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BAO CAU KHU BAH
“Surrender to Cuba” “The man could barely walk; he shuffled slowly, painfully. His clothes were torn to shreds. He was bleeding everywhere, terribly swollen, and a dirty, yellowish black and purple from head to toe. The man’s head was down; he made no attempt to look at anyone…. Bomar introduced himself, offering his hand. The man did not react. He stood unmoving, his head down. Fidel smashed a fist into the man’s face, driving him against the wall. Then he was brought to the center of the room and made to get down onto his knees. Screaming in rage, Fidel took a length of black rubber hose from a guard and lashed it as hard as he could into the man’s face. The prisoner did not react; he did not cry out or even blink an eye. His failure to react seemed to fuel Fidel’s rage and again he whipped the rubber hose across the man’s face. Bomar was nearly physically ill at what he saw happening, and at his helplessness to stop it. Again and again and again, a dozen times, Fidel smashed the man’s face with the hose. Not once did the fearsome abuse elicit the slightest response from the prisoner…. Bomar helped the battered prisoner to a bath stall. In the stall was a concrete tank containing some dirty water, and a pail. Bomar had some soap. He got the man undressed and found that he had been through much more than the day’s beatings. His body was ripped and torn everywhere; hell cuffs appeared almost to have severed the wrists, strap marks still wound around the arms all the way to the shoulders, slivers of bamboo were embedded in the bloodied shins and there were what appeared to be tread marks form the hose across the chest, back, and legs.” This is how John Hubbell, author of P.O.W.: A definitive History of the American Prisoner-of-War Experience in Vietnam, 1964-1973 describes the scene as a Cuban nicknamed “Fidel” led the limp, senseless Capt. E. G.Cobeil, USAF into Major J.W. Bomar, USAF’s cell in the Zoo, a POW camp in North Vietnam. “Cobeil lasted two more years, a pathetic figure shunted between prison and hospital, shuttered in solitary for a spell, until he disappeared for good in the fall of 1970, a casualty of both Fidel’s excess and his own demons.” Honor Bound, American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973, by Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley. The first and only time that non-Vietnamese were overtly involved in the exploitation of American POWs was under the “Cuba Program”, organized and executed under direct orders from Fidel Castro. Under this program, 20 Americans members of the US Armed Forces, in Cu Loc (the Zoo), a POW camp in North Vietnam, were tortured by agents of Fidel Castro’s government from mid-1967 to mid-1968 resulting in the tragic death of one of the POWs, Capt. Earl G. Cobeil. The truths of the cruelty of Fidel Castro, not only against his own people, but against humanity and more specifically against the American people whom he hates with a passion as demonstrated once and again by his actions throughout his life. This time, his involvement in atrocities committed against our servicemen, proves our point and must not be left unpunished. For the past forty years, Castro’s Ministry of the Interior has utilized cruel methods of torture to break down those they consider enemies of the “Revolution”. These same methods were used against 20 defenseless POWs in North Vietnam. Who were those monsters that inflicted so much pain to this group of POWs? Today we can partially answer this question thanks to the information we have obtained from sources in Cuba and from former members of Castro’s Armed Forces now residing in Miami. The agent nicknamed “Fidel” was positively identified by Col. Ed Hubbard, USAF a victim of the “Cuba Program” as Brigadier General Fernando Vecino Alegret, of Castro’s Army, at a press conference held at the Miami offices of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s. Col Hubbard’s identification of this criminal was possible thanks to a picture of General Vecino Alegret in his youth provided by Roberto Luque Escalona, a Cuban writer now residing in Miami, who at one point in his life was a friend of the torturer. Fernando Vicente Alegret was born in June 24, 1938 in the city of Holguin, Oriente province, Cuba. In September 1956, Vecino Alegret traveled to Hammond, Louisiana and registered in the University of Alabama, School of Chemical Engineering. While in school, he worked in a cafeteria and played football. In an interview for “The secrets of the Generals” a book written by Luis Francisco Baez Hernandez, a Cuban reporter, and published by Editorial Si-Mar S.A. in Havana, Cuba in 1996, Vecino Alegret claims that he moved to Miami in 1957 where the FBI arrested him for possession of an unregistered weapon. According to him, he entered Cuba in May 1958 to join Castro’s Rebel Forces. Fernando Vecino Alegret’s first violation of US citizens’ human rights took place in 1958 when he kidnapped Richard Bennett and Kenneth Drews two American engineers who worked for Texaco in Santiago de Cuba. In exchange for their safe return, Charles M. Cutbirth, an executive of Texaco provided the Rebel Forces with all the gasoline they wanted. This action caused the State Department to issue a strong declaration against Castro’s forces through the Department’s spokesman Lincoln White. When the Rebel Forces took control of the government, Fernando Vecino Alegret was placed in charge of the National Institute of Agricultural Reform in Oriente. In 1966, while in charge of the Union of Cuban Communist Youth, he traveled to France on an espionage mission. In the same year he was given command of Castro’s missile