Monday, June 08, 2009
Reflections by Fidel
A Ridiculous Response To A Defeat
Yesterday in the afternoon, while thoroughly analyzing the speech delivered by Obama at the Muslim University of Cairo, I received some reports published by the news agencies with the weird information that two retired persons more than 70 years old had been arrested on charges of having been spying for the government of Cuba for 30 years. Almost all the important western press agencies – eight of them- disseminated the news.
The persons accused are Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers. It is also said that Walter worked as a specialist in European affairs and that in 1995 -14 years ago- the couple had traveled to Cuba and were received by me. During that time I met with thousands of American citizens for different reasons, either individually or in groups; at times there groups that numbered several hundreds, such as the students who traveled to Cuba on the Semester at Sea cruise ship project, so I could hardly remember any details about a meeting with two persons. Now I realize why George W. Bush prevented the cruise ship students to continue visiting Cuba. They talked with me for many hours, despite the fact that they belonged to high-middle class families.
That accusation points out that the married couple received numerous awards, but at the same time it acknowledges that they never did it for money or personal benefits.
I for one can assert that, as a matter of principle, we have never tortured anyone nor have we paid anyone to obtain any type of information. Those who one way or the other helped to protect the lives of Cuban citizens against terrorist plans and the plots to attempt against the life of their leaders, of the many which were perpetrated by several US administrations, did so moved by the imperatives of their own consciousness and, in my opinion, they deserve every honor in this world.
What is curious is the fact that this news is published 24 hours after the defeat suffered by the US diplomacy at the General Assembly of the OAS.
What is really weird is this: If these persons were under surveillance, because there were some FBI agents who managed to fool them by pretending that they were Cuban spies, why weren’t they arrested before? Why are they arrested now?
Now begins the game of the alleged justice against two persons who have been morally torn to shreds beforehand through accusations that will arrange in advance the behavior of the jury that is to decide whether they are guilty or not guilty. Obviously they will not receive the kind treatment accorded to the terrorists who were recruited by the government of that country to destroy the Cubana airliner with all its passengers inside and to commit horrible crimes against our people. They have also violated the US laws, for many of these despicable terrorist actions were carried out in the US territory.
A whole campaign has already been launched against the married couple; they are portrayed as traitors who could be sanctioned to 35 years imprisonment, a sentence they will have to serve until they are more than 100 years old. The prosecutors will be able to resort to their traditional maneuvers in their quest for political goals.
All of this mess has been created after Obama took office as President of the United States. Perhaps the arrest was influenced not only by the tremendous setback suffered at San Pedro Sula, but also by the news that there have been some contacts between he governments of the United States and Cuba to deal with important issues of common interest.
According to a news report published by ANSA, Walter Kendall Myers declared that he tried to be “very prudent” when picking up or transmitting secrets to Cuba.
Other articles refer to a diary that was found in Gwendolyn’s possession. If all of this were true, I could not but admire her selfless and courageous behavior towards Cuba.
The confrontation with the United States is of an ideological character and has nothing to do with the security of that country.
However, yesterday other three reports from news agencies released information that does have a lot do with the political moral and the security of the United States:
The agency AFP reported that a new debate had taken place on Friday when several Democrat legislators accused the Republican opponents of revealing secret information about torturing techniques, which was made public during a closed door session of the Congress.
The report adds that the Representative from Illinois, Jan Schakowski, pointed out that everybody in the commission understands what a closed door hearing means.
She further stated in a communiqué that the members of this commission acted in an irresponsible manner when they left from the confidential meeting before it ended and went straight ahead to speak to the press.
The news agency AP stated that the federal prosecutors had accused a man for having launched threats against President Barack Obama after he presumably told a bank employee in Utah that his mission was to kill the president.
The local diary Salt Lake Tribune published on Thursday on its website stated that Daniel James Murray had confessed his intentions to a bank cashier on May 27 while he was withdrawing 13 000 dollars from a bank account.
According to the newspaper, no one knows where the accused is. A document submitted yesterday to the justice authorities states that Murray is from New York and that very recently he had traveled to California, Utah, Georgia, Oklahoma, and possibly Texas.
The newspaper further states that the Secret Service claims that Murray has at least 8 registered fire arms, and adds that Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, had told The Associated Press that he won’t make any comments in this regard.
According to the AFP news agency, sensitive US military technologies required to manufacture nuclear weapons can easily be acquired in the United States and exported illegally, as advised by the Congress GAO.
In a recent report published by that institution it is stated that, using a front company and false identities, the GAO was able to buy sensitive products, such as infrared goggles used by the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify targets during night time, electrodes to detonate nuclear weapons, electronic sensors used in the manufacturing of hand-made bombs and used chips from remotely controlled missiles.
Isn’t it so that that immense and sophisticated arsenal that has been made available to the market is placing the world at the verge of a precipice?
Don’t you all find the whole story about Cuban espionage quite ridiculous?
