítica
situación que sufre el pueblo cubano en materia de derechos humanos, así
como las libertades públicas.
Es imposible plasmar aquí una información detallada de los tipos de abusos
cotidianos cometidos por el gobierno y, mucho menos, hacer una enumeración
de cada persona que ha sido apaleada salvajemente o encarcelada sin cometer
delito. Solo citamos algunos casos a modo de ilustración. Tampoco abordamos
numerosos temas como los derechos laborales, el medioambiente y otros. Hemos
querido hacer los mayores esfuerzos y llamar toda la atención en los
crímenes más deleznables y peligrosos que estan sucediendo en éstos momentos
en nuestro país y que pueden, sin lugar a duda, desembocar en un
derramamiento de sangre.
DERECHOS CIVILES Y POLITICOS
Ia. Derechos Políticos
El pueblo cubano permanece bajo un régimen militar que lo domina todo por la
fuerza de las armas y que desde hace 47 años lo somete a una política
totalitaria. Esto lo hace mediante el sistema del partido único, utilizando
los métodos de la represión policial, el terror y la desinformación para así
permanecer en el poder.
El estado es dirigido por un Comandante en Jefe que, a su vez, es el
Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Gobierno y Primer Secretario del
Partido Comunista de Cuba. Cada cinco años el gobierno lleva a cabo farsas
electorales bajo presión y miedo para engañar a la opinión pública nacional
e internacional. En éstas elecciones excluye a la disidencia pacífica y
trata de desconocerla. Tampoco permite la presencia de observadores
internacionales.
Ib. Derechos Civiles
Después de la celebración en La Habana de la Asamblea para Promover la
Sociedad Civil en Cuba el 20 de mayo del 2005, el gobierno cubano desató una
ola de persecusiones y terror la cual recrudece actualmente a niveles
escalofriantes nunca vividos en la historia de nuestro país. Esperó el
alivio de las sanciones de la Unión Europea y retomó en junio del 2005, los
actos de repudio de 1980. Actos que, en los meses sucesivos, fué adentrando
cada vez más en la violencia y el vandalismo.
El 16 de febrero del 2006, cinco acivistas de los derechos humanos fueron
lapidados en plena vía pública en el Central Paquito Rosales de Santiago de
Cuba. Ellos tuvieron que ser hospitalizados. Entre éstas personas se
encuentra una mujer: Maura Iset González Jurquet, presidenta de la FLAMUR
(Federación Latinoamericana de Mujeres Rurales). Ella aún permanence en cama
sin poderse levantar porque las turbas paramilitares le unieron, de una
pedrada, dos vértebras de la columna vertebral, le fracturaron la pierna
derecha y le llenaron el cuerpo de hematomas. Cuando cayó al suelo desmayada
por la pedrada, continuaron golpeándola con un palo y cuando su esposo trató
de frenar la golpiza, un paramilitar le fracturó el dedo pulgar de su mano
derecha y, posteriormente, continuó apaleando al resto de los activistas
quienes tuvieron que correr tres kilómetros bajo una lluvia de piedras y
palos. Maura Iset González permaneció alrededor de seis minutos sin
conocimiento y desde entonces no ha podido caminar. Los médicos esperan una
tumoración en la columna vertebral como resultado de la pedrada. Maura Iset
González reside en la calle Céspedes #206 entre General García y Máximo
Gómez en el Municipio de San Luis en Santiago de Cuba. El teléfono
interrumpido desde hace más de un mes por la Seguridad del Estado es:
+ 53-2283604
El 14 de Octubre del 2005, hubo varios lesionados graves en la ciudad de
Santa Clara, entre ellos tres activistas con las clavículas fracturadas.
Alberto Gutierrez sufrió el desprendimiento del riñón izquierdo tras recibir
una patada.
Mediante éstos actos, el gobierno trata desesperadamente de aniquilar la
naciente sociedad civil, una vez fracasada la ola represiva de la primavera
negra de Cuba. También ha invadido el último resquicio de intimidad personal
de la familia cubana. Ha allanado arbitrariamente los dormitorios y demás
habitaciones de las viviendas privadas con el fin de frustrar las reuniones
pacíficas, aunque en una sola de éstas reuniones participan a veces menos
de cinco personas. Aquí las autoridades llegan al extremo insospechado de
prohibir la entrada en la vivienda de los opositores a sus propios
familiares.
Los actos de repudio son la principal arma de represión y terror actual del
gobierno cubano que en los últimos diez meses ha protagonizado más de un
centenar de ellos. En los mismos, numerosas personas han sido golpeadas en
forma premeditada ocasionando también profundos daños sicológicos a la
familia cubana, muy particularmente, a decenas de niños entre los que se
encuentran: Javi Rosa Domínguez Perdigón de ocho años de edad quien reside
en la Calle Obdulio Morales #50, Las Tosas, Sancti Espíritu y Lorena Moraima
Mayet González Jurquet, la hija de Maura Iset González Jurquet, de nueve
años de edad.
Se utilizan todo tipo de objetos contundentes para golpear: palos, piedras,
hierros, tubos, cables y otros, a fin de sembrar el pánico en la disidencia
y en la comunidad. Para esto se utiliza todo el poder y los recursos del
estado y, a su vez, convierte en protagonista de éstas turbas a los
militares, las prostitutas, alchólicos y presidiarios. Otra arista es la
grocería, corrupción moral y tendencia pornográfica que los caracteriza y
que se aprecia en la mayoría de los oradores y los participantes, todo lo
cual es el resultado de la aberración educacional y cultural impuesta por el
gobierno por casi medio siglo.
Existen otras formas de represión contra la disidencia pacífica y
periodistas independientes que no solo alcanzan a sus familiares y amigos,
sino a un sector cada vez más amplio de la población. Para imponer su
política totalitarian el régimen arresta, amenaza, interroga y encarcela.
