BBC: Black flags block US sign in Cuba

[leftchick]

Black flags block US sign in Cuba

No-one would say what was being built until the inauguration

Cuban President Fidel Castro has unveiled a large new monument outside the US mission in Havana.
The monument blocks the view of scrolling illuminated messages - some of them about human rights - displayed on the building by American diplomats.

It consists of 138 black flags with a white star.

Havana says it symbolises the more than 3,400 people that have died as the result of violent acts against Cuba since its 1959 revolution.

The monument was unveiled during a ceremony organised by the government to honour victims of what it considers US-sponsored violence against Cuba.



Huge flag poles with 138 black flags, each centered with a white star, block an electronic sign beaming messages from the facade of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana February 6, 2006. Cuba hoisted 138 huge black flags, representing the nation's mourning for over 3,400 Cubans killed by U.S. sponsored violence since the 1959 revolution. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

[murray hill farm]

1. Try to imagine...

What the reaction would be in the usa, if a foreign embassy here pulled such a stunt as a huge electronic sign in DC flashing messages that were anti usa..and listed that countries perception of the usa's human rights abuses! Whew!

[CottonBear]

2. Interesting that CNN just said that the flags don't block projected image.

Mmm? I wonder who to believe: BBC or CNN? :sarcasm:

Seriously, It's hard to beleive this shit. Just the other day, the US forced Cuban delegates to a conference in Mexico out of their US owned Sheraton Hotel. :(

[Mithras61]

3. Link to the BBC story...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4688300.stm


Seems like a very civilised response to a major provocation.

[leftchick]

5. sheesh I forgot the link?

Thank you! Yes, the US is behaving abominably in Cuba. Hell, around the world!

[Toucano]

4. I don't understand something.

What is a U.S. Mission in Havana?

What are American diplomats in Cuba if the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Cuba?

[Judi Lynn]

6. The last three ambassadors, all during Bush's regime, conducted

their own programs against Cuba, using U.S.-paid "dissidents" for propaganda purposes, doing things which would never be allowed here. James Cason, who left near the end of last year, proclaimed the NEXT one down the pike would be far worse than he was. Something to look forward to! The first act by the new one was the blazing propaganda campaign scrawled electrictronically on the side of the building (actually the Swiss embassy, in which the Interests Section has offices). This article discusses the handiwork by the idiot/provocateur who just left:

April 26, 2003

Cuba Crackdown:
A Revolt Against the National Security Strategy?
By ROBERT SANDELS

Since becoming principal officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in September 2002, James Cason has increased official U.S. connections with Cuban dissidents. Entering directly into Cuba domestic politics, Cason helped launch the youth wing of the dissident Partido Liberal Cubano. Nowhere in the world, said Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, would it be legal for a foreigner to participate in the formation of a political party. In October 2002, Cason invited a group of dissidents to meet with U.S. newspaper editors at his residence in Havana. Although it has become routine for heads of the U.S. mission to seek out dissidents, it was unusual to meet them at home.

Feb. 24 of this year, he participated in a meeting of the dissident Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society at the home of prominent dissident Marta Beatriz Roque. Also present at the meeting were several reporters to whom Cason repeated his criticisms of President Fidel Castro's government and reaffirmed U.S. support for dissidents.

Cason organized two other such meetings at his residence in March even after receiving a formal complaint from the Foreign Ministry.

In a recent television interview in Miami, Cason said the help he gave dissidents was "moral and spiritual" in nature. But, according to the testimony of several Cuban security agents who infiltrated the organizations that received U.S. support, the Interests Section became a general headquarters and office space for dissidents. Some of them, including Marta Beatriz Roque, had passes signed by Cason that allowed them free access to the Interests Section where they could use computers, telephones, and office machines.

The State Department calls these activities "outreach." However, under the United States Code, similar "outreach" by a foreign diplomat in the United States could result in criminal prosecution and a 10-year prison sentence for anyone "who agrees to operate within the United States subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official (Title 18, section 951 of the United States Code).
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/sandels04262003.html



Marta Beatriz Roque, Cuban former math professor in the 1980's, economist, and well-known "dissident," in Cuba and Miami, who was named in a court trial by a former "secretary" who worked with her for years (a double agent) as taking money for years from the U.S. for her work. Both photos show her at the U.S. embassy.



With either Oswaldo Paya, also another prominent "dissident."

December 27, 2004

The Self-Delusions of James Cason
Cuban Deja Vu All Over Again, All Over Again
By SAUL LANDAU

On December 10, US Interest Section Chief in Havana James Cason offered yet another Bush Administration policy missile to overthrow the Cuban government and replace it with a "democratic" regime, i.e.; one that would revere private property and kiss Washington's butt. Bush had already tightened the harsh trade and travel restrictions on Cuba, following this year's presidential panel recommendations. Headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Cuba policy panel listed measures Washington should take to foster a post-Castro transition. Cuban Vice President Ricardo Alarcon dismissed these measures as nothing more than a blueprint for overthrowing the government. Cason denies any such intentions.

Cason seems neither to learn from his false predictions nor forget his passionate rhetoric. Apparently oblivious to flagrant human rights abuses committed by US personnel at the Guantanamo Gulag, Cason used International Human Rights Day to throw a bash at his posh Havana residence, where Senator Jack Kennedy once cavorted. Cuban dissidents drank and mingled with the Havana press corps, when Cason announced, according to the Associated Press, that Castro's government "is on its last legs."

Some imbibers spilled their rum over this remark. Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Varella Project, which collected 10 thousand plus signatures on a "pro-democracy" petition, offered a prayer: "Would God grant that our children and the Cuban people do not inherit our hates and miseries but rather our faith so that they can construct their own history.'"

Cason apparently thought that Paya's reference to Divine intervention validated his own fact free conclusion: "Even regime supporters are discreetly preparing for the inevitable democratic transition." He neither named "regime supporters" nor acknowledged that state security agents had penetrated the US-backed dissident movement. Indeed, a dozen infiltrators surfaced at the March 2003 trial to testify against 75 of those most favored by the US government which, contrary to Cuban law, paid them in goods and services.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau12272004.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He also made it his business, when U.S. businessmen, farmers, etc. were starting to go to Cuba for annual trade fairs, to go there, find the Americans, and run down Cuba to them, and try to discourage doing business in Cuba.

I think it's a miracle they allow these creeps to come to Cuba and spend their entire time in Cuba trying to make trouble for them. They get nothing from it but a non-stop program of harrassment, and the knowledged that if they protest, the interests section heads will make an international incident over it.

[lumpy]

7. kick

nt