Tag: Cuba

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The talks failed with Iran and then Donny says they will restart in a couple of days and now we know that he is sending more ground troops to the region on stand-by.

The US is sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East and is considering restarting the bombing campaign against Iran or launching ground operations in the country, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed US officials.

The report said that the forces include 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush and its accompanying warships. Notably, the Bush traveled around southern Africa on its way to the region instead of going through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, the typical route of US warships, signaling the US is concerned the Houthis in Yemen could close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

About 4,200 other US troops, including thousands of Marines, are heading to the region from the Pacific aboard the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group. The Post said they are expected to reach the Middle East by the end of April. Once both forces arrive, the US will have more than 60,000 troops in the region.

The buildup and the US blockade of Iranian ports are framed as an effort to get Iran to agree to US demands for a diplomatic deal. But according to President Trump, the US is continuing to demand that Iran make a commitment to never again enrich uranium for civilian purposes, a condition that’s seen as a non-starter and will likely lead to a renewal of the bombing campaign if the US sticks to it.

The current ceasefire between the US and Iran will expire on April 22 if it’s not extended. Other reports have said that President Trump has considered launching “limited” strikes in Iran to get Tehran to capitulate, but any renewed bombing campaign would mean a return to full-blown war.

Concerning possible ground operations, the Post report said that Trump administration officials have “discussed everything from launching a complex Special Operations mission to extract Iranian nuclear material, to landing Marines on coastal areas and islands to protect the strait, to seizing Kharg Island, an Iranian export facility in the Persian Gulf.”

(antiwar.com)

Is this a bluff?

Will Americans die because of Israel?

Now flash forward to the other side of the world…..a small island nation of Cuba.

Donny and that little idiot Marco have been threatening Cuba for a couple of months and now word comes that there may be more to their jaw slapping than BS….

The Pentagon has increased its preparations for a possible attack on Cuba, according to media reports, as President Trump has made clear that war against the island nation may be his next military intervention.

Zeteo first reported the ramped-up plans for war with Cuba, saying that in recent days, “officials at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the US government were quietly given a new directive that came straight from the Trump White House. The message: ramp up your preparations for possible military operations against Cuba.”

USA Today affirmed the Zeteo scoop, reporting that military planning for war with Cuba has increased in case President Trump orders an attack on the country.

Trump may be eyeing an operation similar to the attack on Venezuela that resulted in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as Zeteo reported that the administration is discussing plans to “attack and kidnap Cuban leaders.”

Since the attack on Venezuela, which killed at least 83 people, including four civilians, the US has been dealing with Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, who was sworn in as acting president. The US has eased sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to control its oil industry and oil experts, and has cut off Cuba from Venezuelan oil, part of a ramped-up blockade that’s caused a devastating humanitarian crisis in the country.

The US has been engaged in some negotiations with Cuba, but it’s unclear what sort of deal would satisfy the US, as the main driver of the policy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, would likely not accept an arrangement that keeps the current government in power.

On Monday, President Trump told USA Today that the US “may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” referencing the US-Israeli conflict against Iran. The president has previously said that he wants to have the “honor” of “taking Cuba” and that he feels that he “can do anything I want with it.”

In the face of the pressure and threats from the US, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said he will not step down and has vowed that Cuba is ready to fight.

“An invasion of Cuba would have costs. … It would affect the security of Cuba, the United States and of the region,” Diaz-Canel told NBC News in a recent interview. “If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, ‘Dying for the homeland is to live.’”

(aqntiwar.com)

This wrinkled old bastard and his idiotic cohorts are determined to set this world on fire.

Are you people happy now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Onto Cuba

Both Donny Do-Little and his lap dog Little Marco have been thumping their chest for months about Cuba.

After 60+ years of sanctions and embargoes the damage has starting effecting the island like never before and no that Donny smells blood in the water he has started circling with his usual bravado.

Amid reports that the US is pressuring Havana to remove its president from power, President Trump is renewing his talk of taking control of the island nation. “I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump told reporters on Monday, reports the Guardian. “Whether I free it, take it—I think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.” The comments came as Cuba grapples with a nationwide blackout amid tightened US oil restrictions, per the BBC.

On Monday evening, meanwhile, NBC News reported a notable shift in Cuban policy: The government will allow Cuban nationals living abroad, including in the US, to invest in the nation’s private sector and to own businesses. “Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies” and “also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,” Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, deputy prime minister, told the outlet.

Washington has ramped up pressure on Cuba since cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments and threatening penalties on other suppliers, moves that have strained the country’s outdated power system. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, 65, has said he is open to talks under terms of “equality and respect.” The Guardian describes him as a “key figurehead,” noting that the Communist regime that has run Cuba for decades would remain in place should he be ousted.

