#U.S. Embassy in Cuba

[minnesotafollower]

U.S. Response to Cuban Americans for Normalizing Relations with Cuba

On May 6, the Alliance for Commitment and Respect for Cuba (ACERE), an U.S. organization on behalf of over 200 Cuban-Americans, and 30 Cuban-American organizations and others, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of State with the following request: “[H]elp alleviate the . . .[dire economic crisis] on the island by issuing regulations to support the growth of Cuba’s private sector; rescinding…

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Yaimi Ravelo

Thousands of Havana residents marched along the Malecon of the Cuban capital to denounce the war crimes of the Zionist state of Israel against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

“It is heard, it is felt, the Palestinian people in Cuba is present”;

“Alert, alert, alert that walks, the voice of Palestine in Latin America”;

“The people united will never be defeated. Long live the Palestinian cause. “

These were the chants that were repeated in the crowded march called by the Union of Young Communists (UJC), which in a determined way moved from G and Malecón, passing by the U.S. Embassy and concluded in La Piragua with a Tribune in solidarity with the victims of the Israeli genocide in Palestine. The UJC entitled the event as the March for Life and Peace in Palestine.

[commajade]

finally watched watched my brothers and sisters in the north when it's been in my to-watch list for years and it was so touching and so beautiful.

the people interviewed were of course handpicked and have better conditions than other people because of the impact of U.S. sanctions and such, but it genuinely inspired me how hard-earned their good living conditions are. the farmers had to work really hard to re-establish agriculture after the war and now they get so much food a year they donate most of it to the state because they simply don't need it. the girl at the sewing factory loves her job and gets paid with 14 kilos of food a month on top of her wages. the water park worker is proud of his job because 20,000 of his people can come and enjoy themselves every day, and Kim Jong-un himself took part in designing it and came by at 2am during construction to make sure everything was going smoothly. his grandmother's father was a revolutionary who was executed and buried in a mass grave in seoul but in the dprk he has a memorial bust in a place of honor and his family gets a nice apartment in pyongyang for free.

imperialist propaganda always points to the kim family as a dictatorship and a cult of personality but from this docu it's so obvious that it's genuine gratitude for real work for the people, and simple korean respect. if my president came to my work and tried his best to make my working conditions better and to make my life better, i would call him a dear leader too. if my president invented machines and designed amusement parks and went to farms all over the country to improve conditions for the people, i would respect him.

the spirit of juche is in self-reliance, unity of the people, and creative adaptations to circumstances. the docu rly exemplified the ideology in things like the human and animal waste methane systems powering farmers' houses along with solar panels, how they figured out how to build tractors instead of accepting unstable foreign import relationships, and how the water park uses a geothermal heating system.

it rly made me cry at the end when the grandma and her grandson were talking about reunification. the people of the dprk live every day of their lives dreaming of reunification and working for reunification, and it's an intergenerational goal that they inherited from their parents and grandparents. the man said he was so happy to see someone from the south, and that even though reunification would have its own obstacles that we have the same blood the same language the same interests so no matter what if we have the same heart it would be okay.

and the grandma said "when reunification happens, come see me." and it's so upsetting that not even 10 years later, the state has been pushed into somewhat giving up on this hope. the dprk closed down the reunification department of the government last year and it broke my heart.

a really good pairing with the 2016 film is this 2013 interview with ambassador Thae Youngho to clarify political realities in the dprk and the ongoing U.S. hostility that has shaped the country's global image. the interviewer Carlos Martinez asks a lot of excellent questions and the interview goes into their military policy, nuclear weapons, U.S. violence and sanctions, and the dprk's historical solidarity with middle eastern countries like syria and palestine and central/south american countries like nicaragua, bolivia, and cuba.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Michael Kosnar and Ryan J. Reilly at NBC News:

WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge this week as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to go free after having spent five years in a British prison, according to court documents. Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say. A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie to U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona of the Northern Mariana Islands District said that Assange would appear in court at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday) to plead guilty and that the Justice Department expects Assange will return to Australia, his country of citizenship, after the proceedings.

U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during President Barack Obama's first term. Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to use his WikiLeaks website to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of detainees at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born. “This was an independent decision made by the Department of Justice and there was no White House involvement in the plea deal decision,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Monday evening.

Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of London for five years, and he previously spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — where he reportedly fathered two children — until his asylum was withdrawn and he was forcibly carried out of the embassy and arrested in April 2019. A superseding indictment was returned more than five years ago, in May 2019, and a second superseding indictment was returned in June 2020.

Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade: first in connection with a sex crimes case in Sweden, then in connection with the case against him in the United States. In March, the High Court in London gave him permission for a full hearing on his appeal as he sought assurances that he could rely upon the First Amendment at a trial in the U.S. In May, two judges on the High Court said he could have a full hearing on whether he would be discriminated against in the U.S. because he is a foreign national. A hearing on the issue of Assange's free speech rights had been scheduled for July 9-10. WikiLeaks also published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that upended the 2016 presidential race. Russian intelligence officers were subsequently indicted in connection with the hacking in 2018 in a case brought by then-special counsel Robert Mueller. At a joint news conference with then-President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin days later, Trump contradicted the indictment and the intelligence community, saying Putin was "extremely strong and powerful in his denial" that Russians interfered in the 2016 election to help him win.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will return to Australia after he reached a plea deal with the US by pleading guilty.

[renee00124]

Long before "Havana Syndrome" irradiation of the Cuba Embassy, there were beamed assaults focused on the American Embassy in Moscow in the 50's. In fact, American's prior to this paid little attention to Soviet reports of weaponized microwave technology. This was until U.S. Moscow Ambassadors became sick with both Leukemia and cancer and died.

The Soviets were across the street in a hotel irradiating the Ambassador's office and the entire building. Close to 1800 Department of State personnel were compensated by the U.S. government as a result with illnesses ranging from psychological / psychophysical due to effects of beamed microwave systems and devices. It was the the Soviets who also coined the term Psychological Electronic or Psychotronic.

