CHANGING FACE OF CUBA, PART 2
"In such areas as trade, the environment, the arts, even tourism, Americans are choosing to work with Cubans despite an economic embargo"
(NAPLES DAILY NEWS)

CHANGING FACE OF CUBA, PART 3
Bracing themselves for burgeoning tourism, Cuban environmentalists and their international counterparts focus on conservation efforts.
(NAPLES DAILY NEWS)

CHAPLAIN SPEAKS OUT
"Captain Yee was held in solitary confinement in a South Carolina Navy brig for nearly three months while he was under investigation, permitted only two 15-minute telephone calls a day after a month and, his lawyers said, barred from speaking Arabic to his wife, whom he met while studying Islam in Syria in 1997."
... He was released last week without any espionage charges brought against him. But in a twist that Mrs. Yee said was more devastating than the espionage investigation, the military has charged him with adultery — a violation of military code — and possession of pornography, in addition to charges that he had disobeyed orders by taking classified information home.
... Shaheed Nuriddin, a close friend of the Yees, said: "The adultery was worse. The Army had come to her and said, `You don't know the man you married.' And this was after they kept trying to get her to identify her husband as a terrorist."
(NYT)

SCAM BAITERS
Scam-baiters start by replying to emails from African fraudsters trying to fleece recipients with fake charities or investments.
The baiters pretend to fall for the scams while secretly humiliating the fraudsters, whom they call 'lads.'
Typically, they make endless demands for proof of identity that force the lads to forge passports, bank accounts and documents. Sometimes the lads are told to photograph themselves in ridiculous poses, with loaves of bread on their heads, or clutching signs with secret passwords.
(STUFF unearthed by www.dailyrotten.com)

COINTELPRO ALL OVER AGAIN
A confidential FBI memo confirms that the federal government is targeting innocent mericans engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and dissent.
In the memo the FBI advocates spying on peaceful protesters and ndicates that protesters who engage in civil disobedience or other disruptive acts should be treated like potential terrorists. It confirms that the government has monitored the actions of peaceful protestors and wants intelligence about protestors to be reported to the nearest FBI field office or terrorism task force.(ACLU, unearthed by Wilson Myers)

CHANGING FACE OF CUBA, PART 1
"....More than ever, their presence represents a change in the minds of a growing number of Americans with which the U.S. government may soon be finding itself in the position of playing catch-up. "
(NAPLES DAILY NEWS and featured in CUBANET, unearthed by Cuba Daily News)

ALABAMA DELEGATION'S COMMENTS TO CUBANS
"On the agreement between Alimport and Alabama State Port Authority, we have agreed to work jointly in the movement of bulk, breakbulk, refrigerated and containerized cargo via our terminal facilities. Also we have agreed to work with our legislature for the lifting of the travel ban and promote tourism via Air, Cruises, ferries, etc, between Mobile and Cuba."
(RADIO HABANA)

BUSH'S BETRAYAL (OP-ED)
In Bush's first three years, nondefense discretionary spending -- which fell by 13.5 percent under Ronald Reagan -- has soared by 20.8 percent. His more libertarian-minded voters are taken aback to discover that 'compassionate conservatism' turned out to mean social conservatism -- a stepped-up drug war, restrictions on medical research, antigay policies, federal subsidies for marriage and religion -- and big-spending liberalism justified as 'compassion.'"
(WASHINGTON POST Op-Ed piece, featured in CATO newsletter)

THE ZERO FILES
"They are, in a way, the real-world equivalent of television's 'X-Files,' the fictional secret collection of FBI cases involving alien abductions and grand conspiracies that kept legions of fans entertained for nearly a decade."
(SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

KENNEDY TAPE RELEASED
the National Security Archive has posted an audio tape of the President and his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, discussing the possibility of a secret meeting in Havana with Castro. The tape, dated only seventeen days before Kennedy was shot in Dallas, records a briefing from Bundy on Castro's invitation to a U.S. official at the United Nations, William Attwood, to come to Havana for secret talks on improving relations with Washington. The tape captures President Kennedy's approval if official U.S. involvement could be plausibly denied.
(NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVES, unearthed by CubaNews Digest)

OAKSTERDAMN!
"Here, cafes sell marijuana for medicinal use with the studied casualness of a Starbucks offering double-shot, soy milk, no-foam lattes. The model, as the nickname indicates, is free-wheeling Amsterdam, where cafe patrons openly enjoy joints with their espressos or beers. But there is one big difference: Oakland doesn't have Amsterdam's clear-cut laws, which make such sales unquestionably legal. "
(SUN-SPOT, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

CAPTIVES MAY BE RELEASED
"Time Magazines is reporting the possibility of an impending large-scale release from Guantanamo — which currently houses about 660 prisoners, most of whom were captured during and after the Afghan war. Time quoted American officials as saying that some of the detainees being considered for release had been captured by Afghan warlords and sold for the bounty offered by Washington for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters."
(NYT)