Algunas veces les fabrica delitos comunes tales como: desobediencia,
resistencia, desacato, atentado y desorden público, entre otros ó en otras
reconoce que no han cometido delito alguno y los declara proclive a
cometerlos aplicándoles la peligrosidad social predelictiva. Mediante esta
mounstrosidad jurídica fueron enviados a las cárceles cubanas más de mil
jóvenes en los últimos doce meses, siendo sancionados a hasta 4 años de
privación de libertad en juicios sumarísimos y por tribunales carentes de
todas las garantías procesales. También se encarcela, sin ninguna formalidad
juridica ni acusación. En limbo este represivo se encuentran alrededor de
medio centenar de disidentes pacíficos sufriendo el rigor de las cárceles
cubanas. En este estado extinguen condenas de hasta tres años sin que sus
casos sean conocidos siquiera por la fiscalía ó por los tribunales. De este
grupo de personas está el Doctor René Gómez Manzano y más de veinte
opositores arrestados en julio pasado.
Alrededor de 18 viviendas fueron allanadas en los últimos meses de enero y
febrero del presente año y un gran número de bibliotecas independientes
destruídas por la Seguridad del Estado, la Policía Nacional (PNR) y las
turbas paramilitares. Aquí se han confiscado gran cantidad de libros,
revistas, documentos, equipos de fax, radios y otros medios. En la mayoría
de los casos los registros se han producido en forma violenta y violando lo
establecido por la ley del gobierno socialista. Mediante multas de hasta
tres mil pesos la confiscación de tierras y bienes, también se reprime y
mediante otros actos de represión no recogidos aquí. Así el régimen trata de
asfixiar las asociaciones independientes. Este procedimiento ha sido
utilizado contra Gualdímar Parra Santana, Manuel Guerra Rodríguez e Irael
Pérez Díaz, todos dirigentes de la Liga Cubana de Campesinos Independientes.
Yoandri Quintana Sarría, discapacitado sordo y con una operación muy
delicada en la cabeza, ha sido encerrado por la Seguridad del Estado en un
estrecho y oscuro calabozo sin agua ni electricidad, lleno de insectos. Este
calabozo está en Instrucción Policial conocido como "Todo el Mundo Canta" en
la ciudad de Ciego de Ávila. Yoandri Quintana Sarría fué encerrado por
fundar y presidir la Asociación de Sordos Independientes de Cuba. Allí lo
mantuvieron durante una semana. Actualmente lo mantienen bajo un férreo
acoso mediante multas y el decomiso de su bicicleta la cual posee el
documento de su propiedad y ha sido reclamado por todas las vías legales.
Igualmente fueron amenazados de cárcel un gran número de sordos mudos
pertenencientes a ésta institución quienes viven en extrema necesidad y en
terror.
Los miembros del Movimiento Cristiano de Cuba sufren similares actos. Son
acusados de contrarevolucionarios y se les amenaza de cárcel diciéndoles que
pagarán todos juntos con el pastor y presidente del Movimiento Cristiano de
Cuba, Delmídet Hidalgo López. Esta institución tiene su sede nacional en el
Batey Ognara en el municipio primero de enero en Ciego de Ávila. El Pastor
Luis Enrique Cervante Leiva, fué desalojado de su vivienda por el Instituto
de la Vivienda. Este desalojo se produjo en el poblado de Vicente en Ciego
de Ávila y cuando el Pastor Cervante Leiva reclamó en el gobierno
provincial Poder Popular, plantándose allí con su familia, fué agredido
físicamente por funcionarios de la Seguridad del Estado y del gobierno y
arrestado, permaneciendo varios días en Instrucción Policial en Ciego de
Ávila de la Seguridad del Estado, amenazado con ser encarcelado y abrirle
causa. El Pastor Adventista Arnaldo Expósito Zaldívar de Holguín en Banes
fué agredido por un grupo de paramilitares del gobierno en plena vía pública
en los primeros días de marzo en Banes, Holguín. Los agresores le lanzaron
una motocicleta encima y después lo tomaron del cuello, dándole varios
puñetazos. Este hecho ocurrió exactamente el día dos de marzo del 2006. El
Pastor Jesús Manuel Rosabarencibia fué encarcelado en Instrucción Policial
de Matanzas a mediados del 2005, por liderar una convención cristocéntrica
de su denominación religiosa que se celebró en contra de la voluntad del
gobierno en San José de Las Lajas en provincia Habana. El mismo,
actualmente, se encuentra en delicado estado de salud con neuritis
periférica.
Las autoridades ponen todo tipo de obstáculo a la prédica del evangelio,
constriñendo exclusivamente a los templos religiosos la prédica manteniendo
cerrado el acceso a la radio, la televisión y los medios de difusión masiva.
Reprimen también la prédica en los parques, calles y plazas públicas, así
como la distribución de tratados y materiales religiosos de casa en casa. La
apertura de casas cultos y nuevos templos es extremadamente limitada y
selectiva y se mantiene la política de decomisar casas cultos y templos de
iglesias, aún cuando han sido fabricadas de acuerdo con la ley. Agentes de
la Seguridad del Estado vigilan los cultos religiosos y si los pastores ó
curas expresan críticas al gobierno son visitados por un funcionario del
Partido Comunista de Cuba a nivel de provincia quien los amenaza
severamente.
A los reclusos se les niega la asistencia religiosa en numerosas ocasiones,
prohibiéndose en muchos casos, hasta la lectura de la Biblia.
II. Cárceles y Prisiones.
Más de 500 presos políticos permanecen encerrados en las prisiones cubanas.
De ellos, casi un centenar son prisioneros de conciencia. Los militares en
todas las prisiones del país propinan, casi a diario, salvajes palizas a los
reclusos en general y no distinguen entre presos comunes y los presos de
conciencia ó que los apaleados sean discapacitados, enfermos, ancianos,
mujeres ó que padezcan de trastornos psíquicos. Los penados son golpeados
con garrotes de marabú, tonjas de goma, mangueras y también con las manos y
los pies. En todas las ocasiones participa un gran número de guardias;
después los reos son arrastrados y lanzados en estrechos calabozos donde son
privados de todas sus pertenencias, incluyendo la ropa y el colchón de
dormir. Se le suprime además la alimentación y el agua hasta llevarlas a
cantidades insignificantes. Estan son celdas tapiadas (sin luz) con un hueco
en el piso para hacer las necesidades fisiológicas. La alimentación es
escasa en los penales y mal elaborada y se ha hecho una práctica servir
alimentos agrios y en estado de descomposición. El desayuno es agua con
azúcar ó agua de trigo que a veces está acompañada de un pedacito de pan y
en el almuerzo y comida varias cucharadas de arroz sin grasa ó harina de
maíz y un caldo de pasta alimenticia hervida sin aderezos. Esta situación
lleva a los reclusos a protagonizar grandes protestas.