When the American Government learned what was happening, they did not immediately notify Embassy personnel. They instead began U.S.A. studies, determined to catch up with this specific type of high-tech advancement and microwaves as a weapon.

If you delve even further back in history, it is documented that during the Korean War, the Soviets provided the Lida Machine which was used on American POW's in Korea for brainwashing. The machine was later sent to W. Ross Adey, who also worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital. He became aware of the machine when freed POW's reported its use on them and the effect.

This technology has been in research, TESTING, and development programs for DECADES and today is highly advanced!

Ross Adey interviewed on the Soviet LIDA RF generator by CNN Special Assignment Correspondent Chuck DeCaro (U.S. Air Force academy graduate, Special Forces officer, DOD consultant)

"In the Soviet Union, a radio frequency or RF device has been used for over 30 years to manipulate the moods of mental patients. It's called a LIDA machine. It radiates pulses of radio frequency energy as well as light, sound and heat. The pulse rate is in the extremely low frequency range between 0 and 100 pulses per seconds. Dr. Ross Adey is the top researcher at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Loma Linda California. He has been investigating backs of the LIDA machine."

DeCaro: "What the Soviets were using this machine for? "

Adey: "Well they don't use it anymore, we should be very clear that this is a machine which is regarded by them as as somewhat obsolete technology".

An interview follows with a scientist who did not want his identity revealed.

"The scientist who did not want his identity revealed is employed by the US government and has done secret RF weapons search. He believes the tests done with a lighter and similar machines prove that humans are susceptible to remote alterations of mood and awareness."

CNN Special Assignment (1985) "Weapons of War, Is there an RF Gap?" (Electromagnetic frequency weapons, RF weapons)

The technology continues its destruction today in the USA in a massive coverup!

[cavenewstimestoday]

Trump's immigration crackdown unnerves Cuban exiles long shielded from deportation

World 1 / 4 FILE – Cuban-Americans chant pro-Trump slogans as they show their support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Miami on Oct. 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File) FILE – A Cuban flag is seen next to an American flag outside the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File) FILE – President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters on board…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.20 (after 1930)

1945 – World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union. 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth. 1945 – Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school. 1946 – The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations. 1949 – Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War. 1961 – Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba. 1968 – English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech. 1968 – South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near the Hosea Kutako International Airport in South West Africa (now Namibia), killing 123 people. 1972 – Apollo program: Apollo 16 Lunar Module, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon. 1998 – Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board. 1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. 2004 - The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapsed, killing four workers. 2007 – Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself. 2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race. 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months. 2012 – One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan. 2013 – A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands. 2015 – Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland. 2020 – For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war. 2021 – State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota. 2023 – SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes 4 minutes into flight.

[darkmaga-returns]

Since the 2016 reports from the U.S. embassy in Cuba, there have been over 1,000 reports of “anomalous health incidents” (AHI’s) involving people tied somehow to the U.S. government. The AHI’s typically involve a screeching sound heard by the person affected, but not picked up by external microphones — along with dizziness and pain.

Five potential causes have been examined, and one cause which cannot be ruled out is the use of a directed-energy weapon (DEW): a type of “ray gun” that fires electromagnetic energy strong enough to impact the inner ear where normal sounds are translated into electrical impulses to the brain (so we can experience hearing them).

The spectrum of electromagnetic energy most likely involved is the radiofrequency (RF) spectrum. Five intelligence community (IC) agencies — or more opaquely, “components” — looked at the problem, but could not rule out the possibility of a DEW:

[bcc-news-blog]

Putin-controlled financial giant has close ties to IIB, the Russian-led bank moving to Hungary

The 2014 May leadership meeting of the International Investment Bank, the Russian-led multilateral bank that is soon relocating its headquarters to Budapest, was important for at least two reasons.

At a meeting in the five-star Melia Cohiba Hotel, Havana, Cuba, the bank’s council, its highest decision-making forum, formally accepted Hungary’s application to the organization. The council members also decided that the bank would grant observer status to the Russian banking giant VTB. The status provided VTB with close connection to the bank and insight into its operations.

This move has gone largely unnoticed amid IIB’s controversial expansion, even though the relationship with VTB demonstrates IIB’s political connections and it also challenges the narrative that Hungary’s government is promoting about its involvement in the bank.

IIB, the former COMECON bank, was reactivated by Russia in 2012 with the explicit goal to contribute to the country’s “international development.” In 2015, Hungary decided to join the bank, which already had other Eastern European countries among its members, and even invited IIB to move its headquarters to Budapest. The bank’s imminent relocation to Hungary has drawn criticism from several Western allies, to which Viktor Orban’s government responded by claiming that IIB is not a Russian bank but an international one.

The real picture, however, is more complicated. IIB’s top leader is Russian and Russia owns 45.5 percent of the bank’s shares, making it by far the largest shareholder. The bank’s connection to VTB, which has not been explored deeply before, also shows that IIB is closely tied to Russia’s ruling elite. VTB is the second largest bank in Russia and its majority shareholder is the Russian state. Its chairman, Andrey Kostin regularly reports to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Kostin also happens to be a long-time friend of Nikolay Kosov, the chairman of IIB.

VTB is one of the Russian companies that have been targeted by the sanctions the U.S. and the EU introduced over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Kostin is also personally sanctioned by the U.S. Although nothing suggests that IIB’s relationship with VTB violates the sanctions in any way, IIB has become much quieter about the collaboration in recent years. The partnership is very much alive, however, with VTB involved in some of IIB’s deals.

“At the beginning of the relaunch process, which started back in 2012, IIB was actively involved in operations with major commercial banks, including those in Russia,” said IIB in a statement to Direkt36. “VTB is one of the largest financial institutions in the country, so it was natural to establish a business relationship with the bank,” IIB said, adding that they think that the “observer status does not guarantee access to any insights.”

VTB and the Hungarian government did not respond to questions.

