Wikileaks memos: comments on Alan Gross, Yoani about her US paid for cellphone and Fariñas

[flamingdem]

PROGRESO WEEKLY

The 500 memos from USINT
Wednesday, 01 December 2010 13:52
By Varela

As we Cubans say, in baseball lingo, the Wikileaks ball bounces and rolls – and it has rolled to Cuba.

No surprise.

In Miami, the Hispanic channels are in limbo, always talking about “Castro dies tomorrow” or presenting programs sponsored by lawyers who specialize in mortgage fraud.

But if you turn on the TV and tune to the English-language channels, they're full of programs with debate and opinion about the Wikileaks, that Internet site (currently the most famous) that is making such startling revelations about the United States Government.

If the Internet has sites that publish secrets about U.S. entertainers, the most natural thing was a site that reveals the secrets of the government. I think that's fine.

For example, we now know that the number of dead in Iraq is 10 times greater than announced, and the USG is concealing it. We know that the opposition “pitiyanquis” are clamoring for Chávez's head. That the American ambassador in Honduras admits that the coup against Zelaya was organized by legislators and magistrates who were suborned in Key Biscayne.

That the gringos are not as good friends of the Saudis as they pretend to be, because they place that country on a level with Cuba. That Obama wore green contact lenses. And so on ... a thousand tittle-tattles from the government.

Some say that Wikileaks' daily revelations damage the security of the United States, while others defend freedom of expression and transparency in government affairs. They even maintain that Wikileaks should exist as a form of restraint against the barbarity of institutions like the Pentagon and the CIA, with their phantom invasions and medieval tortures.

After exposing a lot of dirty deeds by the U.S., throughout the world and especially in the Arab world, Wikileaks reveals that it holds 507 or 509 cables sent by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana (USINT).

At least 150 of those cables or messages were sent between 2009 and 2010. So, the importance they assume for the current relations between Cuba and the United States is phenomenal.

I think that, once the contents of those memos are revealed, the Hispanic TV channels in Miami will pay attention to the Wikileaks scandal. Note that I said they'll “pay attention.” I don't mean that they will echo Wikileaks.

This is why.

Certain sources told me about the contents of some of those cables or memos. And even though I have no proof of veracity (and until Wikileaks releases them nobody will know for sure) I am going to share with you the information I have.

The USINT classified its reports and memos in coded abbreviations for national politics, education, medical biology, internal affairs, agriculture, mining, contacts with Congress, carnivals, possible defections, travel, Los Van Van, propaganda, Edmundo, Aruca, Álvaro Fernández – and so on, many key people or social, political and economic topics.

Let me concentrate on the memos that have been decoded about “dissidents” and “opposition bloggers.”

For example, there's one that deals with the cell phones and laptop computers that “contractor” Alan P. Gross was giving away on Havana street corners in December 2009. It said:

"Make sure he doesn't give away more than one unit per person, because if he gives out two, the Cuban will sell the extra one."

Another memo was about Fariñas, the hunger striker who has carried out 24 Events of Fasting in Cuba. It says:

"He should ingest the protein drink sent by NASA, which is designed for astronauts surviving in a hostile environment."

(Now I understand how Fariñas had the energy to give five press conferences per day, while fasting.)

One of the cables, dated August 2010, refers to me (I admit, modestly), saying:

"Tell Yoani and her husband not to talk to Varela, because he'll trick them into proving that we pay for their cell phones and they don't have to worry about running out of minutes."

Some messages are complicated and open to interpretation, such as this one:

"If Juan Juan goes on strike, he should lose many pounds."

It's not clear if the dissident son of the late Comandante Juan Almeida should lose body weight or cash. But – oh, well – a better decipherment will come.

Of course, among those memos you'll find several that are funny or stupid (you decide), such as the following:

"After Fidel's ever-more-frequent public appearances, Raúl Castro might defect, out of jealousy. Warn Channel 41 to welcome him in Miami."

About those who march down the streets, protesting, we read:

"Laura Pollán should be satisfied with only one big straw hat for now. She's giving the other women a bad image."

Apropos the Ladies in White, I am told that the coded messages from the USINT reveal where they get their gladioli and white clothes, as well as the Nike shoes, the parasols and other supplies that are so hard to get in ordinary Cuban stores.

I also predict that Wikileaks will be banned in Miami once the 500-some USINT memos are published. The Cuban ultra-rightists like to expose each other's dirty laundry but are not used to being skewered with the topic of Cuba or finding out how things really are.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Fantastic! Ha ha ha. So interesting finding out what Fariñas was actually doing while he "fasted."

Anyone in the world should have been bright enough to know something was up after they learned he had done this over 20 times before he "fasted" all over again. Funny how something always comes up to get him off the hook just when it could get rocky.

Super hopped-up energy drink. Who'd a thunk it?

What a delight seeing suspicions confirmed and the time approaching these clowns are publicly, outside Cuba, exposed as the flim-flam artists they have always been.

Wikileaks, banned in Miami. Hilarious. Won't be the first time they have been at war with the 1st Amendment, not by a long shot. Was stunned to see Human Rights Watch actually deigned to call them on it long ago.

Not surprised to see Francisco Aruca's name gets mentioned in government circles. The Miami hardliner "exiles" have bombed his businesses, threatened him for decades, even broke into his radio station, beat his employees and demanded to know where he was, desperate to lay hands on him.

Here's an interview on PBS taken with him concerning the Elian days:

Was there resistance when you set up your radio station?