En los huecos de las escretas se acumulan las heces fecales de los hacinados
reclusos hasta que de cuando en cuando haya suficiente agua para que las
arrastre. Por éstos orificios entran las ratas, cucarachas, hormigas y otros
insectos contaminándolo todo. Los colchones son de nylon ó de saco de yute,
rellenados con hierba donde viven gran cantidad de chinchas y caránganos que
unido al calor, el mal olor y los mosquitos le impiden a los reclusos
conciliar el sueño. Por éstas condiciones la gran mayoría de los reclusos
pierden los dientes y la vitalidad, quedando con pérdida notable de la
visión después de permanecer tres ó cuatro años encarcelados. También
padecen por esta causa otras enfermedades típicas de la desnutrición y la
avitaminosis.
En la prisión Provincial de Canaleta en Ciego de Ávila, no hay desagüe para
los deshechos por lo que las heces corren por debajo de los edificios. Por
esta razón a esta área se le llama " El Patineo".
La asistencia médica y estomatológica es pésima y en muchos casos se les
niega a los condenados ésta asistencia. Especial atención requiere el estado
de salud del grupo de alrededor de 60 prisioneros de conciencia del "Grupo
de los 75", quienes en su mayoría se encuentran muy enfermos a pesar de que
hace tres años fueron encarcelado llenos de vida y salud, enfermedades que,
en nuestra opinión, son provocadas por la Seguridad del Estado en forma
premeditada que trabaja sin descanso para destruir la salud de éstos
prisioneros de conciencia, afectándole la salud física y síquica. Entre los
más enfermos se encuentran Pedro Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco Ávila,
Lester González Pentón, Alejandro González Fraga, el Dr. Jose Luis García
Paneque, Jorge Luis González Tanquero, Normando Hernández González, Juan
Carlos Herrera Acosta, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, Dr.
Luis Milán y otros.
Los presos políticos cubanos sufren constantemente tratos crueles, inhumanos
y degradantes y la Seguridad del Estado les envía presos comunes de alta
peligrosidad para que los agreda. Son requizados y se les viola los derechos
de religión, correspondencia, información, alimentación, así como se les
impide hasta tomar el sol en muchas ocasiones. Es práctica del gobierno
desterrarlos a más de 500 kms.de sus viviendas para castigar también a sus
familiares con éstas y otras formas de represión. También se les niegan los
beneficios tales como: libertad condicional y la mínima severidad.
III. Condenados a Muerte
Más de 50 condenados a muerte esperan ser fusilados en los corredores de la
muerte de las cárceles cubanas. No conocemos de ninguna ejecución durante el
año 2005, ni de nuevas sanciones a la pena capital. Sin embargo, los
condenados a muerte son torturados sicológicamente y sobreviven en estrechos
y fríos calabozos. Por citar solo un ejemplo, a Héctor Santana Vega se le
han hecho tres simulacros de fusilamiento en la Prisión de Máxima Severidad
en Kilo 8 en Camaguey. Héctor Santana Vega, residente en Jagueyal, la
provincial de Ciego de Ávila, que es asmático y está en silla de ruedas.
CONCLUSIONES
A modo de conclusions solo queremos resaltar nuestra profunda preocupación
por los actuales incrementos de violencia y terror desatados por el gobierno
cubano, así como el uso de la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR) y de
bandas paramilitares que encabezan las turbas violentas para agredir
físicamente a los opositores pacíficos; también la destrucción de las
bibliotecas independientes y la injerencia en las viviendas privadas.
También el crítico estado de salud de los prisioneros de conciencia y los
presos políticos en general, así como el deterioro en general de la
población penal. Lamentamos que en un informe como el presente no pueda
contemplarse con mayor amplitud, en detalle, la situación de las violaciones
a los derechos humanos en Cuba. Lo que si es digno de destacar es que éste
documento ha sido posible gracias a un año de trabajo de centenares de
activistas y colaboradores de la Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos (FCDH)
y otras instituciones de la sociedad civil en Cuba. De ahí la seriedad y
veracidad que reviste el mismo.
Juan Carlos González Leiva
Presidente de la Secretaría Nacional de la Fundación Cubana de Derechos
Humanos
13 de marzo de 2006
dado desde Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, en la sede nacional de la FCDH
Honorato del Castillo #154, entre República y Cuba, Ciego de Ávila
tel: + 53-33-222235
-------------------------
Grabado, transcrito y traducido al inglés por la Coalición de Mujeres
Cubano-Americanas en EEUU.
Laida Carro
Tel: 662-5947
Fax: 305-740-7323
Dirección electrónica: Joseito76@aol.com
************************************************************
NET ALERT!
LLAMADO URGENTE POR LA VIDA DEL DOCTOR GUILLERMO FARIÑAS EN CUBA
Puente Informativo Cuba Miami y Net for Cuba International, alertan:
Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, Psicólogo y Director de la Agencia
Independiente Cubanacán Press, se declaró en huelga de hambre y sed el
pasado
31 de enero del presente año, en la ciudad de Santa Clara, Cuba,
demandando a que el gobierno de Castro le instale libre acceso a Internet
desde su hogar. Hasta el momento, el régimen se ha negado a cumplir esta
demanda y el Dr. Fariñas, está a punto de morir. Apelamos a la
conciencia de todas las personas de buena voluntad que reciban este llamado
urgente, para que se exija al régimen de Fidel Castro, se le permita al Dr.
Fariñas acceso libre a Internet. ¡No queremos otro mártir más por la
libertad y la justicia en Cuba! ¡Ya suman decenas de miles! ¡Basta ya!
Por la vida del Dr. Guillermo Fariñas y su justo reclamo,
dirija su comunicación a:
Fidel Castro Ruz
Presidente de los Consejos de Estados y de Ministros,
La Habana, Cuba.
