After
the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, some reprehensible
hate-crimes were directed against the Arab and Muslim American
population in this country. Our government as well as all intelligent
and decent Americans promptly condemned those actions and with the
cooperation of the U.S. media, a concerted effort and a campaign began
to eliminate this abhorrence.
But
on September 25, 2001, on page A10, The Washington Post published an
article by staff writer Sue Anne Pressley, titled Among Miami's Cuban
Americans, Terrorism Is a Familiar Story. Tactics Used by - and Against
- Castro Still Stir Debate in Exile Community.
As
we find ourselves in a period of deep emotions calling for introspection
and extended concern for others, we inexplicably find The Washington
Post with an article written by a prominent staffer that seems to be
attempting to foster distrust, division, and hatred against the
patriotic and law-abiding Cuban Americans. I wish I could convey here
the level of concern displayed by the Cuban Americans I have been seeing
about the September 11 attacks – concerns and feelings they share with
all Americans. But The Post has other concerns.
During
the Elian affair, this type of defamatory campaign was perpetrated -
with the cooperation of The Washington Post – apparently to neutralize
the viewpoints of the Cuban Americans. Now, in the midst of our national
crisis, the effort continues for the same purpose. And that is that the
information Cuban Americans have (first-hand, including from
high-ranking defectors) on Castro's connection to terrorism and
biological and chemical weapons be discarded after being subjected to
character assassination. It appears that The Washington Post is
cooperating once more with a long-time Castro scheme.
Character
assassination is a favorite technique of communists and Fascists as
well. It seems odd and out of place in a civilized, democratic and
lawful society such as ours.
The
Washington Post’s Pressley opens her September 25 piece, "Some
among them have received training from the CIA to fight a communist foe.
The most extreme among them have been accused of committing atrocities
for what they believe is a righteous cause."
Ileana
Fuentes, an author, cultural critic, feminist and human rights activist
from Miami says, this "is a blatant misrepresentation." As
true atrocities she cites "the genocide in the Balkans; the Jewish
Holocaust; three hundred years of slavery; the soviet gulag; the murder
of innocent women and children aboard the ‘13 de marzo’ tugboat by
Cuban authorities; the murder of four Cuban Americans aboard two unarmed
rescue planes, also by Cuban authorities." And that atrocity is
"what we witnessed on September 11th."
Pressley’s
article is constructed around a Miami conference attended by "100
people" on September 22, 2001, "sponsored by a coalition of
lesser-known exile groups who denounce what they view as the use of
terrorism in U.S. policy against Cuba." According to this article,
"one panel discussion was titled ‘The use of terrorism and
sabotage in Washington's policy of aggression against Cuba and its
effects in Cuba and in Miami.’" Obviously a decidedly
anti-American group of Cuban "exiles."
Miami
is a place easily infiltrated by Castro’s provocateurs and spies.
Miami groups that are anti-American or pro-Castro must therefore be
viewed with guarded skepticism.
Joaquin
J. Coello an attorney in Georgia points out that it is a well-known fact
"that some Cubans in Miami are following this line. Castro has
infiltrated the community organizations with sympathizers and sleepers
to be activated at a moment’s notice. Mr. [Arthur] Buonamia, a
Democratic Party official, and others who participated at the conference
are only following the official line of dictator Fidel Castro."
The
Post article raises the issue of Orlando Bosch, referring to him as an
"anti-Castro militant." He "was held in a Venezuelan jail
for more than a decade on charges that he masterminded the 1976 bombing
of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 people aboard." But, she
admits that he was "released in 1988 without being convicted."
As Fuentes points out, the fact that he was accused is "made
irrelevant when she ads that he was released ‘without being
convicted.’" And "no bombing that ever occurred in Miami has
ever been proven - by investigation or legal proceedings - as having
been perpetrated by exiles. What kind of reporting is this that makes
unsubstantiated hearsay pivotal to a story?"
Coello
said, "Her reference to Orlando Bosch indicates he sat in a prison
in Venezuela but was never convicted, yet her article makes the innuendo
he was guilty."
Of
Pressley’s description of Miami as "the site of numerous bombings
during the past 40 years," Fuentes points out that, since the
bombing actually stopped more than 10 years ago, Pressley’s statement
takes liberties that would not be permitted. Would the same liberty be
taken by a mainstream newspaper to describe Liberty City as a ‘site of
numerous riots’ or Mobile [Alabama] as a ‘site of numerous lynchings?’"