forces. From 1967 to 1975 he performed a number of missions for Castro’s DGI (Department of General Intelligence), including a period as military attaché in North Vietnam. From August 1967 to July 1968 he headed the “Cuba Program”. As a reward for his actions, he was promoted in 1975 to vice minister of the Armed Forces. That same year he traveled to Angola to supervise Castro’s war. In 1979 he moved to Costa Rica to provide assistance to the Sandinista Forces then fighting the Somosa regime in Nicaragua. When the Sandinistas won the war, Vecino Alegret used his contacts with his Vietnamese friends to ship 100 captured American 105 mm howitzers from Vietnam to Nicaragua. The artillery pieces were shipped in a vessel operated under Lebanese registry by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Brigadier General Fernando Vecino Alegret has been a member of the Communist Party Central Committee since 1975 and Minister of Higher Education since 1976. The following alleged torturers have not been properly identified by any of the POWs: Rafael Veiga. He studied in Tulane University, Louisiana, in 1958. When Castro took over, Veiga became the right hand man of Ramiro Valdes Menendez, founder of the Department of Intelligence of the Rebel Army (DIER) or the dreaded G2 (as it was commonly known) and Minister of the Interior since 1961. The members of the G2 were famous for the cruelties inflicted to the political prisoners. They boasted their success in extracting confessions from their victims even if they were innocent. Pedro Fumero. Another member of the team of Ramiro Valdes Menendez. Eduardo Morejon Estevez. Colonel of the DGIC (Department of General Intelligence and Counter Intelligence). He studied in the US in 1958. The Nuevo Herald, a newspaper owned by The Miami Herald, confirmed with the US Immigration Department that a Cuban national named Eduardo Morejon Estevez entered the US in 1958. He was a military attaché in North Vietnam in 1967-1968. Currently he is an executive of Artex SA, a government business in Havana. Luis Perez Jaen. Captain of the MININT (Ministry of Interior). He was in the US in 1956-1957 buying weapons for the Rebel Forces in Cuba. He was a military attaché in North Vietnam in 1967-1968. The following individuals are not accused of torturing our POWs but because of their official position during the years of the “Cuba Program” must have valuable information. Raul Valdes Vivo. Cuban Ambassador in North Vietnam from 1969 to 1976. He visited the Zoo during the “Cuba Program”. He also visited Viet Cong controlled areas in South Vietnam. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from 1975 to 1991 and 1997 to the present. Marta Rojas. She visited the Zoo with Raul Valdes Vivo. She is the alleged voice heard on the camp radio. We received a letter from the Defense Department, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office dated 9/29/99 directed to our organization CAVA that reads in part; “The actions of these interrogators constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POW for which there are no statute of limitation…We stand ready to support any future investigation into this issue by appropriate federal intelligence or investigative agencies”. We suggest that the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affair, create a task force to fully investigate the involvement of the Castro regime in the “Cuba Program”. I am confident that the evidence will warrant indictments to be handed down against Fidel Castro himself, the person fully responsible for any and all actions of his dictatorship, and the agents who tortured our POWs. If necessary, to avoid any interference from any officials or any agencies or departments claiming foreign policy interest, a Special Prosecutor should be appointed to handle these abuses against our servicemen. In my childhood in Cuba I read an article in the Readers Digest that left a lasting impression on me. It described the efforts of the American Forces in rescuing a downed American pilot in a Pacific Island during World War II. Due to heavy resistance from the Japanese Forces, heavy casualties were inflicted to the Americans. The Japanese commander was astonished to see how many lives the Americans were willing to sacrify to rescue a downed pilot, but the answer was very clear to the Americans: An American soldier will never be abandoned. I experienced this, many years later in Vietnam, when I signed a statement saying that I would never abandon in battle any wounded soldier or the remains of a dead soldier. Sadly, I had to follow this oath when in one occasion we carried the bodies of three of our brothers killed in action for three long days until our helicopters could pick them up. But this is what makes America great, and makes me proud to be a citizen of this great country. This tradition should not be forgotten. We must seek justice for the tortured POWs and the family of Capt. Earl G. Cobeil, assassinated by the Castro’s agents. We shouldn’t let foreign policy or any other special interest prevent us from getting the truth. The Cuban American community has been categorized by many as fanatics who exaggerate the role of Castro as an enemy of the US; however, time has proved them right. The first Cubans arriving in the US denounced Fidel Castro as a communist while the big press, led by the New York Times, called him a Robin Hood. Were the crazy Cubans wrong? The Cubans denounced the introduction of missiles in Cuba long before it was almost too late. Not believing those reports almost caused the beginning of World War III and the possible destruction of our civilization. Later on, more crazy Cubans began to report the movement of Castro’s