
 |
|
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 22, 2008
/ 25 Kislev 5769
The Castros still rule by fear
By
Nat Hentoff
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In the Miami-Dade Cuban community in Florida, 65 percent now support the United States restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, according to a Florida International University poll (Miami Herald, Dec. 2). And there is increasing pressure on President-elect Barack Obama from such business interests as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation to work toward "the complete removal of all trade and travel restrictions on Cuba." The Castro brothers' political prisoners were not polled.
The clear, cold facts on the Cuban ground, says Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division are that "despite the handoff of power from Fidel to Raul Castro, the Cuban government still refuses to tolerate even the most basic assertion of human rights."
Among the many examples of the crackdowns on peaceful dissenters, many Cubans planning to reach Havana to participate in marches and other events celebrating on Dec. 10, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (a text banned in state libraries) were arrested on the way. Their families do not yet know where they're being held.
Obama advisers would do well to consult Belinda Salas, president of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR) who, on Dec. 9 in Havana, was assaulted along with her husband, Lazaro Alonso, a former political prisoner by official thugs who, tearing the shirt from her body, fractured her hand. Salas has not heard from her husband, who was taken by authorities. Cuban officials refuse to disclose his location.
The Castro dictatorship, she told the Christian Science Monitor (Dec. 10) "want(s) to sell the image that they respect human rights, so they beat us to avoid our peaceful protests planned" for the next day.
Still caged by the Castro brothers under long sentences are more than 220 "traitors," as the regime calls them. The accurate way to describe them, many who have been in need of medical attention for years, is, Amnesty International insists, "prisoners of conscience."
I and others, such as Ray Bradbury ("Fahrenheit 451"), have been concentrating on the imprisoned independent librarians whose crime is opening their homes and libraries to such books banned in the state library system as a biography of Martin Luther King Jr., and, of course, George Orwell's "Animal Farm."
But the range of this Communist dictatorship's enemies is much broader. The PEN writers' organization is trying to get imprisoned writers released, while the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the international Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom organizations is involved with endangered journalists.
Nor is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce concerned with the work of networks of historians and labor union associations trying to protect those courageous imperiled Cubans with the audacity to hope for democracy they can believe in.
And I expect that at least some in the multitude of American bloggers are worried about the safety of Cuba's best-known independent blogger, Yoani Sanchez, who has been warned by police that she had "transgressed all the limits of tolerance with your closeness and contact with elements of the counter revolution."
Were I Cuban, I suppose I'd be targeted as a counterrevolutionary for having asked Che Guevara the only time I met him at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations whether he could possibly envision eventual free elections in Cuba. Although he professed not to understand English, Che still lionized on T-shirts in this country didn't wait for the translator and burst into laughter. It was then I learned that laughter can be chilling.
Speaking of free elections and other subversive visions of democracy in Cuba, Roger Cohen in "The End of the Revolution" (New York Times Magazine, Dec. 7), told of Hector Palacios, imprisoned three times because, he says, "my crime was simple: thinking that the government has to change from totalitarianism." One of his more outrageous crimes was organizing in the past for the Varela Project a petition asking for a referendum that would bring democratic change. Many courageous Cubans signed it, to no avail.
Last May, in Miami, Palacios met Obama, whom he buoyantly describes as "the new element. He's willing to talk to anyone. As with our aging government, the hard-line generation of Cuban-Americans is dying out. Significant change is possible within two years."
But, in Cuba, indicating that a hard-line on freedom is not slackening, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who is among those who could succeed Raul Castro, declared on Human Rights Day in December that after half a century reign, Cuba's human rights record, with some "imperfections" is such that Cuba and its leaders "can celebrate this day with heads held high."
Once in the Oval Office, Obama would be consistent with his human-rights protestations to require at least that the "prisoners of conscience" be released before we restore relations with Cuba. And Obama should consider urging the American Library Association to at last be faithful to its own principles be strongly recommending to Raul Castro that he also include the immediate release of the independent librarians.
Until now, the ALA has refused to do that, even though it has honored Bradbury for "Fahrenheit 451" that foretold a grim time when governments would burn books, declaring reading an act of disloyalty to the state.
Many of the books Castro seized from independent librarians were burned by orders of his courts.
Mr. president-elect, please help these prisoners of conscience where so many, including the ALA, have failed to do so.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his current work, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance". Comment by clicking here.
Nat Hentoff Archives
© 2006, NEA
| |

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Tony Blankley
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Alan Douglas
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
Marybeth Hicks
David Horowitz
Jeff Jacoby
Renee James
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Ben Wattenberg
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

Mr. Know-It-All
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
Tech Maven
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|