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July 6, 2006
A Simple Answer

ORCC – Operation Regime Change Cuba:

The report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, co-chaired
by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Cuban-American Secretary
of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, makes recommendations to hasten the end
of the island’s communist government and assist the transition.
…
However, officials cautioned that the final version of the report, which includes a classified annex, could change before it landed on Bush’s hands.
Cuba transition report presented to President Bush

The report urges Bush to allocate $80 million to end Cuba’s Communist government. It says that the U.S. should get ready to intervene once Castro dies.

…

Last May the Organization of American States’ secretary general, the Chilean José Miguel Insulza, asked an obvious question: Why has Bush created an office to coordinate a transition in Cuba?

Talking about Bush Insulza said: "There is no transition [in Cuba] and it is not his country." Who are you, he asked the President, to propose a transition in a country that is not yours?
U.S. should let Cuba decide its own future

Here is the quite simple answer to compadre Insulza’s question:

"The drilling has ended and the Spanish company is assessing the results. We don’t know if there is good quality oil yet. We expect to be informed in two weeks," the Cuban official, who spoke on the condition he was not identified, said on Saturday evening.

The oil industry is watching closely the first ever well sunk in Cuba’s 43,000-square-mile exclusive economic zone in the Gulf, which may hold large quantities of medium-grade crude.

Exploratory Oil Drilling Done Off Cuba

(emphasis’ added)

Posted by b on July 6, 2006 at 18:32 UTC | Permalink
Comments

I am afraid that the worst news Cuba could hear in the near future is that they have oil reserves. If they do, a regime change will become a mandatory and pressing issue. The USA will be forced to export democracy at all costs…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 6 2006 18:37 utc | 1

please say it isn’t so. jeez , is there no end to this madness. i have concern they are just waiting for castro to die.

Posted by: annie | Jul 6 2006 19:09 utc | 2

…or planning to help. Why wait?

Posted by: beq | Jul 6 2006 19:29 utc | 3

The most successful capitalist country in the world right now is communist china. Hmmm… Very interesting. Maybe Castro should be pushing for regime ‘transition’ in the US. Of course he would have to do some major work on ‘exploding cigars’ first.

Posted by: pb | Jul 6 2006 19:58 utc | 4

Campaign test balloon by repigs. Throw it out there, see if it generates any gabble in MSMistan, some potential for October hysteria.

Posted by: blackdogred | Jul 6 2006 20:24 utc | 5

Just came across this article from Periodico 26 and thought it might be of interest in this thread.
Cuban Biotechnology: World Class Science for the World’s Well Being

Many people outside of Cuba view with surprise the fact that Cuban biotechnological products have found niches in the international market – especially considering the island’s short history in the field and the US government’s trade blockade. Cuba’s elevated health indicators, which are comparable to those of industrialized nations, have been achieved to a large extent by biotechnology’s contribution.
….
During the 1980’s Cuba had only three biotechnological products; currently it is commercializing 10 times that figure. Several of these products are produced exclusively by Cuba, while others compete with the largest transnationals. All of the island-made medicines are included in the country’s hospital, whose services are enjoyed free of charge by the over 11 million inhabitants. The Center’s wide selection of products includes two interferon products: Recombinant Alpha, which since its arrival on the national market in 1987 found a number of clinical applications on children and adults in the fight against viral diseases; and Gamma, registered in the Caribbean nation in 1988 and used on patients with rheumatic arthritis.
Epidemic Growth Factor is also an outstanding achievement, a medicine which is used in hospital units for the replacement of tissue for burn patients, and the Hepatitis B vaccine, certified by the World Health Organization and registered in 35 countries of Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. The application of this vaccine, the first obtained through recombinant DNA technology, has made it possible for Cuba to have no reports of chronic Hepatitis B in children; no cases of this type of illness in children under 15 have been reported since 2005.
Another drug that has come out of Cuban laboratories is recombinant streptokinase, which is provided in all of the country’s intensive care units and used in the treatment of heart attacks, the principal cause of death among Cubans over 50 years of age. Patented in Cuba, the United States and Europe, the product is registered in over a dozen countries.

