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reuters made a boo-boo

by rogue @ccess <.>
oops. Reuters covered the Cuban case against those convicted after a years-long investigation.
the pig press has been having a field day with Cuba this week, claiming that the Cubans were using Iraq as cover to round people up, as if they were doing so at the drop of a hat, and simply gathering in the usual suspects.

Reuters covered a press conference in which the particulars of the case were explained, and someone was asleep at the switch adn let the copy go out over their wires.

Cuba had been investigating those accused for years; they had been being paid large sums from the US, had been being told what to do by the US, had been being constantly showered with favors by the US.

This is part of the 20M/year that the US spends to subvert Cuba. Most of it, of course, simply goes into the criminal cesspool in Miami where it's diverted around as salaries for the exile community. Some of it does wind up in Cuba, though, and no, it's not tolerated that a nation which is in fact and in law (the Trading with Enemy act) at war with Cuba is sponsoring spies in addition to terrorist attacks and a brutal economic blockade.

There's a quote from someone in the NSC floating around this week expressing surprise that that 20M/year is seen as a bad thing; the NSC official is basically saying "oh, yes, we use USAID money to subvert countries around the world. Why shouldn't we be able to do that?"

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2539323

Castro Agents Infiltrated Dissidents, Envoy's Home
Wed April 9, 2003 08:42 PM ET
By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to back opponents of Cuba's communist
government were so heavily infiltrated by undercover agents that some had
passes to the American diplomatic mission, Cuban officials said on Wednesday.

Opponents of President Fidel Castro said they always suspected some of their
colleagues were spies but were surprised at the large number -- 12 -- who
surfaced as witnesses at last week's trials of 75 dissidents.

The biggest surprise was Aleida Beatriz, alias Agent Vilma, who worked as the
secretary of Martha Beatriz Roque, a dissident economist supported by U.S.
diplomats in Havana. Roque received a 20-year prison sentence.

"She (Vilma) did us a lot of damage. She had access to the finances and the
archives and handed everything over to the government," said veteran human
rights activist Elizardo Sanchez.

Dissidents were given prison sentences of up to 28 years for treason in the
trials that were condemned for their severity by foreign governments and
international rights organizations. Cuba accused the United States of violating
diplomatic conventions in its efforts to subvert Castro, in power since a 1959
revolution.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque showed videotaped testimony of two
undercover agents at a news conference on Wednesday where he accused the Bush
administration of turning its diplomatic mission in Havana into the
headquarters of the island's small opposition movement.

"I'm an agent. Agent Tania of the Ministry of Interior," Odilia Collazo, known
as the leader of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba, said in testimony taped
during the trial of a dissident.

She said she supplied the U.S. diplomatic mission with reports on human rights
abuses in Cuba.

MEETING IN U.S. ENVOY'S RESIDENCE

Alleged journalist Nestor Baguer, otherwise known as Agent Octavio, who had
worked for Cuba's security police since 1960, said he visited the U.S. Interest
Section so frequently he had a special pass allowing him entry on any day.

Baguer, 72, said he was asked by U.S. diplomats to write about power outages
and food and gasoline shortages in Cuba for independent Cuban media published
in the United States on the Internet.

On March 14, he attended a meeting of 34 dissident journalists in the
residence of the top American diplomat in Havana, James Cason, and was asked to
head a workshop on ethics in journalism, he said.

Baguer said U.S. diplomats gave tape recorders, shortwave radios and digital
cameras to independent reporters who were paid from the United States by using
a Canadian bank debit card called Transcard.

"They would tell the journalists what subjects interested them," he said. "The
majority of the journalists are mercenaries that spend their time slandering
Cuba."

Another undercover agent, Manuel David Orrio, or Agent Miguel, organized the
journalists' meeting at Cason's residence and invited foreign correspondents to
attend by calling them on the cellular phone of a U.S. diplomat.

No one knew he was a Castro spy until he testified a week ago at the trial of
Raul Rivero, Cuba's most prominent dissident poet and journalist, who received
a 20-year prison sentence. Orrio revealed he was a military officer and had
worked for the state security police since 1992.

Sanchez said the appearance of the undercover agents at the trials indicated
the government expected the dissidents to be put away for a long time since it
was prepared to expose its spies.

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