World

Cuba Sees Obama Terror Promise as Healing of Historic Wound

Published

9 years ago

February 20, 2015

In this Dec. 19, 2014 file photo, a U.S. and Cuban flag hang from a balcony in Old Havana, Cuba. As the two countries to end a half-century of acrimony, President Barack Obama has made clear that he is moving quickly to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terror, saying in a televised address on his new Cuba policy in late 2014 that “at a time when we are focused on threats from al Qaeda to ISIL, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces the use of terrorism should not face this sanction.” (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — A year after he took office, President Ronald Reagan placed Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terror for backing leftist guerrilla groups in Central and South America.

Cuba remained on the list as the Soviet Union fell, Fidel Castro stopped aiding insurgents and the global focus on terrorism turned to the Mideast. For outside observers, Cuba’s place on the list was a Cold War relic that showed the power of the communist government’s enemies in Congress. For Cuba, it became the most potent symbol of what many here call five decades of bullying by the superpower to the north.

Now, as the two countries move to end a half-century of acrimony, President Barack Obama has made clear that he will take Cuba off the terror list, saying in a televised address on his new Cuba policy late last year that “at a time when we are focused on threats from al Qaeda to ISIL, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces the use of terrorism should not face this sanction.”

Cuba’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs heads to Washington next week for a second round of talks on restoring ties. Cubans ranging from President Raul Castro to ordinary citizens describe their country’s removal from the list as one of the most important elements of that detente, one that could help heal a great injustice. In Cuban eyes, they are the victims of terror, not the U.S.

For Cubans, the worst act of aggression against the island since its 1959 revolution occurred when 73 people aboard a Cuban passenger flight from Barbados to Havana died in a 1976 bombing blamed on exiles with ties to U.S.-backed anti-Castro groups. Both of the men accused of masterminding the crime took shelter in Florida, where one, Luis Posada Carriles, lives quietly to this day.

“This is a small country and everybody knows somebody who knows someone who was on that plane,” said Juan Carlos Cremata, a film and theater director who was 13 when his father, a 41-year-old airline dispatcher, was killed in what Cubans call “the Crime of Barbados.”

“The U.S. is going to show that it’s an intelligent country because the most absurd, the most stupid thing in the world, is to put Cuba on a list of terrorist nations,” Cremata said.

Removal from the U.S. list could provide Cuba protection against lawsuits inside the United States because inclusion on it strips countries of important immunities that U.S. courts normally grant to foreign governments.

With Cuba and the U.S. moving to tighten trade ties, protecting Cuba and any U.S. corporate partners from lawsuits by people claiming to have been harmed by the Castro government could prove essential.

“From the Cuban point of view, resolving this problem of the list also resolves this type of concern,” said Jesus Arboleya, an international relations professor at the University of Havana who served as Cuban consul in Washington from 1979 to 1982. “It isn’t convenient for anyone that they call Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.”

While removal from the terror list would have no direct impact on U.S. sanctions against Cuba, it could also make it easier for international banks to justify doing business with Cuba, said Robert L. Muse, an attorney specializing in U.S. laws on Cuba.

The bank that handled transactions for Cuba’s interests section in the U.S. closed its account last year, leaving its diplomats dealing almost exclusively in cash. The ability to reopen a U.S. bank account is one of Cuba’s most urgent demands in the negotiations to reopen embassies. While that decision falls to individual banks, removal from the terror list will make it easier.

“Its continuing presence on the list harms U.S. national interests because it prevents a rapprochement,” Muse said. “Cuba should be taken off the list because it doesn’t belong.”

The other countries on the list are Iran, Sudan and Syria. Removing Cuba requires Obama to send Congress a report certifying that the island hasn’t supported international terrorism for the past six months. Forty-five days later, Cuba will be taken off unless the House and Senate pass a joint resolution to block the move. Such a resolution appears highly unlikely, although Cuban-American legislators in Congress remain vehemently opposed to taking Cuba off the list because they say Havana’s behavior hasn’t changed, even if circumstances have.

