The CIA Should Declare Bankruptcy
Alfredo Fernandez
HAVANA TIMES — If indeed the CIA was the sponsor of the recently concluded “Festival Clic” in Havana, the leaders of that notorious international agency should seriously consider filing for “bankruptcy” right now.
According to Cubadebate, an official website of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), the “Festival Clic,” which was held at the office of the opposition Estado de SATS group, was organized by the CIA.
The purported aim of this activity was to destabilize the Cuban Revolution and so as to lay the foundation for a future US military attack against the island.
For this, the CIA used its Cuban-based agents: Yoani Sanchez and Antonio Rodiles, who organized the event along with the Spanish “Evento Blog Español” (EBE) group, noted Cubadebate.
For at least two of its three days, I participated in the “Festival Clic.” There I learned that if this event were in fact sponsored by the CIA (an entity that used to make us feel so threatened), then people can now breathe easy. The CIA is flat broke.
That’s right. It turns out the tired old American institution is financially on its last leg. The paltry resources that went into the June 21 to 23 sessions demonstrated more than anything else that “the Agency” is no longer a danger to anyone these days.
It turned out that the CIA gave the participants in the event nothing more than baloney sandwiches and Kool-Aid (oh…though on Friday afternoon they had the kindness to give us cheese rolls – but without the fruit-flavored drink).
Now I wonder: Could it be that the CIA couldn’t even come up with enough money to buy a little coffee for its agents, just to keep them alert throughout the afternoon sessions?
If what Cubadebate is saying is true, then I am an eyewitness to the beginning of the collapse of not only that once-powerful international espionage agency, but of the economic might of the very United States of America itself.
Yes, dear readers, judging by the horrendous performance of the CIA at the recently concluded “Festival Clic,” the introduction of ration books in the United States is only a question of time.
If this is the case, I don’t see how this institution will ever return to anything like its economic splendor of the past.
I don’t think that Cubadebate should be concerned, at least not directly, with the “bankruptcy” of the United States. To tell the truth, with our own country being as screwed up as it is, I can’t imagine us allowing in boat people fleeing our northern neighbor.
It’s worth mentioning that at the closing of the ceremony, Sanchez and Rodiles not only denied any link with the CIA, but they disavowed any institutional sponsors other than Sanchez’ own Academia Bloguer collective, Rodiles’ Estado de SATS organization and the EBE group.
Ok, lets touch up few key points ideas on the above comment once again. The cuban 5 ” Cuban citizens” were not on vacation in the USA, they were part of an espionaje group called the red avispas which was dismantled with 10 arrest in 1998 by the FBI ” Not the CIA” information from the Cuban 5 was responsable for the shootdown of two small aircraft killing all 4 US citizens aboard as they were heading to the US after dropping anti goverment panflets “NOT BOMBS” so definately the group can only be conceived as a clandestine group, from 2005 to 2008 new trials were set in atlanta away from Miami anticastro supporters but the evidence was there to just considered future resentences and confirmed the US decision. Another appeal to the supreme court was due in 2009 but with small sentence reduction for two of the fives, in other words, they were guilty of espionaje in US territory. Again not the CIA but the FBI ” federal bureau of intelligence” . The CIA helped in fact with the capture of che guevara, but the order of execution was ordered by bolovian president barrietos and carried out by bolivian soldier sergeant teran, again ” Not the CIA” ; Therefore, not santioned by the CIA. You are completely correct about knowing your adversaries before posting a comment; unfortunately, the information you have provided still incorrect. Im not a hollywood fan, in fact I prefer to read a good book instead. How cool is that?
‘Moses’ asks what’s the problem with having clandestine foreign agents in your midst? The Cuban 5 were not even clandestine and look how they were treated! They got in touch with US officials to alert them about acts of terrorism being planned in the Cuban-American community, mistakenly thinking Americans really are against terrorism. Big mistake. Terrorism in support of US policy is quite okay with them even when it blows up civilians in airplanes. And acts of terror, of course are mother’s milk to the CIA – just routine procedures.
‘Moses’ is a champion of battles of ideas. Knowing your opponent is key to any battle. When they go undercover, however, it more or less acknowledges they don’t stand a chance in a fair contest. But of course fair is not a word in the vocabulary of the CIA.
‘Moses’ gives away a great deal in what he wrote. Hollywood, as many have noted, is the biggest disinformation institution the Americans have, painting a picture since the beginning of the industry of a variety of things that just ain’t true about America, ranging from the streets of New York being paved with gold to America the good as champions of freedom and democracy around the world. Hollywood is a wet dream for the American government, military and CIA, but convincing the world it is cool to be a CIA agent is a stretch. I doubt if many buy that one these days, especially in these pages where most will be vividly aware that the CIA assisted in the capture and sanctioned the execution by Bolivian forces of Che Guevara. How “cool” is that? Clearly ‘Moses’ is hooked on the CIA. Just another Hollywood groupie? Or what? How “cool” is that?