Fax: + 53 7 8333085 (a través del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores)
Contacto a través del sitio oficial del gobierno cubano:
webmaster@one.gov.cu
* URL para foto de Fariñas:
http://www.netforcuba.org/farinas.jpg
NetforCuba International
http://www.netforcuba.org/
Para NetforCuba en español, favor de visitar:
http://www.netforcubaenespanol.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you wish to be removed from our mailing list,
please E-mail us at the following address:
loupagani@netforcuba.org or News@NetforCuba.org and
simply write, "Remove from list" in the subject area.
==============================================================================
TOPIC: GINEBRA: EXILIADOS CUBANOS DENUNCIAN REPRESIÓN EN CUBA FRENTE A LA SEDE
DE LA ONU EN GINEBRA
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e7f9fe6e4db8fcd0
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:13 pm
From: "PM"
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
M.A.R. POR CUBA
EXILIADOS CUBANOS DENUNCIAN REPRESIÓN EN CUBA FRENTE A LA SEDE DE LA ONU EN
GINEBRA
Ginebra, Suiza, 7 de abril del 2006 - Miembros de organizaciones del exilio
cubano y activistas de derechos humanos en Miami y Suiza manifestaron hoy
en la Plaza de las Naciones frente al Palacio de las Naciones, sede de la
ONU en esa ciudad, en horas de la mañana.
Los manifestantes portaban una bandera cubana y los afiches de la campana
conjunta de M.A.R. Por Cuba y Plantados Hasta la Libertad y la Democracia
bajo el lema de Basta Ya. Para Cuba Ya es Hora, cuyos dibujos - realizados
por un ex prisionero político cubano - presentan imágenes impactantes sobre
las violaciones sistemáticas a los derechos humanos y libertades
fundamentales en Cuba por parte del régimen del dictador Fidel Castro.
La delegación que desde los Estados Unidos viajó a Paris y a Ginebra para
hacer presente la realidad cubana a través de numerosas actividades,
regresará a Miami el lunes 10 de abril en horas de la tarde.
Para mayor información:
Sylvia G. Iriondo
www.marporcuba.org
e-mail: marporcuba@aol.com
************************************************************
NET ALERT!
LLAMADO URGENTE POR LA VIDA DEL DOCTOR GUILLERMO FARIÑAS EN CUBA
Puente Informativo Cuba Miami y Net for Cuba International, alertan:
Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, Psicólogo y Director de la Agencia
Independiente Cubanacán Press, se declaró en huelga de hambre y sed el
pasado
31 de enero del presente año, en la ciudad de Santa Clara, Cuba,
demandando a que el gobierno de Castro le instale libre acceso a Internet
desde su hogar. Hasta el momento, el régimen se ha negado a cumplir esta
demanda y el Dr. Fariñas, está a punto de morir. Apelamos a la
conciencia de todas las personas de buena voluntad que reciban este llamado
urgente, para que se exija al régimen de Fidel Castro, se le permita al Dr.
Fariñas acceso libre a Internet. ¡No queremos otro mártir más por la
libertad y la justicia en Cuba! ¡Ya suman decenas de miles! ¡Basta ya!
Por la vida del Dr. Guillermo Fariñas y su justo reclamo,
dirija su comunicación a:
Fidel Castro Ruz
Presidente de los Consejos de Estados y de Ministros,
La Habana, Cuba.
Fax: + 53 7 8333085 (a través del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores)
Contacto a través del sitio oficial del gobierno cubano:
webmaster@one.gov.cu
* URL para foto de Fariñas:
http://www.netforcuba.org/farinas.jpg
NetforCuba International
http://www.netforcuba.org/
Para NetforCuba en español, favor de visitar:
http://www.netforcubaenespanol.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you wish to be removed from our mailing list,
please E-mail us at the following address:
loupagani@netforcuba.org or News@NetforCuba.org and
simply write, "Remove from list" in the subject area.
==============================================================================
TOPIC: AID TO ISRAEL MAY BE CANCELLED!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/9126bc5d0bc244ca
==============================================================================
== 1 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:31 pm
From: "serwad"
April Saturday 8th 2006 (23h13) :
U.S. Aid to Israel Put in Sharp Focus by Rupert Cornwell
Published on Saturday, April 8, 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(Washington)
To John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, heartfelt thanks are due. They are
very eminent academics, from the University of Chicago and Harvard
respectively, and the authors of a treatise titled "The Israel Lobby and
U.S. Foreign Policy."
To most European ears, their case is persuasive. Israel, they argue, has
become a liability in Washington's war on terror, that has reduced America's
ability to deal with rogue states. There is no longer a moral or strategic
case for U.S. support for Israel, and the billions of dollars it extends to
the Jewish state each year, no questions asked.
Yet, claim Mearsheimer and Walt, such is the stranglehold of the lobby on
Congress that these policies are never seriously debated. The lobby itself,
the authors say, is led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and
other pro-Jewish groups. It also includes powerful gentile outriders in key
positions, mostly in the neo-conservative movement, in the Bush
administration and on Capitol Hill and in the media, as well as the
politically influential evangelical Christian movement, which believes that
a greater Israel is the fulfilment of God's will.
Predictably, the paper has provoked an almighty uproar. Their scholarship
has been derided by their peers; Eliot Cohen, a celebrated historian and
neo-con, declared in The Washington Post that it was simply anti-Semitic,
displaying "obsessive and irrationally hostile beliefs about Jews." But such
vitriol, which contrasts with the measured prose of Mearsheimer and Walt,
obscures the most important point.
For once, questions asked so often in Europe and other parts of the world
are being asked in America.
Is there a "Jewish Lobby" in the United States? Of course there is, just as
there are highly effective lobbies for gun ownership, farmers and for
ridding Cuba of communism: How else is it that America persists in its
spiteful and futile persecution of Fidel Castro's unlovely but unimportant
regime? The answer is the critical Cuban-American vote in the electorally
vital Florida.
Thus it is, writ far larger, with AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups. They do
a great professional job. But they are tilling very fertile soil.
Americans, as polls have shown, side with Israel rather than the
Palestinians by a margin of roughly 4-1. Suppose those figures were
reversed. However well organized, AIPAC and the like wouldn't have a prayer.