Fidel Castro Ruz
June 6, 2009
3:12 p.m.
Yesterday in the afternoon, while thoroughly analyzing the speech delivered by Obama at the Muslim University of Cairo, I received some reports published by the news agencies with the weird information that two retired persons more than 70 years old had been arrested on charges of having been spying for the government of Cuba for 30 years. Almost all the important western press agencies – eight of them- disseminated the news.
The persons accused are Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers. It is also said that Walter worked as a specialist in European affairs and that in 1995 -14 years ago- the couple had traveled to Cuba and were received by me. During that time I met with thousands of American citizens for different reasons, either individually or in groups; at times there groups that numbered several hundreds, such as the students who traveled to Cuba on the Semester at Sea cruise ship project, so I could hardly remember any details about a meeting with two persons. Now I realize why George W. Bush prevented the cruise ship students to continue visiting Cuba. They talked with me for many hours, despite the fact that they belonged to high-middle class families.
That accusation points out that the married couple received numerous awards, but at the same time it acknowledges that they never did it for money or personal benefits.
I for one can assert that, as a matter of principle, we have never tortured anyone nor have we paid anyone to obtain any type of information. Those who one way or the other helped to protect the lives of Cuban citizens against terrorist plans and the plots to attempt against the life of their leaders, of the many which were perpetrated by several US administrations, did so moved by the imperatives of their own consciousness and, in my opinion, they deserve every honor in this world.
What is curious is the fact that this news is published 24 hours after the defeat suffered by the US diplomacy at the General Assembly of the OAS.
What is really weird is this: If these persons were under surveillance, because there were some FBI agents who managed to fool them by pretending that they were Cuban spies, why weren’t they arrested before? Why are they arrested now?
Now begins the game of the alleged justice against two persons who have been morally torn to shreds beforehand through accusations that will arrange in advance the behavior of the jury that is to decide whether they are guilty or not guilty. Obviously they will not receive the kind treatment accorded to the terrorists who were recruited by the government of that country to destroy the Cubana airliner with all its passengers inside and to commit horrible crimes against our people. They have also violated the US laws, for many of these despicable terrorist actions were carried out in the US territory.
A whole campaign has already been launched against the married couple; they are portrayed as traitors who could be sanctioned to 35 years imprisonment, a sentence they will have to serve until they are more than 100 years old. The prosecutors will be able to resort to their traditional maneuvers in their quest for political goals.
All of this mess has been created after Obama took office as President of the United States. Perhaps the arrest was influenced not only by the tremendous setback suffered at San Pedro Sula, but also by the news that there have been some contacts between he governments of the United States and Cuba to deal with important issues of common interest.
According to a news report published by ANSA, Walter Kendall Myers declared that he tried to be “very prudent” when picking up or transmitting secrets to Cuba.
Other articles refer to a diary that was found in Gwendolyn’s possession. If all of this were true, I could not but admire her selfless and courageous behavior towards Cuba.
The confrontation with the United States is of an ideological character and has nothing to do with the security of that country.
However, yesterday other three reports from news agencies released information that does have a lot do with the political moral and the security of the United States:
The agency AFP reported that a new debate had taken place on Friday when several Democrat legislators accused the Republican opponents of revealing secret information about torturing techniques, which was made public during a closed door session of the Congress.
The report adds that the Representative from Illinois, Jan Schakowski, pointed out that everybody in the commission understands what a closed door hearing means.
She further stated in a communiqué that the members of this commission acted in an irresponsible manner when they left from the confidential meeting before it ended and went straight ahead to speak to the press.
The news agency AP stated that the federal prosecutors had accused a man for having launched threats against President Barack Obama after he presumably told a bank employee in Utah that his mission was to kill the president.
The local diary Salt Lake Tribune published on Thursday on its website stated that Daniel James Murray had confessed his intentions to a bank cashier on May 27 while he was withdrawing 13 000 dollars from a bank account.
According to the newspaper, no one knows where the accused is. A document submitted yesterday to the justice authorities states that Murray is from New York and that very recently he had traveled to California, Utah, Georgia, Oklahoma, and possibly Texas.
The newspaper further states that the Secret Service claims that Murray has at least 8 registered fire arms, and adds that Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, had told The Associated Press that he won’t make any comments in this regard.
According to the AFP news agency, sensitive US military technologies required to manufacture nuclear weapons can easily be acquired in the United States and exported illegally, as advised by the Congress GAO.
In a recent report published by that institution it is stated that, using a front company and false identities, the GAO was able to buy sensitive products, such as infrared goggles used by the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify targets during night time, electrodes to detonate nuclear weapons, electronic sensors used in the manufacturing of hand-made bombs and used chips from remotely controlled missiles.
Isn’t it so that that immense and sophisticated arsenal that has been made available to the market is placing the world at the verge of a precipice?
Don’t you all find the whole story about Cuban espionage quite ridiculous?
Fidel Castro Ruz
June 6, 2009
3:12 p.m.
