Re: We can't let the dissidents down

Dan Christensen wrote:
On May 17, 4:40 pm, PL <pl.nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
CUBA
We can't let the dissidents down
Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
BY FRANCISCO 'PEPE' HERNANDEZwww.canf.org

U.S. funding targeted for the promotion of democracy in Cuba is not
reaching Cuba's dissidents. The Cuban American National Foundation's
findings in a recently concluded study, which reviewed the expenditures
of four of the Cuba Democracy Program's largest recipients, demonstrates
that 83 percent of the funds intended for helping democracy activists in
Cuba bring about a transition in their country were spent in Miami or
abroad.

Getting any of that yourself, Mr. Lobbyist?

I see you snipped most of it, as uausl.

The fulltext:

CUBA
We can't let the dissidents down
Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
BY FRANCISCO 'PEPE' HERNANDEZ
www.canf.org

U.S. funding targeted for the promotion of democracy in Cuba is not reaching Cuba's dissidents. The Cuban American National Foundation's findings in a recently concluded study, which reviewed the expenditures of four of the Cuba Democracy Program's largest recipients, demonstrates that 83 percent of the funds intended for helping democracy activists in Cuba bring about a transition in their country were spent in Miami or abroad.

In the coming months, $45 million in new funding for Cuba democracy programs will be allocated. It is with this in mind that the CANF undertook a report that we are releasing today. Based on a thorough one-year examination of the facts and numbers, it studies the program's effectiveness in providing support to Cuban civil society and offers recommendations to ensure that Cuba's brave opposition get critical resources it so desperately needs.

In 1995, Jorge Mas Canosa and I sat in the office of then-Rep. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, discussing the drafting of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, commonly referred to now as the Helms-Burton bill.

In addition to stepping up economic and international pressure on the Castro regime, we recognized the importance of including measures to assist Cuba's internal opposition. We felt that the United States had a critical role to play in bolstering their efforts.

We hoped that the U.S. government could extend the same level of support and commitment to the Cuban people that it extended to Solidarity in Poland during the Cold War. Years later, the resulting Cuba Democracy program at the U.S. Agency for International Development, has, sadly, fallen drastically short of that which we envisioned and goes against the spirit and letter of the law that led to its creation. Documented in a 2001 independent Price Waterhouse audit and later in the 2006 General Accountability Office report, the program has been plagued by significant flaws that have yet to be appropriately addressed.

Throughout the program's history, arbitrary, misguided and often prejudiced internal policy decisions have crippled its effectiveness. This has created a culture of dependence on government funds without spurring competitiveness for ingenuity and new ideas among grantees. The program continues to ban cash remittances to dissidents and families of political prisoners despite its creators' intent, even as opposition leaders throughout the island struggle to meet the most basic needs.

It is at this critical juncture for the Cuban people, when the program is poised to distribute an additional $45 million, that we must refuse to remain passive observers and speak clearly and determinedly. The failure to address these problems, by successive administrations, has allowed the mismanagement to continue undeterred through lack of political will or, worse yet, because it appeases local political interests. The prevailing wisdom in Washington circles is that the right rhetoric on Cuba will suffice in Miami, and throwing a few million dollars at a program that benefits groups within that key constituency and, in turn, helps to support particular political careers will pacify the Cuban exile community at large.

Nevertheless, our study was not meant to attack well-intentioned organizations or those who have inherited these issues at the government agency level, but to ensure that drastic changes are implemented.

Section 109(a) of the Helms-Burton Act clearly states its fundamental objectives to provide: ''humanitarian assistance to victims of political repression, and their families'' and ''support for democratic and human rights groups in Cuba.'' To achieve full compliance is CANF's only objective and motivation.

We recommend five straightforward measures:

• Permit direct cash aid to dissidents and families of political prisoners in Cuba.

• Impose a cost-share requirement on those applying for funds under the program.

• Allow sub-granting to Cuba-based independent civil-society organizations.

• Require grantees to spend a minimum of 75 percent of government funds in direct aid to Cuban civil society.

• Assign USAID staff to monitor the program at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

In a recent meeting at the State Department with officials involved in the supervision of the assistance program, we were reassured by their sense of commitment to the true goals of the program and assured of their serious consideration of our recommendations. We hope that, finally, real change may be forthcoming.