But America's sympathy for Israel, and the effectiveness of the Jewish
lobby, have together rendered the country two giant disservices. The first
is the suppression of serious domestic debate on the U.S. relationship with
Israel. It is beyond dispute that one reason -- not the only reason, it is
true, but a significant one -- for the strife in the Middle East, and the
lethally virulent anti-Americanism in the region, is America's built-in bias
towards Israel, its failure to twist Israel's arm, its refusal to exert real
pressure to halt settlement expansion on the West Bank, to cite just one
example.
But you hear next to nothing of this, least of all in Congress -- once
memorably described by the old isolationist bruiser Pat Buchanan as
"Israeli-occupied territory." Criticize Israel, and as the Cohen response
shows, you are branded an anti-Semite.
Concentrating minds is the legend of Charles Percy, the Illinois senator
whose electoral defeat in 1984 is said to have been engineered by the Lobby
in retaliation for a supposedly "anti-Israel stance." The folklore of
Capitol Hill is clear: you defy AIPAC at your peril.
The second disservice rendered by the "Jewish lobby" is the conflation of
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians with America's war on terror, so
that 9/11 is ultimately presented as no more than a gigantic, horrific
specimen of the suicide bomber threat that (at least until the building of
the "security fence" to which the United States has also raised few serious
objections) was faced on a daily basis by Israelis in their own cities.
Thus was born the theory of the indivisible nature of terrorism, bought by
the neo-cons and sold by Ariel Sharon -- long before the invasion of Iraq --
to an American president convinced that the world was divided into simple
opposite camps of good and evil, in which "you are either with us or against
us." Thus the strategic interests of Israel and the United States in the
region were fused, with the pernicious consequences outlined by Mearsheimer
and Walt.
Don't expect the tectonic plates of diplomacy to shift. The Israel Lobby
makes a measured case. But it will be added -- indeed it already has been
added -- to the long catalogue of accusations that a Jewish cabal runs
European finance/American foreign policy/the world. Such theories have been
around forever.
As I embarked on this piece, I glanced at my bookshelves for inspiration. A
title instantly leapt out: "The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American
Foreign Policy." In it, Edward Tivnan maintains that the pro-Israel lobby
had silenced debate on Capitol Hill and had become an obstacle to peace in
the Middle East. Sound familiar? Yet the book was published in 1987.
Plainly, Tivnan's arguments have changed nothing. Americans like Israel,
come what may. I will bet that the very similar ones of Walt and Mearsheimer
make little difference either.
Rupert Cornwell writes for The Independent, a British paper, from
Washington, D.C.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
begin 666 rien.gif
M1TE&.#EA" `(`( ``.3DY ```"'Y! $`````+ `````(``@```('A(^IR^U=
#```[
`
end
== 2 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:37 pm
From: "Jim E"
Maybe after all the ragheads have been exterminated, and the free democratic
State of Israel is no longer threatened by insane neighbors.
But not untill then.
Jim E
== 3 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Apr 9 2006 1:38 pm
From: "Ben Cramer" <[remove]bencramer7@gmail.com>
"Jim E" <YD652126@sea.edu> wrote in message
news:49rdrpFpr093U1@individual.net...
>
>
> Maybe after all the ragheads have been exterminated, and the free
> democratic State of Israel is no longer threatened by insane neighbors.
When does israel become a democracy?
== 4 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:43 pm
From: "serwad"
"Ben Cramer" <[remove]bencramer7@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e19vj8$15ke$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>
> "Jim E" <YD652126@sea.edu> wrote in message
> news:49rdrpFpr093U1@individual.net...
>>
>>
>> Maybe after all the ragheads have been exterminated, and the free
>> democratic State of Israel is no longer threatened by insane neighbors.
>
> When does israel become a democracy?
>
He meant "demoncracy" not democracy, he just misspelled the the name of the
ZioNzi state!
== 5 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:49 pm
From: "Ben Cramer" <[remove]bencramer7@gmail.com>
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:bl%Zf.7994$yh.2192@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Ben Cramer" <[remove]bencramer7@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e19vj8$15ke$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>>
>> "Jim E" <YD652126@sea.edu> wrote in message
>> news:49rdrpFpr093U1@individual.net...
>>>
>>>
>>> Maybe after all the ragheads have been exterminated, and the free
>>> democratic State of Israel is no longer threatened by insane neighbors.
>>
>> When does israel become a democracy?
>>
> He meant "demoncracy" not democracy, he just misspelled the the name of
> the ZioNzi state!
Israel is apartheid, not democratic.
Just imagine if a heap of Ethiopian jews tried to purchase property to live
in Herzliya, best known as "Little Moscow".
>
>
== 6 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:52 pm
From: "Jim E"
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:bl%Zf.7994$yh.2192@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Ben Cramer" <[remove]bencramer7@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e19vj8$15ke$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>>
>> "Jim E" <YD652126@sea.edu> wrote in message
>> news:49rdrpFpr093U1@individual.net...
>>>
>>>
>>> Maybe after all the ragheads have been exterminated, and the free
>>> democratic State of Israel is no longer threatened by insane neighbors.
>>
>> When does israel become a democracy?
>>
> He meant "demoncracy" not democracy, he just misspelled the the name of
> the ZioNzi state!
>
A State with free elections surrounded by tin pot despots.
Israel is the first democracy in the ME.
Jim E
==============================================================================
TOPIC: Is there such a thing as Christian extremists?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/ce75c29c009dcbf8
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:31 pm
From: "ZenIsWhen"
"Ashok" <ashokpatel2006@email.com> wrote in message
news:1144533604.671339.260830@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> What are they like? Do they kill animals? Do they teach their kids to
> use guns to kill animals? Do they drink alcohol? Do they commit adultry
> (oral sex or intercourse outside marriage). Are you a hypotwit? If you
> answered yes to any of these questions, you are a Christian extremist.
>
> Ashok Patel
ALL religious believers are "extremist" - it is only a matter of degree and
direction.