Old friends

The relationship between Nikolay Kosov and Andrey Kostin goes back to the end of the Cold War. They both worked as diplomats and served at the Soviet Union’s UK embassy in the late 1980s. ” We had worked together in London for many years and become friends,” Kosov recalled in a 2013 interview, adding that it was Kostin who lured him into the banking sector.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kostin served in senior positions at various state banks, and in 1996 he became president of the Russian development bank, Vnesheconombank. Later, he brought over his old friend Kosov, who joined the company in August 1998 as first vice-president.

Although their careers followed different paths – Kostin became president of VTB in 2002, while Kosov stayed at Vnesheconombank for several years more – they remained in touch. One of the most obvious signs of the continuing relationship was when Kosov’s son, Pavel Kosov, became a senior manager at VTB. There were other ties among them: the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported in 2012 that they had found a connection between Nikolay Kosov’s wife and a Swiss PR consultant working for Kostin.

IIB said that “Mr. Kosov and Mr. Kostin have indeed been friends for a long time” and “yes, they are still in close contact.” The bank claimed that they do not discuss IIB’s operations. “Chairman Kosov discusses these issues with the Management Board of the Bank and does not seek outside support,” the bank said.

IIB confirmed that Kosov’s son had a “long-term employment with VTB.” “His recruitment happened in accordance with internal VTB procedures and he managed to achieve significant results,” IIB said. Regarding Vedomosti’s report on the connection between Kosov’s wife and the Swiss consultant, IIB said that “no comment will be provided on this purely journalistic speculation.”

For different reasons, but both Kosov and Kostin were affected by the Panama Papers scandal that broke in 2016.

The leaked documents showed that companies linked to Kosov owned valuable London properties (according to the offshore records now reviewed by Direkt36, Kosov had been a customer of service provider companies since 1994, and had properties on Pall Mall, one of the most elegant streets in London.)

IIB’s first response to this was that “Mr. Kosov does not own any of the London properties mentioned, nor does he have any relation to the offshore trusts and companies referred to.” When we asked if he had any relation to the properties of the offshore entities in the past, they said that “since his appointment as Chairperson of the IIB Management Board, Mr. Kosov has had no relation to any trusts or offshore companies mentioned.”

Kostin’s VTB was involved in one of the most spectacular stories of the whole Panama Papers scandal. The leaked documents revealed that people close to Vladimir Putin had moved billions of dollars through shell companies and, according to an article by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Cyprus bank backed by VTB played an important role in the transactions.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Kostin turned out to be one of the loudest defenders of Vladimir Putin. In a number of statements, he said that even the suggestion that Putin may have been the beneficiary of the transactions was ridiculous. “You will not catch Putin with these things. He doesn’t have accounts or money,” Kostin told the Financial Times, adding that it was wrong to believe that after his retirement Putin will appear in Monaco, sailing a 200 million yacht. “For the rest of his life he’s doomed to spend quite a modest life, because the whole world knows him,” he said.

Kostin’s words carried special weight, given that he is considered one of the Kremlin’s insiders. He acknowledged his close relationship with Putin in an interview he gave to a US television program in 2015. “You know, in Russia, when you’re the chairman of the largest bank, you visit the president and see him from time to time,” said Kostin. He added that he has known Putin for nearly two decades. “He knows me very well, I know him very well at least. But my relationship is limited to what I’m doing, we don’t discuss much broader issues.”

The Kremlin also has formal influence over the Kostin-led VTB. The majority of the bank is owned by the Russian state and its supervisory board is chaired by finance minister Anton Siluanov (he is also the first deputy prime minister). The board includes the German-born Matthias Warnig, one of Putin’s close personal friends.

According to The New Tsar, a Putin biography, Warnig had been an official of the Stasi, the East German secret service, and he had been assigned to work with the KGB in Dresden at the time when Putin was serving there. Both claim though that they first met years later in St. Petersburg where Putin was a city official and Warnig was running the local branch of Dresdner Bank. Their relationship has become especially close after Putin’s wife had a car accident and Dresdner Bank paid for her hospital treatment in Germany.

“VTB is not only a bank but satisfies other aims of the Kremlin. It is supposed to provide financing in line with Kremlin desires,” said Anders Aslund, an internationally renowned Swedish economist who served as an advisor to the Russian government in the 1990s. “Kostin would not lift his finger without Putin’s approval,” said Aslund, currently a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He added that Kostin’s political connection is also demonstrated by the fact that he could keep his position since 2002 despite the bank’s weak financial performance.

Aslund said that he met Kostin at various international conferences and he had the impression that the banker is a “tough guy” with a loud mouth.

Kostin indeed often gives interviews and is known for his occasional shocking public performances. At one of VTB’s annual conferences he appeared dressed as a Jedi knight. At another similar event he took the stage in an even more surprising costume – he was dressed up as Stalin.

“He’s wasted running a bank. He really belongs in the theatre,” told one of his colleagues to the Financial Times.

The observers At the beginning of 2013, Kostin had a public appearance – by all accounts free of controversy – with his old friend, Nikolay Kosov. The two men signed a partnership agreement between the banks they led.

This was a big deal for IIB.

The former COMECON bank had just been revived by the Russian government and it already managed to enter into a partnership with the second largest Russian bank, a significant player not only at home but on the international scene as well. As Kosov proudly said at the ceremony, the partnership with “international corporation VTB is not only a remarkable event, but an extremely important benchmark on the way of the IIB’s revival.”

In the next year and a half, IIB kept trumpeting its close partnership with VTB. According to the announcements on the bank’s website, IIB started to cooperate with a VTB-affiliated Vietnamese bank, co-invested in a Bulgarian leasing company with VTB, and they even organized a joint football game for employees of VTB and IIB.

Granting the observer status to VTB was another clear sign of the collaboration between the two banks. It was VTB that asked for the status that gave the bank the right to participate in some of IIB’s meetings, including sessions of the council, and access, “upon the board’s decision, to IIB’s non-confidential documents, information materials and decisions made by IIB’s governing bodies.”

“This observer status is strange. This is not an ordinary model,” a former economic official of the Orban government told Direkt36. The source, who asked for anonymity to talk about sensitive issues, said that other multilateral banks like the EBRD and the World Bank do not offer similar status to commercial banks.

