A WEEKLY COMMENTARY
Year Twenty-Nine ... Number Thirty-One ... August 6, 1982
CUBA, OUR DEPENDENT ALLY?
There is plenty of news about Cuban activities these days. But it's the kind of news you won't be reading in your daily newspaper or hearing on your TV. Because it's news about Cuban terrorist activities and Cuba's new role in the international scheme of things. However, there'll be a different kind of news about Cuba which probably will receive the fullest possible treatment by the controlled American communications media. This second kind of news will comprise a "laundering" job; stories of how relations between Cuba and the United States are improving, how we should consider extending complete diplomatic recognition, let bygones be bygones, send help to the hungry people of Cuba, etc. We predict you'll soon be hearing a lot of this kind of "good news" about Cuba; but it won't be truthful news. It's just that the International Bankers are finding themselves in a sort of embarrassing situation because of so much lending to socialist nations that can never pay their bills, and people are beginning to wonder about it. This is especially true of the loans to countries that are controlled by the USSR but aren't considered to be satellites. Already the media are telling us that the Soviet Union and its satellites currently owe more than $85 billion to nations and banks of the free world. This includes debts owed by the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. But there also are nations like Cuba and Somalia, which are associated but aren't satellites. That's where the embarrassment seems to lie. We are told that the USSR must spend $4 billion a year -- $11 million a day -- to keep Cuba living in the manner to which her people have been forced to become accustomed. There are ways of monetizing the debts of the satellites; but Cuba and Somalia, for example, are in a slightly different category, and are something of an embarrassment to the international Bankers. Almost a year ago we first heard that Somalia was due to be "sanitized" just as soon as feasible. And now the same treatment is to be accorded Cuba. As Globescan recently reported: "On June 10th, the (London) Economist poured on the soft soap, saying that Russia can no longer afford Cuba. They cried that the Russians pump in roughly $4 billion a year. Obviously Russia cannot continue to finance Cuba. Russia doesn't even produce enough wealth to feed herself -- no socialist country does. They must continually borrow wealth from countries where freedom to produce and keep things creates surplus capital. If socialism in Cuba or in Russia were allowed to fail, then the game would be over for the international bankers who live to lend to socialists who can never repay -- and who are hooked on loans forever." Of course, the international bankers have a way of having American taxpayers foot those bills, by monetizing the debts if required. So the business of lending to countries that can never repay is still a very lucrative practice. But, as we noted, Cuba seems to have become something of an embarrassment and changes must be made. Likewise Angola.
It will be recalled that there are Cuban troops in Angola, chiefly for the purpose of guarding the installations of multinationals like Gulf Oil Electric, and similar firms. But, as the Patterson Strategy Letter of July 31 notes: "Castro's troops are now an embarrassment and a liability. Cubans in Angola are now a stumbling block to Marxist plans. Why? Because Angola is bankrupt and desparately needs funds. The economy has collapsed because of Marxist management, and the USSR can no longer afford to funnel scarce hard currency and foodstuffs which it needs to feed Poland and its own people. Some other way must be found to finance the Marxist government of Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Naturally, the New York banks stand ready to funnel U.S. capital into the Marxist Angolan camp, and relieve the pressure on the East bloc. However, to do so at this time would be just a bit embarrassing. Therefore, 'the way must be paved' before Chase Manhattan and its London affiliates can organize a syndicate to funnel money into Angola. The way must be paved for a U.S. media laundering and cleaning of Angola's image. To do this Cuban troops must go, as they are, after all, a paid invasionary force acting on orders from Moscow -- and the whole world knows it. Here is why we see such frantic efforts being made by the Trilateralist, Chester Crocker (U.S. ambassador to South Africa) to meet with the Swapo leader, Sam Nujoma, to explain the new realities -- and why you see the New York Times running dozens of column inches on the 'Angolan revolution.' The Times is in the process of explaining to their readers why the Cuban troops have served their purpose in Angola (see New York Times of June 18th and 19th). What will be done with the Cuban troops? Unfortunately, the Cuban troops in Angola have been counted and estimated. Their numbers are well known to international news media and government bodies. There are between 20,000 and 30,000 troops in Angola and the surrounding countries. The plan on the surface is to return them to Cuba, while secretly re-deploying some troops to support the collapsing Sandanista regime in Nicaragua." (Quoted rom PSL Strategy Letter, July 31, 1982). 12 issues, $149.95 per year. PO Box 37432, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45237).
