With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff.
NewsMax.com. Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001
A private U.S. delegation led by banker David Rockefeller and including 19
leading U.S. bankers, business people, academics and former politicians met with
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during a visit to Havana.
The delegation, composed of members of the globalist Council on Foreign
Relations (CFR), often described by critics as a conspiratorial group covertly
attempting to create and dominate the so-called new world order, praised Castro
for his alleged knowledge and ability and called for improving relations with
Cuba’s communist government.
Ignoring the fact that the U.S. Department of State and international human
rights organizations have consistently labeled Cuba’s communist regime as
an egregious violator of the most basic human rights, delegation member and CFR
president Peter Peterson told a press conference that he had been impressed with
the levels of education, health care and scientific research on the island,
along with the government’s commitment to young people.
Peterson’s view of Cuba was at issue with a report issued by the U.S.
State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on Feb. 26,
1999, which stated that Cuba’s government "continued systematically to
violate fundamental civil and political rights of its citizens. ... There were
several credible reports of death due to excessive use of force by the police.
Members of the security forces and prison officials continued to beat and
otherwise abuse detainees and prisoners."
Peterson, who lavished praise on Castro’s alleged "computer’s
level of knowledge with regard to facts related to the national situation,"
told reporters he also met with writers, intellectuals, business people and
academics during his visit to Cuba and said he was taking away quite a complete
picture of the country’s situation.
That picture, however, was not entirely complete - Peterson did not meet
with any Cuban dissidents, most of whom are in Castro’s prisons.
Other Americans in the CFR delegation included William Rogers, a former U.S.
assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs; academic Mark Falcoff;
and James Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
The visit came on the heels of a CFR report issued last year that called for
improvement of relations between the United States and Cuba and noted that while
relations between the two nations are complex, there are encouraging signs that
they could improve.
Established in 1921 as an outgrowth of Britain’s Royal Institute of
International Affairs, the CFR has more than 3,500 members including top U.S.
political figures, academics and businessmen. Citing its vast influence over
U.S. foreign policy, critics note that every U.S. secretary of state since at
least the 1930s has been a CFR member.
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