Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Jorge?

I doubt you would ever "concede" anything to an adversary... but we fully expect you brown shoe types to be conceited. Appearances must be maintained. [/quote]

Surely you gest sir..

Jeff0 syndrome.

Aircraft: $ millions
Aviator Shades: $125
Chit-eating grin because you just made the backseater puke: priceless.

But you're right. You're still fugly. And your haircut is borderline.

Bad hairdo or not, Jorge's taste in women is impeccable!

Must be the Naval Aviator Thing.....

Hey! that was 30 years ago and that was a backseat ride for me in a Tomcat!

I still remember when Tomcats first came into the fleet. A bunch of them screamed over us at mast height in the middle of the night somewhere in WESTPAC and claimed to have sunk us in an exercise. Pizzed me off... We "sank" their carrier the day before using a sneaky helo and data link for a simulated missile launch. We weren't given the kill on the mere technicality that Rusky cruisers don't have helos. Freakin' brown shoes...

Jorge:

One of the Cubans released in the spy swap spied for the US; he was apparently a cryptologist for the Cuban government. He was sentenced to 25 years, which seems like a little light sentence in view of he John Walker spy situation (life w/o parole). Given the brutality of the Cuban regime, why was he given a prison sentence and not just executed?

Story:
The CIA�s Latin America Division has run many spies in Cuba, but Rolando Sarraff Trujillo was in a class all his own.

From his perch as a cryptographer in Cuba�s Directorate of Intelligence, Sarraff was able to provide information that repeatedly helped the U.S. intelligence community crack encoded messages the Communist government was sending via shortwave radio.

This week, American officials said Sarraff�s information contributed to the FBI�s dismantling of three major spy networks in the United States. The last of them included a group of operatives known as the �Cuban Five,� who were convicted of espionage and made headlines again Wednesday when the three who were still in prison were freed as part of a dramatic spy swap that included Sarraff.

Former U.S. officials, while not speaking about Sarraff�s case directly, suggested his position in the Cuban intelligence apparatus would have made him an exceptional asset.

�You want the man who handles the communications,� said Gerald Komisar, a former CIA officer who was involved in Cuba operations in the 1990s and ran the Latin America Division. �He�s goning to have most of the secrets you want.�

Sarraff�s whereabouts remained a mystery Thursday. Vilma Sarraff, his sister, said that her parents, who live in Cuba, went to see their son Monday but that the family had not been informed about his release.

�We don�t know where he is,� she said in a phone interview from Spain, where she lives. �We don�t know if he�s in Cuba, if he�s in the United States. Our parents are looking everywhere.�

Rolando Sarraff was arrested in 1995 on espionage and other charges in Cuba and later was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In a blog they kept to draw attention to his case, his family recounted the sentencing.

�How is it possible that you sanctioned my son without showing one single piece of evidence?� Sarraff�s father asked.

The judge replied: �In Cuba you�re either with Fidel [Castro], or against. Your son said he is against.�

Although the family said there was no evidence to support a conviction, Sarraff had betrayed his native Cuba to help the United States, officials said. In addition to helping U.S. authorities identify the Cuban Five, Sarraff�s information allowed the FBI to arrest long-running spies at the State Department and Defense Intelligence Agency.

Robert Booth, a former diplomatic security agent with an extensive counterintelligence background, was deeply involved in flushing out the moles Sarraff helped identify at the State Department: Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers.

In 2007, the FBI revealed to Booth that the National Security Agency had decrypted numerous Cuban shortwave radio transmissions. It appeared to him, he said in an interview, that the FBI had had the decrypted messages for years.

Though he said he never knew Sarraff had provided the crucial information, Booth became a beneficiary.

Based on the intercepts, Booth and FBI counterintelligence agents put together a matrix of personal characteristics of the mole. They assumed the spy was male, married, had a familiarity with Morse code, worked in the State Department and didn�t speak Spanish. He also was a civil servant employee, not a Foreign Service officer, which was crucial to narrowing the pool of suspects.

Within 30 days, Booth identified Walter Myers, who was arrested two years later by the FBI in a sophisticated counterintelligence operation. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2010; his wife received nearly seven years.

During the course of his two decades in captivity, Sarraff
was held in various prisons, including the Cuban government�s �highest-security facility, Villa Marista, where he was at the time of his release.

Middle-of-the-night interrogations at the prison were common. �While being interrogated, the main technique was to morally crush you completely,� his family wrote in their blog.

They also posted letters they said Sarraff wrote from prison.

�My spirit is still strong, full of hope, and my honor intact,� Sarraff, now 51, wrote in 2012. �I confront this brutality and severe punishment with the utmost dignity, but without losing my tenderness, the sense of justice and my limited capacity to offer love.�

In the interview Thursday, Vilma Sarraff said her brother was a painter and a poet. Some of his work is featured on the blog. He is a �sweet person,� she said, adding, �He gives us strength.�

Komisar, the former CIA officer, said neither the United States nor Cuba can claim victory in their spy war. In the end, he said, it has been a draw.


see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...2-86f1-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html

I guess someone should ask the commies, but to give you an idea of the cruelty of those phoukers, I don't know if you remember a few years ago when some Cuban Generals (two of whom were twins) tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the regime and they were using drug money (Castro in the 80s actually provided safe haven for the drug runners on their way to the US). Suffice to say the conspiracy was detected and crushed, and Castro, knowing how close the twins were (and if you know or have twins like I do, they have a special bond),he executed one whilst making the other one watch, then sentenced the other to just house arrest, knowing full well the suffering.

