What Now For Cuba

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Cuba’s economic freedom score is 29.6, making its economy one of the world’s least free. Its overall score is 0.9 point higher than last year, with a slight deterioration in monetary freedom outweighed by improvements in three of the 10 economic freedoms, including trade freedom, fiscal freedom, and freedom from corruption. Cuba is ranked least free of 29 countries in the South and Central America/Caribbean region, and its overall score is significantly lower than the regional average.

In recent years, the government has made measured concessions to encourage more entrepreneurship and private-sector growth. Communist Party–endorsed reforms to cut government payrolls and expand approved professions have not been broad enough to ensure any meaningful advancement in overall economic freedom. The state continues to interfere in most economic activity. Price controls are pervasive, and the two-tiered exchange rate regime continues to distort prices.

Despite membership in the World Trade Organization, the economy remains relatively cut off from the international marketplace. Only state enterprises are allowed to engage in international trade and investment. The state uses an oppressive regulatory environment to suppress entrepreneurial activity and controls most means of production. Shallow credit markets impede access to credit for business activities.

Cuba is demanding the return of Guantanamo Base, stating it is illegally occupied. The military base goes far beyond being a detention center since 1907. It should be noted that many Cubans not only work at Base Guantanamo but live there as well, under the American flag.

U.S. Cuba Policy: Where Things Stand Now

WSJ:

President Barack Obama announced in December that the U.S. was moving to normalize relations with Cuba after over 50 years of Cold War enmity. That moment was both symbolic and practical, as he took steps to begin removing restrictions on travel and trade. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama announced that the U.S. will formally restore diplomatic ties and reopen its embassy in Havana.

What exactly has changed since December and where are we now? The Wall Street Journal explains:

Can I travel to Cuba now?

That depends. Traveling to Cuba from the U.S. as a tourist is still illegal. But 12 categories of people, including close relatives of Cubans, academics, journalists, people participating in educational programs, and people on humanitarian or religious missions can go to the island provided they say their trip falls within one of those categories. Airlines can fly to Cuba without obtaining special licenses, but flights to Cuba are charters—not yet commercial flights. Several U.S. ferry companies have received licenses to operate routes between ports in Florida and Cuba, but the proposed ferry services must receive Havana’s approval.

Can U.S. companies do business there?

Mr. Obama also took steps to loosen financial restrictions, but most trade remains illegal and will require congressional action before changing. Mr. Obama eased some rules to permit increased exports of U.S. telecommunications and other technological goods to the island, as well as building materials. Mr. Obama also made it easier for exports of agricultural and medical supplies and goods to Cuba’s nascent private sector.

U.S. banks are allowed to establish correspondent accounts in Cuba, and U.S. citizens now can use credit and debit cards there. But activity under Mr. Obama’s measures are slow-going, in part due to a lack of clarity about the regulations. U.S. officials have said they’re likely to be updated as more people try to use them.

What have been the big milestones so far?

The first big moments, of course, were the announcements by Mr. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December that the former Cold War foes would renew relations, the culmination of 18 months of secret talks.

Then, in January, loosened travel and trade regulations went into effect, and the U.S. and Cuba began negotiating reopening embassies and restoring diplomatic ties.

In April, Messrs. Obama and Castro met at the Summit of the Americas, the first substantive discussion between U.S. and Cuban presidents since 1956.

In May, the Obama administration lifted Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. That was a critical step toward restoring diplomatic relations, but didn’t have much practical effect, as Congressional sanctions still ban Cuba from arms exports and sales, from receiving U.S. economic assistance and from conducting most trade.

Wednesday’s announcement that the two countries are formally restoring diplomatic ties was another big step.

The next milestones will be reopening ceremonies for embassies in both countries. Cuba announced it would host its event in Washington on July 20 and its delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. The U.S. hasn’t set a date for its flag raising, but said Secretary of State John Kerry will be there to do the honors.

Now what?

The U.S. and Cuba will begin lots of bilateral talks and efforts to cooperate in areas including law enforcement, development, human rights, counterterrorism and antinarcotics. Talks will also begin on property claims and the Cuban government’s claims against the U.S. The U.S. has also said Cuba has agreed to talks about extraditing fugitives, though it’s unclear what will happen with some of the higher-profile ones, including JoAnne Chesimard, now known as Assata Shakur, who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973. Cuba granted her asylum after she escaped from prison in 1979.