EBRD confirmed to Direkt36 that they do not offer observer status. There are no observers at IBRD, the development bank arm of the World Bank, either, though observers can join the World Bank’s regular larger meetings.

VTB is not the only organization with observer status at IIB, but Russia’s dominance is clear in this aspect as well. IIB’s observers include the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, the Eurasian Development Bank, which was founded by Russia and Kazakhstan, and the Russian Export Centre. Besides them, the Bulgarian Development Bank and the Republic of Belarus have observer status.

„Observer status does not guarantee access to any insights,” said IIB. ”It only allows participation in the Bank’s open sessions and business forums, where institutions with such status can promote their products and services to shareholders and partners of IIB,” they added. When asked whether they are sure that the participation in the council meetings does not provide insight, they claimed that the observers have access only to the ”open sessions” of those gatherings.

Under sanctions After 2014, IIB has been much more restrained in its public communication about VTB.

This coincided with the fact that in the summer of 2014 the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against major Russian banks, including VTB. The punitive measures aimed not at cutting the banks off from the global financial system entirely but at making it difficult for them to access funding on the Western financial markets. Thus, it did not become completely forbidden for Western players to maintain business relations with VTB or other affected Russian banks, but they were banned from giving long-term credit or equity to them.

The United States then went one step further and personally put Andrey Kostin under sanction. In this case, this meant freezing his U.S. assets and banning American entities from doing any business with him.

VTB has apparently been affected by these sanctions. They have downsized some of their foreign operations and began a serious – though apparently unsuccessful – lobbying activity in Washington to ease the punitive measures against them.

“Being an international development financial institution, IIB is not subject to any sanctions,” IIB said, stressing that “it carries out its activities strictly in accordance with international compliance regulations” and ”taking into account existing sanction restrictions”. The bank added that ”hence, IIB was unfortunately forced to refrain from further business activity with VTB after 2014.”

IIB’s own website shows, however, that the relationship with VTB has continued since then. In 2016, VTB’s German subsidiary was part of a consortium that included Western financial institutions and Hungary’s OTP Bank, which committed to give a long-term loan to IIB. VTB also continues to be among the bank’s observers, and the IIB mentioned VTB as one of its Russian partners in its strategic plan for the period until 2022.

When asked about these statements, IIB replied that ”all of the mentioned operations have passed compliance and are not considered as sanctioned deals.”

There is no indication that the relationship with VTB would in any way violate the sanctions. At the same time, the partnership shows how closely IIB is linked to Russia’s political elite.

This is what the Hungarian government is trying to downplay by constantly emphasizing the international character of the IIB. Viktor Orban used the same argument in a speech in the Hungarian parliament when he stressed that IIB includes five Central European countries that are members of the EU and NATO. He said that these countries own more than 50 percent of the bank’s shares, “much more than what the Russians have.” He failed to mention that in fact the Russian share is 46 percent, not that much less than what the Central Europeans hold, and that the bank’s head, Nikolay Kosov is also Russian. Racz, a Russia-expert at Political Capital, pointed out in a recent article published on Index, the bank’s founding documents grant wide powers to IIB’s chairman.

[tienramadan]

Anti-Israel activists behind Columbia University protests trained in Cuba for years

Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered.

ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques just hours before they stormed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, and that the group was incited by Manolo De Los Santos–a radical activist organizer with deep ties to communist Cuba.

De Los Santos, who has long been the subject of past ADN investigations, has a lengthy, storied history of working with some of Cuba’s top communist party leaders including its president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

This past weekend the former seminarian turned radical leftist activist urged pro-Palestinian Columbia student protestors to “give Joe Biden a hot summer” and criticized Columbia's “Zionist” administration for wanting to “resemble its masters in Israel.” He praised demonstrators for “deciding that resistance is more important than negotiations” and incited protesters to “make business as usual in this country unsustainable.”

Hours after Monday’s meeting was convened, dozens of protesters broke into and illegally stormed into Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, seizing control of the university building in a standoff with education officials–the culmination of decades of Cuba promoting anti-Israel sentiment within U.S. based radical leftist organizations–and De Los Santos was credited for recreating “the summer of 2020,” a reference to the Black Lives Matter violence that besieged northern U.S. cities after the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

The People’s Forum is known for having sympathies to the Chinese and Cuban communist parties, and describes itself as “an incubator of movements for the working class and marginalized communities,” and has been a cornerstone of anti-Israel protests since Hamas' attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023. 

One day after Hamas' attack on southern Israel, TPF organized a protest in Times Square where attendees celebrated the terrorist organization and waved signs with anti-Semitic slogans and images.

According to a New Lines investigation conducted by journalist and foreign influence researcher Alexander Reid Ross, TPF's operations are largely made possible by a $12 million donation from pro-China tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, through the People's Support Foundation (PSF).

New Lines also reported that Singham is in a relationship with Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans who also serves on PSF’s board, which occupied the Venezuelan embassy in D.C. to protest against opposition leader Juan Guaidó, and organizes pro-Cuban regime initiatives in the U.S.

Manolo De Los Santos: A TPF leader who was “based out of Cuba for many years”

The group’s co-executive director, Manolo De Los Santos, is longtime researcher at the Marxist Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and was “based out of Cuba for many years,” where he “worked toward building international networks of people’s movements and organizations,” according to his biography at the anti-Israel group Black Alliance for Peace.

At least since 2016, De Los Santos has been documented in Cuba with delegations of U.S activists received by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), whose current director was prosecuted and convicted by the U.S. for espionage as part of the infamous WASP network in the 1990s.

Cuban intelligence Officer (DGI) Juan Reyes-Alonso has said that about 90 percent of ICAP personnel are thought to be DGI-affiliated, according to a 2009 Washington Times column by DIA officer Chris Simmons. 

Manolo was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. His family moved to the South Bronx, New York when he was five years old. He first visited Cuba in 2006 with the organization, Pastors for Peace. Pastors for Peace is a member of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) in the United States, a coalition of U.S groups who support the Cuban regime.

