Christopher Hitchens

I just heard author and so called “liberal hawk” Christoper Hitchens say, in hawking his book on Thomas Jefferson to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, that Jefferson “unilaterally” waged war against “Islamic terrorists” when he sent the U. S. Navy to invade the Barbary States of North Africa which were sponsoring the infamous Barbary Pirates. The Pirates attacked vessels from nations which hadn’t paid their annual tribute (protection money), stole the cargo, took the crews prisoner and sold them into slavery.

If Hitchen’s assertion that those of the Barbary States were Islamic Terrorists wasn’t enough to call into question his credibility, he bid farewell to Stewart by invoking the very hackneyed “it’s been real.” A sure sign that Hitchen’s obviously expansive opinion of his own intellect is misplaced. I mean, come on, “it’s been real”?

The Barbary pirates and their employers, the heads of the Barbary States who frequently came to power through coups and assassinations, were criminals motivated by financial gain, not terrorists; and Hitchens should certainly know the difference.

Until the U. S. was able to construct a navy to send after the pirates, for many years it paid an annual tribute to the Barbary States to protect the many commercial U. S. vessels that plied the Mediterranean.

An Apartment

I have today received confirmation of my rental of an apartment on the edge of downtown Merida, that I will move into on October 1.

The apartment is two stories, one bedroom, fully furnished (even an iron, ironing board, and microwave, conveniences I have long lived without), air conditioning and adjoining private terrace. The rent is 3,000 pesos per month, about $277. at today’s exchange rate.

Upon my arrival and after settling into the apartment I will go shopping for a bicycle, which I will use for transportation around Merida. For exploring further afield I will rely on public transportation.

I will post pictures of my Merida digs as soon as I arrive.

Pat Robertson - Liar

Reuters reports that televangelist Pat Robertson, in addition to being a demagogic radical who has defiled Christianity by using it for his personal political objectives, is a liar. After explicitly advocating the assassination of Venezuelan President Chavez, Robertson today denied it. See below.

As an aside, how can Reuters seriously refer to Robertson as a "conservative?"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping.

"I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping," Robertson said on his "The 700 Club" television program.

"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted," Robertson added.

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said on Monday of Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics: "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." (emphasis added.)

Read the full story here.

Osgood Brown Conference Center

I was stunned to learn Saturday evening (Aug. 6, 2005), during the grand opening party for the Elma Microtel Inn and Suites, that the wonderful folks of WSCO Petroleum had named the conference center adjacent to the hotel after Mayor Osgood and me. They also named one of the two meeting rooms for each of us.

I am, of course, very grateful for the recognition, particularly from folks for whom I have such great respect.

Elma's Public Works Director Jim Starks also deserves substantial credit for his work in facilitating the successful siting and construction of the hotel project.

Mt. Hood at Dusk

I really like this photo I took at dusk in late April 2002 while driving East through Eastern Oregon.

Hvar

The hillsides throughout the island of Hvar, just off the Dalmatian coast, have been terraced over the millennia by folks clearing rocks so the ground could be farmed. Lavender is grown everywhere and its scent permeates the air. Also grown are grapes from which is made the dark golden, tasty local wine.

Also on Hvar is the oldest theater in Europe, constructed during Shakespeare's lifetime and which has recently been renovated. While visiting the town of Hvar I stayed in what was once a Venetian Count's home. The hotel was about $20. per night and a sumptuous dinner of spaghetti fruti de mar (spaghetti with clams, mussels, and octopus), a salad and 1/2 carafe of local wine was $8. The restaurant owner, an Italian fellow, threw in a complimentary glass of vodka which I assumed was home distilled.

A bus ride across the mountainous island on the 1 1/2 lane road got to be a little exciting on a couple of occasions.

Hvar is good for a two or three day visit. There are other amazingly beautiful nearby islands, easily accessible through the excellent, pervasive ferry service. The Adriatic on the Croatian side is much deeper, thus cleaner, than on the Italian side; and mostly submerged mountains protrude from the sparkling aqua hued sea, creating more than one thousand islands.

More Indignities Heaped Upon the Constitution

Emails from two military prosecutors working at prosecuting Guantanamo Bay detainees indicate that the ‘military tribunals’ are “rigged.”

Let's see. We declare the prisoners enemy combatants, imprison them incommunicado off-shore, deny them legal counsel, torture them; and, after the Supreme Court rules that the prisoners must be provided due process of the law, set up rigged trials. Sounds like something King George would have done.

Read the report by Australian TV news.

Major Robert Preston wrote to his supervisor:

"I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people," Maj Preston wrote.

"Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-arsed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time."

Maj Preston says he cannot continue to work on a process he considers morally, ethically and professionally intolerable.

"I lie awake worrying about this every night," he wrote.

"I find it almost impossible to focus on my part of mission.

"After all, writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer."

Major Preston was transferred out of the Office of Military Commissions less than a month later.

Captain John Carr wrote:

"When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused," he wrote.

"Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged."

Capt Carr says that the prosecutors have been told by the chief prosecutor that the panel sitting in judgment on the cases would be handpicked to ensure convictions.

"You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel," he said.

Read Judge John Coughenour on His Ressam Sentancing

"The message I would hope to convey in today's sentencing is twofold:

"First, that we have the resolve in this country to deal with the subject of terrorism and people who engage in it should be prepared to sacrifice a major portion of their life in confinement.

"Secondly, though, I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution.

"I would suggest that the message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart. We can deal with the threats to our national security without denying the accused fundamental constitutional protections.

"Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effective, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens.

"Most importantly, all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel.

"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism.

"Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won.

"It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will be in recess."

Juxtapose the Judge’s wise counsel, that the rule of Constitutional law must prevail in the adjudication of criminal charges, even for those who are not American citizens; with the government's treatment of Jose Padilla, an American citizen.

Mr. Padilla was arrested in Chicago by federal agents in May, 2002 and has been held as a “enemy combatant” since the Bush administration legal advisors cooked up the notion of “enemy combatants" in order to avoid judicial scrutiny of the charges against those accused. Mr. Padilla, upon his designation as an “enemy combatant” by President Bush two days before his release would have been legally required, has been held in the “brig” of a South Carolina naval facility since June 2002. Padilla has never been charged with a crime and has been denied contact with legal counsel.

Padilla has been accused by the government of conspiring to detonate a “dirty bomb” and of conspiring with, and acting as a scout for, al Queda.

The 5th Amendment to U.S. Constitution provides:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The fact that Mr. Padilla has not been afforded "due process of the law" should be of concern to all of us (not to mention what is going on at Gitmo and the various prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.) It is entirely possible that Jose Padilla is guilty of all manner of heinous crimes. More likely Podilla is nothing more than a malcontent of mediocre intellect with a lengthy rap sheet. None-the-less, so that our Constitutional protections aren’t further eroded, he must be afforded an opportunity to defend himself in court.

Note: Coughenour was appointed to the Federal bench by President Reagan in 1981 and became Chief District Court judge in 1988.

U. S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)

The OFAC, an agency within the U. S. Treasury Department charged with investigating and blocking terrorist financing networks, has assigned five times as many agents to investigate those traveling to Cuba than to tracking bin Laden’s financing networks. As of the end of 2003 the OFAC had 21 agents harassing those traveling to Cuba and only 5 agents looking for bin Laden’s money.

Between 1990 and 2003 the OFAC opened 93 enforcement investigations related to terrorism and since 1994 has collected $9,425 in fines for terrorism financing violations.

During the same period the OFAC opened 10,683 enforcement actions against folks who have traveled to Cuba and collected more than $8 million in fines since 1994.

Again, the U. S. policy toward Cuba is driven by the 27 electoral college votes in Florida and the inordinate influence Cuban expatriates exercise over Florida politics.

Telesur

Sunday was the first day on the air for Telesur, a satellite TV network that broadcasts throughout Latin America. The network is a creation of the governments of Venezuela, the largest shareholder; Cuba; Uruguay; and Brazil and is intended to provide an alternative to the U. S. and European owned satellite networks that now broadcast to Latin America. Brazil created TV Brasil Internacional for similar purposes.

It seems to me that the more sources of information available to any given population, the better. The U. S. government doesn’t agree.

Representative Connie Mack (R-FL) introduced legislation, adopted by Congress, which would establish a TV network to be broadcast to Venezuela, a la the broadcasts that for years have been aimed at Cuba. So U. S. taxpayer money will be used to broadcast a signal that Venezuela may easily jamb, just as has Cuba.

As sovereign nations, the developers of Telesur have an absolute right to establish a broadcasting network; but a nation’s sovereign status is inconsequential to the U. S. power elite. After all, since promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine the U. S. government has treated all Latin American nations as possessions of the U. S.; and, in fact, has either militarily invaded or unleashed covert destabilization efforts in almost every country in Latin American and the Caribbean, some multiple times.

U. S. Health Care is Most Expensive, But is Not the Best

Why, of the developed nations of the world, does the U. S. spend the most per capita for health care and yet lag other nations in basic health indicators, such as life expectancy and child mortality?

