CUBANET ... CUBANEWS

April 18, 2001



For Cuban exiles, scars still raw

Members of Brigade 2506 recall anger, sense of betrayal

By Sean Federico-O'Murchu. MSNBC. April 18, 2001.

ELIZABETH, N.J., April 17 — As they steamed toward the coast of Cuba in April, 1961, they were young, confident and idealistic, driven by dreams of ousting Fidel Castro and emboldened by the backing of the U.S. government. Forty years later, Castro still holds sway in Havana, and the surviving members of Brigade 2506 still live in exile, their anger and sense of betrayal as palpable as ever.

"WE FELT CONFIDENT because we had the word of the United States," recalled Eliecer Grave de Peralta, who stormed Giron Beach near the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, along with about 1,500 other Cuban exiles.

But the United States balked at the last minute: Castro’s air force was only partially destroyed, U.S. air cover wasn’t provided to the invasion force and the CIA didn’t notify the Cuban underground of the impending attack.

After three days of heavy fighting, Castro’s superior forces vanquished the exiles, the United States was faced with a diplomatic nightmare and the invasion attempt set the harsh tone for relations between Havana and Washington that endure to this day.

The Bay of Pigs has become a catchphrase for bungling and rich fodder for books, movies and academic research.

Segundo Miranda

But to the men who took part, the debacle is a matter of deep resentment. Most were imprisoned for nearly two years in Cuba, watched the torture and execution of comrades, and hold an abiding hatred of Castro.

Gathered together during a recent stormy night in New Jersey, the memory of April 17-19, 1961, still stings for five of the original members of the Brigade 2506. They dream of Cuba, they pray for Cuba and they now realize they may never go home again.

DREAMS OF CUBA

Grave de Peralta still remembers the day he left Cuba: Dec. 3, 1960. The revolution was less than 2 years old and after fighting alongside Castro to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Grave de Peralta turned his back on his comrades.

"I took Santa Clara for Castro," he said, but he could no longer stand the tyranny of the new regime. "The executions without trial, the persecution of people with different ideologies, the shutdown of the press," Grave de Peralta said.

He was 27 when he returned on April 17, 1961, still consumed with the ideal that drove him to join Castro’s band of rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. "We wanted agriculture reform, to give land back to the farmers and to reinstate the Constitution of 1940," he said.

Now he wanted to overthrow Castro. After training under CIA supervision in camps scattered through Central America, Grave de Peralta joined a buoyant band of exiles on its way to the Bay of Pigs. "We had no doubts. We thought we had a closed deal."

Three days later, as they ran out of ammunition, Grave de Peralta knew it was over. He managed to be among the handful plucked to safety after the botched invasion. "I had to escape; I faced a death sentence in Cuba," he said.

Castro was prepared for the invasion. Another exile, Raul Sanchez, recalled hearing Cuban radio broadcasts warning of an attack as he headed in one of the five old cargo ships to his homeland.

Raul Sanchez

Even then he wasn’t worried. "We were young, we were counterrevolutionaries, we were going to free our homeland," Sanchez said. And the CIA told them that the United States would not let them down.

Time has only hardened their bitterness — and the target for much of the anger is President Kennedy, who took office a few months before the Bay of Pigs, and his brother, then Attorney General Robert Kennedy. "They betrayed us," said Segundo Miranda, a commander with the invading force.

Although an investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency placed a great deal of the responsibility for the fiasco on the CIA, which planned the operation, the exiles blame Kennedy for calling off on April 15 air strikes aimed at crippling Castro’s air power. Without the air strikes, the invasion itself should have been called off, they say.

FORGOTTEN PLIGHT

The men, soldiers of a forgotten war in many people’s minds, are still strangers in a strange land. They came to the United States to spend a few months preparing for an invasion. They have stayed for nearly four decades.

They raised families and continue to lobby, to protest, to argue their cause. Last heard from during the Elian Gonzalez imbroglio, the exiles try to muster public support for dissidents inside Cuba who are still imprisoned for venting opposition to the government.

They bemoan what they see as indifference by the U.S. government to the plight of Cubans. And they won’t tolerate those who dare sit down with Castro.

Last month, a handful of exiles broke ranks by traveling to Havana to pore over unclassified documents about the battle alongside top Cuban officials and academics.