He later studied in Cuba at the Matanzas Evangelical Seminary in the area of Marxist-driven liberation theology on the island, an ideology that former Romanian intelligence officer Ion Mihai Pacepa says was created by the KGB “to enroll Latin leaders” in the Soviet Union’s espionage operations.

Inspiring Marxist revolution and race riots in the U.S.A.

While in Cuba De Los Santos also represented the U.S. based radical leftist Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO). 

“Founded in 1967 by the Reverend Lucius Walker, Jr. and a number of fellow progressive church leaders and activists, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) is an ecumenical agency whose mission is “to help forward the struggles of oppressed people for justice and self-determination” through its “support of community organizing.”

In 1968, the IFCO helped establish Operation Connection, which dispatched teams of activists into American cities that had been struck by race riots, “to open dialogue and work through alternatives to violent confrontation.” 

The IFCO has served as a fiscal sponsor for numerous activist organizations including the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, a group that advocated for the liberation of Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal an activist convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner. 

In 2018, after living in Cuba, De los Santos assumed the role of founding director of the NYC based People’s Forum, a group that identifies itself as “serving as a movement incubator for working-class communities to foster unity across historic lines of division both domestically and internationally.” 

He has been traveling to Cuba since at least 2009, and has been prominently featured in the Cuban-regime press for almost a decade. Reports indicate that back in the U.S he organized rallies in the U.S. to support the Cuban regime and that he is a staunch admirer of Fidel Castro. 

“Fidel for us is a great example,” he said in 2016. “I wish all leaders were like him, and many of them had the dignity and integrity of the Commander.” 

De los Santos has also expressed admiration for former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, recalling multiple times when the late leader returned to power after a coup attempt against him in 2002.

“It's always good to remember how the Venezuelan people defeated a U.S.-backed coup and returned Chavez to power in less than 3 days!" De Los Santos wrote on social media in April.

In July 2022, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, received De los Santos and executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad with the aim of "elaborating a new consensus, based on theory and according to the different experiences of social movements and countries, on the path of socialism."

In May 2023, over 300 activists from the United States, who traveled with the People’s Forum to the island, met with Cuban-appointed president Miguel Diaz-Canel, as reported by Cuban-state press (Granma). Palestinian flags were visible in the pictures of the meeting.

“Our commitment upon returning,” De los Santos said during an interview, “will not only be to raise our voice, but to organize a different political project in the United States, and we will always be by Cuba’s side.” 

In April 2023, another coalition of 150 American activists had previously traveled to the island to "exchange" with "grassroots activists" in Cuba, according to Liberation News. 

This delegation remained in Cuba for 10 days and was organized by the International Peoples' Assembly (IPA) and included leaders from organizations such as Black Men Build, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the People’s Forum, among others.

This meeting occurred months after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian visited Cuba and met with President Miguel Díaz-Canel on February 5th. According to a statement from the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they discussed "issues of mutual interest and international topics." Then, on February 25th, a Hamas delegation publicly visited the Cuban Ambassador in Lebanon.

Hamas reported that its delegation consisted of Hamas representative to Lebanon Ahmad Abdul Hadi and Head of the Hamas Political and Media Relations Office Abdul Majeed Al-Awad, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

For decades the Cuban regime has been training radical groups in the United States under the auspices of ‘solidarity movements,’ such was the case of the Weather Underground, a militant antiwar organization, in the late 1960’s.

In February 2023, De Los Santos, spoke in Havana during one of the intermissions of the sessions of the First International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Leftist Parties and Movements that took place in Cuba at the Casa de las Américas.

The Palestinian pro-Cuba connection

This year, Cuba held a second theoretical meeting. Among the panelists at the meeting was Watam Jamil Alabed, whom Granma identifies as a “young Palestinian doctor,” but who studied in Cuba and is the representative in Cuba for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the European Community, the United States, and Israel.

NGO Monitor has documented the PFPL role in the Oct. 7 attacks. 

According to the Center for a Free Cuba, “Havana under the Castro regime, has trained and provided logistical support to Palestinian guerrillas and terrorists beginning in the early 1960s, and continues to do so to the present day.” 

This Monday, De Los Santos was using its social media to promote a Havana-based rally in support of Palestine. Watan Jamil Alabed, a representative of the PFLP, was also present at the meeting. The PFLP is responsible for a string of attacks on Israeli civilians and is closely allied to both Hamas and Hezbollah. Students from the NYU encampment sent videos to Havana expressing their gratitude for its support.

During the pro-Palestine protest in Havana, Jamil Alabed said: “The students are in the vanguard and they believe in the victory of our cause, because they know that to fight for Palestine is to fight for the world.”

He was followed by Shaquille Fontenot, a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) in the United States. She demanded that President Biden “stop spending money on wars and use it on health and the desperately needed building of affordable homes for our people.” 

The NNOC, is an umbrella of more than 72 Cuban regime solidarity groups in the U.S that Mr. De Santos has been linked in the past to anti-Israel protests.

American activist Calla Walsh, a co-chair of the NNOC was arrested last year for attacking the offices of an Israeli company in New Hampshire. The former Disney actress and her associates were recently indicted in February by the New Hampshire Justice Department for spray-painting the building, smashing windows, and setting off incendiary devices. 

Ms. Walsh has also reportedly traveled to Cuba for years with the Venceremos Brigade.

According to the FBI, Cuba’s intelligence apparatus played a significant role in setting up the Venceremos Brigades. The federal law enforcement agency has said the Brigade’s objective “is the recruitment of individuals who are politically oriented and who someday may obtain a position, elective or appointive, somewhere in the U.S. government, which would provide the Cuban government with access to political, economic and military intelligence.”

Ms. Walsh has previously promoted the infamous “Mapping Project” on social media, which lists the names and addresses of nearly 500 institutions in Massachusetts, many of them linked to the Jewish community or Israel. Additionally, she has shared online that “there is no ‘peaceful solution’ under military occupation” for Palestinians.

