Monday, March 26, 2007

Cuba Says Adios to Foreign Reporters

Cuba Says Adios to Foreign Reporters
By Humberto Fontova
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 26, 2007

The Castro Corporation -- also known as Cuba -- handed out some walking
papers last month. Gary Marx of The Chicago Tribune, Stephen Gibbs of
the BBC, and César González-Calero of the Mexican newspaper El Universal
were all served with pink slips announcing that their services were no
longer needed.

Their contributions in the past were certainly noted, but lately their
performances had fallen short of the code expected of all Castro
Corporation employees, or "associates" as current corporate lingo
prefers. Their lack of "objectivity" was the official cause for
termination. Apparently no severance packages were offered. These
employees were guilty of dereliction and backsliding. Rather than
"team-players," they'd become malcontents and whiners. That is, they did
not uncritically report the regime's propaganda line.

These things happen in the rough and tumble world of business. The
Castro Corporation, after all, has investors like any other and they
expect a return on their investment. Any corporate associates without
their shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, and the properly
gung-ho attitude has no place on the Castro "team" and should seek
employment elsewhere.

The Castro regime is every bit a corporation in the sense as the
al-Qaeda and the Cosa Nostra are corporations. "Michael!" gushed Hyman
Roth to Mikey Corleone. "We're bigger than U.S. Steel." More relevant
to this issue was Mikey's inquiry of family consiglieri Tom Hagen when
he was planning to off police Chief Mc Cluskey and wanted the proper
media spin. "We've got reporters on the payroll, right Tom?" And Tom
nodded in quick agreement.

Regarding reporters on the payroll, the Castro corporation--going on
half a century now-- could teach much to the Corleone family.

Perhaps the stellar records of other Castro Corporation team players
might have been showcased to these miscreant employees as role-models.
Take Ed Murrow: "That's a cute puppy, Fidelito!" Or the New York Times'
Herbert Matthews: Anything and everything he wrote. Or take Barbara
Walters : [Castro's] personal magnetism is still powerful, his presence
is still commanding. Cuba has very high literacy, and you [Castro] have
brought great health to your country." Here's NBC's Andrea Mitchell:
"Castro is old-fashioned, courtly – even paternal…a thoroughly
fascinating figure."

And here's CNN's Lucia Newman on a Cuban "election": "No dubious
campaign spending here. No mud slinging, and even less doubt about the
outcome in elections where there is no competition — a system President
Castro boasts is the most democratic and cleanest in the world."

No hint of tongue protruding into cheek during Newman's report. Instead
her eyes looked like a child's on Christmas morning. "In Cuba we will
be given total freedom to do what we want and to work without any
censorship." She stressed while accepting the CNN assignment in 1997.
(For the record, last year Lucia Newman left CNN and went to work for Al
Jazeera.)

Here's Peter Jennings: "Castro has delivered the most to those who had
the least. Medical care was once for the privileged few. Today it is
available to every Cuban and it is free. Some of Cuba's health care is
world class."

Geraldo Rivera is not to be outdone, even by Steven Speilberg: "[Castro]
is a towering historic figure. Meeting and interviewing him was one of
the most memorable experiences of a young reporter's life." More
memorable even than excavating Al Capone's tomb, Mr Rivera?

All the above, you may be sure, have been acclaimed with many kudus
during the Castro's annual meeting and awards ceremony.

Similarly, Castro Corporation's recent "downsizing" did not affect the
Associated Press or Reuters. No point in closing down multinational
subsidiaries of the Castro Corporation who still produce and who still
perform with a the winning attitude of CC associate, as enshrined in the
Castro Corporation's mission statement.

Take the AP's Vanessa Arrington: " safe streets, a rich and accessible
cultural life, a leisurely lifestyle to enjoy with family and
friends....For all its flaws, life in Castro's Cuba has its comforts,
and unknown alternatives are not automatically more attractive." Or
consider the AP's Anita Snow just last week reporting on Castro's
campaign to get five convicted Cuban spies released form U.S. prisons:
"While the so-called 'Wasp Network' spy ring obtained no U.S. secrets,
federal prosecutors argued for stiff sentences."

In fact, the FBI's affidavit lists these Castro agents' activities.
Among them:

* Gathering intelligence against the Boca Chica Air Naval Station
in Key West, the McDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the headquarters of
the U.S. Southern Command in Homestead, Florida.
* Compiling the names, home addresses and medical files of the U.S.
Southern Command's top officers, along with those of hundreds of
officers stationed at Boca Chica.
* Infiltrating the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command.
* Sending letter bombs to Cuban-Americans.
* Spying on McDill Air Force Base, the U.S. armed forces'
worldwide headquarters for fighting "low-intensity" conflicts.
* Locating entry points into Florida for smuggling explosive material.

At the bail hearings for the Cuba Five, Assistant U.S. District Attorney
Carolyn Heck Miller said the urgency to act on the case was because "the
defendant has made allusions to the prospect of sabotage against
buildings and airplanes in the Southern District of Florida."

You will search the AP report in vain for any mention of this. But Snow
does tug at our heartstrings with the pleadings of one of these spies'
daughters from Cuba: "She thinks it's great to see her dad on the
billboards, but she'd rather see her dad at home. That's the logical
place for her dad to be."

The Castro regime -- with firing-squads, prison beatings and starvings,
among other methods -- has killed 102,000 Cubans. Virtually every
Cuban-American family has had relatives kidnapped and held-ransom. Anita
Snow could pick from thousands upon thousands of daughters whose fathers
were murdered by firing squads and whose fathers and grandfathers served
the longest terms of political incarceration and torture in modern
history. Instead, the Associated Press showcased the bogus bleatings
from a spokesperson for a murderous Stalinist regime.

Such a gung-ho attitude for the Castro Corporation certainly demands a
promotion. The AP's position in Cuba now is secure -- indeed, it has tenure.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27527

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