Thanks Tim for another penetrating and incisive essay about US imperialist ambitions in Cuba, and the truth about those "dissidents" jailed.

No doubt we will now hear more from those ignorant, armchair anti-communist blatherers who know so little of cuban history, have never met and talked to an actual cuban, and are unable to think critically about the self-serving yankee propaganda that infests our "mainstream" media.

Thanks very much Tim for another example of looney-left hypocrisy. Here he is defending the Cuban imprisonment of 75 journalists, librarians and dissidents to an average of 17 years jail for "sedition". And this from someone who gets so sanctimonious over asylum seekers getting locked up. What a joke.

No mention of the estimated 70 000 deaths and disappearances attributed to Castro. No mention of a country destroyed and a people trampled so Castro could make him and his family rich. The only thing that has saved Cuba is the demise of the Soviet Union. Without their money which was the only thing that allowed Cuba to even sort of survive, they've had to turn to a little bit of State capitalism in the form of tourism. Now political murders, squalor, incredible poverty and fear does not make for happy tourists. No one accused Castro of being a fool. I think if dear old Grace has gone on her jaunt to Cuba about 25 years ago, she would have seen a very different country. Captialism saves the day again!

Grace, I'd rather be an ignorant arm-chair anti-communist blatherer than a clapped out old Marxist who doesn't realise that their views are as old and stale as the dinosaurs - and just as dead.

Thanks Tim,I'm amazed at the rabid rights reaction to irrefutable facts when all they can come back with is infantile name calling rhetoric in the hope that if they repeat their misinformation long and often enough, their misinformed lies will become facts.
In other words, Take a page out of George W. Bush's diary of WMD Words of Mass Deception.
I am concerned that a similar scenario is being created in our part of the World with East Timor.
The similarities are quite astounding.

A very poor Country desperately trying to develop an economy not dictated by the IMF and World Bank.
Economic development is being hampered by the actions of the 'Deputy Sheriff'in stealing their resources whilst refusing to accept International Court Jurisdiction.
There is evidence of external efforts by organisations posing as non-political humanitarian to influence the country's direction in opposition to the Constitutional Government.
Maracas

Maracas, isn't the phrase: "infantile name calling rhetoric in the hope that if they repeat their misinformation long and often enough, their misinformed lies will become facts" an example of infantile name calling rhetoric?

Rhian, I'm surprised you would waste an opportunity to respond to Tim Andersons argument as to the USA's strategy in using the UN Commission on Human Rights to further it's imperial designs on Cuba by engaging in a semantic response to my post.
Imperial USA has intentions to introduce Iraqi model democracy and freedom to Cuba.
They have a foot in the door with the Guantanamo base already established.
They fund cuban dissident groups with the intention of furthering their objectives.
Remember the 'Bay of Pigs" ? It failed but the yanks havent given up.

Maracas – the only reason Cuba is a poor nation is because of the despot in charge. It should be the richest in the Caribbean. Castro is a murderer and destroyer and it’s unbelievable (actually, it isn’t) that the trampling of the rights and lives of 11 000 000 people plays a very distant second to your hatred of America.

Anderson's and your defence of this swine is nauseating.

Bozzie, I think Grace must have had you in mind when she referred to the

" ignorant, armchair anti-communist blatherers who know so little of cuban history, have never met and talked to an actual cuban, and are unable to think critically about the self-serving yankee propaganda that infests our "mainstream" media."

who were going to respond to Tim's article of Fact about Cuba.

Besides, I don't 'hate' America. I disapprove of their politics of Imperial domination . Get-a-life Bozzie, Viva Cuba !!

maracas - glad to see you didn't resort to any infantile name calling rhetoric.

Abajo con el dictador cubano!

Tim may be right to argue that the USA is using criticism of Cuba’s human rights record to its political advantage. This is hardly new. It can be argued that there are ideological elements in the criticisms of Israel, North Korea, Saddam and then the USA in Iraq, the Taliban and then the USA in Afghanistan, Indonesia in East Timor, Vietnam, China, Mynmar, Sudan etc . Whatever the accusers’ motives, these regimes have cases to answer.