Posted by: Fran | Jul 6 2006 20:30 utc | 6

Oh the Cubans are right up there in biotechnology.
Oil? That is terrible news for them.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 6 2006 20:41 utc | 7

that was me

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 6 2006 20:42 utc | 8

Mebbe Kenny’s off to the Caribbean for a sub rosa visit to the recombinant streptokinase clinic.
That’s also prob’ly how Dick keeps his ticker going.

Posted by: catlady | Jul 6 2006 20:42 utc | 9

how expensive is medium crude to extract? is this the same sort of oil that venezuela has to sale? Chavez would no doubt bring Castro/Cuba into opec asap.
this “Cuba strategy” is for Jebbie, too, I would think, to strengthen his position as a vp for McCain. I think Jebbie is Dubya squared, as far as mean-spirited manipulation is concerned. what a nightmare to have another Bush as a candidate…and one who signed on to pnac, while Dubya was too busy with baseball to care much.
The 80 million will no doubt buy a lot of Florida votes and counter the dems in Dade County and beyond– but esp. Dade County.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 6 2006 21:18 utc | 10

Fauxreal, the Cuban product will likely be more like the Mexican crude which comes from the same general area. I believe Venezuelan crudes tend to run a little heavier and waxier, with more metal contamination. If it is a medium-grade crude, it would be extracted with conventional petroleum production technologies, not the exotic recovery techniques necessary for the heavy and super-heavy crudes we see these days.

Posted by: PrahaPartizan | Jul 6 2006 21:30 utc | 11

It will be great if Cuba can just keep ticking along, looking after it’s people and steering that course between development and sustainability, but ironically if Cuba does succumb to a globalisation intervention, it will be a result of it’s people imagining a change is as good as a rest.
In a strange way the best thing for Cuba is if these asshole rethugs keep ganging up on it, because as any redneck can tell ya there is nothing like a common enemy (ay-rabs, homos, black people) to unite ya.
The biggest danger will be a careerist apparatchik timing his/her run just as people become too dependent on overseas tourist revenue and imagine that the easy way out for the social problems and disharmony the tourists have brought with them is more tourism to pay for whatever piece of bullshit they have convinced themselves will solve the problem.
It will likely be at least another generation, say thirty years, before every scum sucking descendent of slave-owners in Miami that still calls the Cuban people’s land his/hers finally karks it. The slavers’ descendants will be 3rd and 4th generation seppos by then so the few that do still consider Cuba ‘theirs’ won’t have the contacts to steal it back.
There is no doubt that if there is an oil resource within Cuba’s economic development zone, it will put a great deal of pressure on Cuba’s ability to withstand the forces of globalisation.
Let’s hope that President Castro has been watching the developments in Timor Leste, where the Portuguese oil corporation that was selected for that development proved itself as rapacious as any other and participated in an attempt to deny all the Timorese access to the benefits of the resource.
The Spanish company may have been carefully selected to ensure that won’t occur but there can be no guarantees.
If it is a corporation some bigger and less scrupulous corporation will take it over. If it is a state enterprise Spain will be pressured into ‘regime change ‘ first.
Still if Cuba can hold out long enough the penny may have dropped amongst the world’s population all the way up to the assholes by then.
Oil is the repository for millions billions maybe of years of surplus energy which has reached the earth from the sun.
In about 100 years the humans on this planet have chewed up aeons of that energy, given that most of that energy reverts back to the form it first became when it reached here, thermal energy, how much longer do we imagine we can keep releasing all that accumulation out. I mean until the earth begins to glow like the sun, all the thermal energy can do is to get to the outer limits of earth’s atmosphere and then run out of places to go. Therefore the planet gets warmer and warmer, then hotter and hotter. A bit like a flashlight in a vacuum flask, the race is on to see if the battery will run out before the heat destroys the mechanism.
Hang in there Cuba, in many ways Cuba’s relatively small size is it’s best defense. It is much more difficult for assholes who keep themselves removed from the effects of their greed to prosper in a small community. That is equally true for leaders of global corporate enterprises as it is for leaders of global proletariat solidarity or whatever more catchy phrase assholes use to construct large faceless and unresponsive entities.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 6 2006 21:32 utc | 12