The spotlight moves to Congress now, where lawmakers must act to lift bans on travel and trade. Church groups, agricultural groups, business groups and others are supportive of lifting the ban. The White House is counting on these independent stakeholders to pressure Congress to act. It’s likely to be a long battle, with supporters of normalization taking a piecemeal approach to chipping away at the embargo.

The White House backs that strategy, and a move to lift the travel ban is likely to be the first step in the process.

 

Amazing Grace for the Wounded Warriors, 4th of July Tribute

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NY Daily News:

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plays the piano in an instrumental version of “Amazing Grace” released in time for the Fourth of July.

Proceeds from the duet will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, according to a blog post announcing the video on the faith-based advice network FamilyShare.

The prominent Bush Administration foreign policy advisor tickles the keys alongside violinist Jenny Oaks Baker in front of images of American soldiers in a video performance of the Christian hymn posted to YouTube on Thursday.

Her duet follows President Obama’s crooning performance of the tune during his eulogy for one of the victims of the Charleston shootings last Friday.

Rice and Baker’s arrangement, which has also been released as a single on iTunes, will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, according to a blog post announcing the performance on the faith-based advice network FamilyShare.

Baker and Rice play the composition in front of rolling images of servicemembers and the country's history that appear against the walls of a church-like building.

“Amazing Grace has always held a special place in my heart,” Rice, 60, wrote on her Facebook page. “It seemed only appropriate to release the video in conjunction with the 4th of July weekend as we recognize the blessings we have in this country and the sacrifices of our servicemen and women for our freedom.”

Rice and Baker team up in a layered composition as battle scenes from throughout the country’s history roll in the background against the walls of a sunset-filled, church-like building in the video. The consultant, author and educator plays an emphatic crescendo with the Grammy-nominated and Billboard No. 1 recording artist as the stars and stripes pop up all over the screen.

“May the grace of God continue to shine on lovers of freedom everywhere,” says a message that appears at the end of the video.

Baker responded to FamilyShare’s Facebook announcement of the video Thursday with an expression of her gratitude to Rice for playing with her and her awe of the power of the famous melody.

“I know that God gave us this land of Freedom and I am so grateful to those who serve to protect these freedoms!” she wrote.

President Obama also broke into the song, which was penned in the 18th century by English poet and priest John Newton, in front of 5,500 mourners for Emanuel AME pastor and South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney last week.

The singing followed the president’s tribute to Pinckney and eight other African-American churchgoers killed by a bigoted white gunman during a Bible study at the historic church.

Obama’s Middle East Policy is IN This Book

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2003:

At Khalidi’s 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”

One speaker likened “Zionist settlers on the West Bank” to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been “blinded by ideology.”

2004

Rashid Khalidi wrote a book. Fittingly the title is ‘Resurrecting Empire’. Released in 2004, Khalidi cherry picked facts to build his case against any Western intervention into the Middle East and wrote often about early colonization and occupation by Britain and France with the aid of the United States. How many times have we heard the words colonization and occupation out of this White House?

2008

CHICAGO — It was a celebration of Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.

A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking. Obama also calls for the U.S. to talk to such declared enemies as Iran, Syria and Cuba. But he argues that the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, is an exception, calling it a terrorist group that should renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist before dialogue begins. That viewpoint, which also matches current U.S. policy, clashes with that of many Palestinian advocates who urge the United States and Israel to treat Hamas as a partner in negotiations.

2010

From Politico: An Arab-American activist who attended an outreach session at the White House complex in April had his Chicago home raided by the FBI last week and appears to be a focus of an unfolding federal terrorism-support investigation.

Hatem Abudayyeh, who serves as executive director of the Arab-American Action Network, took part in a meeting for Arab-American leaders held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 22, according to appointment data posted on the White House website.

FBI agents executed a search warrant at Abudayyeh’s Chicago home as part of a coordinated series of raids involving at least one other Chicago site, along with the homes of anti-war activists in Minnesota. A copy posted on the web of a grand jury subpoena served on one target of the raids in Minneapolis demands “all records of any payment provided directly or indirectly to Hatem Abudayyeh, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (“PFLP”) or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (“FARC”).”

