EDITORIAL
Lies & omissions: U.S. ‘terrorism report’
Published Sep 11, 2011 10:10 PM
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.
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