The
Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby’s Un Unpardonable Act, published
on September 6, 1999, says of the 16 Puerto Rican terrorists Bill
Clinton pardoned, that they "were responsible, along with their
comrades, for some 130 bombing attacks between 1974 and 1983 [in the
U.S.]. At least six people were killed and more than 80 were wounded
in those attacks, and property owners sustained millions of dollars in
damages. In Puerto Rico itself, they wrought even more bloody mayhem,
beginning with the murder of a police officer in 1978. In December 1979,
they ambushed a Navy vehicle in Sabana Seca, killing two of the 17
passengers and badly wounding nine. In January 1981, they bombed the Air
National Guard base in Carolina and destroyed nine fighter jets."
The cost of the nine jets was $45 million.
With
that in mind, Fuentes continues that Puerto Rican terrorists associated
with seeking independence from the U.S. have made many more bombings in
San Juan, Puerto Rico in the last four decades than in any other city in
the U.S., yet The Washington Post wouldn’t "dare describe San
Juan as ‘the site of numerous bombings.’ The Puerto Rican community
"would scream ‘Prejudice!’ and ‘Political profiling!’"
She says that they will run up and down the halls of Congress
protesting, "and rightly so."
As
Fuentes says, "Ten, twenty, even a hundred people does not
constitute the ‘American community’" that Pressley tries to
create in her article. And she adds, "It is time that American
journalists stop foaming at the mouth with hatred for Cuban Americans
and start showing us the decency and fairness all other ethnic groups
enjoy and deserve."
This
article presents Rev. Francisco Santana, "a priest at Our Lady of
Charity Shrine and an organizer of the prayer service" for this
conference saying, "Back in the '60s, some Cubans were trained like
bin Laden, trained by the CIA to fight during the Cold War against what
was perceived as the evil empire."
Coello
says Pressley’s "article comparing Cubans to bin Laden is an
insult to all of us Americans of Cuban heritage." Cubans never had
the goal to kill innocent Americans. What an abhorrent accusation.
Alba
Herrera-Rohdes of New Jersey said, "Shame on her for her egregious
attack on the Cuban-American community! As a Cuban, and as an American
who has been personally touched by the savage terrorist attack which
took place in New York City and Washington, I was highly offended and
insulted that Sue Anne Pressley, would see fit to publish such a
slanderous report labeling an entire ethnic community as terrorists.
"Not
only was her report libelous and defamatory, it was full of inaccuracies
and lies."
She
faults Pressley for calling the Cuban exiles in this country
"terrorists for struggling for over 42 years to bring about
democracy, freedom, and liberty to Cuba." She points out that Cuban
Americans have been warning the U.S. of everything from "the
eminent threat looming 90 miles south of our shores, to Osama bin Laden,
who is bent on destroying America and everything it stands for."
And that calling Cuban Americans "terrorists’’ is "to say
the least, despicable."
Susan
Wright of Georgia says of The Post, "It's time they start reporting
on the real terrorists on the Cuba-U.S. circuit and stop slandering
Cuban Americans - something they wouldn't dream of doing to the African
Americans or Jews. But if they are insisting on doing it, then prove it!
"Ninety
miles from our borders lies the most deceptive among the terrorist
nations. In fact, that is [Castro’s] major strength: his
ability to deceive the US mainstream media that he [Castro] is
not a major threat, even as he swears that his ‘ultimate purpose’ is
to destroy the ‘imperialist nation [U.S.]’". Wright
recommends that the U.S. media "Read his speeches in Granma! Wake
up!"
Pressley’s
article quotes Max Lesnik, the leader of the Alianza Martiana, one of
the conference sponsoring groups, ending her article with this
outrageous statement, "The fight against terrorism should start in
Miami, here at home. They don't have to go to Afghanistan to find
terrorists."
Cubans
who lived the pre-1959 days, remember Lesnik’s unwavering support for
Castro’s criminal terrorist bombings of schools, restaurants,
department stores, movie houses, night clubs, etc., where innocent
civilian men, women and children were maimed or killed. According to a
source in England, Lesnik was "applauding and supporting"
Castro until he was supposedly "expelled" from Cuba. In Miami,
Lesnik got involved in "anti-Castro activities." Mysteriously,
Lesnik had a change of heart and now is involved with other
"exiles" in sponsoring Castro’s goals in the U.S. It appears
that there are some skeletons in the closets of these "exiles"
that deserve a closer look than Pressley is affording.
Fuentes
says, "Interviewing Max Lesnik - could go unnoticed, were it not
for Mr. Lesnik's dictum that the U.S. government need not go to
Afghanistan ‘to find terrorists.’ Mr. Lesnik, who is unknown to the
majority of Cuban Americans today, and despised by the few still alive
who do know of him, undermines and mocks the gravity of the current
tragedy with his statement. A statement, by the way, that is
incomprehensible coming from a Jew who should be taking this tragedy
very personally."
Lesnik,
as well as others used as sources in this article, are Castro's agents
whose ongoing purpose is to discredit the Cuban American community. If
the Miami Cubans are "terrorists" as this article claims, why
has Miami been so well penetrated by Castro's agents and spies for
decades, people who are making a living there while conducting all kind
of anti-U.S. and anti-Cuban American activities?