I think I’ve mentioned here before that Cuban medical researchers have also come up with a really cool way to set broken bones without using plaster of paris casts – no time to google links tonight, but it’s out there somewhere.
A couple of years back I went to a launch of a book about Che attended by the Cuban embassy (held in the Palace of Westminster because the event was sponsored by a British MP!), and the talk was all about the great leap forward that is Cuban biotech.
Saw Oliver Stone’s doc about Fidel last month, one of the best bits is where they go to a medical school and among the med students from all over the Americas are two women, one from Oregon and one from NYC, who are getting free medical training in Cuba and then going back to the US to practise in their respective communities.
What kind of country wants to invade another that counts medical doctors as one of its major exports?

Posted by: Dismal Science | Jul 6 2006 21:40 utc | 13

Also, is this report qualitatively different from the normal whip-up-the-Miami-Cuban vote that would happen at this point in any domestic US election cycle?
Has it really got anything to do with oil?

Posted by: Dismal Science | Jul 6 2006 21:43 utc | 14

western Europeans (mostly Spainards) have built resort hotels in Havana for years now, waiting for the thaw between the U.S. and Cuba so that they can sell this real estate to American hoteliers at vastly inflated prices.
The Spanish investors own the hotels and Cuba owns the land.
Cuba wants investors, since the collapse of the USSR, along with the Helms-Burton Act limits their investment sources unless US investors go through a european concern (and I’d bet many do) –even tho it’s ostensibly a way to keep bizzes from operating in the U.S.
that all depends on who your friends are, as Rummy in Iraq so amply demonstrated.
it’s too bad that the U.S. will have to use the excuse of Castro’s death to “normalize” trading relations with them. but since the U.S. needs cheap labor and markets for its own goods, the embargo on Cuba is utterly stupid.
on the other hand, as noted, Cuba has done work toward sustainable agriculture b/c of the ostracizing, so difficulties can make you more creative, even at the state level. maybe in a dozen years, Cuban farmers will be coming to America to help figure out a post-oil agriculture (tho I know a few farmers (local-scale) who are already wise to the same sort of ag. practices.
Harper’s “The Cuba Diet”

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 6 2006 22:15 utc | 15

What kind of country wants to invade another that counts medical doctors as one of its major exports?
This is a rhetorical q right?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 6 2006 22:27 utc | 16

yep

Posted by: Dismal Question | Jul 6 2006 23:06 utc | 17

A [not] so simple answer?
Chomsky & Foucault sitting in a tree
Power vs knowledge.
Transcripts here.
And according to Chomsky.info it was 1971…three cheers for Dutch television!
The abundance of televised imbecilities is probably one of the reasons for the American working class’s inability to develop any political consciousness.
–Guy DeBord, 1957
ps., I suspect Debord was refering to Merican television…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 6 2006 23:46 utc | 18

Should also mention that there’s a connection between oil and Fidel and Venezuela’s Chavez that’d stimulate certain rightwing daydreams…