Otherwise, to allow new funding allocated for this program to be utilized in much the same way it has been for the past 13 years would be unacceptable. To allow this important issue to be turned into an electoral campaign quarrel by those seeking to skirt responsibility for their inaction and avoid enacting changes to the program that would truly help hasten a democratic transition in Cuba is inexcusable.

Anyone familiar with CANF's three-decade-long struggle on behalf of the Cuban people knows that we will not be deterred or intimidated in our pursuit of effective changes in the management and distribution of Cuba democracy funding because the Cuban people deserve better.

Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez is president of the Cuban American National Foundation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other_views/story/533765.html

I understand this program alone has been sending about $1 million a
year to
(snip)

to help people restore democracy and to support their struggle.
Not bad, no?
Given the abusive nature of the Cuban regime:
see over 100 human rights reports:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/universal_declaration_of_human_rights.htm

But thanks for confirming this week that the Cuban dissidents are indeed no "mercenaries" as you have so long falsely claimed, but an independent free-minded internal opposition.
We can always count on you to expose your own lies.
Anyone can see the facts in the following thread you started (and ran away from when you realized what you had done):
See:http://groups.google.be/group/soc.culture.cuba/browse_thread/thread/79cf932b3f779b45/8321eeda178c53fe?hl=nl&lnk=gst&q=loosen+embargo++author%3Apl#8321eeda178c53fe

as I said comrade
Dan: whenever you post your lies about me I post the truth about you.
You are right to understand that your record of lies, innuendo, insults
and support of human rights abuses discredits you.
All shame you brought on yourself by your attitude and actions.

And the exposure of the "lobbyist" lie.

Your abuse of misquotes has been exposed over and over again Mr. serial
Liar.
When you tried to come up with your own new version of the lie
you also fell flat on your face , no?
Remember when you claimed I had been "lobbying" people In Geneva while
your pal "cuba libre" that stalked me then showed from an IP that I was
in Santiago de Cuba at the time.

Dan's other exposed false claim:
"Taking a little break from arm-twisting in Geneva, Mr. Lobbyist?"
Link:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/b6375f9783e47aee?q=g:thl174670614d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8

A real loser you are.

Below you will find what is behind Dan Christensen's slanderous
campaign: facts he can't deny.

- Frustration

I exposed Dan Christensen as a fraud in this group years ago when I blew
his "cover". In SCC he tried to portray himself as an "independent
interested party" with no political agenda.
When I came across a blatantly different reply to a similar question in
a Stalinist e-group to which I had been invited I posted it to show his
lying hypocrisy.
Since then he has been pissed as hell as it undermined his lying
propaganda effort to mislead "those in the background" (his own words,
those that didn't have "local knowledge". He himself admitted in the
same e-group that propagandist like him can never "convince" those with
"local knowledge".

In frequent exchanges he got some mad he often forgot to keep up the
presence and made him show his hand and true nature:

Quote:
"In my opinion the advances made by the Revolution are morally well
worth fighting for and justify the use of these extraordinary
measures.
In this case, the ends do indeed justify the means.
..................................................
These measures, however, would NOT be morally justified in propping
less
worthy regimes in the region -- the USA and its vassal states in the
Caribbean and Latin America come immediately to mind."

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=tirG3.176162%245r2.278940%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca

"It is wrong to think that a particular end justifies EVERY means. At
this time, for example, it would be wrong of the Cuban government to
send death squads after their opponents as happens in Mexico and
Colombia. Again, the actions of the Cuban government in detaining
these
so-called dissidents seem quite mild in comparison and are morally
justified under the circumstances."

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=txMG3.176443%245r2.284921%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca

That meant he was exposed a the hypocrite liar he is. It showed that the
false claims he made about others (support of genocide, torture, abuses,
..................................)in fact only applied to him.

I have also frequently exposed his lies about facts and people in SCC.

