An Open Letter to George W. Bush
Last Friday, October 6th 2006, on the 30th Anniversary of the bombing of Cubana Air Flight 455 (see below for more details) the Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five wrote and delivered a signed letter to the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, addressed to the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
The letter follows :
6th October, 2006
Mr. George W. Bush President
United States of America
Mr. President:
Re: Fighting the War on Terror.
As you, more than many, will certainly appreciate, the world we all live in today is one where persons aligned with one political or religious ideology and opposed to another seemingly think nothing of killing and terrorizing innocent civilians in the name of a cause. We have listened to you as you have vowed to “hunt down the terrorists” and “defend civilians.” Such words, if spoken genuinely, are ones that are to be applauded. However, what happens if the terrorists are not targeting only “American lives”, what happens if the terrorists are targeting Cubans?
US official documents that have recently been declassified show that, between October 1960 and April 1961, the CIA smuggled 75 tons of explosives into Cuba during 30 clandestine air operations, and infiltrated 45 tons of weapons and explosives during 31 sea incursions. Also during that short seven-month time span, the CIA carried out 110 attacks with dynamite, planted 200 bombs, derailed six trains and burned 150 factories and 800 plantations.
Between 1959 and 1997, the United States carried out 5,780 terrorist actions against Cuba – 804 of them considered as terrorist attacks of significant magnitude, including 78 bombings against the civilian population that caused thousands of casualties.
Terrorist attacks against Cuba have cost 3,478 lives and have left 2,099 people permanently disabled. Between 1959 and 2003, there were 61 hijackings of planes or boats. Between 1961 and 1996, there were 58 attacks from the sea against 67 economic targets and the populace.
The CIA has directed and supported over 4,000 individuals in 299 paramilitary groups. They are responsible for 549 murders and thousands of people wounded.
In 1971, after a biological attack, half a million pigs had to be killed to prevent the spreading of swine fever.
On October 6th, 1976 a Cubana airline en route to Cuba from Barbados was exploded killing 73 persons including the entire Cuban fencing team returning from the CAC games, and 11 Guyanese citizens, members of Caricom.
In 1981, the introduction of dengue fever caused 344,203 victims killing 158 of whom 101 were children. On July 6th, 1982, 11,400 cases were registered in one day alone.
Most of these aggressions were prepared in Florida by the CIA-trained and financed extreme right wing of Cuban origin.
Now, languishing in American Federal Prisons, under sentences of four life terms plus 75 years, are five young patriotic Cubans they are: Gerardo Hernandez Nordela, Ramon Labanino Salazar, Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, Fernando Gonzalez Llort and Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, whose only crime was fighting terrorism by Cuban-American terrorists against their homeland, Cuba.
We the undersigned are the officers of a newly formed body called and known as "Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five." This organization is not anti-American. We stand for justice, equality, human rights, liberty and for the right of every citizen of every nation on this planet to be loyal to his country and defend it at all cost, barring that of taking innocent life — even to making the supreme sacrifice in the defense of his/her country - just like you, Mr. President, would expect every U.S. citizen to be loyal and defend their country at all cost, when called upon to do so.
Today, on the 30th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Cuban bound airline over the skies of Barabdos, we are joining hands with thousands across the globe in signaling our displeasure with, and objection to the blatant miscarriage of justice in an American court carried out against five innocent citizens of another country and the arrogant display of power by officials of the U.S. Judiciary in showing utter contempt and disregard for decisions handed down by the 11th District Court of Appeal in this case. The abuse of not only Constitutional Rights of these innocent people, but of their Human Rights by locking them away in solitary confinement for seventeen miserable months without access to family, friends or their lawyers, is completely inhumane. They have now been detained for upwards of eight years without seeing their wives and many of their loved ones. Both Amnesty International and the UN Working Body on Arbitrary Detention have written your government in protest of these conditions. What is especially disturbing is that while these five men are being held under such extreme conditions, terrorists like Luis Posada Carilles, who has admitted responsibility to many acts of terror against Cuba including the 1976 Cubana airline bombing, awaits his pending release in a minimum-security facility where he claims his biggest problem is his “lack of access to Cuban sweets.”
We ask you today, Mr. President, to consider the true meaning of terrorism. To understand that the global “war on terror” that you champion can not be served, but rather only undermined, by selectively targeting only some terrorists while allowing others to remain unpunished, or by punishing those who seek to bring them to justice.
We ask you to consider these five men that were fighting terrorism and are now being held for life sentences with no ability to see their wives and other loved ones.
We urge you to strengthen the cause of the “war on terror”, to improve America’s image in the world and erase the double standards. Free these five men that were fighting terror and send a clear signal to the world that no targeting of civilian life, American, Cuban, Bahamian or any other nationality, can ever be tolerated under any circumstance.