For me the terminology “Taking” Cuba has an ominous tone.

Then the statement of “commercial relationship with US companies” smacks of exploitation that they suffered in the 40s and 50s.

But what will be Donny’s plan for the expansion into Cuba?

An aspiring emperor needs an empire. Trump seems to have settled on the Western Hemisphere as his imperial domain, as laid out in his National Security Strategy. The liquidation of regimes that Trump regards as adversaries began with Venezuela, and now Cuba is in the crosshairs.

Trump’s brazen claim that he can do anything he wants with Cuba is typical of his audacious bluster, but this time it cannot be discounted. He has Cuba over the proverbial barrel… and literally barrels of oil. After cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments, Trump threatened to sanction any other country sending oil to Cuba, imposing a complete oil blockade on the petroleum-dependent island.

A few months back a small group of invaders tried to get into Cuba and try and start a counterrevolution….did not end well…..now an official has made it known that the island will prepare for US aggression.

Cuba’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday that the nation’s military is preparing for “the possibility of military aggression” from the U.S. and that it would be “naive” for Cuba’s leaders to ignore the possibility of conflict.

“We would be naive” not to consider the possibility of conflict, he added, “looking at what’s happening around the world.”

Fernández de Cossío said the country’s leaders “truly hope that it doesn’t occur. We don’t see why it would have to occur, and we find no justification whatsoever.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have been escalating following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of that nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who had a close relationship with Cuba’s leadership.

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/cuba/cuba-foreign-minister-military-aggression-us-oil-trump-rubio-rcna264568

Will Cuba be the next target for the Donny ‘peace presidency’?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Cuba Is Next!

I was wondering when the idiots would get around to this…..it started with Lindsey Graham making the statement earlier this month….

“Cuba’s next. They’re gonna fall,” Graham said of the revolutionary government in Havana that’s outlasted a dozen American presidents, despite decades of US-led assassination attempts, sabotage, and subversion. “This communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered.”

The remarks by Graham – who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief – come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.

“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.

This, from a president who said he deplored regime change and vowed “no new wars” while running for reelection.

(antiwar.com)

Now Donny has made it official by stating that Cuba would be next on his hit list….

The remarks by Graham – who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief – come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.

“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.

This, from a president who said he deplored regime change and vowed “no new wars” while running for reelection.

“What’s happening with Cuba is amazing. And we think that, we want to finish this one [Iran] first,” Trump said. “But that will be just a question of time.”

Trump and his allies have frequently threatened Havana, ratcheting up economic pressure with the aim of overthrowing the country’s communist government.

After the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Trump stated that the country’s supply of oil to Cuba, an essential economic lifeline for the island that has been under heavy US sanctions for years, would be totally cut off.

Trump has embraced the threat of overwhelming military force to advance his priorities around the world, including in Latin America, where he has previously said that Cuba looks “ready to fall” in the near future.

(aje.com)

Apparently Donny just cannot help himself.

Seems we are always looking for the low hanging fruit….it is safer that way.

Well Cuba would make a great haven for all the billionaires to hide the ill gotten profits.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bay Of Pigs

I had intended to post this on the anniversary of the attack….but life got in the way as it has often done and it got pushed back and almost forgotten.

As this month comes to a close I would like to reach back in history and write about the US led invasion of Cuba in April of 1961….the invasion force was rather small in the beginning because the US had ruled out using US  troops….A full-scale invasion would have incurred huge US casualties: 40-50,000 according to Department of Defense estimates. There was also public opinion to be considered. Since the introduction of the ‘good neighbor’ policy, US armed intervention was of potential political harm and had been formally ruled out under such commitments as the Charter of the Organization of American States. The US had made political capital during 1956 out of Soviet armed intervention in Hungary and the British-French-Israeli action in Suez. Any involvement in Cuba must be subject to ‘plausible deniability’, with the White House especially untainted by any knowledge or involvement.

Instead the powers decided to use a small force of 1400 men….

The first part of the plan was to destroy Castro’s tiny air force, making it impossible for his military to resist the invaders. On April 15, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles took off from Nicaragua in a squadron of American B-26 bombers, painted to look like stolen Cuban planes, and conducted a strike against Cuban airfields.

However, it turned out that Castro and his advisers knew about the raid and had moved his planes out of harm’s way. Frustrated, Kennedy began to suspect that the plan the CIA had promised would be “both clandestine and successful” might in fact be “too large to be clandestine and too small to be successful.”