For
example, Francisco Aruca, a well-known Castro’s provocateur agent with
a daily talk show in Spanish and English on Miami’s Radio Progreso.
Aruca is participating in this campaign by also calling the Cuban exiles
"terrorists." He posted on his website a letter to President
Bush with the same accusation and requested that others join in. People
like Aruca and others are alive and well, living in the exile community.
This alone should destroy the premise of this misleading article.
Mario
Ramirez in New York City says "Although Ms. Pressley tries to show
that some Miami Cubans are ‘moderate,’ in the end people will
overlook this and instead they will focus on the negative aspects listed
in the article. Call it a form of subliminal character assassination;
that's exactly what the propaganda folks in Havana, and anti-Cuban
American organizations, like those ‘free-speech and civil liberties
advocates’ listed in the article want.
"How
silly to quote Max Lesnik, the leader of the Alianza Martiana. That is
an obvious front group. Of course, they are going to call us terrorists.
The Washington Post is the guilty party here for publishing this
garbage," says an unidentified Cuban American.
Ramirez
adds, "It's amazing that in the current atmosphere of calling for
tolerance and non violence against Arab and Muslim Americans, that a
supposedly responsible institution like The Post would allow another
minority group (Cuban Americans) to be maligned and slandered. It's as
if Ms. Pressley was saying, ‘It's politically incorrect to bash Arab
Americans, but OK to take it out on those crazy Miami Cubans - who
happen to be terrorists, by the way!’"
"I
suggest to Ms. Pressley," says Herrera-Rohdes, "if she wants
to look for terrorists and a terrorist harboring country, look no
further than 90 miles south of Key West. She would be surprised, what a
haven for terrorists the ‘paradise’ island actually is. While she is
there, she might want to ask Castro to return the Black Panther
terrorist, Joanne Chesimard [also known as Assata Shakur], to us,
so that she may finish her sentence for murdering a New Jersey State
Trooper back in the 70's."
Coello
says, "Make no mistake Castro is no friend of the US and we should
not continue to make him look as a benign aging man with an ideal, for
he has and continues to harbor, train and support terrorism and was the
only country in Latin America not to sign a declaration against
terrorism."
Herrera-Rohdes
says, "At a time when America is bending over backwards asking its
citizens not to seek vengeance against the Muslims in this country, or
to blame them for the actions of a few extremists, I find extremely
irresponsible and reprehensible of The Washington Post to single out the
Cuban American community as a scapegoat for the attacks taken against
our country. Do we not deserve the same respect and consideration? Or is
it open season on Cuban Americans in this country?"
Clara
Fuentes says, "There is too much garbage in the media here, and
those whose livelihood consists of attacking the integrity of others,
have none themselves. Much less professionalism.
"At
a time when the survival of a nation and the free world depends on
unity, those attacking others for no reason and with lies are as enemies
of America, its values, and integrity as the terrorists themselves.
Those causing division and promoting hatred are as much an enemy of this
country as any terrorist could be. So, who are the real terrorists here?
"As
long as they [U.S. media] use freedom irresponsibly to undermine
integrity and promote bigotry, they are also enemies of freedom."
George,
an American says, "The Washington Post is full of far leftists and
Sue Ann Pressley must be one of them." Another American, Audrey,
says, "It is hard to understand that Americans have such little
understanding of Cuban Americans."
The
Post would not consider such a hate-piece against blacks, Jews, Arabs,
Puerto Ricans, Mexicans or any other minority in this country -
regardless of the source of the information. If any of them had been
maligned by The Post as often as Cuban Americans, there would be a
continuous outcry. And The Post would have to apologize, and the
reporter would be fired.
Perhaps
the extreme animosity The Washington Post has demonstrated through the
years against Cuban Americans is because they cannot fool us with their
misinformation about our own country, as they do the average American.
This
is not the first time and probably not the last that The Washington Post
has published insensitive and offensive articles, as well as cartoons
– such as the April 19, 21 and 28, 2000 by Herblock - against Cuban
Americans reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda against the Jews. During
the Elian affair Cuban Americans were attacked by Post staff writers
like Judy Mann on January 4 and July 12, 2000. Mann is not an unbiased
reporter; she visited Cuba in her student years and apparently became
pro-Castro.
Among
the Post attackers are Michael Leahy, Hank Stuever, Mary McGrory, and
Donna Britt as well as Sue Anne Pressley alone and in close
collaboration with Karen DeYoung in many misleading articles.
Ramirez
comments, "Havana says: Why defame Cuban Americans ourselves, when
we can have American journalists do it for us? And thanks to Ms.
Pressley, a bearded man in Havana probably smiles tonight."
©
2001 ABIP