“Cuba continues to harbor members of foreign terrorist organizations as well as fugitives from US justice who are responsible for the deaths of Americans,” said Brooke Sammon, a spokeswoman for Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. “Senator Rubio has seen no indication that the Castro regime has fundamentally changed its behavior and is deserving of being removed from the list.”

Recent State Department reports on the list mention Cuba’s sheltering members of the Marxist guerrila group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Spanish Basque separatist group ETA. They make little pretense that the U.S. actually considers Cuba to be a state sponsor of terror.

“There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups,” the State Department said in 2013.

Cuba is sponsoring ongoing peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government in Havana. And Spain’s interest in members of the Basque group living abroad has dwindled considerably in the last decade, given a definitive ETA cease-fire in 2011 and the rising threat posed by Islamist radicals.

The biggest potential problem for Cuba is posed by black and Puerto Rican militants who fled there after carrying out attacks in the United States. The fugitives include Joanne Chesimard, who changed her name to Assata Shakur and was granted asylum by Fidel Castro after she escaped from the prison where she was serving a sentence for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

Cuba has made clear that it has no intention of returning Chesimard, particularly since the man it accuses of orchestrating the “Crime of Barbados,” Posada Carriles, has been living in Miami since a Texas federal jury in 2011 acquitted him of lying to U.S. officials about his role in a string of 1997 Havana hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist. The U.S. government has refused to turn him over for trial in the Cubana bombing.

While few Cubans expect the U.S. to extradite Posada Carriles, many call removing Cuba from the terror list a welcome measure nonetheless.

“It would be an extraordinary event for me, for my family and I think for all the relatives of the victims,” said Camilo Rojo, a lawyer who was 5 when his father, an airline security guard, died on the flight.

____

Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

____

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza 

On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

By California Black Media

“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.

“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.

The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.

Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.

“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.

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Bay Area

Nigerian Bank Chief Killed in Helicopter Crash on Way to Superbowl XVIII

According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept., the crash occurred near Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The poor weather conditions — rain, wind and snow showers—may have contributed to the accident, although the investigation is not complete. All six aboard were killed. Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Herbert Wigwe with his wife, Chizoba Wigwe, left, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, right. ENigeria Newspaper image.

By Post Staff

The co-founder of one of Nigeria’s largest banks died with his wife, son and three others when the helicopter transporting them from Palm Springs, Ca., to Boulder City, Nev. to attend the fifty-eighth SuperBowl at the stadium outside Las Vegas crashed on Feb. 9.

Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

More recently, Wigwe was planning to open a banking service in Asia this year after making successful expansions to other parts of Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described Wigwe’s death as an ‘overwhelming tragedy.”

Oakland resident and Nigerian immigrant Kayode Gbadebo agrees with Tinubu. He met Wigwe in Nigeria but crossed paths with him in London in 2006. Wigwe, he said, “took risks.”

He was young and people thought he couldn’t do what he intended, which was not so much about money but community.

“He was more like Jesus in washing the feet of the poor– Wigwe was culturizing community,” Gbadebo said.

“There will never be another like him. This is a deep, deep loss” and he hopes everyone will eventually “be comforted.”

He was also disappointed that a replacement has already been named even before Wigwe is buried. “It is not reasonable. You don’t want a vacuum, but it’s” not fair to the family, Gbadebo observed.

Wigwe had also been working to solve the migration issues from African countries, believing that “investing in higher education was key to controlling mass migration, which “is destabilising countries across the world,” BBC News reported.

“We need to take a holistic approach to address global migration, starting with our traditional framework for international development,” Wigwe wrote.

To that end, according to BBC News, Wigwe was preparing to open Wigwe University in Niger, where he was from.