Posted by: blackdogred | Jul 7 2006 0:07 utc | 19

Speaking of reichwing daydreams…
“TODAY, YOUR MISSILE REACHED OUT TO SOME IRAQI CHILDREN”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 7 2006 0:19 utc | 20

under these murderers who rule from the roll of dollars there seems no action, no intervention, no destabilisation, no corruption beyond them
whaat the nazi did with death – the united states has now done with degradation
they have constructed a spiritual poverty & practice which is beyond the imagination of che guevara when he wrote, cuba si – yankee no & 1,2,3 many vietnams
they cannot be shamed because each act is another level of guilt which they wear like a badge
& of course we europeans are touched by this degraded morality – i am shamed for example with the ‘coverage’ or absence of it – of the illegal & immoral actions of the israeli army in gaza
can we not understand the simplest of facts – that if you treat a people so – they will come to your cities & try to tear them down – i do not find that at all surprising & am surprised that it does not happen more often
but even in the liberal press of france & italy but especially that of the english speaking world – the complicity that is being engaged – shows man at his most base
it is on days like this that i think we merit a never ending war but the opressed possess more dignity than us, they posess more wisdom than us, they possess more tolerance than we do & because they have become expert in suffering they are the only ones who understand transcendance as a living act
the life of a ken lay is a life of a nobody, an american nobody a nobody who is a natural continuum of the vacuit of an andy warhol – his death touches us not at all or as light as a feather but the death of every single iraqui, every single palestinian, every single afghani ought to touch us as heavily as a mountain
& the perversion of all this – this vaudeville of a militant islam which is a direct product of cia politicoethic engineeering – corrupting the very real desires of a people, or peoples for their proper self determination
if they touch a hair on cuba’s head – i will make this broken body do all it can do to oppose imperialism in it’s time of the most degenerate decay

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 7 2006 0:49 utc | 21

uncca- thanks for that link to the transcript of the Chomsky/Foucault debate

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 7 2006 1:45 utc | 22

Your welcome fauxreal, it good to hear, as a wonder if only a small handful
of peeps even bother to ck out the links I post. I’d prolly do it anyway, but it’s good to hear sometimes. So tahnk-you.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 7 2006 2:12 utc | 23

I’s suffers from bouts of pseudo-nihilism, and low self esteem, can’t you tell?…lol *Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.* spoken in my best W C Fields voice. Ask me about my side effects, which may include, but are not limited to watery eyes, sore feet, nose bleeding, mild hemoroids, general virtigo and stuffyness. I’m starving and lonely, however, I have many Kung Fu movies, Vodka and prozac!
Without a sense of humor, life is utterly unbearable on this barbaric planet. ~Robert Anton Wilson

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 7 2006 2:24 utc | 24

America’s continued irrational approach with matters Cuban does not require greed for oil as well. (That would make the policy almost rational.) The sad part is that it predates the current regime as well as previous ones.
What is more mysterious is that Castro has not chosen to make his succession clearer thus not just averting invasion but thereby winning the game in the end.

Posted by: YY | Jul 7 2006 2:50 utc | 25

@Uncle $cam – Every you link you are posting here gets clicked. Though sometimes there isn´t enough time to read ’em all, I try to get through most of them. Always very valuable.

Posted by: b | Jul 7 2006 6:28 utc | 26

Speaking of Chomsky, here’s some crazy news. Doubtless everyone around here read that superb 2 vol. study Chomsky & Herman wrote “Manufacturing Consent”:
Turkey to prosecute publishers of Noam Chomsky’s book
The Chief Public Prosecution Office has decided to prosecute two publishers for publishing the book of Noam Chomsky, accusing them of degrading Turkishness and Turkish Republic.
The office compiled an indictment file against two publishers who prepared book of Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman titled “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” to printing.
The indictment file claimed that certain extracts from book degrade Turkishness and Turkish Republic, and fuel hatred and discrimination among the people.
Publishers Ömer Faruk Kurhan and Lütfi Taylan Tosun could face up to 6 years prison term if found guilty.Enter Chomsky in Search Window

Posted by: jj | Jul 7 2006 6:45 utc | 27

Seconded, Uncle, I’ve skimmed thro’ the Foucault-Chomsky faceoff, will try to read it in full at some point – very interesting, especially towards the end.
Glad you are posting, and also good to see rgiap back, hope trip to hospital was a success.
300 prominent British Jews yesterday took out a full-page ad in The Times on behalf of Jews for Justice for Palestine to condemn Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Among the signatories were Eric Hobsbawm, Jacqueline Rose, and the philospher of science Jerry Ravetz, with whom I had the pleasure of working a few years back.
The BBC reported an Israel govt spokesperson as saying they did not represent the views of British Jews. QED.