troops to Africa. Nothing was made public to the American people until Castro’s Army was in full force in Angola, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Cuban Americans in Miami have been denouncing Fidel Castro’s involvement in drug trafficking. They were proven right in November 5, 1982, when a federal grand jury in Miami indicted four senior Cuban government officials on charges of conspiring to use Cuba as a safe heaven while transporting drugs into the United States. The four officials were Fernando Ravelo Renado, former Cuban Ambassador to Colombia; Gonzalo Bassols Suarez, former Deputy Chief of Mission under Ravelo; Rene Rodriguez Cruz, a member of Cuba’s intelligence service and President of Cuba’s Institute of Friendship with Foreign Peoples (ICAP) and the Cuban government official responsible for organizing the Mariel boatlift of 1980; and Vice Admiral Aldo Santamaria Cuadrado, the Commander of the Cuban Navy. Castro has refused to surrender these individuals to America justice. In addition to the four Cubans, 10 other persons where charged. What was the result? Nothing happened. Fidel Castro continues to be involved in drug trafficking, but General Barry R. McCaffrey, the Drug Czar claims there is no conclusive evidence that the Castro regime is involved. To top it off there has been some suggestions to provide Castro with more modern boats and radars to help us in the War against drugs. How naïve can we be? Another atrocity committed by Fidel Castro against US citizens was the cold-blooded assassination of a highly decorated Cuban-born marine, who served two tours in Vietnam, Armando Alejandre, Jr. On February 24, 1996, Castro’s Air Force shot down two US unarmed, civilian aircrafts, killing Armando Alejandre with two US-born young men, Carlos Costa, 27 years old and Mario de la Pena 23 and a legal US resident Pablo Morales. The same government who tortured our POWs murdered them. These aircrafts were engaged in a humanitarian mission looking for rafters adrift in the Florida Strait. In an interview with Fidel Castro in Time magazine dated March 11, 1996 and conducted by Reginald K. Brack, Jr. and Joelle Attinger, the Cuban dictator acknowledged giving the order to shoot down the civilian aircrafts. This heinous conduct should remind us that we are dealing with a criminal who somehow is the darling of the majority of the American Press and who has always gotten away with all his crimes, including the sinking of the tugboat “13 de marzo” 7 miles off Havana Bay on July 13, 1994, where forty one civilians who were escaping from Cuba, including twenty children drowned, victims of Castro’s forces. At present, Castro is pursuing what accounts to a nuclear threat to the well being of perhaps as many as 50 to 80 million Americans if he is allowed to finish the construction of the Juragua Nuclear Power Plant. Due to design, construction and other irremediable flaws, the two nuclear reactors will almost certainly fail catastrophically if allowed to come on-line. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a Chernobyl-like disaster could create a radioactive plume that may easily affect areas as far north as Washington, D.C. and as far west as Texas, depending upon the prevailing winds at the time of such a disaster. More proof of Castro’s hostility against the US is the vast electronics intelligence complex near Lourdes, in Havana, operated by Russian’s intelligence forces. It permits the wholesale collection of sensitive US military, diplomatic and economic data. To make things worse a new facility has been installed for the Chinese in Bejucal, a small town in Havana. The Cuban regime and its allies have the capability to conduct sustained and systematic Information Warfare against the United States. There are reports of Castro’s involvement in biological warfare. Cuba has one of the most sophisticated biotech and pharmaceutical industries in the hemisphere. Castro’s secretive network of sophisticated biological and genetic research labs are being used by the military and Interior Ministry to develop chemical and biological weapons. Let’s not forget that Castro is a very good friend, ally and defender of Sadam Hussein of Iraq. Should we say more? Should we dismiss this as another crazy conspiracy theory? The sad part is that if we do, we may not be around to be sorry in the future. This is by far the most serious danger our country has ever confronted. Many in Congress, the media, some mayors, governors and even the US Chamber of Commerce, believe we should be soft with Fidel Castro in order to change him. Change a person who has been the most furious enemy of the US for the last 40 years? I know the answer to that question, but I propose that those members of Congress, the press and the US Chamber of Commerce ask Fidel Castro, that as a gesture of good will, he allows the alleged torturers to come to the US to be questioned and face their victims. If they have nothing to hide Castro should cooperate. Is this fair enough? Another unanswered question is the possibility that Castro’s agents were actively torturing people in Vietnam beyond 1968. Leo Viota-Sesin, a well known lawyer in the Cuban American community, who is a Vietnam veteran who arrived “in-country” in 1969, explains that while in a fire base near Cambodia, right before the invasion of Cambodia, the American officer in charge of the base asked him not to reveal his Cuban roots to the Montagnards, because Castro’s agents were attached to a North Vietnamese brigade operating in the area, and those agents had tortured and killed many members of the Montagnards community. We should also investigate the possibility that some POWs were transferred to Cuba. We should not