"It is clear from Smith's article here (and his website, CIP Online)
that he does, in fact, support an immediate and unconditional lifting
of your beloved embargo."
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/3f1fe3a55c12d7d7?dmode=source&hl=en

HIS own words:

'We should reduce tensions, not aggravate it, making it clear to the
Cuban
government that we do not have hostile intentions toward them,'' Smith
said
during a 40-minute speech at a conference titled Cuba and the United
States:
Relations in Permanent Conflict, Causes, Effects and Solutions.
''I did not say lift the embargo without conditions,'' he said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12157593.htm
You can enter after a free registration.

Permanent copy in the Cubaverdad archive:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaVerdad/message/16823

Then there is the issue of his lying website: I had pages removed (for
violations of law, slander, ...), have shamed him in to changing it on
various occasions (adding links that would then expose his lies, remove
lying caption from pictures, ...)and have in general exposed the lies on
it (on Amnesty International for example)

What Dan claimed on his website (the misquote):
"Today, for the first time, Amnesty International has explicitly
denounced the US embargo on Cuba in humanitarian terms, and made clear
its support for the immediate and unconditional lifting of these cruel
sanctions"
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ215.html

Link to the "report": (the one Dan didn't give until I shamed him in
to it)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003?open&of=ENG-CUB

where the only thing Amnesty international asks for "immediately and
unconditionally" is the release of political prisoners.

Quote:

"in 1.
"On the basis of the available information, therefore, Amnesty
International considers the 75 dissidents to be prisoners of
conscience(2) and calls for their immediate and unconditional
release."

In 8.1
" to immediately and unconditionally release the 15 prisoners
previously named by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.


" to immediately and unconditionally release anyone else who is
detained or imprisoned solely for having peacefully exercised their
rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
en of quote

- Dogmatic hatred.

Dan Christensen is a hard-line Stalinist. His first steps in SCC were to
defend Stalin and in other forums he has praised "workers democracy"
under Stalin.
He has admitted that he is ready to fight to the last Cuban (from his
comfortable armchair in Canada) for his cause.
By posting the reports from the international press, human rights
organizations and Cuban independent journalists I have exposed his
propaganda as a lie. That makes the man wild with rage.
As he like to see himself as the "victim" (he once claimed he was being
censored in SCC) he therefore lashes out at people claiming that those
that contradict him are "CIA" agents (as if the CIA would care about a
third rate liar as Dan) and professional "lobbyists" probably to make
himself feel that he is "important" and to explain away his complete
propaganda failure (portraying himself as "overcome by unsurmountable
institutional odds").

- Personal hate and the "rat pack"

Dan has suffered the trauma of having part of his website remove after
a long battle over the personal attacks and falsifications he had posted
there.
The frequent exposures of his lies and hypocrisy only fueled the
personal hatred.
Dan ganged up with various other propagandists that people that have
been attacked by them refer to as the "rat pack". I have been the target
of the lies and slanderous insults of this "rat pack".
They specialize in online slander (from posting private information,
attacking their business or businesses they are associated with,
inciting others to harass people, over accusing people of being "CIA
agents" or "lobbyists" to the worst things one can imagine)and direct
harassment (phone calls, letters, letters with razor blade or white
powder, loitering in front of people's houses,.. up to death threats in
France).
All they succeeded in doing was to dramatically increase traffic to a
website I participate in ( www.cubaverdad.net )and to suffer the
consequences of their slander.
Dan Christensen had part of his website removed. The Centre Che in
France had their complete website removed and their "secretary" known
here as "cubalibre" went to jail for 6 months for a whole series of
abuses. A Spanish "subsidiary" of the rat pack still has a surprise coming.
All because of their lies were exposed.

But then in the end this is what it boils down to:
those that don't have rational arguments find themselves exposed as the
liars they are. When that happens all they have left are the old slander
tactics: they attack the people that expose their lies in the hope that
they can intimidate them.
If Dan Christensen felt he had any chance to convince people directly he
would try to do so by posting facts and arguing facts.
He is reduced to snipping, posting the same snippets over and over
again, lies and slander.
As long as he and the rest of the "rat pack" (and their hangers on) are
reduced to that they expose" their own failure.
Fine by me.

PL

"The Cuban government is based on lies and cheap propaganda. That is why
it is afraid of words and the truth."
Raul Rivero, April 2006, University of Sevilla, Spain
.

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