Funding for free Cuba is frozen

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2008
Funding for free Cuba is frozen
BY FRANCES ROBLES

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.
In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba.

~snip~
The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/612979.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Message to our DU'er who has bumped into a-hole Frank Calzon at functions.

I hope he REALLY gets burned on this, by god. He's one rotten P.O.S.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Democrats here who saw this story when it came out had a hearty, hearty laugh about it.

I doubt it did much for the trolls:

U.S. fights Fidel - with chocolates?
New York Daily News

Originally published on November 26, 2006

By Albor Ruiz

It is surrealism at its best: Fighting Fidel with Godiva chocolates and Harry Potter books.

This is what some Cuban-American organizations have been doing - apparently, for years.

They have spent thousands of dollars to buy the chocolates and the books and also cashmere sweaters, leather coats, Nintendo games and other assorted - shall we say subversive?- items.

These articles are, these organizations say in all seriousness, smuggled into Cuba to combat Havana's Communist regime by aiding dissidents on the island.

Granted, it may not be the most effective way of bringing down Castro and his government, but without a doubt it is a lot of fun - particularly because it is the U.S. taxpayers who cover the expenses.

These revelations are contained in "U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management and Oversight," a recent report put out by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The investigation's conclusions are clear: The multimillion-dollar program designed to aid Cuban dissidents and families has instead encouraged waste and abuse among the organizations receiving the funds.

"Under the Bush administration's Cuba policy, it is illegal for Cuban-Americans to fly to Havana for a family funeral, but legal for the State Department to pay smugglers to bring chocolates and cashmere sweaters onto the island," said Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

More:
http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Throw some crabmeat in there, would ja, if it's not too much trouble, US taxpayers? [burp]

Progreso Weekly - Nov 23, 2006
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Ramy&otherweek=1164261600

Dateline Havana
A Variant of Clue
By Manuel Alberto Ramy

~snip~
Card 1: According to The Herald, Mr. Juan Carlos Acosta, leader of one of
the many exile groups in Miami, used part of the money he received from
USAID to send "a dozen leather jackets and cashmere sweaters" to dissidents
inside Cuba.

To justify his investment, Acosta told The Herald that GAO auditors are
wrong when "they think it's not cold there."

Apparently, it's an extreme kindness on the part of Mr. Acosta toward the
dissidents, so they can don a jacket or a sweater and frolic in our beaches
when our winter (brief and benign) arrives. They would experience no cold
and save on their medicine bills. Too bad Acosta didn't send them chain
saws because they could then trim off the crests of the waves and enjoy
calmer waters.

"They were asking for sweaters, in Cuba," Acosta argued. So far, no
opposition leader has confirmed such a request. Acosta will argue that the
opposition would not publicly admit such a request and that the sender
would not reveal who requested the garments in order to protect the
addressees.

That's a foolish excuse. First, because the U.S. and its leading
authorities have made public their policy to provide financial support to
opposition groups in Cuba. And second, because -- with some exceptions --
the majority of the dissidents have told the international media that
they're willing to accept it.

The organization led by Mr. Acosta seems to be very refined, because it
sent the oppositionists several boxes of Godiva chocolate. As he said,
Cubans are hungry and "they never get any chocolate there." The Godiva
brand, well known throughout the world, sells 4 pounds of chocolate for
"only" $75. On the other hand, hot chocolate is very gratifying during the
"harsh" tropical winter. Perhaps Mr. Acosta sent special flour so they
could make churros . Or maybe he added bonbons
filled with whisky or vodka. It's possible, because he has a sharp eye for
details.

To complete the shipment, he had an idea that -- while healthy -- could
have consequences contrary to the avowed purpose: He bought "five or six"
cans of crabmeat. The danger is that, as the Cuban guaracha says, "he who
eats crab meat will walk backwards." Who will walk backwards? The cans? Or
the addressees?

Card 2: One of the items in the GAO report says some of the
multimillion-dollar allocations were in response to "requests that were
never made."