"Jesus had 12 apostles, one betrayed him. We have 5,000 people and five betrayed us," said Sanchez.

The U.S. economic blockade — widely criticized internationally — is also lambasted by the former fighters. But for another reason: They say it’s not tough enough.

"What kind of blockade is it? You can use Visa, Mastercard there; you can ship with Airborne Express," Sanchez said.

THE NEXT GENERATION

The exiles’ children carry the torch. Alex Grave de Peralta is 23 and has never been to Cuba. But like his dad, he cares passionately for the country — and detests the Castro regime.

Esther Gatria, 26, is the daughter of Sergio Gatria. Her father was a dissident inside Cuba who worked with the fledgling Castro regime but waited for word of the invasion. He left in 1967 after a long struggle to get out of Cuba.

Esther Gatria visited Cuba in 1999, but she says nothing she saw changed her mind about the Castro government.

Both Alex and Ester share their parents’ anger — and hopes for a democratic Cuba.

And while Esther is active in the November 30 organization of her father — a dissident group with members, many imprisoned, inside Cuba — she and Alex realize that they will have to wait for Castro’s death.

"History shows that after every tyranny there is a period of chaos. But hopefully when the dust clears, it will come up as a democratic society," Alex said.

Cuba's failing economy.

Source: Latest CIA estimates

GDP

Cuba acknowledges that the loss of Soviet aid and trade caused its GDP to drop by 35 percent between 1989 and 1993. The CIA estimates the drop was more like 50 percent. But after five years of a sinking GDP, the economic decline came to a halt in 1994. Since then, according to Cuba, here's how GDP has fared:

1994 +0.7

1995 +2.5

1996 +7.8

1997 +2.5

1998 +1.2

1999 +2.5

2000 + 1.2%

Trade balance

In 1999, Cuba said trade with other countries was worth $5.1 billion. Export earnings declined 22% in 1998, to $1.4 billion, the result of lower sugar export volume and lower world prices for nickel and sugar. Import expenditures also fell 15% to $3.0 billion, in part due to lower world oil prices. Export concentration on sugar was as much as 51.4 percent of total export value between 1993-96 which explains the trade deficits.

1994 -0.8

1995 -1.3

1996 -1.6

1997 -2.4

1998 -2.5

1999 -3.0

Trade relations

Before 1989, 85 percent of its trade was with the socialist bloc. Since then, Cuba has had to establish new trading partners. As a result of decline in sugar output, Cuban exports to almost all of its key trading partners have fallen since 1996. Exports to Russia and Canada fell by 13 percent. Exports to China by 27 percent and trade with Cuba's biggest trading partner, the European Union, fell by 3 percent.

Sugar

The 2000-2001 crop, projected at around 3.7 million tons, could be lower that the last harvest because of the continued drought. The 1998 sugar harvest was the lowest under the Revolution and in the last 55 years. Output in 1993-97 averaged one-half of the 1982-89 average. Cuba's inability to export sugar was its biggest problem, with an 18 per cent drop off in 1997. In 1997, Cuba exported 3,552 thousand tons of sugar and (at a price of 11.16 U.S. cents/pound) earned US$ 853 million and in 1998 it earned US $620 million.

1994 4,000

1995 3,300

1996 4,450

1997 4,252

1998 3,200

1999 4,000

2000 3,700

Physical output (thousand metric tons)

Oil and natural gas

Cuba's oil output has increased more than 400 percent over the last decade, to over 60,000 barrels per day, a third of the cash-strapped Caribbean island's minimum oil consumption. Oil firms from Canada, Britain, France and Sweden have been helping Cuba develop its existing wells and search for new reserves. In 2000, Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez negotiated a deal to provide Cuba with monthly supplies of oil.

Foreign Investment

Foreign direct investment is trickling in. In 1996, there were 240 joint ventures in Cuba, involving firms from 57 countries and valued at $5 billion. In 1998 foreign investment still hovered around $5 billion. U.S. businesses, although limited by the embargo against the island, remain eager to tap the Cuban market, Rice producers in six states -- Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas, hope to capitalize on the Cuban rice market estimated at 350,000 to 400,000 tons annually. Cuba now purchases rice from Thailand and Vietnam.