==============================================================================
TOPIC: BUSH AND ZIONAZIS HEADED FOR THE GARBAGE DUMP
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e6f9177f73e2fcd4
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:35 pm
From: "serwad"
April Saturday 8th 2006 (23h13) :
U.S. Aid to Israel Put in Sharp Focus by Rupert Cornwell
Published on Saturday, April 8, 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(Washington)
To John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, heartfelt thanks are due. They are
very eminent academics, from the University of Chicago and Harvard
respectively, and the authors of a treatise titled "The Israel Lobby and
U.S. Foreign Policy."
To most European ears, their case is persuasive. Israel, they argue, has
become a liability in Washington's war on terror, that has reduced America's
ability to deal with rogue states. There is no longer a moral or strategic
case for U.S. support for Israel, and the billions of dollars it extends to
the Jewish state each year, no questions asked.
Yet, claim Mearsheimer and Walt, such is the stranglehold of the lobby on
Congress that these policies are never seriously debated. The lobby itself,
the authors say, is led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and
other pro-Jewish groups. It also includes powerful gentile outriders in key
positions, mostly in the neo-conservative movement, in the Bush
administration and on Capitol Hill and in the media, as well as the
politically influential evangelical Christian movement, which believes that
a greater Israel is the fulfilment of God's will.
Predictably, the paper has provoked an almighty uproar. Their scholarship
has been derided by their peers; Eliot Cohen, a celebrated historian and
neo-con, declared in The Washington Post that it was simply anti-Semitic,
displaying "obsessive and irrationally hostile beliefs about Jews." But such
vitriol, which contrasts with the measured prose of Mearsheimer and Walt,
obscures the most important point.
For once, questions asked so often in Europe and other parts of the world
are being asked in America.
Is there a "Jewish Lobby" in the United States? Of course there is, just as
there are highly effective lobbies for gun ownership, farmers and for
ridding Cuba of communism: How else is it that America persists in its
spiteful and futile persecution of Fidel Castro's unlovely but unimportant
regime? The answer is the critical Cuban-American vote in the electorally
vital Florida.
Thus it is, writ far larger, with AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups. They do
a great professional job. But they are tilling very fertile soil.
Americans, as polls have shown, side with Israel rather than the
Palestinians by a margin of roughly 4-1. Suppose those figures were
reversed. However well organized, AIPAC and the like wouldn't have a prayer.
But America's sympathy for Israel, and the effectiveness of the Jewish
lobby, have together rendered the country two giant disservices. The first
is the suppression of serious domestic debate on the U.S. relationship with
Israel. It is beyond dispute that one reason -- not the only reason, it is
true, but a significant one -- for the strife in the Middle East, and the
lethally virulent anti-Americanism in the region, is America's built-in bias
towards Israel, its failure to twist Israel's arm, its refusal to exert real
pressure to halt settlement expansion on the West Bank, to cite just one
example.
But you hear next to nothing of this, least of all in Congress -- once
memorably described by the old isolationist bruiser Pat Buchanan as
"Israeli-occupied territory." Criticize Israel, and as the Cohen response
shows, you are branded an anti-Semite.
Concentrating minds is the legend of Charles Percy, the Illinois senator
whose electoral defeat in 1984 is said to have been engineered by the Lobby
in retaliation for a supposedly "anti-Israel stance." The folklore of
Capitol Hill is clear: you defy AIPAC at your peril.
The second disservice rendered by the "Jewish lobby" is the conflation of
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians with America's war on terror, so
that 9/11 is ultimately presented as no more than a gigantic, horrific
specimen of the suicide bomber threat that (at least until the building of
the "security fence" to which the United States has also raised few serious
objections) was faced on a daily basis by Israelis in their own cities.
Thus was born the theory of the indivisible nature of terrorism, bought by
the neo-cons and sold by Ariel Sharon -- long before the invasion of Iraq --
to an American president convinced that the world was divided into simple
opposite camps of good and evil, in which "you are either with us or against
us." Thus the strategic interests of Israel and the United States in the
region were fused, with the pernicious consequences outlined by Mearsheimer
and Walt.
Don't expect the tectonic plates of diplomacy to shift. The Israel Lobby
makes a measured case. But it will be added -- indeed it already has been
added -- to the long catalogue of accusations that a Jewish cabal runs
European finance/American foreign policy/the world. Such theories have been
around forever.
As I embarked on this piece, I glanced at my bookshelves for inspiration. A
title instantly leapt out: "The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American
Foreign Policy." In it, Edward Tivnan maintains that the pro-Israel lobby
had silenced debate on Capitol Hill and had become an obstacle to peace in
the Middle East. Sound familiar? Yet the book was published in 1987.
Plainly, Tivnan's arguments have changed nothing. Americans like Israel,
come what may. I will bet that the very similar ones of Walt and Mearsheimer
make little difference either.
Rupert Cornwell writes for The Independent, a British paper, from
Washington, D.C.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
begin 666 rien.gif
M1TE&.#EA" `(`( ``.3DY ```"'Y! $`````+ `````(``@```('A(^IR^U=
#```[
`
end
==============================================================================
TOPIC: AS AN AMERICAN....
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/3e6ddecdf310aef0
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 11:40 pm
From: "serwad"
April Sunday 9th 2006 (03h47) :
As an American
As an American citizen,I look around me,and I listen to what other American
citizens are saying,and like me, how they are trying to survive in corporate
owned America,and I have to tell you,it"s not easy.The deck is,as they
say,stacked against us.We are not represented and our voices are not
heard.As an elderly lady said to me recently,"we know who the real
terrorists are".We may indeed know,but the laws that our corporate owned
politicians have passed only benefit the politicians and their corporate
owners.The vast majority of us working folk who pay the majority of taxes
are not considered when bills are passed in congress that give breaks to
Drug companies,banks,utility companies,or their friends,the wealthy
elite.They simply pass the costs on to us citizens and then brag on
television to their bought media about how wonderful it is to live in a
democracy.I would"nt know because I"m one in a great mass of American
workers that is being robbed from on a daily basis by my so called "public
servants",and I use that title very loosely.Don"t get me wrong,I believe in
paying my fair share of taxes,and I always have paid them because I feel
that it"s my duty as an American citizen to support my government,and most
every working American I know feels the same way.It"s common for folks to
complain about it and joke about it,but when it gets right down to it there
is something in the American psyche that makes us proud to do our part,even
if it"s a struggle or a hardship to do so.That is what is so very despicable
about our present unelected officials.I say unelected because of voter fraud
and redistricting that has made a mockery of the word "Democracy".The fact
that they have broken the trust with their citizens and lied to us
repeatedly has given us a bad heart ,and I"ll be honest with you,it has
really surprised a lot of people ,who did have faith in our leaders having
the understanding and ability to do the right thing.But now those same
people are saying "man, this is nothing but one big mess, led by a bunch of
fools".Americans need to know more about our own history,our real history
and they would realize that any rights and freedoms that we had gained in
the past were hard won.Freedom must be fought for and a constant vigil kept
for liberty.Any act,no matter how small,in the fight for freedom,is
honorable.We are Americans and we will fight for freedom,even if the
Government chooses not to stand with us .It is our duty to ourselves and to
the world.
