Before criticizing Cuba, consider U.S. role in support of anti-Castro terrorists

Before criticizing Cuba, consider U.S. role in support of anti-Castro terrorists
EDITOR:
The Vindicator editorial of May 1 blasts the United Nations for naming Cuba again to the Commission on Human Rights. It relays the message by White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that such nomination is "like putting Al Capone" in charge of banks. Unfortunately, the editorial ignores the whole reality of Cuba.
Cuba, a sovereign nation, has been under practical U.S. attack (political, economic and military) for the past 44 years. At the same time, elements of Miami Cubans practice terrorism against Cuba using the United States as a base. This assertion is not Cuban propaganda, but U.S. Justice, Treasury, State, Commerce, FBI and CIA documents.
Our current administration has named several Cuban-Americans to cabinet and special White House positions. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has appointed the grandson of Batista (the brutal dictator expelled by Cuba in 1959) to the Florida Supreme Court. A grandson should not be punished for his grandfather's crimes, however said justice has never decried the crimes committed by his grandfather's government and has associated himself with a well-known terrorist, Orlando Bosch.
Mr. Bosch, a Cuban pediatrician, was convicted for the blowing up of a Cuban Airliner killing all 76 on board (mostly young kids, members of Cuba's fencing team). Despite his crimes, Mr. Bosch attends presidential events and received a presidential pardon from President George H.W. Bush. The list of terrorists associated with this and previous administrations is long.
We decry Cuba's supposedly human rights abuses while we ourselves participate in worsening of Cuba's human conditions.
The United Nations has overwhelmingly voted against the Cuban embargo. Human rights organizations, even after the "crackdown," call for the lifting of the travel ban to Cuba and an end to the embargo for humanitarian reasons. The United States admits to spending more than $20 million to assist "dissidents" in and out of Cuba.
Drastic measures to our liberties have been implemented in this country after the horrible event of Sept. 11. Mass arrests, questioning and confinement as well as covert actions and assassinations (i.e. Sudan). The citizenry and media acclaimed these measures as needed measures for our own preservation.
The threat to Cuba is much worse. The death per capita resulting from attacks against Cuba is much more pronounced. Yet we expect Cuba to be an open society while under a practical war waged against it by the most powerful country in the world. We decry human rights conditions in Cuba while ignoring our own.
We should be outraged at our policy and not at the behavior of the United Nations or Cuba.
MILTON SANCHEZ-PARODI, M.D.
Poland
Saddam: On the loose, loaded
EDITOR:
It seems that Saddam has absconded with over a billion dollars in hard U.S. cash (three truckloads) and nobody knows where he is (probably Syria or Libya). Most likely he also absconded with some pretty potent biological material with which to make weapons of mass destruction. Plus, he probably right now is surrounded by Al-Qaida and other hate-filled henchmen. In his latest tape just released, he tells the world that he's still going to win.
Saddam now has the money, the people, and probably the materials for future terrorist attacks on American soil. And he's hiding.
Bush and company should have struck Saddam a week earlier than they did, without one single word of warning and sealed off the Iraqi border to Syria. Surprise is the greatest weapon in fighting a war.
Instead of containing Saddam as the U.N. wanted to do, we've now released him with Pandora's Box under his arm.
LEE GUY
Boardman