Yes, from the moment we opened our offices in Miami, in 1986, we felt the pressure--there is no doubt about it. There is a segment of the exile community that I call the evil industry, which is very involved in preventing anything that resembles normalization with Cuba. Our offices have been bombed, the windows broken and so forth. So from day one up to this moment, we are feeling pressures from doing that business here. It goes with Miami.

~snip~
Castro is the eternal enemy?

For some of the exiles, yes, of course. He's going to be their eternal enemy until they die. That's the way they see it, no doubt about it. Back in 1978, Fidel Castro even tried, for the first time, to change policy in relations to Cubans in the United States, and he carried out what was known as the dialogue sessions. He invited Cubans from the United States to come and dialogue and find a solution, for example, to release political prisoners, or to allow Cubans from the United States to travel to Cuba. Immediately, all those who, one way or the other, thought that that was an answer were called traitors in Miami. I was in Miami at the time, and I can tell you that the businesses were bombed, and people lost their jobs. Professional people who were established in very prosperous businesses lost those opportunities because of the social pressures. When it comes to smashing opposition, this is a very un-American city--you better understand that.

~snip~
And what about the rest of the Cubans in south Florida?

They supported their position. The means of communication in Miami do not inform them properly. In relation to anything that has to do to Cuba, they are making decisions solely based on false or incomplete information. That is part of what my program does. I say, "You were told one thing this morning by the Nuevo Herald. And this is what the Herald said in English, and it's two different versions. So these people have been manipulated in their ignorance. For a series of reasons, I don't deny that behind that evil industry is an important segment of public opinion from the Cuban-American community.

Is public opinion a big part of this?

It's very difficult to say, although I wouldn't have any problem in saying that in general, over 50 percent of the Cubans in Miami favor the embargo and favor a policy of isolation in relation to Cuba. The number is decreasing, and one of the reasons is as the older guys are dying. But I wouldn't be surprised if the majority still feel that way. Beware of polls along those lines here. With Cubans, we're always a little bit paranoid, but we have become even more paranoid in Miami. And no Cuban is going to tell you the truth in a telephone interview, if that truth may be found out by people who defend the thesis of isolation in relation to Cuba. He will be paying a high price, and they're not suicidal.

It's astonishing.

It is unbelievable what they have managed to accomplish. The unfortunate fact is that this was accomplished at the beginning of the 1960s with the help of the federal government. This became a foreign policy objective in relation to what was going on in Cuba. And they were granted all kind of immunities and privileges from the very first day, because that was the interpretation of national interest at the time. Although we might disagree, the consequences were that this group, who was already very well-trained to succeed in capitalism--because they had already been successful in capitalism in Cuba--got totally supported and totally financed by the federal government for quite a few years. So in a way, the conditions of the time helped create a monster that has kept on increasing its power, even after US policy in relation to Cuba started to change.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Eo07yDj7-fQJ:www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/elian/interviews/aruca.html+Franciso+Aruca+Miami&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

~~~~~
It would be great to know who "Juan Juan" is. I'll just bet he's considering following in Fariñas' footsteps, and making his own "dissident" bid for attention, and the advice he should lose a lot of pounds would mean to remind him he's really going to have to appear to "FAST" on his "hunger strike" if he's claiming it.

(You might have heard of the time the white separatist nazis in the Santa Cruz area in Bolivia went on a "hunger strike" against the elected President's government, until reporters with cameras caught people sneaking in actual "FRIED CHICKEN" to them after hours, when they imagined no one was watching!)

Now you've added some fire for us in looking forward to getting the big picture on these Wikileaks, flamingdem. Super good news!
:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[social_critic]

2. Cubans should have the ability to organize social democratic parties

There should be no need to fast, get exiled, or dodge around, period. Elections are rigged now, so it's hard to tell what they would vote for, but democracy will not exist as long as the communist party is the only party able to get together, and hold a congress - and it's able to use government resources to function. The communist party should be separated from the government structure, and they need to get funding from other sources - I'm sure that given the record they can get help from Chavez.

Communism has been shown to be an obsolete and useless political/economic tragedy, devised by individuals who lacked true intellectual heft (Marx, Engels), or were fighting medieval conditions (Lenin). The failure of the USSR, the fact that freed Eastern Europeans reject communism when they are able to do so (after living under it), and China's migration away from communism should be a clear signal that "communist" is obsolete, and need to be put away in the closet. This is the 21st century.

[Billy Burnett]

3. Thick as a Brick ...

... was a good Jethro Tull album.

Don't be foolish. I know Cuba, and Cuba is no Eastern European nation.




Are you using some kind of anti social babble generator software? Reads like it.



Now head on over to the - Reflections of Fidel. Haiti: underdevelopment and genocide - thread and post the requested link, lest your babble be debunked. Again.

[bemildred]

4. That is so goddamn embarrassing.

Imagine what the USA could have done if it wanted to.

[social_critic]

5. Let the Cuban people vote, then

If they're so happy living under communism, then they should be able to publish newspapers, write books, march, and have political parties, anything from Greens and Social Democrats to Muslim Fundamentalists. That's what democracy means, and Cuba is very far from democracy.

By the way, I'm Cuban, I've shook hands with Fidel Castro, and I was trained to spread revolution in Latin America. I just happen to think communism is obsolete. I figured it out after I read Heinz Dieterich and saw even his ideas, which were quite advanced, didn't have much of a chance.