Funding for free Cuba is frozen ( US funding fraud)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2008
Funding for free Cuba is frozen
BY FRANCES ROBLES

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.
In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba.

~snip~
The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/612979.html

[sasquatch]

1. Hey cocaine isn't cheap you know

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

2. So Stephen Dreisler, USAID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs won't

share with us "what items were purchased," right? Well, we ALREADY KNOW! We read about it ALREADY! Want to see them listed all over again? Some DU'ers had a good laugh about this the first time it came out.

U.S. fights Fidel - with chocolates?
New York Daily News

Originally published on November 26, 2006

By Albor Ruiz

It is surrealism at its best: Fighting Fidel with Godiva chocolates and Harry Potter books.

This is what some Cuban-American organizations have been doing - apparently, for years.

They have spent thousands of dollars to buy the chocolates and the books and also cashmere sweaters, leather coats, Nintendo games and other assorted - shall we say subversive?- items.

These articles are, these organizations say in all seriousness, smuggled into Cuba to combat Havana's Communist regime by aiding dissidents on the island.

Granted, it may not be the most effective way of bringing down Castro and his government, but without a doubt it is a lot of fun - particularly because it is the U.S. taxpayers who cover the expenses.

These revelations are contained in "U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management and Oversight," a recent report put out by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The investigation's conclusions are clear: The multimillion-dollar program designed to aid Cuban dissidents and families has instead encouraged waste and abuse among the organizations receiving the funds.

"Under the Bush administration's Cuba policy, it is illegal for Cuban-Americans to fly to Havana for a family funeral, but legal for the State Department to pay smugglers to bring chocolates and cashmere sweaters onto the island," said Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

More:
http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Garcon, would you add some crabmeat, please? (To the gifts from US taxpayers?)

This makes you a little skeptical about U.S. right-wing Congressfolk howling about "Big Gummint," and "Democrats gonna raise your taxes," and all, doesn't it? Hell, we'll HAVE to raise taxes to keep these right-wing clowns in cashmere sweaters, Godiva chocolates, crabmeat, leather jackets, etc., etc., etc.)

It really make you wonder who stalled this story so long, and how he/they did it, when we've known about it for 18 months!

Progreso Weekly - Nov 23, 2006
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Ramy&otherweek=1164261600

Dateline Havana
A Variant of Clue
By Manuel Alberto Ramy

~snip~
Card 1: According to The Herald, Mr. Juan Carlos Acosta, leader of one of
the many exile groups in Miami, used part of the money he received from
USAID to send "a dozen leather jackets and cashmere sweaters" to dissidents
inside Cuba.

To justify his investment, Acosta told The Herald that GAO auditors are
wrong when "they think it's not cold there."

Apparently, it's an extreme kindness on the part of Mr. Acosta toward the
dissidents, so they can don a jacket or a sweater and frolic in our beaches
when our winter (brief and benign) arrives. They would experience no cold
and save on their medicine bills. Too bad Acosta didn't send them chain
saws because they could then trim off the crests of the waves and enjoy
calmer waters.

"They were asking for sweaters, in Cuba," Acosta argued. So far, no
opposition leader has confirmed such a request. Acosta will argue that the
opposition would not publicly admit such a request and that the sender
would not reveal who requested the garments in order to protect the
addressees.

That's a foolish excuse. First, because the U.S. and its leading
authorities have made public their policy to provide financial support to
opposition groups in Cuba. And second, because -- with some exceptions --
the majority of the dissidents have told the international media that
they're willing to accept it.

The organization led by Mr. Acosta seems to be very refined, because it
sent the oppositionists several boxes of Godiva chocolate. As he said,
Cubans are hungry and "they never get any chocolate there." The Godiva
brand, well known throughout the world, sells 4 pounds of chocolate for
"only" $75. On the other hand, hot chocolate is very gratifying during the
"harsh" tropical winter. Perhaps Mr. Acosta sent special flour so they
could make churros . Or maybe he added bonbons
filled with whisky or vodka. It's possible, because he has a sharp eye for
details.

To complete the shipment, he had an idea that -- while healthy -- could
have consequences contrary to the avowed purpose: He bought "five or six"
cans of crabmeat. The danger is that, as the Cuban guaracha says, "he who
eats crab meat will walk backwards." Who will walk backwards? The cans? Or
the addressees?

Card 2: One of the items in the GAO report says some of the
multimillion-dollar allocations were in response to "requests that were
never made."

I wonder, does this apply to the cashmere sweaters and the chocolate? And
if that's so, why respond to requests that were never made? Could the money
be used to fill other unasked-for needs in Florida? Are we looking at a
cover-up?

Card 3: The director of the Group for Support of Democracy, Mr. Frank
Hernández Trujillo, told The Miami Herald that he sent Nintendo games to
Cuba. This game, according to Hernández, helps teach Cubans the benefits of
democracy.

When someone promotes democracy by confusing it with the excesses of the
consumer society, it is appropriate that he should send a little game so
the dissidents can learn that concept well and not get into ideological
daydreaming. A democracy-turned-market-game helps "assistance to a free
Cuba" to affect (and how!) the political dynamics in Florida. Mr.
Hernández's organization has received about $7 million from USAID. In what
little games has this sum been invested?

Card 2, play again: The GAO report states that, in the course of "limited
inspections" of 10 programs, government investigators found "questionable
expenses" and a lack of control. It also says that out of the $65 million
set aside to aid the dissidents, $62 million was spent without competitive
bids, as had been stipulated.

More:
https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20061120/052028.html+A+Variant+of+Clue+Manuel+Alberto+Ramy&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us">~~~~ link ~~~~

[fla nocount]

4. Baptista was corrupt, so are his fans. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. Corrupt, and brutal. That's why they threw him (them) out. Now they control our foreign policy with

Cuba, and often, Latin America. The Miami Congress people are tight with Colombia's Uribe, and the Venezuelan "opposition" racist right-wing oligarchy, some of whom have homes in Florida, too.



Miami Rep. Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen visits in Colombia



Cuban "exile" Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
and former Speaker Hasteart with Álvaro Uribe