Surely the key question in these countries, and in Cuba, is whether human rights abuses are taking place, not the motives of the accusers. To deny or excuse human rights violations on ideological grounds is, to my mind, even worse than seeking to make political capital out of them on ideological grounds. Tim uses offical statements by the Cuban Government to defend its human rights record, and prejudicial language and rhetorical devices such as scare quotes to attack its opponents. I find neither persuasive.

According to the latest report by Amnesty International (not just the Amnesty’s USA operation, as Tim implies):

"2003 saw a severe deterioration in the human rights situation in Cuba. In mid-March the Cuban authorities carried out an unprecedented crack-down on the dissident movement. Seventy-five long-term activists were arrested, unfairly tried and sentenced to up to 28 years’ imprisonment; they were prisoners of conscience. In April, three men convicted of involvement in a hijacking were executed by firing squad, ending a three-year de facto moratorium.

"Criticism from the international community, including countries and individuals previously supportive of the Cuban government, intensified. The Cuban authorities sought to justify these measures as a necessary response to the threat to national security posed by the USA. The US embargo and related measures continued to have a negative effect on the enjoyment of the full range of human rights in Cuba."

http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/cub-summary-eng

Rhian,
The arrest and trials of the 70 or so dissidents in 2003 was a direct response to the American financing of Cuban dissidents to disrupt Cuban society as part of the USA's plan of 'transition' to a form of government acceptable to the US and dependent on the IMF and World Bank. Castro executed 3 people for their part in a hijacking. I do not personally approve of the death penalty and deplore it's use internationally .However,I understand that George W.Bush,whilst Governor of Texas signed more death warrants than any other President of the United states.
Tim argued that the USA was using the UN Human Rights Commission to push their own agenda......This is quite ironic since Bush is the only President in history to have the U.N. remove the US. from the human rights commission.........
Bush withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.--actually the World Court is changing into the International Criminal Court--because the US wants to be a part of the court, but not be open to h the US having charges brought against them, they have temporarily ceased negotiating with the countries involved in and taking part in the establishment of the ICC. So, in other words, the US wants to be able to establish the laws within the ICC, practice those laws within the ICC, but not have those laws applied to the USA.He refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.--Guantanomo Bay.Castro's 'crimes' pale into insignificence by comparison to Bush's (whom you seem to absolve).
Why is this so ?

Maracas

I don’t “absolve” Bush of anything, I don’t agree with the death penalty in Texas, Cuba or anywhere else, and I don’t approve of what the USA has done at Guantanomo.

But the issue under discussion is Cuba’s human rights record, not the USA’s. On this, I prefer to accept the authority of Amnesty International and other independent monitors than that of the Cuban Government. If you don’t accept Amnesty’s analysis, check out Human Rights Watch:

“Despite the release in 2004 of fourteen of the seventy-five political dissidents, independent journalists, and human rights advocates prosecuted in April 2003, human rights conditions in Cuba have not improved. The Cuban government systematically denies its citizens basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, movement, and a fair trial. It restricts nearly all avenues of political dissent, and uses police warnings, surveillance, short term-detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, criminal prosecutions, and politically-motivated dismissals from employment as methods of enforcing political conformity.

“Human rights monitoring is not recognized as a legitimate activity, but rather is stigmatized as a betrayal of Cuban sovereignty. No local human rights groups enjoy legal status. Instead, human rights defenders face systematic harassment, with the government placing heavy burdens on their ability to monitor human rights conditions. Nor are international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch allowed to send fact-finding missions to Cuba.”

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/10/cuba10306.htm

Rhian posted
QUOTE
“The Cuban government systematically denies its citizens basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, movement, and a fair trial. It restricts nearly all avenues of political dissent, and uses police warnings, surveillance, short term-detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, criminal prosecutions, and politically-motivated dismissals from employment as methods of enforcing political conformity.”
END QUOTE

If you open your eyes then the same applies to the Commonwealth of Australia (see also my website http://www.schorel-hlavka.com just that you didn’t know it. (Takes time to load down, due to the volume on the website!)

