Anti-Cuban offensive routed in Dublin as Caleb McCarry beats a hasty retreat

international | crime and justice | news report

Monday April 30, 2007 18:32

by Simon McGuinness - Free the Miami Five Campaign

George W Bush designated proconsul for Cuba fails to convince on Anti-Cuban policies

Caleb McCarry, the US "Transitional Coordinator for Cuba's" low key address to the students of Politics at University College Dublin thisafternoon was greeted by a lively band of demonstrators who responded to an emergency call to action by Free the Miami Five and other long time friends of Cuba.

Caleb McCary - US appointed Proconsul-in-waiting to Cuba

Having risk-assessed the assembled crowd of protestors, the meeting was delayed in starting whilst college authorities called in the Irish police to provide protection to McCarry. After the police had swept another classroom - presumably for IEDs - the protestors were advised they would be told where the new room was if they agreed to hold a peaceful protest.

No such undertaking was given as some students had already managed to find out and communicate the alternate location. In any event, the protestors were from many different political persuasions and few, if any, were willing to contemplate any negotiations with the handmaidens of imperialism.

The protestors hastily gathered up their banners from all around the previous room and hot-footed off down the corridor to the new room, the entrance to which was lined with 8 Irish police officers (quite possibly the entire police deployment for South Dublin) and the head of college security, who visually scanned them for evidence of dangerous weaponry as they entered.

Approximately 35 people squeezed into the non-descript alternate classroom where the chalk board still proclaimed the finer points of Euclidian geometry. About 6 students appeared interested to hear what Mr McCarry had to say, although only two (both, interestingly enough, with heavy Germanic accents) actually expressed any support for hearing his thoughts.

Placards were posted next to the speakers podium and facing the US Embassy officials which read "Caleb McCarry Coordinates three key US Government policies: -The Illegal Blockade of Cuba, - The Secret Terrorist War against Cuba, - The Global Propaganda against Cuba .. Why is UCD hosting him?"

Placards elsewhere in the room depicted the Cuban victims of US supported terrorists either side of a panel which read "The USA is Harbouring Terrorists - VICTIMS DEMAND JUSTICE"

In all about 8 people spoke to denounce the US policy against Cuba. Caleb McCarry, when he eventually began to exercise his rhetorical abilities spoke a total of three words "I'm", "Caleb" and "McCarry" - in that order. After that, when agreement to allow the speaker to continue was not forthcoming, the chair adjourned the meeting to a secret venue which she said would be open only to students of the faculty.

This secret venue turned out to be the service road at the rear of the building where Caleb McCarry and his consular officials were whisked away without saying anything more surrounded by the banner wielding protestors.

Extensive video footage of the meeting was taken, at one point the cameraman approaching to within 1m of the speaker on the podium for a close up of his bored expression and extensive facial hair. Mr McCarry, conscious perhaps of his unphotogenic features, asked the photographer to desist in photographing him. The cameraman agreed to desist but only after he (McCarry) agreed to desisted from attacking Cuba.

As he left the meeting McCarry was handed a leaflet "Can you be Imprisoned in the USA for Opposing Terrorism? Yes - if you Oppose Terrorism in Miami" from A Miami Five supporter. This leaflet explains the case of the Miami Five and will feature again in his in tray when it appears as two-page advertisement in a forthcoming issue of The Nation magazine devoted to Cuba.

The Miami Five supporter was wearing a t-shirt with a photograph of Luis Posada Carriles on the front and the bold text "Stop Harbouring Terrorists - Extradite Posada". Posada is a convicted terrorist who the Bush administration are refusing to prosecute or extradite for his part in the murder of 73 people in the terrorist bombing of a civilian airliner off the coast of Barbados in 1976.

On the basis of this meeting, it is likely that Caleb McCarry will think twice about addressing a public meeting in Ireland again.

Very scary protestors

More scary protestors

Scary protestors pack the room and ask difficult questions

Proconsul is lead away, head bowed

save preference

Comments (13 of 13)

re On The Ground

by Bay of Pigs

Sun May 06, 2007 21:17

Good question: if they are Americans then answer is probably not: why?

Simply because their own supposedly freedom-loving government BANS them from visiting Cuba. It also BANS them from buying anything from Cuba. It also BANS them from receiving anything free that Cuba offers them.

