Lies & omissions: U.S. ‘terrorism report’

Here is the U.S. dripping blood from its bombing of Libya. It sends drones to kill villagers in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It keeps five Cubans in prison for 13 years now for the “crime” of trying to thwart U.S.-based terrorist attacks on their homeland.

What else but imperialist arrogance explains how the U.S. State Department could have the audacity to issue a report on international terrorism — one that calls Cuba a sponsor of state terrorism?

But it did, in its Aug. 18 “Country Reports on Terrorism 2010.”

In a truly Alice in Wonderland moment, the State Department gives as a reason that “Cuba continued to denounce U.S. counterterrorism efforts throughout the world, portraying them as a pretext to extend U.S. influence and power.” It adds that “Cuba did not sponsor counterterrorism initiatives or participate in regional or global operations against terrorists in 2010.”

So because Cuba refuses to join and support the U.S. capitalist devastation of the world through war and exploitation of the globe’s workers and resources, it is cruelly blockaded and vilified.

Cuba’s Aug.19 reply got it right:

“The U.S. government, which historically has practiced state terrorism, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, assassinations with drones, torture and illegal detentions, which has established secret prisons, which is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians as a result of occupation and wars of conquest in Iraq and Afghanistan, that systematically bombed sovereign states such as Libya, does not have the slightest morals nor any right to judge Cuba, which has an unblemished record in the fight against terrorism and has also been consistently the victim of this scourge.” (www.cubaminrex.cu)

The State Department “report” admits that “The Cuban government continued to aggressively pursue persons suspected of terrorist acts in Cuba.” But it failed to disclose that, according to contrainjerencia.com, more than 60 fugitives from Latin American justice are being harbored in the U.S. with full knowledge of the State Department. They include the infamous Luis Posada Carriles and, until his recent death, Orlando Bosch, both responsible for the first mid-air bombing of a civilian flight. The U.S. ignores Venezuela’s official demand that the U.S. adhere to international law and treaty by extraditing Posada Carriles to stand trial for the Cubana 455 bombing.

Also “Jose Dionisio Suárez Esquivel, aka Charco de Sangre, (Blood bath). An accomplice in the assassination of Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffitt. Released by George W. Bush. Lives in Miami. ... Jaime Garcia Covarrubias, former head of Pinochet’s repressive agency, accused of torture and murder, now a professor in the Pentagon Academy, Washington, D.C. ... Inocente Orlando Montano, Salvadoran colonel wanted by Spanish courts for the murder of Jesuits. Was granted asylum in the U.S. ....”

We join with Cuba to demand that the U.S. government “punish the real terrorists who now reside in U.S. territory, free the Five anti-terrorist heroes and end the policy of blockade and hostility against [Cuba], which threatens the legitimate interests of both peoples.”

On the anniversary of the great Attica prison rebellion and a year of hunger strikes among U.S. prisoners protesting inhuman treatment, we also demand an end to racist police terror in U.S. streets and torture in U.S. prisons, including Guantanamo — the U.S. military base occupying Cuban territory.