Posted by: Dismal Science | Jul 7 2006 14:43 utc | 28

The article you site is from a year ago. Do you know what the results are from the drilling and what the plans for exploitation of the oil is?

Posted by: Jesus Reyes | Jul 7 2006 15:36 utc | 29

@Jesus – CSM – July 6, 2006 – Florida in cross hairs of US hunt for oil

Since 1977, an informal boundary agreement between the US and Cuba has bisected the Straits of Florida, which are 90 miles wide at the narrowest point. The Cuban side contains at least 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, estimates the US Geological Survey. No detailed study has been done on the US side, according to the federal Minerals Management Service, which would have that responsibility.
Unless Cuba agrees not to drill, Congress may move forward with a proposal not to renew the boundary agreement. Until now at least, the agreement has been renewed biennially.
Congress is already considering a flurry of other measures from both sides of the debate. Sen. Bill Nelson (D) of Florida has introduced a bill seeking visa restrictions against executives of foreign oil companies that do business with Cuba. And twin bills introduced into the House and Senate respectively by Rep. Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona and Sen. Larry Craig (R) of Idaho seek to exempt US oil companies from the trade embargo.
“Are we supposed to sit by and let China drill in our backyard?” said Sen. Pete Domenici (R) of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.

Those congress critters would not plan to interveen if there would be nothing.
I am sure there are more technical links to what was found, but I have no time to hunt them for now.

Posted by: b | Jul 7 2006 15:49 utc | 30

uncle, thank you for all your links. i probably haven’t told you enough.
i save tons of them. you are an invaluable member of our community. if i had a dollar for everytime i thought to myself ‘how does he find all this stuff ?’ i could pay my property taxes. plus, i send them to my friends. if i had a wish for everytime they said to me ‘how do you find all this stuff?” the worlds problems would all be gone. if i had all the time back i’ve spent reading every single link you post, i’d have at least an extra season, but i wouldn’t trade all i’ve learned from you for an extra season. i have a feeling there may be more than a handful of peeps who check out all your links, but it doesn’t matter. as far as i’m concerned even if i’m the only one (which i’m not) its worth it . frequently i have nothing to say besides one of my 1000 stock answers like ‘wow’, as a result i don’t comment.
don’t stop linking, ever. thank you. a round for the house and a toast to our dear uncle.
that goes for you know who too.

Posted by: annie | Jul 7 2006 16:29 utc | 31

wow. Nobody says it better than annie. Thanks (my stock reply) from me too, Uncle.

Posted by: beq | Jul 7 2006 17:05 utc | 32

dismal science
not yet in the hospital – at the end of july but i’ll also be receiving some serious acupuncture by a doctor colleague – i too hope it goes well – i feel that the sickness combined with my computer problems – make me a lot more irritable than i i want to be
uncle – annie & b speak for me – yours is one of our most precious riches at this site – the links – especiallly when i am dragged down by this sickness -make available information that would be tough for me to research
as always – thanks
& debs & anni supply us with enough fueled rage to keep our motors hot & running

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 7 2006 18:02 utc | 33

@ jj:
More info on the Turkish prosecution of the publishers of Chomsky’s works there:
NY Times article on Manufacturing Consent charges
From 2002, Turkish trial over earlier work American Interventionism, which addresses Kurdish issues in Turkey:

In February 2002, Prof. Chomsky faced charges of “separatism” in Turkey, after the Istanbul State Security Court argued that Chomsky’s book, American Interventionism, translated into Turkish by Aram Publishing in Turkey, was “propagating separatism.” The court sought a one-year prison sentence for the publisher, Fatih Tas, according to the Anti Terror Law, for “propagating against the indivisible unity of the State of the Turkish Republic with its territory and nation.”