Again, Lawrence, so what? Drawing the line at the incitement of violence against persons or property, even if a Cuban citizen was receiving instructions, payments or just a pat on the back from a foreign country, if their only weapon is their message, why all the fear and resentment? After all, didn’t Fidel say this was a “battle of ideas”? Where is the battle if you don’t have a visible enemy. Is the Revolution so fragile that it can not withstand criticism? By the way, when apologists for the Cuban regime such as yourself label a previously insignificant blogger like Ms. Sanchez as a CIA agent, even in spirit, you make her more popular and help draw attention to her cause. Do you know how many Americans think how cool it would be to be a CIA agent? How many Hollywood movies and movie star careers are based upon this fantasy? To most Americans and a lot of people around the world, working with the CIA is badass. Hey, she should be thanking you….
Labelling Yoani as a Cuban-based agent of the CIA seems to be a legitimate assertion. Little if anything she writes would cause any employee of the CIA to choke on their breakfast cornflakes reading her posts each morning. To keep decriers of the charge happy, it could be qualified as a CIA agent in spirit, if not in paid fact.
In regard to organisation of the event, Yoani mysteriously writes, ” It proved to be very difficult to organize this event through alternative channels,” that can only lead to speculation as to what those alternative channels were – the funding part, not just getting people to the presentations on time.
That the CIA would gladly fund anything she organised, there can be little doubt, based on what she writes. The contrast with Havana Times’ writers bears noting. The principles of the Revolution are always in the forefront of their writing. Not so with Yoani. No wonder she’s given somewhat of a rough time sometimes, but not as rough as she would have you believe, but the Americans, with a notorious history of selective ‘humanitarian interventionism, suck it up, craving for any excuse to get “involved”.
So the “most likely” rule applies in the absence of a smoking gun and details about the alternative channels. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck… Calling the labelling of Yoani as a CIA agent innuendo and a “baseless invention” under the circumstances is outright foolishness. Calling it defamation and “vilification” to be accused of being a CIA agent is an interesting admission. At least I can agree on that.
It is well put humberto, but it’s much easier to see Richard’s contradictions in his own replay to Moses. First he attacks the CIA, then he turns to Yoany Sanchez. The finale by itself is just confused by feelings of which one should I pick to make my point; in either case cheeseman is just that it goes well with fruits but not with Kool-Aid.
Richard Cheeseman ! CAN YOU PROVIDE SOME REAL PROOF THAT YOANI SANCHEZ IS AN AGENT WITH A LINK TO BACK UP YOUR STATEMENTS? IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT YOU ARE COMMITTING DEFAMATION!
DEFAMATION: also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).[1]
INNUENDO: is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion. In the latter sense, the intention is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one’s words, taken literally, are innocent.According to the Advanced Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, an innuendo is “an indirect remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting something bad, mean or rude; the use of remarks like this: innuendoes about her private life or The song is full of sexual innuendo.” The word is often used to express disapproval.[1]
Moses, the “venom” is directed not against Sánchez but against her de facto employers, the US imperialist regime itself and its CIA state terror and subversion network. My animus is not a personal thing against particular individuals, however contemptible, but stems from a broader opposition to the rogue empire’s arrogant and criminal campaign to reimpose a right wing client regime of its choice on its former colony, Cuba. The enemy is imperialism, not its individual minions du jour.
Your post shows that you have bought into the empire’s sycophantic official propaganda effort which manufactured Sánchez as an important cult figure in the United States, but your assumption that I share your interest in the personality of this puffed-up nonentity is false. She is just one more tool in the long series of political tools picked up and made use of by the US regime for its colonialist schemes and she will not be the last either. Seen in this broader context, her personal attitudes and motivations are irrelevant (although obviously they had to have been such as to make her fit for purpose).
There is no point in fixating emotionally on a puppet instead of on those who pull its strings. That is mistaking the puppet show for reality.
Richard, this is a serious question. I hope you will answer me in a serious way. No sarcasm unless it is instructive. Even if Yoani Sanchez was a card-carrying Langley-trained CIA agent, what difference does that make? I am completely convinced that China and Russia have their own agents in the US working in both government and corporate espionage. So what? US secrets are kept from unauthorized US ciitizens and foreign agents alike. People who hate capitalism shop in the same Albertsons grocery store as I do. I don’t agree with them but I don’t carry the apparent venom for them that your remarks regarding Yoani reflect. So she opposes totalitarianism. So what? Why does she strike such a sensitive nerve with you and your ilk? Please explain.
“It turned out that the CIA gave the participants in the event nothing more than baloney sandwiches and Kool-Aid…”
And this fatuously sarcastic political ingenue drank his Kool-Aid right up and spewed out the baloney here.
Poor Alfredo Fernandez doesn’t realise that just because the CIA didn’t see fit to give him a fat wad of dollars that doesn’t mean they’re broke. After all, they have plenty to spare for their “prize” blogger, Y Sanchez.