Scratching Each Others Backs and US Human Rights Politics (Cuba "dissidents" and US gov't.)

[magbana]

If and when I get a url for this, I'll post it.
magbana

Scratching Each Others Backs and US Human Rights Politics
Posted by: "Alicia Jrapko" [e-mail]
Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:42 pm (PDT)
Scratching Each Others Backs and US Human Rights Politics
By Arnold August*

March 18, 2009.

Today some of the monopoly media in the USA and the State Department itself have made some statements and carried out reports regarding prisoners in Cuba and human rights on the island. On February 25, 2009, the US State Department issued its annual Human Rights Report in which it excludes the US from any scrutiny at all; as usual Washington has placed in its cross hairs Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries which do not succumb to US domination and bullying but rather oppose this policy with the principle of self determination for their respective nations.

The Report indicates in the introductory Overview and Acknowledgements that the US ...gathered information from a variety of sources across the political spectrum ... human rights monitors... One of these sources in Cuba is surely the Women in White or Damas de Blanco. Therefore it is hardly surprising that two days after the Report was issued, on February 27, the Women in White themselves made public a statement that describes as positive the State Department Report issued by the White House on Cuba. In other words, you scratch my back and I scratch yours.

No one in Cuba is imprisoned for their views. Those who were arrested in 2003 were tried with lawyers at their disposal and with full proof which was and is now publicly available. They were convicted and jailed on the basis on their financial and conspiratorial links to the US Interests Section in Havana. Most countries, including for example the USA and Canada, have laws against treason and similar infractions which violate the autonomy and internal affairs of their respective countries in favour of a foreign country.

If anyone is not convinced about financial and other similar links being the basis of the 2003 trials and convictions, just look at the political position of these so-called human rights groups in Cuba such as the Women in White. The US policy of interference, torture, wars and aggression is increasingly rejected throughout the world including in the USA and other countries such as Canada.

On March 17, while Bush visited Calgary, Canada, television viewers throughout the country were treated to the spectacle of demonstrators protesting and throwing dozens of shoes at a portrait of Bush. For a Cuban group to issue a statement in support of the hypocritical US position on human rights shows their real nature and the political basis of their financial ties to the US.

The question of violation of human rights and political prisoners is exemplified best in the US itself by the situation of the Cuban Five, who were denied a fair trial and sentenced to life terms and very long sentences. If the US State Department Report would deal with the US itself, then they would have a very difficult time avoiding this issue. It is increasingly becoming a hot potato.

From around the world and all continents, human rights organizations, UN commissions and officials, Nobel peace prize winners, parliamentarians and presidents are demanding the release of the Cuban 5 and the right of their families to visit them without any further cruel obstacles.

The Cuban 5 have won this honour from all corners of this plant. They have done so not by scratching backs, but rather through heroism and the determination to fight to the bitter end in support of their small country against US terrorist actions aimed at the islands people.

*Arnold August, Montreal, is a member of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five and the ComitFabio Di Celmo pour les 5 of the Table de Concertation de SolidaritQuec-Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Propagandists are always quick to avoid acknowledgement of a simple truth:

what they claim Cuba has done would be done far more loudly, and self-righteously right here! From the article:

Most countries, including for example the USA and Canada, have laws against treason and similar infractions which violate the autonomy and internal affairs of their respective countries in favour of a foreign country.

No way in hell would our own government allow what has occurred with Cuban financing anti-government traitors, provocateurs, deliberate destabilization agents here!

When WE pay these Cuban traitors, we get all pompous about it, pretending we are supporting the GOOD people in Cuba against the bad, so shut up. Uh huh. Let's see how that works in reverse some time. It's illegal here, even if some country's idiots claim they are financially supporting the good Americans against the bad old American government.