Posted by: catlady | Jul 7 2006 18:20 utc | 34

Uncle – thanks for links. If you think US TV is bad, you should spend some time watching Italian TV. Smarmy doesn’t scratch the surface.

Posted by: citizen k | Jul 7 2006 19:32 utc | 35

citizen k
finally a consensus with you – but i must admit that french tv is also a little burlesque combined often with a gravitas that is so heavy it collapses every subject it considers
am i being a little paranoid – but it does seem a lot of the english speaking press is extremely anti français in its commentary

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 7 2006 19:56 utc | 36

just on local “sports” radio right now: “and as far as the world cup goes, no american can root for the french!…”
it goes w/out saying, the french are to be despised, as anyone living in the u.s. knows.
i’d say it’s what the rhetors used to call a “devil term.”
“the french.”

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 7 2006 20:35 utc | 37

More links and observations on Cuba vs. US
I really think that the US politicians who are talking about a change of regime in Cuba, assisted by US power, are just producing hot air for home consumption and assuring votes from Cuban-Americans in Florida. It is that time in the US election cycle, after all.
For a quick overview of Cuba, see the CIA World Factbook –
Link to factbook
A really notable feature of this Cuba report is how very little information there is on the Cuban military vs. other countries like the Czech Republic.
A longer piece on Cuba from MSNBC
Cuba article
For a good review of current US imaginings on overthrowing the Cuban government, see
Link to Venezuelanalysis
The problem is, there are really serious obstacles to US plans. The US has never invested anywhere near the amount of money or manpower necessary to effect regime change. Moreover, the Cuban military is not a pushover, the population is well organized, and well trained to move quickly to avoid hurricanes. Both energy and food production are being more and more decentralized.
The Cubans have had years to think of counters to US aggression, and even some practice at repelling constant, low-grade attacks. See one example –
Link to GlobalResearch – CIA agent Posada
The Cubans fought and won in Angola against a powerful South African army – see
Link to Afrol News
As for oil drilling near Cuba, the US govt. has only itself to blame if it doesn’t get the oil. The Cubans made a serious attempt to talk to US oil company executives, and what happened? The Mexico City hotel was ordered to kick out the Cuban delegation: one story is at –
Link to Christian Science Monitor article
The Chinese and Indians are trying to get oil worldwide, wherever they can, and are unlikely to stop just because the US objects about contacts with Cuba.
Finally, as time passes, the US is getting weaker and irrelevant, the Latin Americans are getting more independent, and the probability of a successful US attack on Cuba is going down, in my opinion.
Cuba has a lot of admirers and friends around the world, partly because Cubans have successfully resisted the US for almost 50 years, and partly because they send thousands of doctor volunteers to help with disaster relief, e.g. earthquake in Pakistan. They even offered to fly over a thousand doctors to New Orleans, equipped with medical backpacks and supplies, but that offer was turned down. That was really (I edit out my swearing here) … unfortunate because it could have saved lives. See
NBC – Katrina aid from Cuba? No thanks, says U.S.

Posted by: Owl | Jul 7 2006 21:32 utc | 38

thanks sloth
yes, i meant commentary about the world cup, in this instance

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 7 2006 22:32 utc | 39

If you think US TV is bad, you should spend some time watching Italian TV
There is one program on Rai 3 that allows you to see everything that happened the day before on Italian TV in about 15 minutes. If you can’t stand the scantily clad blonde and brunette that accessorize every program on every channel you can simply watch Blob. It comes on around 20:15 and is well worth your quarter of an hour.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jul 7 2006 22:35 utc | 40

you cannot yet say “mexican” the way you say “french.” the former is racist while the latter encompasses in an infinite abstraction everything other than us.
i blame it on the french whose idea of empire permitted anybody to be french.

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 7 2006 22:50 utc | 41

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