Such requirements left Pluto in operational limbo. In the first place, air cover was deemed essential for the invading force to secure the beach-heads; yet control of the skies could not be achieved by the rebels alone. To solve this problem the original landing-site was changed from a point close to the Escambray mountains (good guerrilla territory) to the Bay of Pigs, more difficult terrain for an amphibious operation. Three main groups of rebels existed: insurgents in Cuba killing and sabotaging, but ignored by the CIA; the invasion forces being trained by the CIA mainly in Guatemala, but also within the United States; and the anti-Castro leadership, which divided into two antagonistic groups: the original Batistianos and those who began as Fidelistas, but lost faith in the revolution. The most influential of this disparate trio was the divided leadership, but precisely because of these divisions, their susceptibility to leaks and the unsavory backgrounds of many, such men were cut out of CIA decision-making.

read on….

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/bay-pigs-invasion

This would be invasion lasted about 24 hours before it broke down and was Kennedy’s first international failure.

For more reading this is an excellent account….

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56808455

And the US has been interfering in international situations ever since.

You would think we could learn from that mistake….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–11Aug17

Can You Hear That?

Ever read a news story that made you stop and think?

The one that caught my attention was the story of hearing loss by some American diplomats and some of Canada as well…..a fascinating thing indeed….

A duty station in Cuba could be hazardous to your hearing…..

The Canadian government said Thursday that at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba has been treated for hearing loss, following disclosures that a group of American diplomats in Havana suffered the same. US officials believe they were caused by an advanced sonic device, per the AP. Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Brianne Maxwell said Canadian officials “are aware of unusual symptoms affecting Canadian and US diplomatic personnel and their families in Havana” and were working to figure out the cause. In the fall of 2016, US diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation. Several were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of President Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Some of the US diplomats’ symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, US officials concluded that the diplomats had been attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23. The Cuban government said that “Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception.”

Investigations on-going but how will they determine what the cause is or who is behind this attack?

Time to start the weekend….hope all my readers have a wonderful couple of days….chuq

The Next Cuban Revolution?

Fidel is dead….and the world is on pins and needles….what to do…what to do?

There has been wold speculation at what the world can expect……some are calling for more sanctions to force change…..others think another revolution would be the answer…..and even others are just drooling over the possibility of return to Cuba to continue the rape of the country that was terminated when Fidel cam to power…..

But what lies ahead for Cuba?

Fidel Castro’s death raises the stakes in the debate over the future of the Cuban state and economy.

Fidel Castro’s death over the weekend produced cries of lamentation in Havana and jubilation in Miami. He had been declining for years; long gone was the legendary stamina that carried him through four-hour public speeches, all-night bull sessions, and endless provocations. On the few occasions he was wheeled out for public appearances in recent years, he seemed crotchety and frail.

For example, last March, as millions of Cubans met U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba with curiosity, Fidel took to the state newspaper, Granma, to complain. Rather than considering Obama’s overtures as a new opportunity, he replayed an ancient litany of Cuban grievances, from Spain’s practice of slavery and the Americans’ Bay of Pigs invasion to vague accusations of Obama being racist. “We do not need the empire to give us anything,” he concluded.

Source: The Next Cuban Revolution? | Foreign Affairs

The answer my friend lies blowing in the wind…..(Dylan be damn)…..I’m not looking for much rational thought coming out of Washington on this issue….but I could be wrong….

 

Is The Revolution Dead?

Sunday and I open with some news….breaking news……

I awoke yesterday with the news of the death of Fidel Castro……(Do I need to explain who he is?)

Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism, and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his half-century rule, has died at age 90. With a shaking voice, his younger brother, Raul Castro, announced on state television that his brother died at 10:29pm on Friday night, reports AP. Castro’s reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling US trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to Raul.

The BBC sums up the life of Castro thusly: “His supporters praised him as a man who had given Cuba back to the people. But his opponents accused him of brutally suppressing opposition.” Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico, and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades, he served as an inspiration and source of support to revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa. “Socialism or death” remained Castro’s rallying cry even as Western-style democracy swept the globe and other communist regimes in China and Vietnam embraced capitalism, leaving this island of 11 million people an economically crippled Marxist curiosity.

Typical of the MSM they immediately went to Little Havana to get the reaction to the news….and guess what?  The people were celebrating the death of Fidel and then the media ask what it meant to Cuba…..

What the Hell do they know?

Most have been Americanized after 50+ years of living the American dream.  Maybe a better source for those questions would be to ask them of the people that stay in Cuba during the days of Fidel.

Most Americans have negative impression of Fidel’s Cuba….basically because the media told you what to think.  Fidel may have well been a prick but that is for the Cuban people to say not the American media.

If you truly want to know what the death means to the Cuban people then ask the people of Cuba….not some Cuban-American, that has NEVER set foot on Cuban soil, hanging on South Beach eating black beans and watching thongs go by.