By : D.Millan
April Sunday 9th 2006
begin 666 rien.gif
M1TE&.#EA" `(`( ``.3DY ```"'Y! $`````+ `````(``@```('A(^IR^U=
#```[
`
end
==============================================================================
TOPIC: PHONY "INVESTIGATION" OF 911
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/635b6dad2392f96d
==============================================================================
== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:43 pm
From: "Jim E"
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:%R_Zf.7979$yh.
alex cut and paste flushed.
== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:44 pm
From: "serwad"
April Sunday 9th 2006 (03h47) :
As an American
As an American citizen,I look around me,and I listen to what other American
citizens are saying,and like me, how they are trying to survive in corporate
owned America,and I have to tell you,it"s not easy.The deck is,as they
say,stacked against us.We are not represented and our voices are not
heard.As an elderly lady said to me recently,"we know who the real
terrorists are".We may indeed know,but the laws that our corporate owned
politicians have passed only benefit the politicians and their corporate
owners.The vast majority of us working folk who pay the majority of taxes
are not considered when bills are passed in congress that give breaks to
Drug companies,banks,utility companies,or their friends,the wealthy
elite.They simply pass the costs on to us citizens and then brag on
television to their bought media about how wonderful it is to live in a
democracy.I would"nt know because I"m one in a great mass of American
workers that is being robbed from on a daily basis by my so called "public
servants",and I use that title very loosely.Don"t get me wrong,I believe in
paying my fair share of taxes,and I always have paid them because I feel
that it"s my duty as an American citizen to support my government,and most
every working American I know feels the same way.It"s common for folks to
complain about it and joke about it,but when it gets right down to it there
is something in the American psyche that makes us proud to do our part,even
if it"s a struggle or a hardship to do so.That is what is so very despicable
about our present unelected officials.I say unelected because of voter fraud
and redistricting that has made a mockery of the word "Democracy".The fact
that they have broken the trust with their citizens and lied to us
repeatedly has given us a bad heart ,and I"ll be honest with you,it has
really surprised a lot of people ,who did have faith in our leaders having
the understanding and ability to do the right thing.But now those same
people are saying "man, this is nothing but one big mess, led by a bunch of
fools".Americans need to know more about our own history,our real history
and they would realize that any rights and freedoms that we had gained in
the past were hard won.Freedom must be fought for and a constant vigil kept
for liberty.Any act,no matter how small,in the fight for freedom,is
honorable.We are Americans and we will fight for freedom,even if the
Government chooses not to stand with us .It is our duty to ourselves and to
the world.
By : D.Millan
April Sunday 9th 2006
begin 666 rien.gif
M1TE&.#EA" `(`( ``.3DY ```"'Y! $`````+ `````(``@```('A(^IR^U=
#```[
`
end
==============================================================================
TOPIC: ATTA-GRADUATE OF U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e2845d960edef642
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:45 pm
From: "Jim E"
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:0M_Zf.7977$yh.4190@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
> Sept 15-16, 2001: U.S. military sources give the FBI information that
> several of the 9/11 hijackers, including leader Mohamed Atta, may have
> received training at U.S. military installations. Three hijackers listed
> their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air
> Station in Pensacola, Fla. Atta graduated from the US International
> Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The media drops the
> story after the Air Force issues a statement saying that while the names
> are similar, "we are probably not talking about the same people." Yet the
> military provides no information to refute any of the many, detailed
> claims in these articles. [Newsweek, 9/15/01, Washington Post, 9/16/01,
> New York Times, 9/15/01, more]
>
>
I feel better about this now.
If alex uses it , I know it is a lie.
One of the basic axioms of life.
Jim E
==============================================================================
TOPIC: BUSH & CHENEY INTELLECT EQUAL TO THAT OF A GOAT!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/b282fabc764fcffb
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:46 pm
From: "Jim E"
"serwad" <serwad@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:lq_Zf.7595@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>
>
alex you senile old wreck, you're just having those romantic dreams again.
You old goat humper you.
Jim E
==============================================================================
TOPIC: El Cuento Chino de la Transición y la Guantanamera de la Sucesión
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/5dd0adfbf95011d3
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:29 pm
From: "PM"
El Cuento Chino de la Transición y la Guantanamera de la Sucesión.
Eugenio Yáñez.