100,000 of them have been offered cataract operations in Cuba for free – free assessment and treatment plan, free eye operations, free flights, free aftercare, free medicines – but, no, the US government BANS them from availing of the free healthcare. These are the poor Americans who have no health insurance, cannot otherwise get healthcare and must now endure blindness until they die - all thanks to Uncle Sam.

What is Bush so afraid that they might discover by going to Cuba?

Keeping Americans blind to the realities of Cuba is what it is all about. Having to endure constant lectures from blind "experts" is an insult to our intellegence. Having to answer their moronic assertions is even worse.

On the ground

by Kieran Brophy - None

Sat May 05, 2007 15:07

I wonder if those people spouting the US line about lack of freedoms etc have ever visited Cuba? Perhaps some Cubans do go in fear of arrest but the majority of Cuban citizens seem to enjoy as much freedom as the rest of us (not directly under attack by the US) to live their lives as they wish. Of course, most of them would like if life was a bit easier which it could be if the US blockade was lifted and all countries were free to trade with Cuba without fear of spiteful and vindictive action by that great supporter of democracy, the good old USA. Get your noses out of the CIA website and get out there into the real world to see how things are.

reply to Gareth's comment

by jay

Thu May 03, 2007 19:44

'respecting Cuba's right to self-determination'

How can you even say Cuba has 'self-determination' when the Cuban people live in totalitarian, socialist dictatorship. They cannot chose to support political routes other than Fidel and Raul's party. The people of Cuba are not free under socialism, they live in constant fear of arrest by secret police and there is no tolerance for dissenting views on the government. Surely indymedia contributors would not lend their support for a wicked and corrupt regime where an anti-establishment website like this would not even be allowed operate?

Yankee go Home

by j1

Thu May 03, 2007 18:02

Congratulations to all concerned in ridding UCD of Bush's agents.

Yankee go Home

Demonstrate or attend?

by Jack L

Thu May 03, 2007 15:01

People complain about shouting down a speaker and not listening. That is the difference between protest and attendance. If we attended and listened and argued, we would be like every other audience of his. He wouldn't take anything on board and all he would tell is his lies and propaganda anyway. If you want to know what he says, read his stuff on the internet or watch a speech on youtube. The importance of shouting these people down is to make them understand that there are some places where their kind of people and extremist ideals WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

Excellent solidarity work

by Gareth Mackle - Comhthionól Ard Mhacha Thiar

Thu May 03, 2007 11:15

I will defend neo-con 'régime change terrorists' right to freedom of speech when they agree to respect Cuba's inalienable right to self determination

one sided

by Glab

Wed May 02, 2007 20:35

this article does not paint an accurate picture of what happened on the day. i'd say most of the room wanted to hear the guy speak - and have an intelligent debate with him. instead a couple of cranky old men shouted everyone down and set off stink bombs. yeah real mature guys. losers.

by Squirrel

Wed May 02, 2007 01:39

One fatal inaccuracy of the article is that way more than two students expressed the fact that they wanted to hear him speak. I was one of them. One thing they all had in common was they were all shouted down.

more authoritarian propaganda

Well done

by JohnG - Free the Miami 5 Youth

Wed May 02, 2007 01:22

Congratulations on the turnout, unfortunately it would take me nearly 2 hours to get to UCD and I had College things to attend to, so I couldn't make it.

Well done to all the organisations that silenced this hate monger.

To the poster that alleges gestapo like tactics, I would suggest that you take a look at McCarry's track records on displacing legitimate democracies. The man has been funneling funds for the CIA through front organisations for years. His father was a CIA agent.

McCarry has assisted in the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of people and we can not allow a forum for hate mongering in te guise of U.S. protectionism.

Please remember who we are dealing with here ...

by SP

Tue May 01, 2007 11:57

The US Proconsul for Cuba has an official US Congress approved budget of $80 million US dollars this year alone for his propaganda against Cuba.

If a bunch of Irish demonstrators have prevented him getting value for his first class flight across the Atlantic and his cosy little brown-envelope donation to the School of Politics and International Relations in UCD then it is a tiny dent in his global media reach.

With that kind of budget, Caleb McCarry could get front page coverage in any international newspaper he desires. With that kind of budget he can also ensure that the 50 international media circulated with this report will not dare to publish it.

McCarry, through the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, also has 1 civil servant tracking Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts for ever 8 civil servants he has tracking Cuban government accounts. He uses them to, for example, prosecute American grannies who go on cycling holidays to Cuba. He is determined to press ahead with close to 100,000 outstanding prosecutions of American citizens who have holidayed in Cuba over the past 5 years. Some will be bankrupted in the process.