We do not even have a valid constitutional elected Government! Just that you didn’t know we are under a DICTATORSHIP ourselves!

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES are rife in the Commonwealth of Australia, and Cornelia Rau, Vivian Solon, and numerous others, are clear example of this.

Who then are we to dictate another nation where were ourselves cannot manage our own affairs?

Regardless what Saddam Hussein may or may not be guilty of, we had no right to invade another sovereign nation, in particularly not unconstitutionally, and murder so many Iraqi’s!

Lets deal with this kind of HUMAN RIGHTS abuses first. Bring John Howard and his cohorts before the Courts to face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against them, and then we may get some standing to criticize others.

Whatever HUMAN RIGHTS violations Cuba may or may not have, let we not be blinded to ignore the USA’s HUMAN RIGHTS abuses in CUBA! After all we still have an Australian David Hicks denied his rights!

Yes Mr. Gerbil H Schnorkel-Balaclava – John Howard, George Bush etc. are big mean war criminals, gross abusers of human rights and by far the most evil men on the planet. How dare they criticise Mr Hussein or Mr Castro for the cold-blooded murders of thousands upon thousands of their citizens when they themselves are guilty of atrocities such as locking up a traitor and terrorist and deporting a woman, who insisted she was German, back to Germany? Fancy detaining people who break our immigration laws, we have no right to treat them as…..as….. well…. Lawbreakers! You don’t see immigrants to Iraq or Cuba treated in such a manner.

Yes it matters not how many people are murdered and terrorized by scumbags throughout the world, they all pale into insignificance when compared to the monsters of the West.

Mr Gerrit H Schorel-Hlavka – do you realise how ridiculous and pathetic your words are?

Tim, present us with evidence that is clear & concisely referenced (from sources that are not obviously biased). We the reader are your jury in terms of your argument. You are not going to convince anyone (new) with an argument that is unreferenced & comes to a conclusion before discussing the facts. Don't let your articles become self indulgent intellectual leftist rants, whose main purpose is not to communicate & convince the reader - but to let off your own steam! :)

How, can you reasonably argue that the world is black & white in terms of morality/ethics Tim? Why not acknowledge that shades of grey exist in people. Argue that Castro is light grey & Bush is dark grey. Fine, I (& prob. Rhian?) don’t have a problem with that argument. The problem in not acknowledging at least some failing in Castro's human rights record, is that people are likely to dismiss the rest of your argument as false/biased

We had yet another bombing and people killed and all we seem to get is politicians being power hungry and making more and more laws robbing us of our freedoms. The fact that it will not resolve the problems is another matter.

As I have made clear time and again that, the only way to fight terrorism is to fight the cause of terrorism.

All we seem to be getting is governments wanting to rob the people of their civil rights all in the name of war on terror. If the same were to be translated in “war on criminals” then we would have a lot more laws.
Where government could not legislate to allow police to invade a person’s property without a warrant in regard of crimes, now the Sa and WA government appears to allow such invasions without warrant under the cover of being terrorist laws.
In my view, they are power hungry government wanting to use the “terrorism” as a way to introduce draconic laws they otherwise never could have succeeded in.
But, with all the legislation it will not fix terrorism problems as they simply are ignoring to seek to address the cause of terrorism.
What ever Saddam Hussein may have done in his own country, was under protection of the (then) Iraqi constitution, and we have no business to interfere with that. Not because we may approve of what was happening, but we would neither want other nations to invade us for the mass murder of Aboriginals, and the other crimes we (as a nation) did upon Aboriginals!
Look at the British using poison gasses in 1919 against the Kurts. Why was that any less then what Saddam Hussein is accused of having done?

We slaughtered Iraqis in an unconstitutional war and have no right to criticize other! I disapprove of any violence, and we should first look at ourselves before trying to tell others what to do.

To fight terrorism is to fight the cause of terrorism. And, it is this what is being ignored!

We use violence and they (regretfully) respond in kind!