Free the Cuban Five.
Sincerely,
Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five
The letter follows :
6th October, 2006
Mr. George W. Bush President
United States of America
Mr. President:
Re: Fighting the War on Terror.
As you, more than many, will certainly appreciate, the world we all live in today is one where persons aligned with one political or religious ideology and opposed to another seemingly think nothing of killing and terrorizing innocent civilians in the name of a cause. We have listened to you as you have vowed to “hunt down the terrorists” and “defend civilians.” Such words, if spoken genuinely, are ones that are to be applauded. However, what happens if the terrorists are not targeting only “American lives”, what happens if the terrorists are targeting Cubans?
US official documents that have recently been declassified show that, between October 1960 and April 1961, the CIA smuggled 75 tons of explosives into Cuba during 30 clandestine air operations, and infiltrated 45 tons of weapons and explosives during 31 sea incursions. Also during that short seven-month time span, the CIA carried out 110 attacks with dynamite, planted 200 bombs, derailed six trains and burned 150 factories and 800 plantations.
Between 1959 and 1997, the United States carried out 5,780 terrorist actions against Cuba – 804 of them considered as terrorist attacks of significant magnitude, including 78 bombings against the civilian population that caused thousands of casualties.
Terrorist attacks against Cuba have cost 3,478 lives and have left 2,099 people permanently disabled. Between 1959 and 2003, there were 61 hijackings of planes or boats. Between 1961 and 1996, there were 58 attacks from the sea against 67 economic targets and the populace.
The CIA has directed and supported over 4,000 individuals in 299 paramilitary groups. They are responsible for 549 murders and thousands of people wounded.
In 1971, after a biological attack, half a million pigs had to be killed to prevent the spreading of swine fever.
On October 6th, 1976 a Cubana airline en route to Cuba from Barbados was exploded killing 73 persons including the entire Cuban fencing team returning from the CAC games, and 11 Guyanese citizens, members of Caricom.
In 1981, the introduction of dengue fever caused 344,203 victims killing 158 of whom 101 were children. On July 6th, 1982, 11,400 cases were registered in one day alone.
Most of these aggressions were prepared in Florida by the CIA-trained and financed extreme right wing of Cuban origin.
Now, languishing in American Federal Prisons, under sentences of four life terms plus 75 years, are five young patriotic Cubans they are: Gerardo Hernandez Nordela, Ramon Labanino Salazar, Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, Fernando Gonzalez Llort and Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, whose only crime was fighting terrorism by Cuban-American terrorists against their homeland, Cuba.
We the undersigned are the officers of a newly formed body called and known as "Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five." This organization is not anti-American. We stand for justice, equality, human rights, liberty and for the right of every citizen of every nation on this planet to be loyal to his country and defend it at all cost, barring that of taking innocent life — even to making the supreme sacrifice in the defense of his/her country - just like you, Mr. President, would expect every U.S. citizen to be loyal and defend their country at all cost, when called upon to do so.
Today, on the 30th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Cuban bound airline over the skies of Barabdos, we are joining hands with thousands across the globe in signaling our displeasure with, and objection to the blatant miscarriage of justice in an American court carried out against five innocent citizens of another country and the arrogant display of power by officials of the U.S. Judiciary in showing utter contempt and disregard for decisions handed down by the 11th District Court of Appeal in this case. The abuse of not only Constitutional Rights of these innocent people, but of their Human Rights by locking them away in solitary confinement for seventeen miserable months without access to family, friends or their lawyers, is completely inhumane. They have now been detained for upwards of eight years without seeing their wives and many of their loved ones. Both Amnesty International and the UN Working Body on Arbitrary Detention have written your government in protest of these conditions. What is especially disturbing is that while these five men are being held under such extreme conditions, terrorists like Luis Posada Carilles, who has admitted responsibility to many acts of terror against Cuba including the 1976 Cubana airline bombing, awaits his pending release in a minimum-security facility where he claims his biggest problem is his “lack of access to Cuban sweets.”
We ask you today, Mr. President, to consider the true meaning of terrorism. To understand that the global “war on terror” that you champion can not be served, but rather only undermined, by selectively targeting only some terrorists while allowing others to remain unpunished, or by punishing those who seek to bring them to justice.
We ask you to consider these five men that were fighting terrorism and are now being held for life sentences with no ability to see their wives and other loved ones.
We urge you to strengthen the cause of the “war on terror”, to improve America’s image in the world and erase the double standards. Free these five men that were fighting terror and send a clear signal to the world that no targeting of civilian life, American, Cuban, Bahamian or any other nationality, can ever be tolerated under any circumstance.
Free the Cuban Five.
Sincerely,
Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five
posted by teekoe at 8:56 AM
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