A search warrant served on a Minneapolis anti-war activist, Michael Kelly, ordered agents to seize records relating to Kelly’s travels to “Palestine, Colombia, and … within the United States.” It also mentions possible connections to Hezbollah.

The warrant and subpoena suggest the probe, which is being run by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, is focusing on illegal support for terrorist organizations, particularly by a Minnesota-based group called the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. PFLP, FARC and Hezbollah are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S. government. A spokesman for Fitzgerald’s office declined to comment on the probe.

In a 2006 interview with Fight Back News, an outlet run by Minneapolis activist Kelly, Abudayyeh seemed to disagree rather strenuously with at least some of the U.S. government’s use of the “terrorist” label.

“The U.S. and Israel will continue to describe Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations as ‘terrorists,’ but the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel,” Abudayyeh said. “The vast majority of the world sees and understands this, and are in full support of Lebanese, Palestinian and worldwide resistance to Israel and the U.S.’s naked aggression, war, imperialism and occupation.”

2011

In part from TWS:

Barack Obama and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi both taught at the University of Chicago in the ’90s, and at a farewell dinner for Khalidi in 2003, Obama warmly praised Khalidi’s advice, which took the form of “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.” Since the Los Angeles Times never released its videotape of the event, we may never know Obama’s blind spots or the enlightenment on offer from his friend and colleague Khalidi​—​a PLO spokesman in Beirut during the Lebanese civil wars.

Khalidi has denied his role with the PLO, but Martin Kramer, the Wexler-Fromer fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has him dead to rights. On his website, www.martinkramer.org, Kramer explains that between 1976 and 1982 Khalidi was consistently identified​—​by, among others, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times​—​as a PLO spokesman, without once demanding a correction. Still, all Khalidi will admit today is that he was “deeply involved in politics in Beirut.”

Perhaps it’s understandable that Khalidi won’t come clean about his role in the civil wars, for everyone came out of the conflict dripping with blood, not just the Christians and Israelis, but the Palestinians, too. Why the Christians are typically censured for their brutality while the PLO seems to get a pass from so many U.S. analysts, journalists, and even former government employees like Pillar is strange, especially since PLO chairman Yasser Arafat showed that, unlike the Lebanese Forces, he was willing to kill Americans as well.

In summary, is can be stated that the basis of Barack Obama’s policy on Israel and the rest of the Middle East is grounded in the book, authored by Khalidi. From the word ‘resurrection’ in the title, to relations with Israel, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and even Cuba, now Venezuela is on the near horizon.

Fits like a globe….

 

 

 

The Truth About a Mexican Border Town

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In April of 2015, Mexican authorities arrested the head of the Juarez Cartel, one of Mexico’s leader of the dark underworld of the country. Jesus Salas Aquayo was on the DEA most wanted list.

 Jesus Salas

Now for the Great Trial and perhaps some truth about Mexico, right at our southern border.

Juarez’s Missing Girls Were Sex Slaves—And Everyone Knew It

From the Daily Beast:

Hundreds of women have been murdered or simply disappeared in the city in the last five years. This case is about only 11 of them, but it’s a beginning.
In the Juárez media, it is being called the Great Trial, the first in 20 years to tackle the issue of femicides—a term for the hundreds of unsolved murders and forcible disappearances of women in the city that sits just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

 

The news magazine Proceso reports 727 such disappearances between 2010 and 2014, and many more such crimes date at least as far back as the early 1990s.

Altogether 158 witnesses have testified in this case so far. Only six men are in the dock, accused of sex trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of 11 young women in Ciudad Juárez, but the institutions of Mexican law and order are on trial as well.

“The hypothesis of corruption and collusion, the complicity of police, is sustained by witnesses,” Santiago González, a lawyer with the Women’s Roundtable of Juárez, which represents the families of three of the victims, told The Daily Beast. “Organized crime always has to operate with the collusion or participation of the authorities.”

The tendency in hundreds of prior cases was for investigators to treat the disappearances as isolated instances, rather than the work of organized crime. Then in January 2012 the remains of 21 young women between the ages of 15 and 21 were found discarded in a dry stream bed called Arroyo del Navajo, 80 miles southeast of the city in the Juárez Valley.