Tourism

Gross revenue from tourism stood at U.S. $ 1,500 in 1997 and at U.S. $ 1,650 in 1998. But the net revenue was about one-third of the gross due to high input costs. Occupancy of toursit rooms was only 57 percent in 1997. But the level of Cuban tourism is growing. In 1994 Cuba had 617,000 tourists, putting it on a par with Aruba and the U.S. Virgin Islands and in 1995 the number of tourists was conservatively estimated at 750,000. Canadians and Europeans are Cuba's main visitors. The U.S. embargo prevents Americans from visiting. In 1999, 1,602,781 travelers visited Cuba In 2000, an estimated 140,000 Americans traveled to the island for business and pleasure Some of them participating in the growing number of culturally oriented group tours sponsored by museums and schools.

Cuba recalls defeat of ‘imperialism’

As Castro holds court, no sign of time healing wounds

By Mary Murray. NBC NEWS.

HAVANA, April 17 — Like a blood feud passed down from generation to generation, both sides remain convinced they are right — each firm in their belief of the magnitude of the insults against them.

FORTY YEARS later, they can’t even agree on what to call the historic incident that defines their relations. The United States and the Cuban exiles refer to the event as the Bay of Pigs, "the perfect failure."

Fidel Castro and his nation honor it as Playa Girón, not just a victory but "the first defeat of imperialism in the Americas."

The exiles assert they were patriots fighting for freedom. Castro’s troops believed they were defending the nation against a "CIA-backed mercenary army in the service of a superpower" interested in regaining its considerable economic investments.

TRAITORS AND SCOUNDRELS

Whichever side you listen to, it is clear that little has changed in the 40 years since 1,500 Cuban exiles landed on a nearly deserted beachhead, only to be vanquished by Castro’s army. A handful from the defeated 2506 Brigade may have shook hands with their captors late last month, but most exiles remain unrelenting.

Before even traveling to Havana, three of the five renegades had already been expelled from their vets group for their overly conciliatory attitude toward the Castro government. The remaining two were booted at their first meeting back to jeers of "traitor" and "scoundrel."

Fidel Castro’s longevity must be particularly galling to those on the U.S. side of the Florida Straits. Their archenemy, the man who drove them out of Cuba with his communist revolution, is about to celebrate his 75th birthday.

He remains ensconced in Havana’s presidential palace, lambasting his 10th American president and greeting legions of international visitors that include the pope and the king of Spain.

To hear some aging warriors talk about the battle at Girón, the moment defined the rest of their lives. Castro used the attack to declare his revolution "socialist." Some in Miami converted their anti-Castro crusade into full-time jobs. Their wealth and concentration in South Florida made them a political force, turning Cuba into a domestic issue for anyone running for national office.

On Monday, Castro marked the 40th anniversary of his socialism declaration by again attacking the United States at a rally in Havana. "Latin American nations are on the verge of being devoured by the United States," he warned.

Col. Angel Jimenez turned his performance at Playa Girón into a military career. Just 20 when he led a mortar battalion to recapture a strip of sand held by the invading forces, Jimenez today has six rows of medals pinned to his chest. "Time heals all wounds," he said generously. "We are not enemies anymore."

Even Cuba’s official historian, Pedro Alvarez Tabio, is talking reconciliation. "We finally have the opportunity to get together with ... members of the brigade. It has been an extraordinary experience, a positive experience, in terms of finally promoting a dialogue between two adversaries that have been at odds for so many years."

BURYING THE HATCHET?

Sounds good, but will the Hatfields and McCoys really bury the hatchet?

Not Ricardo Alarcón, Cuba’s top legislator and close Castro confidante. He continues the Cuban battle cry of "Washington must recognize us first as a free, independent and sovereign nation." Alarcón sees President Bush as "living in the past" and "ignoring the lessons of Playa Girón."

The Bush administration, like its successors, is sticking to American demands that Cuba respect human rights and hold multiparty elections.

Secretary of State Colin Powell stated his support for U.S. sanctions on Cuba "to show our displeasure to the nature of that regime." Since 1962, Washington has barred trade with the island.

