Author Topic: U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere  (Read 1789 times)

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Lanya

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U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
« on: November 15, 2006, 07:58:38 PM »
Those poor people! They were hungry, they had to have Godiva chocolates! 



By Adriana Garcia 2 hours, 52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. funds intended to promote democracy in Cuba have been used to buy crab meat, cashmere sweaters, computer games and chocolates, according to a U.S. congressional audit published on Wednesday.
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The survey by the
Government Accountability Office found little oversight and accountability in the program, which paid out $76 million between 1996 and 2005 to support Cuban dissidents, independent journalists, academics and others.

It also found that 95 percent of the grants were issued without competitive tenders.

To protect recipients from prosecution, none of the money from the U.S. Agency for International Development or State Department is paid in cash to people in Cuba. A Cuban law sends citizens to jail for receiving money from the U.S. government.

Instead, the funds are distributed to Cuban-American groups in Miami, the heartland of opposition to Cuban President
Fidel Castro, and in Washington, and used to buy medicines, books, shortwave radios and other goods that are smuggled into Cuba.

President George W. Bush has proposed increasing spending on Cuba-related programs, including propaganda transmissions by Radio and TV Marti, by $80 million over the next two years.

Critics have long charged the grants are aimed more at winning votes in Miami than triggering political change on the communist island, where the now-ailing Castro has ruled since his 1959 revolution.

Out of 10 recipients of public money reviewed by the auditors, three failed to keep adequate financial records, the Government Accountability Office said. A lot of the money was used to pay smugglers, or "mules, to avoid U.S. restrictions on taking goods to Cuba.

'THEY THINK IT'S NOT COLD THERE'

The auditors questioned checks written out to some staff members, questionable travel expenses and payments to a manager's family. One group acknowledged selling books it was supposed to distribute under the democracy-promoting program.

One grantee "could not justify some purchases made with USAID funds, including a gas chain saw, computer gaming equipment and software (including Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations), a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates," the report said.

The auditors did not identify the recipients.

Juan Carlos Acosta, executive director of Miami-based anti-Castro group Cuban Democratic Action, told the Miami Herald he sent those items to Cuba, apart from the chain saw.

"These people are going hungry. They never get any chocolate there," Acosta said, according to the newspaper.

He said he bought the jackets and sweaters at a sale.

"They (the auditors) think it's not cold there (in Cuba)," Acosta said. "At $30 it's a bargain because cashmere is expensive. They were asking for sweaters, from Cuba."


Acosta did not immediately return a phone call from Reuters.

The audit was ordered by U.S lawmakers opposed to the 44-year-old U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, and they said the findings confirmed the need for a thorough review of U.S. policy.

"Let me just say that, to continue a current level of funding, given the results and given the disarray this program seems to be in, would be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars," Rep. Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), a Republican from Arizona, told reporters in Washington.

(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061115/us_nm/usa_cuba_audit_dc_1
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sirs

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Re: U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2006, 08:08:07 PM »
Kinda reminds me of the money being sent from the UN (wich much of that came from the U.S) to Iraq to feed and treat the Iraqis, and instead were being used to rebuild Saddam's palaces, and likely used to pay families of suicide bombers and begin reconstituting his WMD program. 

All the while, the U.S is blamed for the "starving and dying children" in Iraq, from the UN's sanctions.      :(
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Xavier_Onassis

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Re: U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2006, 09:13:40 PM »
The Cuban cause has been milked for millions by Cuban scam artists for decades. The idea here was that the Godiva chocolates and the cashmere sweaters were supposed to indicate all the nifty stuff Cuban dissadents might enjoy if they were to cause Castro to go away.

There is also TV-Marti, the TV that no one ever watches, and Radio Marti, that used to be listened to until the Juniorbushies allowed the ultra-righties to take it over and it got into a much higher dose of propaganda.

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2006, 02:52:20 AM »
Are the luxury goods used improperly for the enjoyment of persons under no threat?

Or are they used as bribes , as such things were used in "Shindlers List" that is to say , properly?

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: U.S. money for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2006, 09:55:57 AM »
Are the luxury goods used improperly for the enjoyment of persons under no threat?

Or are they used as bribes , as such things were used in "Shindlers List" that is to say , properly?
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Cuban dissidents are, if they are bona fide dissadents, doing what they do because they want a free Cuba. I doubt that they welcome support from the USA, and imagine that many of them want no part of it.

Cuba's main hero, Jose Marti, whjose face is plastered all over both La Habana and Miami, said "I have lived in the belly of the Beast, and I know its treachery", of his long, long exile in the US before Cuban independence. Poor Jose was such a gallant lad: he rode at the head of his troops and was among the first to fall. Brave, idealistic, and NOT VERY SMART.

Anyone who is writing articles dissenting from the Castro regime that is doing it for Godiva chocolates (Cuba is tropical, unrefrigerated chocolates turn to a gooey mess even here in Miami) is not a real dissident at all, but a media whore.

The reason they were shipping this crap to Cuba was because some local Cubiche business was getting over $20 per pound to ship it there. I know Cubans with realtives there. What they want is decent face soap, baby clothes, diabetes and high blood pressure medicine, nor cashmmere sweaters and Lady Stupid Godiva Chocolates.

This is nothing more than a joint conspiracy to rip off taxpayers by the Cuban "Exile" community and the Juniorbushies.

It has no relation to anything in Schindler's List whatever.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."