BTW, you never did respond to what I wrote about what a lousy idea it was to open relations with Cuba, then again I understand why, as my explanation was bullet proof..

Yes, I do remember the brothers and how Castro handled the execution of one while the other was forced to watch, which just makes me ask again, why didn�t they execute this guy? Anyone in a government cryptology job has the keys to the kingdom in their hands and revealing codes/cyphers is very damaging. I am glad this guy was released and he certainly deserves a hero�s welcome and a FAT paycheck from the US. But I still wonder why they let him live (although I am certain his living was not pleasant)!

As for why I think opening relations is a not a bad idea, I point to the original reasons for the severing of diplomatic relations and the embargo. When relations were severed and the trade embargo initiated in 1960, one of the principal reasons given was to hasten the overthrow of the Cuban (i.e., Castro) regime. In the intervening 54 years and 11 US presidents (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama), the Castro�s are still in power and the nation is poor.

Yes, there was a wealthy and middle class existing in Cuba during the Batista days, but a large percentage of the population was poor. To the US benefit, many of these wealthy and middle class people came to the US and have made solid contributions to our nation (like you, many have served in the armed forces � thank you). I knew a woman whose step-father (Marcus Sterling � University of Havana law professor and member of the Cuban Senate) was one of them and she has made a major contribution to the US and especially for Cuban refugees.

Thinking of Batista, he was on par with the Castro�s with respect to violence. Torture and death was in order for anyone who opposed him, or whom the police thought might oppose him. A lot of people were tortured and murdered under his rule. He suspended the Cuban Constitution and allied himself with wealthy landowners and business interests (sugar plantations and refiners) and led to the stagnation of the Cuban economy, which increased the gap between the wealth and the poor.

Frankly, in the larger sense, I don�t see much difference between Batista and Castro. Both were brutal dictators who have reigned over a declining economy. Hopefully, normalizing relations with Cuba (we are the last major holdout to do so) will result in the betterment of the Cuban people�s conditions.

On a personal note � have a great Christmas and good New Year!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't we offer amnesty to Cuban citizens who can reach our land, while sending back those we catch while still short of our shore, even if only a mile or so?

And... assuming this is true, how will we justify giving amnesty to citizens of a "friendly" nation?

It wouldn't surprise me to find that our policy will be quietly changed as a part of Obama's masterful negotiation.

The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 established a "Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy". If a Cuban reaches US soil, they can stay.n Perhaps Jorge can elaborate on this.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy

BTW, there is an American woman living in Cuba who escaped prison after being convicted of murdering a New Jersey trooper. She was granted asylum by Castro. I'd sure like to see her returned. As for the Cubans who've escaped to the US, I don't think Castro would want them back; they'd probably be considered troublemakers and rather then doing something to them, I think Castro would just like for them to stay here.

Setting aside Cuba and the Cubans, because I don't give a frick about them, can anyone articulate what the embargo does FOR US? I can sort of understand when Cuba was the spear point of the Soviet Union pointed right at our "soft underbelly" to borrow from Churchill, but what the rationale now? What do WE gain or lose by the embargo? That is the sum of the consideration OUR president and Congress should give the entire matter.

Those would be called contributors to society, those that remained have been programmed for 6 decades to be dependent on government.

Given the level of the Cuban economy, there is little the government can do to depend on.

I don't believe the continuation of the embargo does anything to enhance the US position; we are alone on this in the world. It does salve the feelings of the older Cubans living in the US (those that lost everything and fled); the younger Cuban-Americans appear (from news reports) appear to favor the change.

Obama's corporate buddies will be flood Cuba with money to build Casinos,Big Box stores,shopping malls,Resorts and Banks and make Havana look like Miami in a few short years.

Cuba will also drill for oil and since they are not subject to the EPA will go at it with reckless abandon . Any oil spills would not head towards the US gulf coast or Key West would they? On the other hand lets suspend oil drilling in US waters.

This benefits primarily the Cuban ruling class and the Global Corporations which have bought and paid both Political parties.

Nailed it.



Nearly 20 years after reporters and congressional investigators caught the Clinton administration trying to register a million immigrants as new citizens and Democratic voters -- many without proper documents -- some Republicans fear the Obama administration is instituting a similar policy.

The November memorandum issued by the White House and Department of Homeland Security on immigration does more than give a reprieve to millions of illegal immigrants. It also makes a push for legal immigrants to become citizens. It allows legal immigrants in the U.S. to, for the first time, pay their $680 naturalization fee by credit card. And the plan offers to waive the cost, based on income, for families earning up to $47,000 for a family of four.

In the past, the government prohibited such partial waivers. The plan, dubbed "New Americans," will also include a comprehensive media campaign in major media markets in 10 states.

Critics worry this is part of an effort to register new Democratic voters and turn red states blue by the next election.

MORE HERE

Somewhere I read that Fidel had gotten $400,000,000 in personal money and put it into a bank account in Switzerland. The Castros are just like Mugabe.

Communism: Take from the rich. And take from the poor. And keep it. Blame poverty on shadowy capitalists. Just like George Orwell's "Animal Farm."

I think that is a low estimate, The SOB's routinely send planes to Europe and other locales to buy luxury items not available locally. They pay their people double digit monthly salaries. Seems to be the Communist MO and if we continue with our current direction it will happen here as well. We are well on our way.