I think it’s because the U. S. health care system is based upon the profit motive rather than upon the interests of a healthy population.

London Bombings and Police Shooting

The London police shooting of an innocent “suspect” in the head at point blank range, after wrestling him to the ground, it seems to me, has provided a greater victory for the transit bombers than was provided by the bombings themselves. After all Britons now face summary execution at the hands of plain clothed police authorized to shoot to kill “suspected” suicide bombers; and the British government has announced proposed measures that will erode British civil liberties, some with their roots in the Magna Carta.

A couple of years ago, the London police have confirmed, the police agency changed its policy to authorize police officers pursuing suspected suicide bombers to use their discretion to shoot the suspect in the head (they don’t want to shoot a suspected suicide bomber in the body for he or she may be laden with explosives.)

So the effects of the terror unleashed by the bombers has been multiplied by the British police and government.

Is John Bolton the Source Judith Miller is Protecting

Read the Article Here
My two readers will recall that in the “Judith Miller” post below I wrote:
"There have been reports in recent days about a 2003 State Department memo, prepared weeks before Wilson’s NYT op-ed appeared, which, reportedly, discusses Wilson’s Niger mission and the identity of his wife. So weeks before Plame’s identity was first published, by administration water carrier Robert Novak, any number of State Department officials would have access to the memo identifying Plame. John Bolton and his posse work in the State Department and the outing of Plame as retribution certainly is consistent with Bolton’s style. Of course there are any number of other true believers in the State Department who, like all true believers, can justify their venal means because their end is so right. "

Steve Clemmons reports today that:
“TWN has just learned from a highly placed source -- and in the right place to know -- that John Bolton was a regular source for Judith Miller's New York Times WMD and national security reports.

“The source did not have any knowledge on whether Bolton was one of Miller's sources on the Valerie Plame story she was preparing, but argues that he was a regular source otherwise.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Pig

In announcing that he was canceling a $5 million consultant crontract he had with two body building magazines Schwarzenegger said

"'I have no problem about the money -- but my wife has a problem with that,''' he said, referring to first lady Maria Shriver. "'She was worried that means less diamonds every year or something like that.'''

Ok, let's see a show of hands. Who doesn't think that Schwarzenegger is an absolute pig?

Read the story here in the Mercury News

Californians - you voted for the jerk. Maria - you said "I do." He's your man.

Judith Miller

Anonymous writes in response to my post below:
“Judith Miller? Even if she did tell Rove - not likely in my opinion - where did she get the information? We are missing a name and I expect it yet to surface. I believe it is the unknown name for which Miller refuses to divulge and is in jail. There may be a reason for this, which would become clear once the name is revealed.

”What has to be asked and answered is - "what was the reason for the outing of Plame"? If it was to penalize someone who went against the Bush ideology and plan, it would make sense. But why would Judith Miller do it? Even if she was dumb and blindly accepted the administrations march to war, why now do something that smacks of treason?”

After the supreme court refused to hear her final appeal, New York Time reporter Judith Miller has been jailed for contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to testify before the grand jury investigating the outing of Valarie Plame.

Remember, Judith Miller never published an article identifying Ms. Plame, or otherwise addressing the matter. None-the-less, the information she possesses relative to the outing of Plame is apparently considered to be very important to special counsel Fitzgerald’s investigation, an opinion shared by a number of judges who have reviewed the matter.

Also, keep in mind that the Washington Post reported on July 6 that "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around --….” A similar report ran in the L. A. Times on July 9^th.

Plame was identified by administration officials to punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, who had put the lie to the Niger yellowcake uranium canard and tried repeatedly to inform administration officials that their repeated citations of Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium from Niger were simply wrong. Wilson even attempted to contact National Security Advisor Rice, who ignored his information and kept on lying about the matter.

Finally, after telling his story on background to a number of journalists didn't stop the Bush administration yellowcake lies, Wilson published his now famous July, 2003 NYT op-ed, which elicited the venality of the Rovian smear machine. Certainly, the outing was retribution meant to punish Wilson; but it was also intended to warn off others who weren’t toeing the party line.

I think someone in the administration, other than Rove or “Scooter” Libby, Chaney’s number one hatchet man, provided Judith Miller with Plame’s identity and I think it is that person for whom Miller has gone to jail. I think Miller then passed the information around to other administration officials.