Clearly not interested in winning over any new friends, Fidel Castro harshly insulted the new American president just days after the inauguration. During a nationally televised speech, Castro mocked George W. Bush, calling him "very strange and uncompromising... Let’s hope he is not as stupid or as Mafioso as he seems."

During the election, Castro had described Bush and rival Al Gore as the "most boring and insipid choices" ever in U.S. election history. Castro called both candidates "pale shadows of the profound convictions of Abraham Lincoln, the wisdom and statesmanship of Franklin Roosevelt and the ethics of Jimmy Carter."

Complaining even then about a Bush victory, Castro predicted "he’ll become the tenth American president to fail" to undermine Cuba’s communist system.

THE ELIAN SAGA

Castro’s current defiance is not only based on his 42-year skirmish with the White House (and dodging dozens of CIA assassination attempts).

The aging leader gathered great steam during the Elian Gonzalez custody battle and mobilized a nation behind him. Castro’s flag of Cuban nationalism blended perfectly with anti-American sentiments — always smoldering under the surface of this Latin American nation.

Cuban fury spread so wide that even Castro opponents here criticized Miami exiles for wanting to keep the child. Elian was a 5-year-old boy rescued at sea on Thanksgiving Day 1999 who watched his mother and 10 others drown after their small boat capsized. His father, a humble hotel worker and Castro supporter, demanded his son be returned.

During the election, Bush hurled harsh words against Castro, although issued in much more civil terms.

"My word to you, Mr. Castro: Let your people live in freedom... I challenge the Castro regime to surprise the world and adopt the ways of democracy," Bush said. "Until it frees political prisoners, and holds free elections and allows free speech, I will keep the current sanctions in place."

Dodging the rhetoric flying in both capitals, the more practically minded argue that bridges are best built through commerce. The last two years brought more than a dozen trade delegations to Havana pushing their wares.

FROZEN TIES

Washington watchers, however, see little chance of any improvement — especially considering the clout Florida and Cuban Americans wielded last November in bringing a Bush back to the White House.

Next year, brother Jeb is up for re-election as the state’s governor. Jeb’s ties to South Florida date to 1988, when he ran the congressional campaign of Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the loudest Castro critics on Capital Hill.

If Otto Reich becomes the administration’s top Latin American policymaker, as proposed by the president, don’t expect the Cuban market to open. The corporate lobbyist earned more than $600,000 while working for the Bacardi Rum Co. to push for the Helms-Burton law, which tightens the embargo on the communist island.

A former Reagan appointee, Reich now heads up the hard-line Center for a Free Cuba. Reich’s critics believe he possesses a near obsession with the homeland he left after Castro took power in 1959. Should he win the post of assistant secretary of state for Western hemispheric affairs, Reich would bolster Jesse Helms, no lover of Fidel Castro.

North Carolina’s ultra-conservative senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wielded his enormous influence to prevent the Clinton administration from making any overtures toward Havana.

The foes in the Cuba-U.S. divide have hunkered down as did the Hatfields and the McCoys, and there’s not much reason to be any more hopeful of the outcome now than in 1961.

Fidel Castro is about to turn 75 years old and has ruled Cuba since 1959. While he has outlived many of his enemies, survived several assassination attempts and outlasted nine U.S. presidents, he cannot rule forever. Here's a look at potential successors to "El commandante."

Raúl Castro

Role: Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces; first vice president of the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers; member of the National Assembly. He's Fidel’s baby brother and will turn 70 in July.

Background: Raul Castro has been Fidel's most trusted confidant and second-in-command since the two came to power in 1959. He is considered a political hard-liner – as are other likely successors – who favors old-style Soviet orthodoxies. He proved flexible and far-sighted, however, when it came to the role of the army in salvaging the country from an economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1990, he downsized the armed forces and concentrated on efficiency while sending his troops and officers to grow food for the hungry nation. He made the army begin to earn money by starting tourism and retail trade companies. He also placed his generals in key ministry positions, taking over the nation’s sugar and fishing industries.

Chances: Age may be against Raúl Castro but he plays an active role domestically, constantly appearing in public.

Carlos Lage

Role: Vice president of the Cuban Council of State; secretary of the Cuban Council of Ministers and its Executive Committee; member of Cuban Communist Party's political Bureau; member of the National Assembly.

