UN to Continue Investigation over Cuban Weapons Sent to North Korea
HAVANA TIMES – The group of UN experts tasked with enforcing compliance with the sanctions imposed on North Korea will continue to investigate the case of the Chong Chon Gang vessel, detained last year in Panama for transporting weapons from Cuba, EFE reported.
The investigation has yet to determine which individuals or entities participated in the operation and could result in sanctions against those involved.
According to the group’s annual report, published this month, the ship was carrying the largest cargo of weapons forbidden by international sanctions detected en route to North Korea since the embargo was established.
Group Coordinator Martin Uden regretted the Cuban government didn’t provide the UN with all of the information requested.
I want to add, I would never tell anybody they are “hyper-sensitive” to racism or any other kind of abuse they have been subjected to. It is my assumption that any given person is as sensitive as they need to be, given their own experiences and knowledge.
I was truly annoyed and disgusted to hear Chris Matthews, speaking on his show after Obama’s 2nd Inaugural address, in which he plainly stated that anybody who from this point on criticized President Obama is clearly a racist, because he, Chris Matthews, was so spell bound by Obama’s speech that “for a whole hour, we forgot he was black”. What a stunning example of racist projection and liberal white guilt!
That is what I’m complaining about.
I agree entirely with your comment. Or is it I agree with your entire comment?
Moses, I did not say that racism does not exist. Nor did I say there was no racist-based criticism of Obama. What I said was that almost all criticism of Obama is dismissed by his supporters, his political allies and by the liberal media as “racist”. That label is tossed around with such abandon as to deprive it of any serious meaning. To be clear: the accusations of racism come not only from black commentators and pundits, but also from white liberal pundits (eg Chris Matthews) who feel the need to prove they are not racist by calling everybody who disagrees them racist. Those who have experienced real racist discrimination and who fight against it should be wary of cynical political operatives and their compliant media hacks who use the charge of racism as a means to shut down debate and marginalized Obama’s critics.
The fight against racism is harmed by those who abuse the accusation of racism to advance their partisan political agenda.
Confrontingracism, in all its forms, is never cheap. It comes at the price of offending well-meaning but naïve folks who consider such a claim as taking the easy way
out. I would challenge you to consider what you understand these simple words mean against the unspoken meaning implied when racists use the words. These words include: “monkey”, “thug”, “gangster”, “welfare-queen”, and so on. I want to believe that you see no racial undertones in using these words to accurately describe animals, criminals, and social services scammers. However, when commentators on Fox use these words to describe Obama supporters, policies and even Obama himself, those of us accustomed to racist meta-language get the message. I have had my white friends tell me I am hyper-sensitive. However, I know that my hyper-sensitivity has kept me safe and continues to provide a necessary awareness for my afro-cuban sons as they grow up in a society that executes young black boys with seeming impunity. How many times have you been in the company of a racist who made a joke that triggered an uneasy laugh but no one challenged the jokester to see the racism in the remarks. After all, it was just a joke. I challenge you to consider that these “jokesters” are everywhere. They are bosses, bankers, and busboys. They make job hiring decisions, loan approvals and handle our food. Who is to say where the jokes they tell ends and what they really believe begins? Yet, trust me, I do not live in a paranoid state anticipating a racist attack lurking around every corner. On the contrary, I live free of
worry. I liken my attitude to earthquakes. Here in California, earthquakes are a constant reality. However, we continue to live our lives. We build tall buildings and travel through tunnels underground, etc. However, we also do our best to prepare for the day the “big one” will strike. We don’t shy away from addressing the reality of earthquakes but we live in the moment without worry.
My attitude about racism is very similar. President Obama shares the same reality that I do. Political criticism of President Obama is a necessary component of US-style democracy and should always be encouraged. However, because of his race can you say with certainty that all of the criticism he has weathered has been based solely on his politicies?
Fox has always questioned & critiqued Obama. With a few individual exceptions, the rest of the media continues to cover for him. During the 2012 presidential elections the sopposedly impartial moderator of the debate actually intervened to defend Obama from Romney’s questions on Obama’s handling of the Benghazi incident.
As for the alleged racist underpinnings of the criticism directed at Obama, it really is long past time to retire that excuse. Any and all criticism of Obama is labelled as racist. That is a cheap and cynical device for shutting down debate and cutting off any serious discussion of the issues.
I reluctantly concede that Obama began his first term riding the wave of being a media darling. By the 2010 election, the honeymoon had ended and I would argue that the opposite effect began to rule the day. You might argue that his criticisms were deserved but I believe the latent racist underpinnings in the media and among his critics began to take form in media-acceptable fashion. So no, now I believe that Obama would have been challenged on the spot and for days afterward a firestorm of Fox News-driven coverage parsing every word he spoke regarding the issue being contested.
Moses wrote,
“No one in the press bothered to challenge him on this after he said this bullshit. Incredible.”
Sounds rather like most of the US media’s attitude toward President Obama, don’t you think?
It’s a shame that Major General Pedro Mediondo, chief of Cuban Air Defence, and the man who would have been responsible for loading the Cuban MIGs onto the North Korean vessel, managed to die in a freak car accident the very week the UN had asked to interview him.
He might have been able to enlighten the UN as to what exactly was going on.
Yeah. What a tragic, if convenient, accident that was.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_27/Cuban-air-force-chief-killed-in-car-crash-4275/
Cuba’s First VP announced yesterday that the Cuba press did not lie about the hidden weapons, simply failed to tell all the truth. No one in the press bothered to challenge him on this after he said this bullshit. Incredible.