There have been reports in recent days about a 2003 State Department memo, prepared weeks before Wilson’s NYT op-ed appeared, which, reportedly, discusses Wilson’s Niger mission and the identity of his wife. So weeks before Plame’s identity was first published, by administration water carrier Robert Novak, any number of State Department officials would have access to the memo identifying Plame. John Bolton and his posse work in the State Department and the outing of Plame as retribution certainly is consistent with Bolton’s style. Of course there are any number of other true believers in the State Department who, like all true believers, can justify their venal means because their end is so right.

So I think that some ideologue in the State Department informed Judith Miller of Plame’s identity; and Miller, being close to the neo-cons, dutifully “carried” the information around to other administration officials. Remember, it was Miller, in her often breathless reports, who passed on as fact every lie she was told by Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi exile neo-con darling, about Iraqi WMDs and terrorist connections. It was Miller who shamelessly lent the credence of the NYT to the lies upon which Bush sold the conquering of Iraq to the U. S. public.

Miller would have no reason to go to jail to protect Rove, since, of course, he’s already been fingered. So Miller is protecting someone else, not based upon her journalistic ethic, I suspect; but, rather, to conceal one or more felonies, perhaps which she as well as others have committed.

Finally, remember that various judges, who have instructed Miller to name her source, have commented that there is ample evidence to indicate that serious crimes have been committed. So I think that this case is more than about some venal hack publicly identifying Plame; and that, perhaps, charges of conspiracy and perjury are under consideration.

Read Time magazine’s timeline of the Plame Name Game

Update: Read a great Justin Raimondo piece on the subject

Update 7/19/05: From Bloomberg News Service 7/18/05 Read the entire article

This points toward a potential problem for Rove in the direction of Fitzgerald's investigation. It now has expanded beyond its original mission -- to determine if the 1982 law was violated -- to encompass whether any White House officials, including Rove and Fleischer, have testified falsely about the case or obstructed justice by trying to cover up their involvement in the leak, according to people familiar with the case who cite a pattern of questioning by Fitzgerald.

In addition, there is strong reason to believe that Fitzgerald is hunting big game, according to several legal experts. They say that is demonstrated by the fact that he has done something that no federal prosecutor has done in 30 years: send a reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, to jail for refusing to divulge with whom she spoke about the Wilson-Plame case.

``You wouldn't expect him to go to these lengths unless he thought he had something serious to look at,'' said Randall Eliason, the former chief of the public corruption section at the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington. ``You don't compel reporters to testify or jail reporters unless you have a pretty good reason.''

Tatel's Opinion

That ``pretty good reason'' was highlighted by U.S. Appellate Judge David Tatel in his Feb. 15 opinion concurring that Miller and Cooper must testify in the Plame case.

Tatel noted that the vast majority of the states, as well as the Justice Department, ``would require us to protect reporters' sources as a matter of federal common law were the leak at issue either less harmful or more newsworthy.''

However, he added, ``just as attorney-client communications made for the purpose of getting advice for the commission of a fraud or crime serve no public interest and receive no privilege, neither should courts protect sources whose leaks harm national security while providing minimal benefit to public debate.''

-- With reporting by Laurie Asseo in Washington. Editor: Fireman, Kraus

Further update: 7/19/05 The Washington Post reorts that Fitzgerald may pusue criminal contempt charge against Miller

Karl Rove Fingered as Source in Plame Name Game

Newsweek reported, this past weekend, that it had obtained copies of email messages from Time reporter Mathew Cooper that indicated that President Bush’s political guru and chief hatchet man, Karl Rove, perhaps in a felonious act, revealed to him that former ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife was a CIA “operative”, as she was characterized in a column by Robert Novak. It is a felony, subject to several statutory stipulations, to reveal the identity of intelligence “operatives”.

As you will recall, during the Bush administration’s sale of the Iraq war to the U. S. public, various administration officials cited reports of Iraqi attempts to secure uranium from Niger as one justification for the invasion. The allegation was based upon documents provided to an Italian journalist, who provided them to U. S. officials. The Italian journalist and U. S. officials promptly determined that the documents were forgeries containing a number of obvious defects.

During this time the CIA contacted former ambassador and career diplomat Joseph Wilson, who had been stationed in Africa; and, according to Wilson, asked him to travel to Niger to investigate the allegation of Iraqi attempts to secure uranium there. Mr. Wilson has indicated that he came under the impression that Vice-president Cheney had asked for the investigation of the Niger documents. Mr. Wilson traveled to Niger and in short order determined that there was no evidence of Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium there. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also weighed in with the judgment that Niger’s uranium mining and marketing program was in full compliance with IAEA requirements.

After Bush administration officials, including Director of National Security Rice, continued to cite Iraqi attempts to secure Niger uranium as justification for war Mr. Wilson published a commentary in the New York Times putting the lie to the Administration’s Niger uranium story.