Other U.S based activists connected with anti-Israel groups in the U.S have also been traveling to Cuba for “exchanges” and “workshops.”

Promoting pro-Palestinian antisemitism within the radical Black community

Onyesonwu Chatoyer, who is on the National Coordinating Committee of the Venceremos Brigade and the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) in the U.S said “There has never been a moment where we questioned the necessity of a struggle to smash Zionism,” referring to A-APRP and other “Black revolutionary movements.”

About her trips to Cuba, Chatoyer has said: “Participating in the Brigade for just two weeks provided me with several years’ worth of political growth. It is a remarkable opportunity for leadership development and political education and the building of political maturity. 

Getting as many U.S. organizers as possible to participate in work-based solidarity delegations to Cuba would produce a qualitative leap forward in the organizing of movements for justice in the U.S. and to the global movement to end the U.S. blockade and U.S. attacks against the Cuban revolution.”

Since 2024, the A-APRP have been building work study circles across the state of Florida, “recruiting organizers we have been working in coalition with to participate in the next contingent of the Venceremos Brigade, and organizing seminars, webinars, workshops, and any kind of educational space.”

Onyesonwu is also a member of the Black Alliance for Peace, a group that has been organizing anti-Israel meetings across campus and claims to have led an “International Coalition” condemning Israel.

On Oct. 11, the Black Alliance for Peace, a self-described human rights-focused group led by former Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka, released a statement condemning “the murderous assault on occupied Palestine” committed by “the illegal Zionist settler-colonial, apartheid state” and declaring “that a colonized people have a right to resist occupation and fight for self-determination by any means necessary!” according to the ADL. 

Onyesonwu Chatoyer, an editor of the Marxist publication “A Hood Communist,” was part of a “delegation that attended and presented at The Second International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Left Parties and Movements in Havana, Cuba, along with co-editor, Erica Caines. 

At that meeting was also present, Watan Jamil Alabed, representative of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP has also been involved in some of the “seminars” with Columbia University students. 

In April, Khaled Barakat, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) spoke to members of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Group in a 2 hour seminar called “”Resistance 101,” according to the New York Post. 

Barakat has also participated in forums with ICAP discussing how “Palestine, Cuba & Venezuela are at the frontline of anti-imperialist struggles.”

Cuba and the Democratic Socialists of America

Cuba has one of the most sophisticated intelligence services and regularly conducts influence campaigns in the U.S. One such group that has promoted U.S. protests with close Cuban ties is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which has been running candidates in local elections to oust mainstream, moderate Democrats. 

The DSA's ties with Havana are so prevalent, that its New York chapter even held a soccer match in May 2023 with Cuba’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Cuba’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has been a longtime hub for Cuban intelligence to recruit agents of influence and future assets. Still, the FBI’s New York field office has 12 counterintelligence squads dedicated to Russia, it only has one for Cuba, according to a recent report published by the Wall Street Journal. 

In September 2019, two members of New York Cuba’s Mission were expelled from the U.S. for conducting influence campaigns, according to the State Department. 

“The Department of State notified the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the United States requires the imminent departure of two members of Cuba’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations for abusing their privileges of residence,” the State Department wrote in a statement.

A few months before an unnamed representative of the Cuban Mission in New York was at an event at the People’s Forum on a panel discussion supported by several anti-Israel groups such as the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, which provides legal support to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements. 

Other groups organizing rallies are chapters of the Peace Action Network, such as the Massachusetts Peace Action Network (MAPA) which have also taken activists to Cuba on “solidarity trips.”

Among the U.S. groups supporting the protests, those who have included "young leaders" in delegations to Cuba to learn about revolutionary movements include The Palestinian Youth Movement (“PYM”) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

[minnesotafollower]

U.S. and Cuba Hold Law Enforcement Dialogue    

On April 17, the U.S. and Cuba held a law enforcement dialogue in Washington, D.C. The main objective was to advance discussions at the working levels of the two governments. [1] A U.S. offical said, ” Effective cooperation in criminal matters may sometimes include the exchange of information, such as information on fugitives or other wanted persons, or real-time communication between the United…

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

While some world media distort the information about the energy situation in Cuba and forget the U.S. blockade, we suggest getting information through Cuban official media to keep updated about what is happening in our country.

Via Cuban Embassy in US

[treatian123]

What is Havana Syndrome? Know Causes and Symptoms

Have you ever heard of Havana syndrome? Well, it’s a mysterious condition that has captured the attention of researchers. In this blog, we will delve into the causes, symptoms and ongoing investigations surrounding this syndrome Havana syndrome is a series of unexplained health issues first experienced by U.S. embassy staff in Havana, Cuba in 2016 reported hearing shrill sounds at night, as experienced by staff in other locations globally and Washington DC. Read More https://treatians.com/havana-syndrome/

[newstfionline]

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Upwardly mobile (NYT) Two economists—Ran Abramitzky of Stanford and Leah Boustan of Princeton—embarked on an ambitious project more than a decade ago. They wanted to know how the trajectory of immigrants to the United States had changed since the 1800s. To do so, Abramitzky and Boustan collected millions of tax filings, census records and other data and analyzed upward mobility over time. Their findings, published in a 2022 book titled “Streets of Gold,” showed that recent immigrant families had climbed the country’s ladder at a strikingly similar pace to immigrant families from long ago. “The American dream is just as real for immigrants from Asia and Latin America now as it was for immigrants from Italy and Russia 100 years ago,” Abramitzky and Boustan wrote. As in the past, immigrants themselves tend to remain poor if they arrive poor, as many do. But as in the past, their children usually make up ground rapidly, regardless of where they come from. This encouraging pattern obviously challenges the dark view of recent immigrants that conservatives sometimes offer.

