Aid for Cuba dissidents doomed to fail, critics say
By Frank Davies And Nancy San Martin. fdavies@herald.com. Posted at 7:28 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 17, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Eleven senators introduced on Wednesday a bill to assist dissidents in Cuba, but -- in a foreshadowing of what is expected to be an intense debate on Capitol Hill -- the proposal drew immediate fire from congressional critics and others involved with Cuba policy.
The bill, dubbed the Cuban Solidarity Act, is the brainchild of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has the backing of Florida's two senators. It would funnel $100 million in U.S. aid to opposition groups and individuals in Cuba.
Helms has been looking for ways to get humanitarian aid and other assistance to the island. The program is modeled after efforts to assist opposition groups in Poland and other Eastern European nations before the fall of the Soviet Union.
The measure has the strong support of the Cuban American National Foundation, which sees the initiative as a way to shift the focus from controversial sanctions on Cuba to a human rights issue with broad appeal -- and a chance to put pressure on the Castro government.
"I ask senators on both sides of the embargo issue to support this bill on its merits,'' Helms said in a statement. "We can undermine Castro's isolation and oppression of the Cuban people by finding bold, proactive and creative programs to help those working for change on the island.''
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a cosponsor of the bill, said it was "in the best traditions of American foreign policy -- to support the brave souls fighting for freedom.''
Lieberman, whose ties to the foundation go back to his first Senate campaign in 1988, called the initiative "a new, historic chapter'' in dealing with Cuba.
But there were opponents and skeptics in Congress. Sen. Christopher Dodd, also a Connecticut Democrat, said the assistance effort was misguided and doomed to fail.
"Wasting taxpayer dollars on monies that Fidel Castro will make sure never get into the hands of average Cubans when we could be doing something truly meaningful to foster democracy is unfortunate,'' Dodd said in a statement. "The issue is how to best help the Cuban people, and the
best way to do that is to end the embargo and the travel ban.''
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., raised his eyebrows when he heard the $100 million price tag: "That's a lot -- my question is, how will this get to the Cuban people? Cuba is not Poland.''
The approach taken by the Reagan administration in Poland during the 1980s, critics contend, bears no comparison to Cuba. Even prominent dissidents on the island have been reluctant to support an outright overthrow, preferring peaceful transition rather than a U.S.-backed ouster of the Castro
regime.
Cuban officials quickly criticized and belittled the Helms-Lieberman bill.
"For more than 40 years, they have been trying to undermine Cuban society and we have resisted,'' said Luis Fernandez, spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. "Nobody has taken into account how much American dollars already has been spent on these kinds of efforts
without any results. It's absurd.''
Sally Grooms Cowal, president of the newly formed Cuba Policy Foundation, also criticized the proposed legislation: "They can pass this and feel good and nothing will happen. This is like TV Martí, which nobody in Cuba watches.''
But backers of the bill insist that monetary help and communications equipment could get through, and money and food would help dissidents, activists and their families survive.
"Castro cannot exert total control as he once did -- these people need help and we can do more to get it to them,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, president of the foundation. He said the foundation on its own has sent "millions of dollars'' to Cubans.
The Senate bill and a similar proposal in the House by Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, are also designed to encourage the Bush administration to be more proactive on Cuba policy.
A White House spokesman said Wednesday that the administration had no position yet on the legislation.
On Friday, President Bush is holding a Cuban Independence Day event at the White House and Díaz-Balart and other Cuban Americans are hoping Bush will speak out on Cuban issues.
Supporters of a dialogue with Cuba, such as Sean Garcia, executive director of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, said the bill could lead to reprisals against dissidents.
"This type of program is going to hurt the people we are trying to help,'' Garcia said.
The Cuban government has demonstrated its lack of tolerance for such activities with the arrest this year of two prominent Czech visitors for meeting with members of the Cuban opposition.
But Helms said the argument that direct aid will hurt dissidents ignores the fact that "Castro is already tormenting these people. Let Castro do his worst. Let us do our best.''
Americans already are pumping millions of dollars into the Cuban economy. Although it is hard to get a concrete figure, an estimated $800 million a year reach Cuban hands through cash remittances from relatives in the United States.
The Senate bill has influential bipartisan support. Along with Lieberman, Al Gore's former running mate, the bill has the backing of three other Democrats -- Bob Graham and Bill Nelson of Florida, and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, and six other Republicans: George Allen of Virginia, Rick
Santorum of Pennsylvania, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Larry Craig of Idaho, Bob Smith of New Hampshire and John Ensign of Nevada.
Díaz-Balart's House bill, which sets no dollar amount for aid, has 97 cosponsors, including top GOP leaders and several Florida Democrats: Carrie Meek, Peter Deutsch and Robert Wexler.
Herald staff writer Carol Rosenberg contributed to this report.
Cuba data from radar questioned in spy trial
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com. Posted at 7:28 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 16, 2001.
Cuban and U.S. radar data from the Feb. 24, 1996, Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down differ so dramatically that the Cuban data must be fraudulent, a U.S. radar expert testified in the Cuban spy trial Tuesday.
The Cuban radar data "does not accurately depict the movement of the planes on that day,'' said Jeffrey Richardson, chief of developmental engineering for the Air Force's 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron, or RADES, at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
Asked by prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller if he believed the Cuban radar was fraudulent, Richardson said, "I believe it is.''
Richardson's assessment could influence the weight that jurors give to defense witnesses, who testified earlier in the trial that Cuban radar placed the air assaults in Cuban airspace.
Investigators for the U.S. and the U.N.'s civil aviation branch concluded otherwise, both finding that the shoot-down occurred in international airspace. Four Brothers fliers died in the assaults on two Cessnas.
Gerardo Hernández, one of five men on trial, is charged with murder conspiracy in connection with the shoot-down.
Placing the shoot-down in Cuban airspace is central to his defense theory: that Cuba was justified in protecting its territory from repeated Brothers incursions.
All five co-defendants are charged with spying for Cuba.
On Monday, Richardson showed jurors multicolored tracks of Cuban and U.S. radar data from the shoot-down, which he said reflected "drastic differences.''
The two sets of data had different originating and terminating points and followed different tracks.
The Cuban data showed pilots Mario de la Peña's and Jose Basulto's flight paths as further south and east, closer to the Cuban coast, than the U.S. data.
The Cuban data for pilot Carlos Costa's flight "does not resemble in any form the U.S. data,'' Richardson said, showing an isolated track that, according to Heck Miller, put the shoot-down site 23.11 nautical miles from the U.S. estimate.
Radar calibration problems sometimes account for inaccuracies of one-half to one mile, Richardson said.
His agency evaluates radar for the U.S. military and the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Have you ever seen an inaccuracy in the nature of 20 nautical miles?'' Heck Miller asked him Tuesday. Richardson said no.
In 1996, investigators for the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, said the radar data provided by Cuban and U.S. officials differed so vastly that they could not be reconciled. Instead, ICAO used the known positions of two boats whose crews witnessed the attacks to locate
the incidents at 10.3 to 11.5 miles outside Cuba's 12-mile limit.
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