Background: A doctor who worked as a pediatrician in Ethiopia, Lage, 50, stepped into the national limelight when the Cuban economy crashed in 1989, and he is considered the architect of recent economic reforms. The public views Lage as a modest man who lives simply. Lage is known as the "economy czar" for supervising much of the day-to-day administration of government. He also has micromanaged the war against the petty corruption that permeates the dollar economy on the island.

Chances: He is the youngest of the front-runners and has the least amount of clout, but time could be on his side.

Ricardo Alarcón

Role: President of the National Assembly of People's Power, or parliament, since 1993; elected to Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party in 1992; prior posts include foreign minister and former U.N. ambassador.

Background: Alarcón, 64, is seen as Castro's close confidante and his point man on relations with the United States. He's popular nationally, although his background is in international affairs. People see him as a brilliant intellectual and a loyal Fidelista. Alarcón is a veteran of the revolutionary underground and an ardent defender of socialism. He's an expert on American history and takes pleasure in sparring with the "enemy." He's fluent in French and English and has been the one person besides Castro who makes himself available to the press.

Chances: Alarcón is touted as Fidel's most likely successor.

Portia Siegelbaum in Havana contributed to this story.

How the Kennedys handled fiasco

Invasion was monumental disaster 3 months into presidency

By Evan Thomas. NEWSWEEK

WASHINGTON — On April 12, 1961, Richard Bissell, the CIA’s chief of covert operations, appeared in Robert Kennedy’s office at the Justice Department to brief him on the most spectacular covert operation ever attempted by the CIA. In a few days, a secret CIA armada planned to land a clandestine army in Cuba to start a revolution. When the 1,300 CIA-trained Cuban exiles stormed ashore at the Bay of Pigs, Bissell predicted, the Cuban people would rise up and overthrow their communist dictator, Fidel Castro.

THE PLAN had been conceived during the Eisenhower administration, which had considered Castro’s revolutionary regime, recently brought into Moscow’s orbit, to be an intolerable threat off the Florida coast. President Kennedy had signed off on the operation, but it was essentially a CIA invention, pushed hardest by the agency’s brilliant and extremely self-confident Richard Bissell.

Bissell, who liked to breezily quantify the odds, told Kennedy that the chances for success were about two out of three. And if the Cuban people did not rise up? Then the invading force would slip into the jungle and become guerrilla fighters.

The attorney general, who had been aware of the planning for the invasion but not deeply involved, did not quiz Bissell closely. That Friday night, RFK tipped off Hugh Sidey, Time-Life’s man, at a party at Hickory Hill. "Hugh," he casually asked, "do you have anybody in Cuba? Big things are about to happen. Better get someone there."

DAMAGE CONTROL

The first invaders landed shortly after midnight on Monday morning, April 17. A few hours later, Bob Kennedy was summoned by his anxious brother. "I don’t think it’s going as well as it should," said the president. Poor communications between the overly secretive CIA and the White House kept JFK from knowing the full extent of the disaster.

Castro’s planes had blown up the secret army’s ammunition ship, and Cuban tanks were already bearing down on the landing beach. On Tuesday morning, [National Security Adviser] McGeorge Bundy reported that the situation was "not a bit good."

Bobby Kennedy began casting about for a way to control the damage. As he had with Governor Vandiver during the 1960 election campaign, he looked for one man who could be counted on to run a back-channel operation, reporting personally to the Kennedys. The hardest charger he could find was Admiral Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke, a World War II hero commanding destroyers in the Pacific, who had become chief of naval operations.

Kennedy found Burke swearing ("Balls") in the Situation Room and drafted him on the spot. Burke was to send U.S. carrier fighters over the invasion beach to gather intelligence, Kennedy instructed. He was to deal directly with the president, no one else.

Burke was taken aback at being commandeered in this way. Contemporaneous notes of his reaction, made by the admiral’s aide, capture Burke’s unease:

Then Bobby Kennedy called me up and said the President is going to rely upon you to advise him in this situation. I said it is late! He needs advice. He said the rest of the people in the room weren’t helpful. [Burke takes a call from the President.]

What do you do. He is bypassing [General Lyman] Lemnitzer, the Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], the SecDef, the SecNav, CIA and the whole works and putting me in charge of the operation. That is a helluva thing. We had better watch this one.