Drone Swarms Are About to Change the Balance of Military Power (WSJ) The most formidable element of American power-projection has long been the warship. After the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, the Biden administration sent two carrier battle groups to the region to deter Iranian aggression. One of those carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was on its maiden voyage, having recently been completed at a price tag of $13 billion. This makes it the most expensive warship in history. For that same sum, a nation could purchase 650,000 Shahed drones. It would only take a few of those drones finding their target to cripple and perhaps sink the Ford. Fortunately, the Ford and other U.S. warships possess ample missile defense systems that make it highly improbable that a few, or even a few dozen, Shahed drones could land direct hits. But rapid developments in AI are changing that. The drone will change the face of warfare when employed in swarms directed by AI. This moment hasn’t yet arrived, but it is rushing to meet us. If we’re not prepared, these new technologies deployed at scale could shift the global balance of military power.

New York City’s Population Shrinks by 78,000, According to Census Data (NYT) New York City’s population declined again last year, according to new census estimates. But city officials said that those figures did not fully account for the growing number of migrants, which would have resulted in a minimal drop being reported. The city lost nearly 78,000 residents in 2023, shrinking its population to 8.26 million people, according to the estimates, which were released on Thursday. In 2022, it lost more than 126,000 residents. From April 2020 to July 2023, the city lost almost 550,000 residents, or more than 6 percent of its population.

Haiti’s top gang leader threatens politicians as fires break out in capital (Reuters) A powerful gang leader in Haiti has issued a threatening message aimed at political leaders who would participate in a planned transition council, as fires broke out amid a fresh surge of violence in the Caribbean nation’s capital. Nearby countries bolstered their border security and withdrew staff from embassies while plans to send a long-awaited international security force remain uncertain. After unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on Monday he would step down once the council was in place, the capital, Port-au-Prince, was initially quieter, but violence appeared to be flaring up again as of late Wednesday, with a shootout in one neighborhood and an attack on the police academy early on Thursday.

Cuba’s food shortage (The Week) Cuba has experienced hardships for months in what some are calling the country’s “worst economic crisis in 30 years.” Cubans are facing skyrocketing prices for gas, commodities and basic services, along with an economy that continues to shrink overall. The most pressing issue, though, remains a national food shortage that has led to widespread humanitarian issues. Amid this continuing shortage, the Cuban government has made a request to the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) seeking nutritional aid for its people. Previously, Cuba had only requested WFP support following natural disasters—never due to economic hardships. But food scarcity remains an ongoing problem throughout the country, and overall food production is reportedly down 50% since 2018, officials said. Cuban officials blame the crisis on the aftermath of Covid-19, as well as “stiffened sanctions against the island implemented under former President Donald Trump,” Reuters said. But many say the problem lies with mismanagement.

Denmark plans to expand military draft to women for the first time (AP) Denmark wants to increase the number of young people doing military service by extending conscription to women and increasing the time of service from 4 months to 11 months for both genders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday. Denmark currently has up to 9,000 professional troops on top of the 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, according to official figures. The government wants to increase the number of conscripts by 300 to reach a total of 5,000. All physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which lasts roughly four months. However, because there are enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, meaning not all young men serve. In 2023, there were 4,717 conscripts in Denmark. Women who volunteered for military service accounted for 25.1% of the cohort, according to official figures.

The Tories’ Take On Extremism (NYT) On Thursday, the British Tory government announced a new definition of extremism, which has raised criticism from rights groups who say that the new definition may be used to attack campaigners’ rights and curb free speech in an election year. A government spokesman says the new definition will “protect democratic values” by being “clear and precise in identifying the dangers posed by extremism,” and the government says it will be used to cut ties or funding to groups that exhibit extremism under its new definition. “The definition remains extremely broad,” said one British lawyer who reviews legislation for the government. “For example, it catches people who advance an ideology which negates the fundamental rights of others. One can imagine both sides of the trans debate leaping on that one.” Rishi Sunak’s government is expected to publish a list of groups it’s deemed to have run afoul of its new extremism threshold in the next few weeks.

US-Hungary relationship reaches new low (NYT) Prime Minister Viktor Orban is jeopardizing Hungary’s position as a trusted NATO ally, the U.S. ambassador to Budapest warned on Thursday, with “its close and expanding relationship with Russia,” and with “dangerously unhinged anti-American messaging” in state-controlled media. The ambassador, David Pressman, has for months criticized Mr. Orban for effectively siding with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war in Ukraine, but his latest remarks sharply ratcheted up tensions and indicated that trust in Hungary among NATO allies had collapsed. The speech followed a visit last week by Mr. Orban, a darling of MAGA Republicans in the United States, to Donald J. Trump at the former president’s home and members-only club in Florida. After their meeting, Mr. Orban claimed in an interview with Hungarian state television that Mr. Trump had outlined to him a “pretty detailed plan” for ending the war in Ukraine that would involve an abrupt halt to United States aid to Russia’s embattled neighbor. Such a plan closely parallels what Mr. Orban has been advocating for the European Union—a suspension of all financial and military support for Ukraine, and a policy of pushing the government in Kyiv into immediate peace negotiations with Moscow.

Russian Election Begins (1440) President Vladimir Putin is expected to claim a fifth presidential term as Russia begins its three-day election today. The vote will include inhabitants of regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2022. Putin has led Russia as either prime minister or president since 1999. While Russia’s 1993 constitution implemented term limits, referendums and amendments since have allowed Putin to keep power. The 71-year-old retains high approval ratings, and Russia’s economy has withstood broad international sanctions initiated after the invasion. Observers claim the government’s control of candidates and its ban on independent media have effectively neutralized opponents’ ability to compete with Putin. While the three opposition candidates have levied criticisms against the regime, all support the Ukraine war. An antiwar candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, was barred from the ballot last month.