Bay Of Pigs: A History

Are you old enough to remember the the Bay Of Pigs?

If so then…it was an attempt by the US government to overthrow the Castro regime on Cuba……..

Many Cubans welcomed Fidel Castro’s 1959 overthrow of the dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista, yet the new order on the island just about 100 miles from the United States made American officials nervous. Batista had been a corrupt and repressive dictator, but he was considered to be pro-American and was an ally to U.S. companies. At that time, American corporations and wealthy individuals owned almost half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and the majority of its cattle ranches, mines and utilities

In May 1960, Castro established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the United States responded by prohibiting the importation of Cuban sugar. To prevent the Cuban economy from collapsing–sugar exports to the United States comprised 80 percent of the country’s total–the USSR agreed to buy the sugar.

In January 1961, the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and stepped up its preparations for an invasion. Some State Department and other advisors to the new American president, John F. Kennedy, maintained that Castro posed no real threat to America, but the new president believed that masterminding the Cuban leader’s removal would show Russia, China and skeptical Americans that he was serious about winning the Cold War.

Lots has been said and written about this policy failure by the US…..but until recently the “real” story has never been told mostly we have had suppositions….but the CIA has released the history of what actually happened…..

The CIA today released the long-contested Volume V of its official history of the Bay of Pigs invasion, which it had successfully concealed until now by claiming that it was a “draft” and could be withheld from the public under the FOIA’s “deliberative process” privilege. The National Security Archive fought the agency for years in court to release the historically significant volume, only to have the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2014 uphold the CIA’s overly-broad interpretation of the “deliberative process” privilege. Special credit for today’s release goes to the champions of the 2016 FOIA amendments, which set a 25-year sunset for the exemption:  Senators John Cornyn, Patrick Leahy, and Chuck Grassley, and Representatives Jason Chaffetz, Elijah Cummings, and Darrell Issa.

Source: CIA Releases Controversial Bay of Pigs History

Until now the story about the aftermath has been an “official” BS story……

Although not considered as significant a U.S. foreign policy failure and embarrassment as the Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation Mongoose failed to achieve its most important goals. Meanwhile, throughout the spring and summer of 1962, U.S. intelligence reports indicated expanded arms shipments from the Soviet Union to Cuba. Amidst growing concern in Washington over whether the Soviet weapons being introduced into Cuba included ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, in October 1962 the Kennedy administration suspended Operation Mongoose in the face of this far more serious threat—one that resulted in the most dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

As always I am willing to force feed history to my readers….you are welcome….

Cuba: What To Do, What To Do?

The surprise of 2014 was the announcement that the US would resume relations with the island nation of Cuba.  Of course, this news sent the GOP into a batcrap crazy rage…..they babbled….they whined….and they warned…….and as usual they threatened..

There is a minor battle going on between Rubio and Paul……it is silly theatrics…….but I am sure that there are those that will be very vocal on all this……

So I ask Congress….whatcha going to do?

They will do whatever it takes…at least that is their promise……a hollow promise at best…….why?

Not likely, according to experts, who say that President Obama has considerable leeway to curb the embargo against Cuba unilaterally, and Congress has limited options as far as stopping him.
All they can do is make lots of noise, which they excel at, and in the end…..cry in their beer.

FLASH! Cuba-US Enter Into An Age Of Cooperation

News has been coming at the public at light speed…..Jeb wants to run……attack in Pakistan……attack in Sydney….and today the big news was that it is looking like the US and Cuba will formalize relations……

The embargo put into place in 1961 may soon be a thing of the past…..but what would those relations look like?

Newser) – With the release of American Alan Gross, the beleaguered relationship between the US and Cuba is poised to undergo major changes. The two countries are preparing to normalize their diplomatic relations, which were severed in January 1961, the Wall Street Journal reports, and the US plans to re-establish its embassy in Havana. “The president understood the time was right to attempt a new approach, both because of the beginnings of changes in Cuba and because of the impediment this was causing for our regional policy,” an administration official tells CNN. Both President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are to address the changes at noon today. Among them:

  • The US will remove a range of restrictions on travel and transferring money to Cuba. It will also review Cuba’s inclusion on its terrorism list and allow telecommunications equipment to be exported to the country.
  • Cuba will release 53 political prisoners. It will also boost its citizens’ Internet access and allow US debit and credit cards to be used in the country.
  • Good news for aficionados of Cuban cigars, as per the AP: American travelers will now be able to return with up to $100 worth of alcohol or tobacco (and $400 worth of goods total).
  • The two countries will start collaborating on issues like counternarcotics, the environment, and human trafficking.

Finally we can move on from spat we had 60 years ago……there are much more important things to consider than cigars….