"A few days after the Sidon base (PLO base in Lebanon) was destroyed, the Libyan prime minister, Abdel Salam Jalloud, conferred in Tehran with top Iranian leaders and urged closer cooperation between the Libyan and Iranian revolutions to offset the grave blows he said the Israelis had meted out to revolutionary fundamentalist Islam. It is reported that an agreement was signed on June 19. They decided that with the help of Libyan financing, Iran would try to replace Lebanon as the new center for training violent revolutionaries. Recruits would be assigned to bases in North Teheran, near Gom and near Zahadan in the Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier district of Baluchistan. Those who manage to get out of Lebanon, and those in Libya, would be transferred to Iran, where they would be trained by North Vietnamese, North Koreans, Cubans and Bulgarians. Khomeini's presumed successor, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, would be in change." (unquote)
This is quite an optimistic venture for Iran, and could be accomplished only with the full support of the USSR. There is documentary evidence to show that in Lebanon there were training grounds accomodating 33 different guerilla organizations. Ten from Western Europe, seven from South America, three from the Far East, five from the Indian subcontinent and eight from the Gulf and the Middle East. In addition to the Palestinians affiliated with the PLO, Israel claims to have captured terrorist trainees and instructors from Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Turkey, Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, North Yemen, Niger, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Canada (one Quebec nationalist), Nigeria, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Mali, Sudan and Maritania. Also captured were about 800 very dangerous men from terrorist groups including the Bader Meinhof gang, the IRA, France's Direct Action, Italy's Red Brigades and Spain's ETA. All of the training camps originally in Lebanon are to be transferred to Iran. And, according to Hilaire du Berrier, the Khomeini has lent his personal support in a special way:
"The latest development in the Ayatollah Khomeini's conspiracy to dominate the Moslem world is a campaign being run through Iranian Embassies. In all capitals where Moselm students are present in numbers, Iranian agents are offering expense-paid trips to Tehran. Visas are stamped on loose sheets the size of the student's passport, so that his own government will have no indication that he has made a visit to Iran. On arrival at Tehran, the student learns that he has been granted a scholarship for a period of training in an Iranian military and terrorist training school where the instructors are North-Korean, Syrian and Asiatic Soviet experts. The direction of these 'schools' has been turned over to Khomeini's bloodthirsty henchmen, the Ayatollah Montazeri." (Unquote).
But about those Cubans and their future assignments. As we said, first comes the "laundering" and cleansing so the Soviet's financial burden in supporting Cuba can be transferred more directly to U.S. taxpayers. How is this being done? Here is an explanation: "The International Monetary Fund has lots of money, thanks to U.S. taxpayers, and so does the World Bank, thanks again to Americans who put their money in banks that buy World Bank bonds. So, in order to spring loose all that money for Fidel, simply soft soap Americans to change the way they think about Cuba and Dr. Castro. Make Cuba out as struggling to obtain the good life, but misunderstood; driven into the Russian camp only because of America's twenty-year-long cold sholder. The operation is under way. The IMF, as the emerging World Central Bank and lender of last resort, will take over the Cuban financial burden, using American money, as usual. The IMF is already doing it in Eastern Europe. Soon all of Russia's satellites and socialist regional governments will be re-financed -- then, as banker to One-World government and the New International Economic Order, the IMF will take over the financing of Russia as well." Quoted from Globescan, Paris, Geneva. 24 Issues (one year), $125. U.S. Subscription Center, 1545 New York Avenue, NE, Washington DC 20002).
"A country-by-country examination of Cuba's activities in Latin America and the Caribbean makes clear that Cuba has renewed its campaign of the 1960s to promote armed insurgencies. In particular, Cuba has stepped up efforts to stimulate violence and destabilize its neighbors, turning away from its earlier policy of strengthening normal diplomatic relations in the hemisphere. Since 1978 Cuba has:
"Unlike Che Guevara's attempts during the 1960s, Cuban subversion today is backed by an extensive secret intelligence apparatus, modern military forces, and a large and sophisticated propaganda network. Utilizing agents and contacts nurtured over more than 20 years, the Castro government is providing ideological and military training and material and propaganda support to numerous violent groups, often several in one country.
"Cuba is most active in Central America, where its immediate goals are to exploit and control the revolution in Nicaragua and to induce the overthrow of the Governments of El Salvador and Guatemala. At the same time, Cuba is working to destabilize governments elsewhere in the hemisphere. Cuba provides advice, safehaven, communications, training and some financial support to several violent South American organizations. In the Caribbean, Cuban interference in the post-election period has been blunted in Jamaica, but Grenada has become a virtual Cuban client.
Cuba's new drive to promote armed insurgency does not discriminate between democracies and dictatorships. And attempts by Cuba to destabilize governments occur in spite of the existence of diplomatic ties.
"The long-range campaign is directed by the Cuban Communist Party, which oversees farflung operations that include secret training camps in Cuba, intelligence officers abroad, training programmes for select foreign students, networks for covert movement of personnel and material between Cuba and abroad, and propoganda support.
Cuba's enormous investment of energy, money and agents in this campaign would not be possible without Soviet help. Soviet assistance, now totaling over $8m a day, enables Cuba to maintain the best equipped and largest per capita military forces in Latin America and to channel substantial revenue resources abroad. In return, Cuba usually is careful not to jeopardize ongoing government relationships in Latin America important to the Soviet Union." (Unquote).
Likewise, Cuba usually is careful not to jeopardize ongoing financial transactions in Latin America that are important to the Multinationals and International Bankers. Example: Panama has been set aside as a banker's sanctuary, this being arranged through our gift of the Panama Canal. Recently Panama was used as a transit point for Colombian guerillas. This led to sharp criticism of Cuba's "manifest disregard for international standards of political and economic co-existence." The supranational authorities were very upset. For Panama is set aside for money laundering and supersensitive financial dealings. Otherwise Cuba is free to Communize the Americas at our expense. But not at the International Banker's and certain multinationals' expense. We the people are caught in the middle; supporting both. And if the media are successful, we will comply without a whimper. That is, most of us will.
Extra copies of this Newsletter: 1 copy: 25 cents, 10 copies: $1.50, 20 copies: $3.00, 30 copies: $4.50, 40 copies: $6.00, 50 copies: $7.50, 100 copies: $10.00. More than 100 copies: 10 cents each. Please include extra if 1st class postage is desired. Subscription rates: $24 per year. Foreign airmail: $30 per year. DON BELL REPORTS Weekly, emphasizing the Christian American point of view. Address all orders: DON BELL REPORTS, P.O. BOX 2223, PALM BEACH, FLORIDA 33480