CNS News. January
21, 2002
Cuban exile group denounces Interpol Chief's visit to Cuba
By Jim Burns. CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer.
(CNSNews.com) - An anti-Castro group is denouncing a recent meeting between
the head of Interpol, the international police force, and Cuban intelligence
officials.
Ronald Noble, the Interpol chief, spent four days in Cuba last week.
According to Radio Havana, he said he was pleased with Cuba's crime-fighting
efforts and promised to help the Castro government battle terrorism and crime by
connecting Cuba to a global police network.
Cuban American National Foundation executive vice president Dennis Hays was
not happy with Noble's remarks.
"During his time in Havana he could not help but trip over literally
hundreds of terrorists, fugitives, criminals and drug smugglers, all of whom
find safe harbor in Castro's Cuba. Enlisting Castro in the fight against
terrorism is like deputizing John Gotti in the fight against organized crime,"
said Hays in a statement.
Noble told reporters at a Havana press conference that Interpol would
provide Cuba with the hardware, software and other equipment necessary to
connect it to a global database.
Once connected, Cuba will be invited to join the 179 countries that are
members of the police agency, sharing intelligence on criminal activities.
Hays said that CANF would be contacting the Bush administration and members
of Congress to convey its "vehement opposition to any technology transfers
to, or intelligence sharing with, the Castro regime."
Hays said Noble should have pushed the Castro government to condemn Osama
bin Laden and al Qaeda for the September attacks, renounce the use of terrorism,
and sever ties to terrorist groups and states such as the Colombian rebels,
Iraq, Iran and Libya.
Noble also criticized the United States for not signing a formal cooperation
agreement with Cuba to combat drug trafficking in the Caribbean. Not having such
an agreement only "gives drug traffickers an advantage they shouldn't have,"
Noble said.
The Castro government believes that agreements on drug interdiction efforts
have been doomed by the lobbying efforts of right-wing Cuban-Americans in
southern Florida.
Castro's brother says Cuba would return escaped prisoners to US
By Jim Burns. CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer.
(CNSNews.com) - Raul Castro, the Cuban armed forces chief and brother of
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, says if any Taliban or al Qaeda prisoners manage to
escape from the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba would send them straight back
to American custody.
"If anyone is lucky enough to escape, I doubt he would get through the
minefields. But if anyone gets out alive, we would send them back to the
Americans. Though I doubt anyone can escape with the measures they (the
Americans) are taking," Raul Castro told reporters at an impromtu news
conference on a hill overlooking Guantanamo.
The Guanatanmo Base, located in the southeastern part of Cuba, covers about
45 square miles. Some 2,900 military personnel, civilian employees and
dependents are based there. Cuba ceded the base to the United States in 1903,
following the Spanish-American war.
It contains an outdoor movie theater, bowling alleys, a McDonald's and a
mini-mall, yet it is extremely isolated. Visitors can reach it only under strict
military escort and with prior permission from the Pentagon.
On rare occasions, Cuban defectors get there by swimming through dangerous
waters or by traversing a Cuban minefield.
Meanwhile, two of the latest detainees to arrive at Guantanamo had to be
sedated during their flight there, according to U.S. Navy officials at the Cuban
base.
The men were among a group of 34 detainees that were transferred from
Afghanistan to the base on Sunday. Officials said they had to be drugged after
they began shouting and thrashing in their aircraft seats.
U.S. Marine Major Stephen Cox told BBC radio that he defended the use of
drugs to sedate the detainees.
"I don't think that I would characterize it as torture. I would
characterize it as an appropriate security measure," said Cox.
At present, an estimated 144 prisoners are now being held at Guantanamo.
U.S. military officials have plans to build a permanent camp that's designed
to hold over 1,000 prisoners.
Another lawmaker shakes Castro's hand
By Jim Burns. Senior Staff Writer. January 18, 2002
www.CNSNews.com - (CNSNews.com) - The list of U.S. lawmakers lining up to
shake Fidel Castro's hand grew longer this week, with Sen. Maria Cantwell
(D-Wash.) the latest to pay her respects to the communist leader.
Cantwell went to Cuba as part of a Women's Center for Democracy and Politics
delegation, organized by the University of Washington.
"Sen. Cantwell...helped to organize meetings on agricultural and trade
interests, particularly opening up Washington state to Cuban agricultural
products," said Jennifer Crider, a spokesperson for Cantwell in an
interview with CNSNews.com.
In her discussions with Castro, Cantwell specifically promoted the export of
peas, lentils, apples, and other agricultural products grown in her state.
"A trade relationship between Washington state and Cuba is a win-win
proposition," Cantwell said. "Selling agricultural products to Cuba is
common-sense policy. It provides Cubans the food they need and Washington state
farmers new markets for their products."
Tim McGreevy, executive director of the Washington Idaho Pea and Lentil
Commission, followed-up on Cantwell's meeting with Castro with a letter to Pedro
Alvarez, Director of Cuba's ALIMPORT agency.
"We look forward to working with the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture and
ALIMPORT in arranging the delivery of USA peas, lentils, and garbanzos to Cuba,"
McGreevy wrote.
Cantwell and her group also presented Castro with Washington state
agricultural products and a Major League Baseball signed by Edgar Martinez.
Reports from Havana said that after the meeting, Castro himself accompanied
the Senator and her delegation to Jose Marti Airport, which is something he
doesn't always do, even with visiting heads of state.
At least two other congressional delegations were in Cuba earlier this
month.
One, a House delegation led by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), included
Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Vic Snyder of (D-Ark.), Bill Clay (D-Mo.), Collin
Peterson (D-Minn.), and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.). Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri
Republican, was also a part of the House delegation.
Sens. Arlen (R-Pa.) Specter and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) also spent time in
Cuba talking with Castro.
Despite a recent push for warmer relations between the two countries - a
development eyed with concern by many Cuban-Americans - President Bush stands
solidly in support of the U.S. economic embargo imposed against Cuba when Castro
seized power in the 1959 revolution. | 