discard this possibility because it sounds too far fetch. We have learned that Fidel Castro is capable of anything. The last question is why the American people were not fully informed of Castro’s atrocities against our POWs as soon as we found out in 1973? I do not like to embrace a conspiracy theory, but questions must be answered. Let me inform you of a very disturbing fact. Fernando Vecino Alegret has been a suspect for many years, and I believe our many federal agencies were aware of this fact; however, we had the opportunity to interrogate Fernando’s brother in the US and we blew the opportunity away. A Cuban-American veteran of the US Army, who has contacts in Cuba and speaks with the dissidents in the island every week by telephone, has known Fernando’s brother for over three years and gave me this report. “Ricardo (Richard) Vecino Alegret, residing at Rabi #551, Apt. 6, between San Bernardino and Santa Irene, in Santo Suarez, Havana, left Cuba on a boat together with Juan Rafael Fernandez, General Coordinator of the anti-Castro Movimiento Democratico Cientifico (Scientific Democratic Movement) in the summer of 1997. They were picked up by an American Coast Guard vessel and taken to Guantanamo Naval Base. They contacted several friends in Miami trying to avoid been returned to Cuba. In spite of the fact that both Ricardo Vecino Alegret and Juan Rafael Fernandez were members of a bona fide dissident organization, and that Ricardo was a brother of General Fernando Vecino Alegret, Minister of Higher Education, mentioned as an alleged torturer in the “Cuba Program”, they were returned to the hands of the Cuban government.” Why was Ricardo Vecino Alegret returned to Cuba? Furthermore, in 1979, Fernando Vecino Alegret visited the US and toured Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Knowing that he was an alleged torturer of our POWs, what actions did our intelligence agencies take? The FBI just took pictures of Vecino Alegret. The fact is that nothing has changed since 1967. Fidel Castro continues to be the worst enemy the US ever had. He is a dagger pointing at the US under belly. Yes, he is capable of having ordered the torture of POWs in Vietnam, he is capable of killing innocent children, he is capable of shooting down civilian unarmed airplanes carrying US citizens, he is capable of using the drugs trade to further undermine the US and yes, he is capable, willing and able to perpetrate a biological attack against the US. He is capable and he will continue to plan further attacks against us with impunity, because he has always gotten away with anything he does, unjustified as his actions may be. The time to stand firm is now. His crimes against our POWs should not be ignored. We should indict and prosecute those found guilty, including Fidel Castro, who has the ultimate responsibility. Every time we have taken a weak stand, we have lost. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is proof. If anyone believes that we won, he or she may still believe in the tooth fairy. Analyzing the Vietnam experience, so many killed, so many wounded, so much suffering and the end result: another people, the Vietnamese, suffering under communism. Look at the embarrassment in Iran, when they captured our embassy, violating all international laws. Whenever we as a Nation have assumed a position of strength we have been victorious. Look at the examples of Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Kosovo. We are the strongest power in the world, and the world respects a strong leader. We, the veterans of this great nation, must not ignore our responsibility. We must assume the leadership and take action. We must demand that our elective representatives do the just, the moral, the right thing, without giving in to political and commercial interest. I believe the following actions will help us see that justice is done: · Positively identify all the alleged torturers of the “Cuba Program.” · Investigate any other cases of violations of human rights by Castro’s agents in Vietnam. · Investigate the possibility that some POWs were secretly sent to Cuba. · Demand an explanation for the secrecy surrounding the “Cuba Program”. · Create a task force comprised of our intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough investigation. · Indict if guilty and carry out the sentence. Behind the sensationalism of Castro’s revolutionary existence, and behind all of Cuba’s unresolved issues, Castro has been, and continues to be, a constant threat to our nation’s security. A threat that we Americans can no longer continue to ignore. Our elected officials at all levels, as well as our current candidates, need to know in no uncertain terms, how we feel about the dangers that Castro’s current activities and plans represent. We urge everyone to write to their congressmen and senators about it. Relaxing political and economic sanctions against a mad man who hates the Americans and who for 41 years has brutalized his own people will not diminish the possibilities of more or the same from him. Those who compare the Cuba situation to China and Vietnam must remember that both of those countries have undergone some tangible changes toward establishing a free market economy, small as they may be. Also, new men and women are now in power. The same cannot be said about Cuba. The creator of “Yankee go home”, the man who sent criminals to Vietnam to torture our POWs, the oldest and the cruelest dictator in this Hemisphere still stands ready to inflict yet more pain and suffering on his own people while remaining quite capable and willing of doing the same to his neighbors in the north. Miami, July 18, 2000
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