Yoani Sánchez’s faked Obama interview

Annals of Shame: How to fake an interview with the President of the United States of America and be sure nobody will notice

“The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.” – Joseph Goebbels

Some years ago I accompanied a Cuban friend who needed to sign a document in front of a U.S. consular official at the U.S. Interests Section (USIS) in Havana.  Once past the waiting room where TV Martí plays to its small captive audience – the only one it can legitimately claim on the island – and back toward the section where such transactions take place, I noticed a couple of idle computer terminals.  I asked if I might go ahead and check my email while we waited.  The consular official narrowed his eyes at me.  “No,” he snapped.

That’s the nature of things when you’re a lowly U.S. citizen inside Fortress USA on Havana’s Malecon. 

Vicky Peláez caught in U.S. dragnet

Vicky Peláez was the only Spanish language journalist in New York worth a damn.  So naturally something had to be done about her.  She and her husband are the sore thumbs in this story and you have to wonder if the mighty U.S. Justice Department wasn’t running a twofer (or in this case a ten-fer) that swept Vicky off the press desk at El Diario/La Prensa so that even if she is ultimately exonerated, her career will be destroyed.  Eva Golinger has the story.

BREAKING NEWS: United States Arrests Ten Supposed “Russian Spies,” a Journalist Among Them - español

Eva Golinger

English translation: Machetera

Caracas, June 28, 2010 – Last week, President Barack Obama shared a typical “American” meal with the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev.  Between hamburgers and Coca-Colas, the two heads of state smiled and proclaimed their relationship “stable” and “better than ever.”  Medvedev even sent photos via Twitter of his pleasant meal with his U.S. counterpart.  He didn’t expect that just a few days later, the Cold War would be resuscitated.

DAI’s not so invisible puppet show

As we wait to learn the identity of the mystery Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) “subcontractor” who was handing out cellphones and laptops like Santa Claus in Cuba this December, let’s deconstruct the recent statement by Dr. James Boomgard, DAI Chief Executive Officer, denying DAI’s relationship to U.S. intelligence services.

Boomgard said: “The detained DAI subcontractor was not working for any intelligence service.”

In this post Clinton “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” world, perhaps that was meant as some kind of denial.  What Boomer did not say was that the detained subcontractor was not doing the work of U.S. intelligence.

In an interview the former CIA agent Phil Agee gave to Dennis Bernstein of the Flashpoints radio program in March 2005, he explained how intelligence work came to be shifted from the CIA to contractors such as the National Endowment for Democracy and their associated subcontracting NGOs such as DAI, Chemonics International (“an international development consulting firm that promotes meaningful change to help people live healthier, more productive, and more independent lives”), Partners for Democratic Change, Albert Einstein Institution, Freedom House and countless others.  Agee was speaking specifically though not exclusively of Venezuela on that occasion.

Spy vs. spy

Spy vs. Spy

Cuban Dissidents March to Orders of U.S.

by Diana Barahona – La Republica

Aleida Godínez worked for the Cuban intelligence services as an undercover agent from 1991 until 2003, when she became a star witness at the trials of 75 individuals arrested for working on behalf of the United States as dissidents. A prominent dissident herself, Godínez spent years insinuating herself into the world of the hired opposition, proving herself a loyal and capable employee of the U.S. Interests Section and the CIA in Havana.

From her humble beginnings as a human rights activist in her native Ciego de Ávila, Godínez went on to become an independent journalist, and independent librarian, founder of the Cuban Christian Democratic Party, a leader of two independent labor organizations, the right hand of Martha Beatriz Roque, a trusted spy of a CIA officer and a close friend of Frank Calzón, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba. All of the titles and organizations were fictitious, and all followed the orders of the US Interests Section.

In her capacity as celebrity dissident Godínez was a guest on Radio Martí, filing 102 reports about supposed human rights violations between 1992 and 1993. She met with diplomats and delegations from several countries, and recieved copious amounts of money, gifts and free meals. She was tasked with spying for the United States, and carried the required information, gathered by her Cuban handlers, to her American handlers at the USIS.