Subsequent to the appearance of Mr. Wilson’s commentary, columnist Robert Novak reported that he had been informed by "senior administration officials" that Wilson’s wife, Valarie Plame, was a CIA “operative”; and that it was she who had suggested to CIA officials that her husband be retained to investigate the Niger uranium report. Subsequent to the Novak column a number of other journalists reported the story.

During the ensuing two years the White House has repeatedly and categorically, denied that Karl Rove, or two other suspected White House officials (“Scooter” Libby and Cheney), ever revealed Plame’s identity.

What the Cooper emails indicate, is that the Bush administration has been lying to the public about the whole Plame affair. I’m shocked.

This story has many interesting facets, from the seeming obliviousness of the President; to the absolute, and well recognized, venality of Karl Rove; and what of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who has been jailed for contempt in refusing to reveal a source for information of the Plame affair, even though she never published a story of the matter?

I will follow up in a future post with a discussion of Miller’s role in this drama, and her role in selling the Iraq adventure to the U.S. public. I think that eventually we will learn that it was Miller who revealed Plame’s identity to Rove et al and Rove passed it on to his media lapdogs.

For now, the Bush administration has been caught in another lie, this one used in an attempt to cover up the potentially felonious act of the President's top advisor. Will Bush be held to account for the lying? Will Karl Rove be "frog marched" out of the White House, as Joseph Wilson predicted two years ago? Will Judith Miller be identified as she who outed Ms. Plame? Stay tuned.

The media, having been repeatedly lied to by the White House, seems to have awakened from its years long slumber by the smell of blood in the water; and I don't expect it will let the story go.

Scum Buckets of FOX News

London subways and busses are bombed, upwards of 50 people are killed, hundreds wounded, and what does FOX news have to say about it.

Here's Brit Hume the top FOX newsperson (propagandist.)
"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy."
Fox News's Brit Hume, 7/7/05

And here's FOX talking hairdo Brian Kilmeade.
"And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened."

This is truly nauseating stuff. What's more nauseating is that millions of folks take FOX News seriously and eagerly lap up the crap it spews.

Cheney on Club Gitmo

Cheney, as the chief of transition, infested the Bush administration with the Neo-fascists (they call themselves Neo-conservatives) who have been dying to invade Iraq since the early 1990s. Go to the Project for the New American Century website and read all about it.

I should also note that almost none of the New Amercian Centurions, who are so anxious to send our brave military personnel into harm's way on dubious, poorly planned missions, ever served their country. In fact, it has been reported that professional military personnel refer to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Libby, Leith, and etc. as "chickenhawks".


June 24, 2005

Cheney Says Detainees Are Well Treated

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Agence France-Presse) - Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that prisoners at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had everything they could possibly want and were well fed and well treated as they lived in the "tropics."

Mr. Cheney dismissed calls to close the facility, which holds terrorism suspects. "They got a brand new facility down at Guantánamo," Mr. Cheney said in an interview with CNN. "We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well treated down there."

"They're living in the tropics," he added. "They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want. There isn't any other nation in the world that would treat people who were determined to kill Americans the way we're treating these people."

Mr. Cheney categorized the prisoners as "terrorists," "bomb makers" and "facilitators of terror" who would "go back to trying to kill Americans" if freed.

Former President Bill Clinton has become the most prominent critic of the base in Cuba. "It is time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused," Mr. Clinton said in an interview published in Monday's editions of The Financial Times.

Read the Story Here

The Perfect Picture

Before leaving for Cuba, on my first trip back since 1970, I told Bill, one of my traveling companions who looks like Hemingway and whom we called Hemingway throughout our trip, that a perfect picture of our trip would be that of an old woman smoking a cigar.

Bill and I were sitting on a bench in the main Santiago plaza when up walked the perfect picture. Her cigar is most definitely no prop.

Did you know that the U.S. government permits huge agricultural corporations to sell products to Cuba while the State Department Office of Foreign Asset Control devotes greatly more staff to pursuing those traveling to Cuba than it does to investigating terrorist financing networks?

Dirys Adams Wilson - "Oh, my God"

I met Dirys Adams Wilson, known to her friends a Indira, in Santiago, Cuba. She was looking for someone with whom to practice her English and who would buy her a chicken and french fry dinner.

Indira would laugh, slap her knee and declare "Oh, my God." She was delightful company who provided me with lots of information about Santiago, one of Cuba's most beautiful Cities.

The cigar was just a prop for the picture, as she doesn't smoke.