Cdr Wilhide [Burke’s aide]: He must realize what he is doing.

Adm Burke: I told Bobby Kennedy this was bypassing. He said he knew.

HITTING THE FAN

That night, President Kennedy hosted a gala reception for members of Congress. Dressed in white tie and tails, entering the room while the Marine Band played "Mr. Wonderful," Kennedy went to look for his old crony Senator George Smathers.

U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy at the White House in Washington in 1962.

"The shit has hit the fan," the president told Smathers. The Florida senator suggested that it was time to send in the marines. Bobby, who was standing nearby, said, "What? Are you crazy?"

But JFK was desperate to do something. After midnight, the president, still in his formal dress, convened his top advisers. General Lyman Lemnitzer offered that the time had come for the invaders to "go guerrilla" and fade into the mountains. The CIA’s Bissell had to sheepishly admit that the mountains were eighty miles distant, across a swamp, with 20,000 Cuban troops in the way.

Admiral Burke, quietly prodded by RFK, put forth a plan of action: provide the Cuban invaders with an hour of air cover in the morning to try to shoot down Castro’s air force.

Haltingly, clinging to the futile hope of launching a "secret" invasion, President Kennedy agreed. But he went to the absurd precaution of ordering the navy to paint out the U.S. markings on its war planes, as if the Cubans and the rest of the world wouldn’t know who had sent them.

A MONUMENTAL DISASTER

John F. Kennedy had been in office less than three months and he was faced with a failure of monumental proportions. The moods among the president’s men in the Cabinet Room at 3 a.m. ranged from despair to fury. Bobby was among the most emotional. As the president rose from his seat, Robert Kennedy clapped his brother on the shoulders and pleaded, "We’ve got to do something.! They can’t do this to you!"

The president turned away and walked into the Rose Garden. For about an hour, he paced in the wet grass. JFK was in tears when he awoke in his bed a couple of hours later.

Unable to sleep, Robert Kennedy composed a memo to his brother. RFK’s first attempt at formulating foreign policy, the memo is revealing of his best and worst instincts. The document, hastily dictated sometime in the early-morning hours and revised in Kennedy’s near illegible scrawl, is a template for his future thinking.

The United States cannot return to the status quo of "waiting and hoping for good luck," he wrote. "Something forceful and determined must be done." An invasion by U.S. troops was going too far. But some kind of covert action was called for. He suggested staging a provocation: pretend that Cuban MiGs had attacked the Guantanamo, the naval base at the top of Cuba still held by the Americans.

Kennedy was to return to this idea of a staged provocation repeatedly in the years ahead. The provenance of Kennedy’s sleight of hand is unclear: possibly, he was recalling the sinking of the Maine, which gave the United States an excuse to invade Cuba and liberate the Spanish colony at the turn of the century.

Fortunately, the suggestion never caught on with his more prudent brother, and RFK was forced to settle for less dramatic covert operations. Yet with Kennedy’s rash proposal on this bleak April morning came genuine foresight: he predicted that if the United States failed to act, Cuba would very soon become a base for Soviet missiles. His judgment was at least a year ahead of American intelligence experts.

TRAPPED AND ABANDONED

At the Bay of Pigs on Wednesday morning, Burke’s air cover plan failed. Because of a communications snafu, the carrier-based jets arrived an hour late, and the aging B-26 bombers supplied by the CIA to the Cuban exiles were all shot out of the sky. By early that afternoon, the invaders were being driven into the sea, begging for the American warships and planes that rested just over the horizon.

Bobby Kennedy was at his most anguished. Pacing back and forth in the Cabinet Room, he kept repeating, "We’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something." Pausing, he glared at the glum CIA and military officials sitting around the table. "All you bright fellows have gotten the President into this, and if you don’t do something now, my brother will be regarded as a paper tiger by the Russians."

There was little they could do. The American destroyers could not draw close to the beach and risk being fired upon. Trapped and abandoned on the beach, the Cuban freedom fighters fired angrily and futilely at the wakes of the departing American warships.

From ROBERT KENNEDY by Evan Thomas. Copyright (c) 2000 by Evan Thomas. Reprinted by permisson of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

MSNBC. © 2001

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