The site where the remains were found is so rugged the detectives had to use all-terrain vehicles to reach it. DNA analysis showed a match with genetic material from the mothers of 11 of the young women who had disappeared in downtown Juárez in 2009 and 2010.

The six defendants on trial are being identified as members of Los Aztecas, a street gang linked to the Juárez cartel. Numerous witnesses have testified the defendants operated a kidnapping ring in plain sight in downtown Juárez from 2008 to at least 2011. They are accused of terrorizing girls between the ages of 15 and 21 born to humble families, coercing them into prostitution, and disposing of them as they pleased.

Implicit in the trial proceedings, which began in April, is the question of how organized crime could operate so brazenly for years in the busiest part of the city. The question looms even more starkly when one considers the period in question was when some 6,800 Mexican soldiers and 2,300 Federal Police were deployed to the area to combat organized crime as part of the “Joint Operation Chihuahua” decreed by then-Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

On June 1, a protected witness who is an admitted member of Los Aztecas testified he was responsible for paying the police to turn a blind eye to the group’s business of kidnapping and forced prostitution. The protected witness, identified by the initials LJRL, told the court that the Federal Police and Mexican Army occasionally accepted sex with the underage prostitutes in lieu of cash (some soldiers in the Army, for example, “asked to keep the girls a day or two for pleasure.”)

“Sometimes it was my job to pay the city, state, and federal police,” he continued, “besides that we were always in radio contact with them and they would tell us what was going on, how ‘hot’ things were in The Valley, what the ‘doubles’ [nickname for the Artist Assassins, an enemy gang] were up to, what they were doing, because we had to stay on our toes and be ready for when things got hot.”

LJRL, who for reasons of security testified in a separate room adjoining the court, said two high-ranking leaders of Los Aztecas ran the gang’s sex-trafficking operation from inside the walls of two prisons in Juárez. The gang leaders in question—Jesús Damián Pérez Ortega (alias El Patachú), and Pedro Payán Gloria (alias El Pifas)—were free to enter and exit the state prison “to cool off when things got hot.”

He said “El Pifas” was also the gang’s intermediary with Mexican soldiers stationed beyond the city limits:

Q. To clarify, why did this man you call El Pifas, why was he in communication with soldiers?

A. Because it was another point where women were kidnapped from, sometimes they asked to keep them a day or two for pleasure, if you will, or to hold the girls, it was also a point where the women were held en route to being transported to the United States or wherever it was they were being taken to.

The homicide rate in Juárez from 2008 to 2010 rose to be among the very highest in the world. Overlooked at times amid the all-encompassing violence were the unexplained disappearances of hundreds of young women, and it’s now obvious that the sex-trafficking operation brought to light at trial was hidden in plain sight. The 11 victims whose remains were identified had been kidnapped in broad daylight in the busy market area in downtown, a block or two from the Spanish cathedral in the main square.

Perla Ivonne Aguirre Gonzalez, 15, was abducted not long after the end of her shift at a fast-food restaurant downtown. Deysí Ramírez Muñoz, 16, was dismissed from her factory job without warning at 8 a.m. Her family suspects she was kidnapped on her return home, while changing buses downtown. Jazmín Salazar Ponce, 17, went to ask for a job at a shoe store downtown and disappeared.

State prosecutor Jorge González said some of the defendants were passing themselves off as small-business owners in the busy area of Reforma Market downtown. Witnesses described a grocery store with no merchandise, a shoe store with no customers, a modeling agency with no furniture. They were business fronts set up so the criminal could talk to the young women and ask questions to see if they had a network of support in place.

A protected witness identified in court by the initials KDM was a female employee of the grocery store. She said while she was employed there she frequently saw municipal and federal police enter through a side entrance.

“On public transportation, in jails, hotels, businesses—how could this be happening downtown and not be seen?” asked Imelda Marrufo, a lawyer and the director of the Women’s Roundtable of Ciudad Juárez, in an interview with The Daily Beast.

Referring to the overwhelming presence of Federal Police and Mexican soldiers in Juárez at the time, she said “Military checkpoints were part of the fabric of the city. With so much vigilance they must have seen the girls being transported around the city, and out of the city. The mothers want answers for why nothing was done to stop it.”

