@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 Sender: •••@••.••• (John Lowry) Subject: Re: cj#484> re: Cuba & saber rattling I have a question -- regarding the gulf war. I know of no one else who believes as I do, that Saddam was completely justified in his actions. I have no special source of information, yet I am aware that the Kwaitis were taking more than their share of oil from a common well and would not stop, even when asked repeatedly to please stop taking Iraqui oil. What else was he [Saddadm] to do? Why does no one else see that side? @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 Sender: •••@••.••• Subject: Re: cj#480> re: Cuba & saber rattling > War Incident > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > Mexican border conflict in Texas (caused by belligerent U.S. > scouting parties) > Civil Fort Sumter shelling > WWII Pearl Harbor (forced by FDR oil blockade) > Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin (provocative U.S. Navy maneouvers) > Grenada an assassination (facilitated by the CIA) > Panama shooting of a GI (wandering where it was inevitable) > Iraq invasion of Kuwait (invited by Sec'y State) How 'bout the capture of the 'Liberty' - one of J. Hancock's smuggling fleet as a start to the 1776 thing. BTW - love your stuff Terry Moran MAILTO:•••@••.••• OR http://members.aol.com/mindbets/ The Southern Nevada Mensa Newsletter OR http://members.aol.com/sssssig/ The Sinister Sliding Stones Studies Sig @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Editor: Indeed, or the "Boston Massacre" -- which may be the grand-daddy incident-archtype of them them all. The crowd was stirred up by rabble-rousing rhetoric, the redcoats responded as overwhelmed soldiers frequently do, and the press sensationalized the event beyond all proportion. It created an instant mobilization-consciousness, establishing a paradigm which has been regularly invoked ever since. -rkm @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 From: Lisa Pease <•••@••.•••> Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Subject: Crossette, Cuba, & the Times: CIA Propaganda The February 28 New York Times story on the downing of the "civilian" jets by the Cubans was written by Barbara Crossette. The piece viciously maligns the Cuban government for shooting down the planes, even though accompanying transcripts, printed in the same edition of the Times, show that her claim that the Cubans had plenty of time to warn off the Cessna pilots is misleading: the transcripts show the Cubans DID make a strong warning to the pilots, who vowed they were continuing on to Havana and were aware of the danger. Crossette also continues the demonstrably false line that Basulto was a pacifist, when his history shows, among other anti-Castro activities, participated in terrorist bombing in Havana, and had recently performed a leafleting run over the city. As the Cubans said, if he could drop leaflets, he could drop other things as well. So, the question becomes, how could Crossette be so misleading? Sidebar from LIES OF OUR TIMES, June 1994, page 17: Crossette and the Coup One can only wonder why the New York Times, through Barbara Crossette, has chosen to tell the truth about conditions in Grenada (albeit with a lot of incorrect details). The last time that happened was quite propheticindeed so prophetic that many supporters of the Bishop government wondered about Crossette's ties to U.S. intelligence. On August 7, 1983, the Times ran a front-page Crossette article designed mostly to play on the racist fears of U.S. conservatives and the anti-communist preoccupations of U.S. liberals. The article falsely portrayed Bishop as a wild-eyed radical intent on turning Grenada over to the Soviets and the Cubans. But there was one shock: Crossette said, "there are rumors of a rift between the Coards and Mr. Bishop." Bernard Coard was Deputy Prime Minister, and Phyllis Coard was head of the National Women's Organization. Almost no one outside the top leadership of Bishop's New Jewel Movement knew that there was trouble at the highest levels of the country's political structure. The Cubans did not know; the Soviets did not know; none of the many supporters of Grenada in the progressive movement in the United States knew. Somehow, Barbara Crossette knew. Two months later, the Coards led the coup against Bishop; several days later, Bishop and his key aides were assassinated; a few days later, the U.S. invaded. (For a full review of the U.S. Campaign against the Bishop government, see Ellen Ray and Bill Schaap, "U.S. Crushes Caribbean Jewel," CovertAction Information Bulletin, Winter 1984, p. 3.) --William H. Schaap End quote. The sidebar appears in an article starting on page 16 , highly (and justly) critical of Crossette's New York Times article of March 13, 1994. -- Lisa Pease ---------- "If you can't get the truth about the past, how can you expect to get the truth about the present?" - Jerry Brown, We The People talk show 1/11/96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 From: Hank Roth <•••@••.•••> Subject: 960311-Castro speaks truth about U.S. To: Multiple recipients of list PNEWS-L <•••@••.•••> /* Written 3:10 PM Mar 1, 1996 by plink in igc:militant.news */ /* ---------- "960311-Castro speaks truth about U." ---------- */ *************************************************************************** Title: 960311-60--Castro Speaks Truth On U.S. Aggression Against Cuba *************************************************************************** from the Militant, vol.60/no.10 March 11, 1996 Invasions of Cuban airspace by U.S.-based counterrevolutionaries are nothing new. They began shortly after the January 1959 triumph of the revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and brought a government of workers and peasants to power. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 26, 1960, Cuban president Fidel Castro documented the accelerating U.S. political, economic, and military aggression at the time, including deadly assaults on Cuban territory by air. Printed below are excerpts from that speech by Castro. The entire text of the Cuban president's UN address appears in To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's Cold War Against Cuba Doesn't End (see ad on page 9). This book, published by Pathfinder Press, is a collection of speeches by Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara at the United Nations. The following excerpt is copyright Pathfinder Press and is reprinted with permission. BY FIDEL CASTRO One afternoon an airplane coming from the north flew over one of our sugar mills and dropped a bomb. This was a strange and unheard-of event, but we knew full well where that plane came from. On another afternoon another plane flew over our sugarcane fields and dropped a few incendiary bombs. These events, which began sporadically, continued systematically.