El autor describe un problema real de 'entendimientos y mensajes' entre las
fuerzas armadas cubanas y los militares americanos. En ese intercambio la
ingenuidad lucha con la maldad. Después del caso Ana Belén Montes es
razonable desconfiar de la capacidad de los interlocutores del lado de los
U.S. para captar la realidad. Les han tomado el pelo por 20 años. ¿Por que
no uno más? El artículo que sigue escrito en inglés estaba dirigido a los
nativos de este país. Algunos entienden y desconfían. Nuestra misión:
Difundir ideas, informar y oponernos a MAS estupideces. Ya hemos sufrido
bastantes. Si vive en los U.S. escriba a su congresista y dígale lo que el
título del artículo que sigue:
U.S.Cuba Policy; Will we get it right this time? By Alberto Luzarraga
--
CALLES DE LA HABANA: (ESTE WEBSITE ES UNA JOYA)
Calle http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/calle23/index.htm 23
Quinta http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/quinta/index.htm
Avenida
Línea <http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/linea/index.htm
Almendares
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/almendares/index.htm
Calle http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/calle26/index.htm 26
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/ave26/index.htm 26
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/ave11/index.htm 11
Avenida
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/presidentes/index.htm
de los Presidentes
Rancho http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/rancho/index.htm
Boyeros
Monserrate
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/monserrate/index.htm
Empedrado http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/empedrado/index.htm
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/puerto/index.htm del
Puerto
Calle Cuba http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/cuba/ind
==============================================================================
TOPIC: Decomisan en Miami altas sumas a militares venezolanos
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/e2bb4d43b8a61404
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Apr 8 2006 8:37 pm
From: "PM"
Posted on Sat, Apr. 08, 2006
email this
print this
reprint or license this
Decomisan en Miami altas sumas a militares venezolanos
CASTO OCANDO
El Nuevo Herald
Un grupo de militares activos venezolanos ha protagonizado en la última
semana dos incidentes por separado de contrabando de dinero en efectivo en
el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami (MIA), en casos que han generado el
decomiso de decenas de miles de dólares y por lo menos un oficial detenido
en una cárcel federal.
En ambos incidentes las autoridades han confiscado alrededor de $60,000 que
los militares venezolanos intentaron introducir a territorio norteamericano
sin realizar una declaración formal en la aduana del MIA, una omisión
considerada como delito federal y con penas de prisión de hasta cinco años.
Entre la moneda decomisada, las autoridades encontraron varios billetes de
$100 falsos, informaron fuentes federales.
El pasado martes 4, el oficial activo Alberto Ramón Soto-Camaute, de 32
años, fue detenido por los oficiales de aduanas cuando se le descubrieron
poco más de $21,000 que portaba sin que hubieran sido declarados
previamente. La ley exige que las cantidades superiores a los $10,000 deben
ser declaradas.
Según un reporte de la oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (ICE),
Soto-Camaute llegó la noche del martes en un vuelo comercial procedente de
Caracas, y fue detenido cuando en una revisión se encontró el dinero no
declarado.
El militar ingresó a una prisión federal, luego de que se le imputaron
cargos y se le retuvo el pasaporte. Su caso está a cargo de la fiscalía
federal, que investiga el origen del dinero.
En un segundo incidente ocurrido el jueves 30 de marzo, un avión Hércules
C-130 de la Fuerza Aérea de Venezuela fue retenido durante 12 horas en los
hangares de la zona del aeropuerto reservada a vuelos no comerciales,
mientras una comisión de agentes del servicio de aduanas realizaba un
registro exhaustivo de la aeronave.
Los agentes interrogaron a los seis oficiales de la tripulación acerca del
origen y procedencia de unos $37,000, que tampoco habían sido declarados.
Según una versión extraoficial conocida por El Nuevo Herald, el dinero fue
decomisado porque sus dueños ofrecieron versiones contradictorias sobre su
uso.
''Al principio indicaron que se trataba de dinero para una misión oficial, y
luego admitieron que era dinero para realizar compras'', indicó una fuente
familiarizada con el caso.
La fuente también dijo que el cónsul de Venezuela en Miami, Antonio
Hernández, intercedió ante las autoridades de aduanas en favor de los
militares durante el tiempo en que la aeronave estuvo retenida. El Nuevo
Herald trató de obtener una versión del cónsul Hernández, pero varias
llamadas realizadas no obtuvieron respuesta.
Ninguno de los militares de la tripulación fue detenido, informó a El Nuevo
Herald el agente especial Zachary Mann, portavoz de ICE, que declinó
identificarlos. El avión retornó a Venezuela al día siguiente, y no ha
vuelto a Miami, donde opera una oficina de compras de la fuerza aérea
venezolana.
Mann dijo que, entre el dinero decomisado, se encontraron dos billetes de
$100 falsos, y confirmó que actualmente existe una investigación
administrativa ``en curso''.
También indicó que los militares podrían reclamar el dinero retenido, pero
deberán iniciar un procedimiento administrativo, explicar el origen de los
fondos, y seguramente pagar una multa que podría llegar hasta el total del
monto confiscado.
En diciembre de 2004 otro venezolano, el viceministro de Finanzas Jesús
Bermúdez, fue detenido y encausado cuando trataba de introducir,
coincidentemente, poco más de $37,000 sin declarar.
Bermúdez llegó a un acuerdo con la fiscalía federal, se declaró culpable y
pagó una multa de apenas $250. Alrededor de $19,000 le fueron confiscados,
mientras que el resto lo pagó a sus abogados.
Al ser preguntado sobre la diferencia de trato de los dos incidentes, Mann
dijo que ``cada caso es tomado por la oficina de Aduanas como un caso
individual, diferente''.
La aeronave militar venezolana cuenta con un ''tratamiento exclusivo''
cuando llega al MIA los jueves de cada semana con carga procedente de
Venezuela, dijo a El Nuevo Herald un empleado del aeropuerto que pidió
reservar su nombre.
''Este avión, la mayoría de las veces sale del aeropuerto sin haberse
chequeado la carga que lleva'', detalló la fuente.
Por lo general, ''el avión transporta cargas semanales a Venezuela que
incluyen desde pampers, aceite, computadoras, bicicletas y televisores,
hasta cajas con la etiqueta de ``ayuda bolivariana'', además de las piezas
de aviones y motores'', precisó el informante.
ocasto@herald.com
--
CALLES DE LA HABANA: (ESTE WEBSITE ES UNA JOYA)
Calle http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/calle23/index.htm 23
Quinta http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/quinta/index.htm
Avenida
Línea <http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/linea/index.htm
Almendares
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/almendares/index.htm
Calle http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/calle26/index.htm 26
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/ave26/index.htm 26
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/ave11/index.htm 11
Avenida
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/presidentes/index.htm
de los Presidentes
Rancho http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/rancho/index.htm
Boyeros
Monserrate
http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/monserrate/index.htm
Empedrado http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/empedrado/index.htm
Avenida http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/puerto/index.htm del
Puerto
Calle Cuba http://www.guije.com/pueblo/habana/calles/cuba/ind
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