US gives green light to food sales to hurricane-hit Cuba

[Nambe]

Source: Agence France Presse

HAVANA (AFP) - Bypassing its trade embargo on communist Cuba, the United States on Tuesday announced approving 250 million dollars in "farm sales" to Havana after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike devastated Cuba's crops.

The licenses for agricultural sales, which include food and construction materials, were approved after Ike lashed Cuba a week ago and "wood, a material essential to rebuilding, is included," read a State Department communique delivered to reporters at the US Interests Section in Havana.

State Department officials in Washington on Monday it regretted that Cuba rejected up to five million dollars in aid for the victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The United States has tense and limited relations with its communist neighbor, which has been under a US embargo for more than four decades. ...

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080917/pl_afp/cubaweatherstormusaid_080917004629;_ylt=AjH0mImAizBRB4oo1oKC16ys0NUE

[AlphaCentauri]

1. One way embargo

[doc03]

2. This four decades of embargo against Cuba is

ridiculous the only thing we have accomplished is punishing the innocent people in a tiny little country. Before Castro took control of Cuba and kicked our ass out rich American casino and hotel owners robbed them blind. Same way with Iran they tossed our puppet the Shaw out now we punish them for the last 30 years.

[spag68]

3. Cuba

I don't know where you get your info, but I am old enough to have heard about Havana of the 1950 era, from my parents and their friends. The american influence in Cuba was almost all in Havana, and provided decent jobs and a flow of money on the island. The real harm was done by the dictators and friends, the casino owners were only interested in making money from tourists. Yes the island was poor, but so was Haiti, and most of the other islands of that era. I was also in Gitmo numerous times in 60-62 aboard the USS Norfolk, and we traded stuff through the fence with friendly Cubans often. Under the Shaw, admittedly not a good man, the standard of living in Iran was one of the highest in the mid-east at the time.I am not blind to the harm our govt. did around the world at the time, but don't paint with such a broad brush. Both places were better off then then now, not everything that happened then was bad.

[doc03]

4. Cuba was ruled by Batista as I remember and the

the US backed who we thought was going to be our puppet dictator, Castro. Then when Castro took power he booted the Americans out. I suppose the Casino and Hotel owners did provide people with better jobs then elsewhere in Cuba but I bet the lion's share of the profits found their way back to the US and into a few rich locals pockets.
That's like locally the gaming industry lobbied to build a Casino and Hotel here claiming how many good jobs it would bring in. Now a few years latter what was once one of the nicest sections of town has now turned into the center for drugs and crack whores. Sure it provides some fair paying jobs for people but all the profits go to the state treasury and the gaming companies.
You say both Cuba and Iran were better off then then know not everything that happened there was bad you say. The US has carried a decades long vendetta against both countries trying overthrow their governments. All has been accomplished from what I see is keep their people in poverty, while the Dictators are doing just fine. As long as the population in those countries see the US as their enemy it gives the Dictators more power over their people. That's how those guys stay in power national pride unites their people against who they percive is the enemy, us

[Judi Lynn]

5. Cuba was a veritable paradise for people who weren't among the large majority of desperately poor,

mostly descended from the HUGE population of slave workers stolen from their lives and forced to supply ALL the labor to make their Spanish "owners" wealthy in Cuba, toiling for the rest of their lives among strangers, with no way to hope of every seeing their loved ones again.

It was a fabulous place for people who didn't depend entirely on seasonal work, with NO CHANCE OF INCOME otherwise, since there was absolutely nothing to do for these agricultural workers outside the cane fields, etc.

It was a pleasure palance for people who didn't mind DEATH SQUADS picking people off the street, torturing them to death, and either throwing out their bodies unceremoniously in the streets, hanging them from streetlamps to instruct their neighbors on how to conduct themselves, or even dangling their body parts from trees out in the country, as they did near Santiago de Cuba.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of Batista:

FULGENCIO BATISTA
President of Cuba
Cuban Army Sergeant Fulgencio Batista first seized power in a 1932 coup. He was President Roosevelt's handpicked dictator to counteract leftists who had overthrown strongman Cerardo Machado. Batista ruled or several years, then left for Miami, returning in 1952 just in time for another coup, against elected president Carlos Prio Socorras. His new regime was quickly recognized by President Eisenhower. Under Batista, U.S. interests flourished and little was said about democracy. With the loyal support of Batista, Mafioso boss Meyer Lansky developed Havana into an international drug port. Cabinet offices were bought and sold and military officials made huge sums on smuggling and vice rackets. Havana became a fashionable hot spot where America's rich and famous drank and gambled with mobsters. As the gap between the rich and poor grew wider, the poor grew impatient. In 1953, Fidel Castro led an armed group of rebels in a failed uprising on the Moncada army barracks. Castro temporarily fled the country and Batista struck back with a vengeance. Freedom of speech was curtailed and subversive teachers, lawyers and public officials were fired from their jobs. Death squads tortured and killed thousands of "communists". Batista was assisted in his crackdown by Lansky and other members of organized crime who believed Castro would jeopardize their gambling and drug trade. Despite this, Batista remained a friend to Eisenhower and the US until he was finally overthrown by Castro in 1959.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html







It doesn't take a genius to grasp what kind of man this scum was,
and exactly WHY the Cuban people felt they couldn't endure another
moment with him running roughshod over them, and their families.