Freedom? Some freedom.

From CUBA this 1st May...

by F Espinoza

Mon Apr 30, 2007 21:57

This 1st May listen to:

http://www.cubainformacion.tv

http://www.cubainformacion.tv

http://www.cubainformacion.tv

*************************************************************************************************************

and sign the:

FIGHT FOR JUSTICE... CAMPAIGN

LUIS POSADA CARRILES MUST BE TRIED FOR HIS CRIMES!

While in the name of the fight against terrorism, hundreds of thousands of people have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others - arbitrarily detained - are tortured in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the United States government protects the most notorious terrorist in this hemisphere, attempting to deceive public opinion through interminable pseudolegal manuevers and refusing to try him for his real crimes.

Luis Posada Carriles was accused and brought to trial in Venezuela for the 1976 attack against a commercial aircraft in which 73 persons died. After escaping from Venezuelan prisons in 1982 - leaving his trial unconcluded - he served the CIA as part of what was known as the "Irancontras" operation and also in the implementation of the genocidal Plan Cóndor. In 1997 he prepared a series of terrorist acts against hotels in Havana - in one of which the young Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, lost his life -, and in the year 2000, the projected attempt against President Fidel Castro´s life at the University of Panama.

In March, 2005, Posada Carriles entered the United States illegally. Only after reiterated public denunciations that revealed the presence of this criminal in U.S. terriitory, the goverment of George W. Bush proceeded to detain and charge him for immigration crimes and false witness, without the slightest reference to terrorism.

Through their handling of Posada Carriles, the U.S. authorities, pressured by groups of Cuban extremists in South Florida, have made evident the double morality of their war against terrorism in the name of which they torture, kidnap and bomb. At the same time, as has been denounced by numerous international forums and United Nations´agencies, five Cuban antiterrorist activists remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States, subjected together with their families to cruel and discriminatory treatment.

All honest people of the world who raise their voices against war and terrorism, have before them irrefutable proof of the lack of ethics upon which the current administration in Washington bases its actions. We, the undersigned, demand that the government of the United States, in compliance with international obligations, charge Luis Posada Carriles for all of his crimes or attend the request for his extradition to Venezuela, which until now has received absolutely no response.

To sign the campaign:

[email protected]

http://www.porlajusticia.cu

http://www.porlajusticia.net

http://www.porlajusticia.org

http://www.porlajusticia.info

http://www.porlajusticia.com

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/index.html

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/ultraje/art245.html

Other Websites related:

http://www.antiterroristas.cu

http://www.freethefive.org/

http://www.freeforfive.org/

http://www.freethecuban5.com/

http://www.cubavsterrorismo.cu/

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/conclusiones/ind....html

http://www.familiesforjustice.cu/interface.sp/design/ho....html

http://www.familiesforjustice.cu/interface.en/design/ho....html

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/crimen_barbados/....html

http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/2005/abril/17cmfidel.htm

http://www.fabiodicelmo.cu/home.asp

http://www.ain.cu/2005/abril/17cmfidel.htm

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/

Videos:

- "Misión contra el terror", acerca de los Cinco héroes cubanos prisioneros en cárceles del imperio:

http://es.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Unique&id=824

- Videos de Ivette e Irmita, hijas de René González y Olga Salanueva:

http://www.freethefive.org/updates/USMedia/USMIrmaIvett...7.htm

- "El infierno de Guantánamo, territorio usurpado":

http://es.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Unique&id=889

- "La guerra contra Cuba":

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=44292

- "Sistema migratorio, Ricardo Alarcón":

http://es.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Unique&id=999

- "CIA, la invasión silenciosa":

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=46187

- "Bacardí, el secreto del murciélago":

http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=5416850335187952791

http://es.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=v...ter=E

- "Sobre el terrorista Luis Posada Carriles":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1KAaWgaD3Q

Congratulations are in Order

by Dharma

Mon Apr 30, 2007 21:46

You seemed to behave like Huns, bravo.

Free exchange of ideas only is allowed when it fits the narrow precepts of your ilk and it's remarkable success at Intimidation, your well on the road to becoming sicilian Gangsters at this rate.

Are your brownshirts in yet from the tailors?

by Paul

Mon Apr 30, 2007 21:39

Fair dues to you all. Sorry I couldn't be there, too short notice.

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Anti-Cuban offensive routed in Dublin as Caleb McCarry beats a hasty retreat

Comments (13 of 13)