I wonder, does this apply to the cashmere sweaters and the chocolate? And
if that's so, why respond to requests that were never made? Could the money
be used to fill other unasked-for needs in Florida? Are we looking at a
cover-up?

Card 3: The director of the Group for Support of Democracy, Mr. Frank
Hernández Trujillo, told The Miami Herald that he sent Nintendo games to
Cuba. This game, according to Hernández, helps teach Cubans the benefits of
democracy.

When someone promotes democracy by confusing it with the excesses of the
consumer society, it is appropriate that he should send a little game so
the dissidents can learn that concept well and not get into ideological
daydreaming. A democracy-turned-market-game helps "assistance to a free
Cuba" to affect (and how!) the political dynamics in Florida. Mr.
Hernández's organization has received about $7 million from USAID. In what
little games has this sum been invested?

Card 2, play again: The GAO report states that, in the course of "limited
inspections" of 10 programs, government investigators found "questionable
expenses" and a lack of control. It also says that out of the $65 million
set aside to aid the dissidents, $62 million was spent without competitive
bids, as had been stipulated.

More:
https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20061120/052028.html+A+Variant+of+Clue+Manuel+Alberto+Ramy&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us">~~~~ link ~~~~

[magbana]

4. Muy interesante!

I think that the real reason they are temporarily suspending the program is because the probe conducted by Calzon at the Center for a Free Cuba opened a crack in a door that was never meant to be opened. The real problem for the prez' Cuba program is that the money is going to organizations headed up by gusanos with shady and sometimes terrorist background. The US gov't. is not going to shut down a program like this because people buy Nintendo games and personal home furnishings. But, funding terrorists is a whole another thing. i think the switch to international NGO's for carrying out the work of sabotaging Cuba was done so that the money is sent outside the US and then sub-contracted to the same old gusano organizations here in the US. As a result, the US has deniable culpability. It's all a shell game.

Thanks for sharing this Judi!

[Mika]

5. Today's print edition of the Herald says that the hold has been lifted.

I can't find the story on their website yet.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here it is. It IS hard to find.

Posted on Wed, Jul. 23, 2008
Hold on funds for Cuba democracy project lifted
BY FRANCES ROBLES

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday lifted the hold he had placed on the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba democracy program, saying steps are being taken to address corruption and misspending.
The Miami Herald reported Monday that Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., had put a hold last month on U.S. AID's 2008 funding for its controversial Cuba democracy program.

The program is aimed at bringing democracy to Cuba, but critics have said the bulk of the money has gone to Miami exile organizations and universities.

UNDER INVESTIGATION

Two of the program's 11 grant winners are under investigation for misspending funds, including the Center for a Free Cuba, where an employee, who last worked at the White House, allegedly embezzled more than $500,000.

A Miami organization, Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), had its funding cut off after one of its employees charged $11,000 in personal items to the grant, federal officials said.

U.S. AID ordered a top-down review of all the grants and promised to suspend any grants that show signs of misspending.

''Yesterday, I received assurances that U.S. AID and the State Department are seized with the gravity of the problems in these programs and that they are actively working to correct the problems,'' Berman said in a statement. He said he then decided to release the hold, ``except that funds will not be extended to those program participants that are under investigation.''

The decision followed months of wrangling between the State Department agency and Berman's office, which had demanded answers to a series of questions before releasing the funds.

A Government Accountability Office report in 2006 criticized AID for not offering adequate oversight.

''Since then, the program has been expanded more than four-fold, raising congressional concern regarding the adequacy of accountability measures,'' Berman said.

FUNDS RECOVERED

The Center for a Free Cuba's executive director, Frank Calzon, stressed that the misused funds were recovered with interest, and said members of Congress who are against Cuba policy were manipulating the media in an effort to smear him.

''I think it's great that Congress lifted the hold on the funds,'' Calzon said. ``Unfortunately, previous news stories have not said that I recovered the money.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/614273.html



Mr. "Free Cuba" Frank Calzon.
Yep, Cuba was so free they
had to throw a revolution to
celebrate, didn't they?