Israeli minister wanted by FBI to visit Cuba

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israeli minister Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad spy who is wanted by the FBI, said Sunday he would visit Fidel Castro in Cuba next week in a move that could anger the Jewish state's chief ally.

The 79-year-old minister of pensioner affairs told AFP he would be going to Cuba strictly for private business."

<snip>

"Eitan, who became a successful businessman after he quit Israel's Mossad intelligence service, has several largescale farms in Cuba and is a personal friend of Castro.

As a Mossad operative, Eitan handled Jonathan Pollard, a US marine analyst who handed thousands of top secret documents over to Israel in the mid-1980s.

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison. As Pollard's handler, the the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an arrest warrant against Eitan."


http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000015/001586.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. I found a clearer reference to this man's business ties to Cuba:

For the former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff and former Israeli Minister of Agriculture, see Rafael Eitan

Rafael ('Rafi') EitanRafael ('Rafi') Eitan (Hebrew: רפי איתן) (born November 23, 1926) is the leader of Gil - Gimla'ey Yisrael LaKneset (pensioners of Israel to the Knesset) party which has won an unexpected large number of seats in the Israeli legislative election of 2006. In 1960, he was in-charge of the Mossad operation that lead to the capture of Adolf Eichmann. He served as an advisor on terrorism to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and in 1981 he was appointed to head the Bureau of Scientific Relations, then an intelligence entity on par with Mossad, Aman and Shabak. Eitan assumed responsibility for and resigned over the Jonathan Pollard affair, and the Bureau was disbanded. From 1985 until 1993, he was head of the government-owned Israel Chemicals Ltd., which was expanded under his leadership. After 1993, he became a businessman, noted for several large scale agricultural and construction ventures in Cuba. In 2006, he accepted the offer to head the list for Gil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafi_Eitan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've read for years about exchange programs set up between organizations in Israel and Cuba to share and teach info. on "Organoponico" agriculture, and I've read reports of Israeli tours of Cuba.



Organiponico agriculture

[Kagemusha]

2. Geez, I knew Eitan was bad news. No idea about the Pollard thing

Well isn't that just cute.

[Ghost Dog]

4. First I've heard of Pollard...

...but it sounds more like Pollard's bad, rather than Eitan's, don't you think?

[Kagemusha]

16. Eitan is independently bad.

He's a constant trouble-maker and supporter of Israeli settlers against the Israeli government, making the government out to be a traitor to its nation. So of course it turns out that he's an ex-spook who sees conspiracies among nominal allies to harm Israel. What better justification than that to spy on the US like this.

[donsu]

12. what bad in particular?

nt

[Kagemusha]

15. Basically that he's an ultra-nationalist nutjob.

So as part of his career he was handling an American citizen spying on America on Israel's behalf, culminating in the transfer of a large quantity of navy signal intelligence documents to Israel which I hear they used for horse-trading with the Russians.

Pollard is serving hard time and it seems every incoming Israeli government gets this huge push within it for Pollard's release because, well, spying against America for Israel isn't really a crime, is it? Or is it?

Presidents of both parties have rebuffed efforts to obtain a pardon and release for Jonathan Pollard.

And it turns out that his handler was an ultra-nationalist nutjob who has no trouble seeing the necessity of hostile intelligence gathering against Israel's closest ally by using traitors to the American government. Somehow this is fitting.

[Ghost Dog]

3. "…every vacant lot and open piece of ground is put to productive

(and beautiful) use".

http://www.greens.org/s-r/38/38-06.html

"Organiponico are organic farms and gardens of a few thousand square feet to several acres located in urban areas. Vacant lots, old parking lots, abandoned building sites, spaces between roads, any available site (even rooftops and balconies) were taken over by thousands of new urban farmers trying to feed themselves and make some money.

"In Havana alone, 30,000 residents tend 8,000 community gardens and small farms producing vegetables, fruit, eggs, medicinal plants, honey, and such livestock as rabbits and poultry. These urban farmers produce 30% of the city’s vegetables and perishable food. All this produce is organic; chemical pesticides for agriculture are not allowed within the city limits. "

/more...