“The best place to limit migration is not in the middle of the Mediterranean or the English Channel or the Rio Grande. It is in the home countries that so many migrants are so desperate to leave,” he wrote, saying his university was an opportunity for him “to give back to society.”

Besides Wigwe and his wife, Chizoba Nwuba Wigwe, and one son, two crew members and Bimbo Ogunbanjo, former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, were also killed in the crash.

According to Wikipedia, three other children survive Wigwe.

In his statement reported in People magazine, Tinubu described Wigwe as “a distinguished banker, humanitarian, and entrepreneur.”

“I pray for the peaceful repose of the departed and ask God Almighty to comfort the multitude of Nigerians who are grieving and the families of the deceased at this deeply agonizing moment,” the president said.

He added, “Their passing is an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension.”

Besides feeling the tremendous loss, Gbadebo fears the disorder and greed that will follow. “It’s a mess,” he said.

People magazine, BBC News and Wikipedia were the sources for this report.

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Activism

No Valid Reason for Failing to Condemn Hamas’ Act of Terrorism

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes. They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

Published

6 months ago

November 3, 2023

Oakland Post

iStock image.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr.

California Black Media

OPINION

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes.

They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

The horrific surprise attack deserves universal and unequivocal condemnation. President Joe Biden called what Hamas did “an act of sheer evil” and pledged to defend the lives of Israelis and Jewish Americans.

He said, “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.”

Hamas killed approximately 1,400 people including 32 Americans. Citizens from 40 different countries including the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, and Thailand were killed or reported missing.

Hamas fighters breached Israel’s border defenses on the final day of Sukkot while soldiers were away due to the holiday and launched attacks on 22 towns outside the Gaza Strip. This security lapse has been described as a catastrophic failure of Israel’s intelligence agencies..

Hamas is an extremist Islamist militant organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is recognized as an Iranian-backed terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union and has a long history of violence against Jews and Palestinians, the latter of whom they often use as human shields.

While there have been plenty of groups who have unequivocally condemned the massacres, there are a number who haven’t, including organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Black Alliance for Peace, Red Nation, and independent Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapters (excluding the national Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation).

The DSA San Francisco chapter put out a statement on Oct. 9 that said, “Socialists support the Palestinian people’s, and all people’s, right to resist and fight for their own liberation. This weekend’s events are no different.”

Student organizations at a number of universities and colleges in California signed a solidarity statement titled “Resistance Uprising in Gaza” from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The statement attributes the violence of the Hamas attack to what it refers to as Israeli apartheid and occupation.

The SJP statement written by Bears for Palestine at UC Berkeley says, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.” Essentially, these students are indirectly associating themselves with Hamas’ barbaric acts under the guise of “resistance.”

Signing the statement were 51 student organizations including those from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego, CSU Sacramento, and USC.

A statement signed by 34 Harvard student organizations said, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

Many university leaders, where these students are enrolled, have been guilty of failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas and for inadequately addressing their students’ expressed support for Hamas.

Several Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, condemned Stanford’s administrators’ weak response to acts of terrorism and the expression of pro-Hamas sentiments by students on campus.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It dismantled 21 Israeli settlements in the territory and handed them over to the Palestinian Authority.

The assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 was not an ordinary clash with Israel. Hamas’ actions resulted in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.

While there are valid reasons for protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and a real reckoning with the Israeli government on its policies is long overdue, nothing justifies Hamas’ attack.

Israelis who were killed largely had nothing to do with the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza. Some of the victims weren’t even Israeli — they were just tourists.

The students blaming Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas have faced criticism. Some groups have withdrawn their endorsements because of the backlash aimed at them. Others have doubled down on their activism. SJP held a “National Day of Resistance” on several campuses.

Several CEOs have asked Harvard to disclose a list of members from the organizations assigning responsibility to Israel to insure they do not hire any of their members. A Berkeley law professor has also urged firms not to hire his students who have publicly blamed Israel for the war.

This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.