On Gaza aid, U.S. seeks complex workarounds to straightforward problem (Washington Post) President Biden’s plan to build a temporary port to supply aid to Gaza recalls the effort at Normandy: a near-insurmountable engineering and logistics problem. But in undertaking this resource-heavy endeavor—set to require 1,000 troops and two months, at a cost that remains to be tallied, alongside expensive and inefficient aid airdrops—the United States is not circumventing forbidding geography. It is pursuing a logistically complicated workaround to what analysts say is a fundamentally simple problem: Getting aid into Gaza by land. The Gaza Strip is surrounded by existing routes, in the care of staunch U.S. allies, by which a massive increase in aid could feasibly arrive by truck. For months, aid groups have urged Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza. Drawing in part on field research conducted within the region, Refugees International, a U.S.-based humanitarian organization, issued a report this month finding that Israeli restrictions had “obstructed humanitarian action at every step of the aid delivery process” by seemingly arbitrary denials of legitimate humanitarian goods entering Gaza; a highly complicated and inconsistent inspection process; frequent denials of internal humanitarian movements; and attacks on humanitarian and critical infrastructure, among other policies “causing a man-made humanitarian crisis.”

West, Central Africa see major internet outage with undersea cables down (Reuters) A major internet outage affected West and Central Africa on Thursday, the internet observatory Netblocks said, as operators of multiple subsea cables reported failures. The cause of the cable failures was not immediately clear. Ivory Coast was experiencing a severe outage, while Liberia, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso were seeing a high impact, Netblocks’s data showed. Internet firm Cloudflare said in a post on the X social media platform that major internet disruptions were ongoing in Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin and Niger.

Google meals (Bloomberg) Google is best known as a tech company, but it’s got a formidable food business too, as it seeks to feed its armies of workers in a crucial tech perk that helps it maintain talent. The company’s food waste, however, threatens its ambitious climate goals, so it’s trying to make the whole operation more efficient without ticking off workers. The company prepares over 240,000 meals per day across 386 cafes, as well as 1,500 microkitchens and 49 food trucks in a fairly expansive operation. For perspective, there are only 360 Cheesecake Factory restaurant locations in North America, so the company is really operating at an impressive logistical scale, and a tweak as simple as adjusting when eggs are prepared cut food waste for the dish by 44 percent.

[chazymandias]

May I recommend Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O’Sullivan:

“In O’Sullivan’s view, this explains the lack of progress on Havana syndrome, the mystery disorder that, like a plot twist in a Jason Bourne movie, has struck scores of American diplomats and spies, beginning in Cuba in 2016.Victims complained of hearing a strange noise before the onset of debilitating symptoms — headaches, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances and memory loss — prompting American officials to speculate about enemy attacks via “sonic weapon.” And though dozens of prominent specialists have argued that the syndrome bears the hallmarks of mass psychogenic illness, doctors working for the government have dismissed the idea as tantamount to calling victims malingerers or fakes. In August, The New York Times reported that the C.I.A.’s leading theory involves microwave energy beams and Russian agents. O’Sullivan isn’t buying it. She devotes a chapter to the syndrome, methodically demolishing the sonic weapon theory as well as clinical papers that purport to document victims’ brain injuries. At the same time, she chronicles the fraught history of recent U.S.-Cuban relations, and the furor of hyperbolic statements about the disorder given by doctors and amplified by politicians. Hers is a risky move, an armchair analysis made, as she admits, without access to actual patients or classified intelligence. But here, as elsewhere in her book, O’Sullivan’s logic is, well, infectious.“Havana syndrome was a powerful sociopolitical wave,” she points out. “Many people were caught up in it, including U.S. Embassy staff, politicians and doctors.” She goes on: “I cannot imagine how hard it would have been to resist developing symptoms in that setting, and how difficult it would have been to accept a mass psychogenic explanation with all the ‘experts’ disparaging it so.” Who’s to say Havana syndrome won’t yet turn out to be another striking instance of science “making up people”?“

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/books/review/the-sleeping-beauties-suzanne-osullivan.html

What's your take on Havana syndrome?

I can't tell you what's been making some US diplomats feel sick while abroad (or even if there is one underlying cause for the clusters of illnesses, as opposed to unrelated outbreaks and incidents). What I can tell you is that the narrative that the US government is trying to push in the media about it is batshit insane.

Their argument is: the Cuban government has secretly developed highly-advanced sonic weaponry, and also successfully managed to use them on US diplomats in the middle of a thaw in which they were trying to improve relations. For this to be true:

Cuba would have to have one of the most advanced militaries in the world (they do not)

The Cuban military would have to be experienced in utilizing hypersonic weapons without detection (zero evidence of them doing anything even kinda like this before)

The Cuban government would have to be objectively stupid: immediately after successfully opening negotiations with the US after decades of trying, their plan is to secretly attack the US with some James Bond bullshit (no living creature is this stupid)

There is not one single part of this narrative that makes the least amount of sense. The alternative hypothesis I've seen them shopping to some media outlets is that it was actually Russian diplomats in Cuba secretly doing the attacks on US diplomats in order to disrupt US-Cuban negotiations, but that would be a historically risky move to accomplish what is at most a minor geopolitical balancing priority of the Russian government. It's one thing to poison a dissident, it's another thing entirely to set up military infrastructure in a foreign country and secretly fire noise weapons at US government officials.

I don't know what the truth is, but I'm fully confident that it isn't the story they're giving us

[bobmccullochny]

History

January 3, 1777 - During the American Revolution, General George Washington defeated the British at Princeton and drove them back toward New Brunswick. Washington then established winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. During the long harsh winter, Washington's army shrank to about a thousand men as enlistments expired and deserters fled.

January 3, 1924 - British Egyptologist Howard Carter found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor after several years of searching.

January 3, 1946 - An Englishman known during World War II as "Lord Haw Haw" (William Joyce) was hanged for treason in London. Joyce had broadcast Nazi propaganda via radio from Germany to Britain during the war.

January 3, 1959 - Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state with a land mass almost one-fifth the size of the lower 48 states together.

January 3, 1961 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba two years after Communist dictator Fidel Castro had seized power and just weeks before John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the next president.

January 3, 1990 - Manuel Noriega, the deposed leader of Panama, surrendered to American authorities on charges of drug trafficking after spending 10 days hiding in the Vatican embassy following the U.S. invasion of Panama.

January 3, 1993 - President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Start-II (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) Treaty, eliminating about two-thirds of each country's long range nuclear weapons.