A City Farmer Visits Cuba
http://www.cityfarmer.org/CubaSpringPhotos.html
By Spring Gillard
City Farmer Staff, Vancouver BC

Photoessay.



Eitan's "large scale agricultural and construction ventures in Cuba" sound like something rather bigger, less self-sufficient-style, though... State-private partnerships.

[Judi Lynn]

10. What a terrific burst of new information, including this news:

Cuba leads the developing world in small-scale composting, organic soil reclamation, irrigation and crop rotation research…

Now that's pretty cool!

Thanks a lot for finding these links. I got some ideas for my own personal garden use.

[pnorman]

5. Off topic, but that organiponica got me curious.

Here's what I just Googled: http://www.newfarm.org/international/features/0703/cubaoped.shtml
From there came this: http://www.newfarm.org/international/features/0703/cubaconf.shtml

A lot of "food" for thought there.

pnorman

[Ghost Dog]

6. Wow, extremely useful site, thanks! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

11. Ditto Ghost Dog's remarks. Found this extremely interesting factoid:

"Cuba has 12% of Latin America's scientists, while having only 2% of its population."

Now that's quite the accomplishment, isn't it? Wow.

I've been looking for something which had the details I've seen before about their own particular new methods of unusual (in our country) tools, like microbes, earthworms, parasitic wasps, etc. I heard about these things in 2000.

THANKS A LOT, pnorman.

On edit: I wanted to point out that the first article is a real eye-opener to those among us who still believe you are not allowed to speak to the "natives" in Cuba, and have to stay on tour buses, etc.




The Shanghai-Havana organiponico crew: Currently a million tons per year of food is produced within Cuba's cities, much of it in intensive "organiponicos," which are essentially low cement tanks iwth soil for growing vegetables. The Shanghai-Havana organiponico grows lettuce, onions, celery, peppers and other market garden crops. The organiponico was developed with the help of the Chinese government.

Very intersting!

[Mika]

19. Look at those starving Cubans!

Terrible looking. Emaciated. Malnourished. :sarcasm:

-


I have been to Cuba many times and have pointed out on plenty of DU's Cuba threads that there are farmers markets and local markets with plenty of affordable food. Much of it is organic.

But, if you listen to the Cubaphobes & Miamicuban "exiles" all you'll hear about is how Cubans are restricted to ration cards, have no access to food, and are starving. Bullshit!

[lovuian]

7. Why would a Mossad agent want to help Cuba???

I guess its a haven of safety in case you have been spying and got caught...

Interesting...

[Scurrilous]

8. Interesting also...

...that an Israeli minister conducts private business with Cuba despite the fact that Israel consistently votes against UN resolutions to end the Cuban embargo.

U.N. body calls for an end to Cuban embargo

<snip>

"The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly urged the United States Tuesday to end its 44-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, a call U.S. Ambassador John Bolton dismissed as "a complete exercise in irrelevancy."

It was the 14th straight year that the 191-member world body approved a resolution calling for the U.S. economic and commercial embargo against Cuba to be repealed "as soon as possible."

The vote was 182 to 4, with 1 abstention, a higher "yes" vote than last year's vote of 179-4 with one abstention.

Many delegates in the General Assembly hall burst into applause when the result was flashed on an electronic screen.

The United States, Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voted against the resolution, while Micronesia abstained."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9969997/from/RL.1/

[donsu]

13. Israel has the same problem we do with the media

it is owned by the Israeli neo cons.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Didn't know this! Thanks. n/t

[rman]

9. odd bed fellows

very odd.

[fushuugi]

17. oil?

This may have something to do with the opening of the oil fields offshore to the north and south of the island.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060512/ts_afp/cubaoiluschinacanada_060512014824
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/08/Worldandnation/Cuba_seeks_oil_near_K.shtml

for obvious reasons cuba would be far more willing to sell oil to Israel than many of the the other oil producing nations.

[cantstandbush]

18. This man is sleazeball of the highest order but the name of the game is

"mutual interests." For decades, the US has dealt with slezeballs for mutual intersts.