What’s more, according to numerous witnesses at trial, many of the young women who were murdered had been prostituted at a brothel no more than a few blocks from a police precinct headquarters. The brothel, called the Hotel Verde, is also near the Santa Fe International Bridge that links Juárez to El Paso, Texas. The Hotel Verde was a three-story headquarters for Los Aztecas, with prostitution on the first and second floors, and a drug warehouse on the third.

Two Federal Police officers were murdered at the Hotel Verde under unexplained circumstances in 2010.

LJRL testified that after the women were kidnapped downtown, they were transported to a neighborhood close by, and held at a safe house located eight blocks from a municipal police station. The safe house functioned as a hub for shuttling the kidnap victims to one of several locations in the city, and some out of state.

The sex trafficking was widespread enough that brothel owners advertised to sex traffickers like Los Aztecas in the classified section of the newspaper PM.

“What [LJRL] is saying is not an exclusive,” said the lawyer Santiago González. “He is only corroborating what many other witnesses have said.”

Asked why no police or soldiers had been indicted as part of the proceedings against Los Aztecas, González said the evidence is only being heard for the first time.

“It’s up to the authorities what they’re going to do with that information,” he said.

“The case won’t be closed. It is a very important step, but only the first step.”

This is the first case of sex trafficking prosecuted by the office of the state’s special counsel for crimes against women, which was formed back in 2012. At this one trial, some 300 witness eventually are expected to testify.

July 4, 1976, Entebbe

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Operation Thunderbolt, the military name for the raid on Entebbe was a terror hostage rescue mission. If you can, watch the movie.

The whole event included Benghazi, Libya, Uganda, France, Greece, Israel and two Americans.

Israel just declassified the documents surrounding the operation, a chilling story which is quite poignant today. The summary of the full operation is found here.

The 1986 movie “Delta Force” was based on this operation.

From The Times of Israel:

The Israeli army archive released the hand-written operations log of the dramatic 1976 hostage rescue in Entebbe on Thursday, including the 1:55 a.m. note that the commander of the mission, Yoni Netanyahu, had been wounded.

“From the radio [communications] it’s become clear that there’s another wounded, name of Yoni (apparently the familiar one),” the soldier wrote in real time.

Netanyahu, the older brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was wounded on the tarmac on July 4, 1976 while leading troops into the terminal and died shortly thereafter.

An additional soldier was wounded and paralyzed and three Israeli hostages were killed during the initial exchange of fire. An elderly woman, Dora Bloch, had been evacuated to hospital earlier and was killed in revenge after the Israeli forces left Uganda.

Nonetheless, Israeli troops managed to liberate 101 people, held hostage by Palestinian and German terrorists, some 3,800 kilometers from Israel – an unprecedented feat that became a cornerstone of the Zionist ethos, particularly after it became known that the German terrorists, from the Baader-Meinhof gang, helped separate the Jews from the non-Jews.

“This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition,” prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said in the Knesset later that day.

The decision to send Israeli troops into Uganda had been an agonizing one, with defense minister Shimon Peres pushing for a military option and Rabin, the old general, cognizant of the fact that suggesting daring military plans and authorizing them were two entirely different matters.

On July 2 Peres wrote to Rabin that “the final twist” in the plan was that the most forward squad would leave the plane in a flag-bedecked Mercedes, masquerading as the Ugandan strongman Idi Amin, who was due back from Mauritius. “I don’t know if it’s possible, but interesting,” Peres wrote in the note, published by the IDF Archive.

Rabin responded: “1. When is Idi Amin due back from Mauritius? 2. Why a Mercedes?”

He signed the note, “Yitzhak.”

The following day, according to the archival information, Peres wrote to Rabin: “How does an operation start? 1. They say it’s impossible 2. The timing is wrong 3. The government won’t authorize it. The only question I’ve seen, and still see, is ‘how will it end.’”

At 2:30 in the afternoon on July 3, Rabin told the security cabinet, for the first time since the hostage situation developed on June 27, that he was in favor of the military option. “Not out of an idealization, far from that, but with knowledge toward what we are heading, toward wounded, toward dead… nonetheless, I recommend that the government to authorize this,” he said, according to Michael Bar-Zohar’s account in “Peres: A Political Biography” (Hebrew).

Peres, later that evening, with the planes airborne, wrote, “The planes are on their way and with them the fate of Israel.”