We deplore the Cuban government’s announcement that Cuban prosecutors intend to seek a 20-year sentence for Alan Gross. Mr. Gross is a dedicated international development worker. His imprisonment without charges for more than a year is contrary to all international human rights obligations. … He should be home with his family now. (Gloria Berbena, U.S. spokesperson)
And by the way, Ms. Berbena, Bradley Manning is a little pissed too.
Mr. Gross works for the Agency for International Development, an US operation that supposedly promotes democracy throughout the world. According to Victor Marchetti, former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and John D. Marks, a former officer of the United States Department of State, AID is a CIA front. See the book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence – as far back as 1974 AID was outed, but still it carries on as if no one knows anything.
Because, frankly, here in the land of the free, our journalists are trained not to know such things. They are very, very good at not knowing the things they should not know.
Is anyone here in the land of the free looking into the specific charges concerning Mr. Gross’s activities in Cuba? Not likely – it’s all behind a curtain. All we are allowed to know is that Gross is facing 20 years in prison. Propaganda, our deep indoctrination, does the rest of the work: because it is Cuba, we auto-pen the blanks, and imagine trumped up charges, show trials, etc.
But back to basics – no American anywhere has the right to complain about abuse of prisoners or absence of habeas corpus. It’s an offense to simple decency to accuse others of the very crimes we commit. But beyond that, it’s Orwellian mind magic that when it happens right out in the open like this, people are not aware of it
Piece of Mindful 
Except:
Cuba to seek 20-year sentence against detained American
<a href=http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/05/2051673/havana-vs-gross-moves-toward-a.html#ixzz1D8YL9wLe</Read more.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
Searching far and wide …
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Your dumbest comment since the days of “clever negotiating.” even dumber than the time you listed one of Obama’s accomplishments as “promising to end the Bush tax cuts.”
Now, s4b, do some googling and find someone who has detailed the exact nature of the charges. “Spying” is not enough.
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I have told you for years that Cuba should be more like us, and now you finally agree.
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As a prisoner in Cuba at least you’ll know he’ll never die working out on a elliptical trainer.
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You might, if Cuba were allowed to import things like that. Remember the embargo? Or is your mind so well-trained that you do not know things you are not supposed to know?
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You might, if Cubans were allowed to engage in economic activity that would generate the wealth that would allow them to buy things like that.
Fixed it for you.
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You sound as if the USA were the only nation in the world that made anything, and that the USA had a ring of destroyers and aircraft carriers around Cuba.
Elliptical trainers, as well as just about everything else made in the world, is available to Cuba. The trouble is, Cuba is broke, and its credit is shot. The nation is another casualty of socialism.
Give up your Cuban embargo fantasy, Trotsky. You have been leaning on that crutch for so long everyone knows you are a faker.
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Please, know something before your fingers hit the keys. Read about the embargo, and Helms Burton, and report back.
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Sorry, but pulling out your PhD in Cuban trade issues does not cut it, Trotsky. You know as well as I do everyone trades with Cuba, even the USA. Indeed, a listing of nations that trade with Cuba would be so long your blog would crash.
Cuba is just another poverty–stricken, broken-down communist state, as was the Soviet Union before it went capitalist, as was China before it went capitalist, etc., etc.
You are going to have to find a better excuse than the US embargo against Cuba to explain for Cuba’s desperate straits. Or you could give up your leftist fantasies and see reality: Cuba is a failed communist state.
When the Cuban commies are gone, or they compensate American citizens for all the property they stole, then the embargo can be lifted, but not a day sooner.
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Ironic isn’t it.
There isn’t a day that passes that we’re told all our manufactures have moved away and everything is made in China. China, which as we speak has no restrictions on shipping goods to Castro.
Provided their check is good.
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Whatever, Swede. Yeah, much to our chagrin, other countries can trade with Cuba.
Now, and I assume you’ll vamoose after this, do me a favor:
Justify the embargo.
Don’t tell me it’s about democracy or human rights, as the latest round with Egypt is strong evidence (as if we needed it) that the US cares about those things.
Justify the embargo, Swede.
See ya, then.
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They can’t afford us or what we provide.
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That’s it?
I don’t know about their economy or what their potential is, realized or unrealized. I don’t know how much trade they are denied due to the embargo. (I do know that they are only allowed to deal in cash with the US. Credit is not allowed.)
Neither you nor the two guys who comment below know anymore than I, and you know much less than you say.
So stop telling me things that you do not know. OK? You don’t know how effective the embargo is, you have never even heard of Helms-Burton. You cannot justify the embargo. You are talking through your ideological assholes.
There is only one way for you or anyone to be consistent in ideology: Leave them alone. Let them run their country as they please. If what we are doing here is such a good idea, they’ll steal the idea.
If you’re worried about freedom and democracy, start at the top of the alphabet and work your way down – it will take you a while to get to Cuba.
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Your response here, “I don’t know…you don’t know…”, sounds kind of trollish.
You are trolling your own blog. An internet first.
If what we are doing here is such a good idea, they’ll steal the idea.
Excuse me? Have you ever heard of immigration? Hello? How many immigrate here from Cuba versus Americans who emigrate to Cuba? Isn’t the ratio something like infinity? Mariel boat lift, anyone?
Joke from that era: Fidel and Brezhnev are walking around Havana when they see a huge line snaking down the street. They get in the back of the line so they don’t miss out on whatever. People notice them and move on, until the duo are at the front. They ask the person at the desk what the line was for: “this was a line to get visas to leave the country, but when everyone saw that you two were leaving, they thought they would give it another shot.”
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Justify the embargo
Who here ever implied the embargo is justified?
The point is that the embargo is easily gotten around, and it is just an excuse for Cuba’s various failures.
The embargo lives on partly from the bureaucratic inertia of keeping a bargaining chip in the bag for the day we can negotiate the usual treaty with Cuba, i.e they won’t launder money, we can get some compensation for confiscated property (it’s a face thing, you won’t understand.) etc. Also a political sop to south Florida voting interests.
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“Justify the embargo.”
There you go again, Trotsky. Your argument that Cuba is a social and economic wasteland because of the US embargo is destroyed, so you retreat to a fuzzy response like “Justify the embargo.”
How about the pukes owe us millions for the property they stole, they can’t speak English, and they smell funny? How is that for justifying the embargo?
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