These mothers attempted to protest when the American ambassador
was visiting Santiago de Cuba. It was just their luck the state
police were instructed to turn their fire hoses on the women as
soon as they attempted to approach the ambassador.

[doc03]

6. Very interesting, I was only 11 years old when Castro took

over. So actually the US backed Batista back then. I always thought the US helped Castro take power then he stabbed us in the back and let the USSR bring missiles in. Just like today I guess the US doesn't really give a damn if a country is ruled by a Dictator as long as it's our Dictator. So did the USSR help Castro take over? We have been punishing the people of Cuba for over 40 years because Castro let the USSR put missiles in Cuba. Now we are putting missiles in Russia's back yard and Putin is getting nervous about it so now he is the no good SOB. I'll bet that puppet we have installed in Iraq turns out just as bad as Saddam or even worse but as long as he plays ball we will back him up too.

[Judi Lynn]

7. The missiles arrived from Russia AFTER the Bay of Pigs invasion, and a condition

for withdrawal of the missiles was that the U.S. would NEVER attempt to invade Cuba again. The Soviet Union appeared to place the missiles in Cuba to deter any future attempt AFTER the Bay of Pigs invasion by the same people Cuba had overthrown originally.

You may recall reading that Russia was also upset because the U.S. had already set up a number of missiles in Turkey which had become a pressure the Russians didn't feel they wanted to continue.

Here's material made public during the 40th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, March, 2001, a conference held in Havana. Veteran Bay of Pigs Cuban Americans were invited, and a son of Robert F. Kennedy went there, contributing documents from the United States, as well. There were a lot of officials who attended, and it appears the event was a success.

BAY OF PIGS CONFERENCE POINTS TO MISSED
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE AFTER INVASION FAILED

SECRET RAPPROACHMENT EFFORTS BEGAN IN
NEGOTIATIONS FOR PRISONER RELEASE;
ENDED WITH JFK'S ASSASSINATION

Havana, Cuba: Documents released this afternoon on the second day of an historic meeting of former adversaries in Havana highlight missed opportunities for U.S.-Cuban rapproachment following the failure of the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
Notes on an April 1963 visit to Cuba by attorney James B. Donovan and a memorandum of statements by Fidel Castro from the same trip, record a secret effort to negotiate the release of American prisoners that also helped to initiate a dialogue between bitter adversaries.

The memorandum also summarizes Castro's perceptions during the invasion, which he believed was intended to secure a beachhead from which to launch a provisional government. He was thus determined "to prevent the landing of the provisional government at all costs."

Also released today are documents relating to secret efforts by the Kennedy Administration to begin a dialogue with Castro in the days before his assassination in November 1963. In a February 1964 message to President Johnson, conveyed through ABC News correspondent Lisa Howard, Castro tells the new president "that there are no areas of contention between us that cannot be discussed and settled within a climate of mutual understanding," and expresses hope that Johnson will win the November presidential election and continue with the Kennedy Administration's rapproachment effort.

Another document, a March 1964 memorandum from CIA Director Richard Helms to President Johnson's national security adviser, reports on the alleged secret contacts between President Kennedy and the Castro government in 1963. The source believes that President Johnson was unaware of the secret dialogue "and for this reason is not continuing President Kennedy's policy."

In its final online release of material related to the conference, the National Security Archive has also posted audio recordings of two telephone conversations between President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, on March 2, 1963, in which they discuss concerns that a Senate investigating committee might reveal that the president had authorized jets from the U.S. aircraft carrier Essex to provide one hour of air cover for the brigade's B-26 bombers on the morning of April 19. The unmarked jets failed to rendezvous with the bombers, however, because the CIA and the Pentagon were unaware of a time zone difference between Nicaragua and Cuba. Two B-26s were shot down and four Americans lost.

The conference - involving former officials of the Kennedy Administration, the CIA, members of Brigade 2506, and Cuban government and military officials - convened yesterday in Havana for three days of discussion on one of the most infamous episodes of the Cold War - the April 1961 invasion at the Bay of Pigs.

Other documents released today include:

A June 15, 1961 dispatch from the Canadian Embassy in Havana in which the ambassador characterizes the Bay of Pigs invasion as "a decisive point-of-no-return for the Castro regime," that "substantiated the Government's warnings against imperialist aggression from the United States."

A memorandum from Kennedy aide Richard Goodwin recounting his August 22, 1961 conversation with Ernesto "Che" Guevara in which Guevara thanks Goodwin for the Bay of Pigs invasion - which he calls "a great political victory" - but also seeks to establish a "modus vivendi" with the U.S. government.

A November 1, 1961 memorandum from Goodwin to President Kennedy supporting the concept of a "command operation" on Cuba, commanded by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The reorganization of Cuban operations as described in the memo sets the stage for the decision to launch a new, multifaceted set of anti-Castro activities, codenamed Operation Mongoose.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/

[doc03]

8. I think I read a few years back that the American public

was never aware until years later that we had missiles in Turkey and we agreed to quietly remove them in exchange for the Russians removing theirs from Cuba..