(1) One afternoon, while a number of U.S. tourist agents were visiting Cuba as part of an effort by the revolutionary government to promote tourism as a source of the nation's income, a U.S.-built plane - one of those used in the Second World War - flew over Havana, dropping pamphlets and a few hand grenades. Naturally some antiaircraft guns went into action. The result was more than forty victims, between the grenades dropped by the plane and the antiaircraft fire since, as you know, some of the shells explode on contact. As I said, the result was more than forty victims. These included children with their entrails torn out, and old men and old women.(2) This was not the first time. No, young girls and boys, the elderly, men and women, were often killed in the villages of Cuba by U.S. bombs supplied to the dictator Batista. On another occasion, eighty workers were killed in a mysterious explosion - too mysterious - aboard a ship bringing Belgian weapons into our country. This occurred following great efforts by the U.S. government to prevent the Belgian government from selling us weapons.(3) There have been dozens of victims in the war: eighty families were left orphaned by that explosion; forty victims of an airplane calmly flying over our territory. The U.S. authorities denied that these planes took off from U.S. territory. But the plane was sitting right there in its hangar. One of our magazines published a photograph of this plane in its hangar, and then the U.S. authorities seized the plane. Then, of course, an account of the affair was issued to the effect that this was not very important and that the victims had not died from the bombs but from the antiaircraft fire. Meanwhile those responsible for this crime were wandering about peacefully in the United States, where they were not even prevented from continuing their acts of aggression. I take this opportunity to tell His Excellency, the representative of the United States, that there are many mothers in Cuba who are still waiting to receive a telegram of condolence for the children murdered by U.S. bombs. The planes came and went. There was no proof - although you must define what you mean by proof. The plane was right there, photographed and seized. Yet we were told this plane had not dropped any bombs; it is not known how the U.S. authorities were so well informed. Pirate aircraft continued to fly over our territory dropping incendiary bombs. Millions upon millions of pesos were lost in the burning of sugarcane fields. Many working people who saw this wealth destroyed, a wealth that was now theirs, were themselves burned or wounded in the struggle against the persistent and tenacious bombings by these pirate aircraft. Then one day, while flying over one of our sugar mills, a plane blew up when its bomb exploded, and the revolutionary government had the opportunity of gathering the remains of the pilot. It was in fact a U.S. pilot, whose papers were found, and it was a U.S. plane and we found all the proofs about the airfield from which he had taken off. That plane had passed over two bases in the United States.(4) Now it was a case that could not be denied; it was clear the plane had come from the United States. This time, in view of the irrefutable proof, the U.S. government did give an explanation to the Cuban government. Its conduct in this case was not the same as in the U-2 case.(5) When it was proved that the planes were coming from the United States, the U.S. government did not proclaim its right to burn our cane fields. On this occasion, the U.S. government apologized, and said it was sorry. Well, we were lucky, after all, because after the U-2 incident the U.S. government did not even apologize; it proclaimed its right to fly over Soviet territory. Too bad for the Soviets! [Applause] But we do not have many antiaircraft batteries and the planes continued to come until the sugar harvest was over. When there was no more sugarcane, the bombings stopped. We were the only country in the world to suffer this harassment, although I do recall that at the time of his visit to Cuba President Sukarno [of Indonesia] told us that we were not the only ones, that they too had problems with U.S. planes flying over their territory. I don't know if I've committed an indiscretion here; I don't expect so. The fact of the matter is that at least in this peaceful hemisphere, we were the one country that, without being at war with anyone, had to stand the constant attack of pirate planes. How could those planes come and go from U.S. territory with impunity? We invite the delegates here to ponder this, and we also invite the people of the United States - if by chance they have the opportunity of knowing the facts being discussed here - to ponder this matter. Because according to the statements of the U.S. government itself, U.S. territory is completely protected against any air incursion, and U.S. air defenses are infallible. It is said that the air defenses of the world they call "free" - because, so far as we are concerned, we became free on Jan. 1, 1959 - are impregnable. If this is the case, how is it that planes - and I'm not talking about supersonic planes, but simple propeller planes flying barely 150 miles an hour - how is it that these planes are able to come and go from U.S. territory at will? How can they go through two bases and come back over these two same bases without the U.S. government even being aware that these planes are coming and going from their territory? It means one of two things. Either the U.S. government is lying to the U.S. people and the United States is defenseless against aerial incursions, or the U.S. government was an accomplice in these aerial incursions. [Applause] 1. The bombing of Cuban sugar mills and cane fields by planes taking off from the United States began in October 1959. 2. The incident Castro is describing took place on October 21, 1959. In the attack two were killed and forty-seven wounded. 3. On March 4, 1960, the French ship La Coubre, bringing Belgian munitions, blew up in the Havana harbor, killing eighty-one people. 4. On February 18, 1960, a plane blew up while attempting to bomb a Cuban sugar mill. The body of pilot Robert Ellis Frost, a U.S. citizen, was recovered in the wreckage. 5. On May 1, 1960, a U.S. U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and the pilot captured. The plane was more than 1,200 miles inside Soviet territory. To get an introductory 12-week subscription to the Militant in the U.S., send $10 US to: The Militant, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014. For subscription rates to other countries, send e-mail to •••@••.••• or write to the above address. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/library/ CyberJournal: (WWW or FTP) --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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