A "Special" Police Operation

Last week, the BBC's correspondent in Havana, Fernando Ravsberg, was confronted by Castro's "special police" for having a conversation with a Cuban journalism student.

That's right -- for a simple conversation.

He wrote about this experience in a post (in Spanish), which we've partially translated:

Careful with the Waiters

It has been an exciting week. I was the subject of a "special police" operation upon leaving the bar of the Hotel St. John in the Vedado neighborhood. My "crime" was having a cup of coffee and talking to a journalism student, whom I was helping with his graduate thesis.

At the bar, I had noticed that the waiter kept walking by our table excessively, but I thought he was simply bored due to lack of clients. However, at one point I saw him whispering to the receptionist as they glared at us from the corner of their eyes.

The fact is that upon leaving, we were confronted by two agents of the "special police" (they wouldn't tell me what they "specialized" in). With an angry look, they asked us for our documents and refused to tell us why they were taking such measures.

After elaborating on the details of the harassment, Ravsberg ironically concluded:

The funny thing is that one of the questions the student had previously asked me was whether foreign journalists had difficulties in approaching Cubans, to which I answered "no." I never thought I'd be contradicted so quickly.

A North Korean Coincidence?

Last Friday, the Washington Post reported,

"North Korea said Friday it will free an American missionary who entered the country on Christmas Day to protest human rights abuses.

State media in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said the government decided to 'leniently forgive' Robert Park, 28, of Tucson, Ariz., because of his 'sincere repentance of his wrong doings.' North Korea did not say when it would release Park.

Park walked from China into North Korea across the frozen Tumen River carrying letters calling on leader Kim Jong Il to step down and to close the country's gulag of labor camps for political prisoners."

Just two days before, Reuters had reported,

"President Barack Obama said Wednesday he had decided not to reinstate nuclear-armed North Korea to a list of countries that the United States considers state sponsors of terrorism.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last June had raised the possibility of returning North Korea to the list in reaction to recent nuclear and missile tests. Several Republican senators had been demanding such a move."

Coincidence?

Over the weekend, a State Department spokesman stressed Park's release was not part of any deal.

We should take the State Department at its word. However, the Castro brothers -- long-time practitioners of blackmail -- have surely been taking notes.

Whether it's North Korea or Cuba, one thing is certain: these countries should not be travel destinations for Americans.

Due to its distance, harsh climate and logistical challenges in getting there, rarely do Americans think of traveling to North Korea.

Unfortunately -- if U.S. policy were to be altered -- the same wouldn't be true for Castro's tropical gulag.

A Closer Look at Regime Change

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson wrote a great editorial last week on the concept of regime change entitled, "U.S. solidarity could boost Iran's Green Revolution."

He makes the argument that:

For some Americans, the idea of regime change is tainted by the Iraqi invasion and occupation. But there is also the model of South African regime change, overturning apartheid with massive international pressure, and Polish regime change, aided by covert American support for unions and democratic resistance.

No one argues that the Iraq model should apply to Iran. But is Iran ripe for the South African or Polish approaches? Part of the answer may come on Feb. 11 -- the anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution -- when the democratic resistance has called for another round of mass protests.

Read more here.

Trip to Cuba Scrutinized

Over the weekend, columnist Peter Hitchens scrutinized a recent trip to Cuba by former British Conservative (Tory) Party leader William Hague in the Daily Mail newspaper:

Hague kowtows to a grim tyrant

I used to have some time for William Hague. Not any more.

I discover that this supposedly principled Conservative recently visited Cuba, that imprisoned island, and there met members of its repellent tyranny.

A spokesman says: 'He had a three-hour meeting and lunch with Cuba's foreign minister, including a vigorous discussion on democracy and human rights. This would not have been possible had he met opposition figures on the same visit.'

Why ever not? And if not, why go at all?

(EDITOR'S NOTE: A question we repeatedly ask of U.S. Members of Congress and their staffs who do the same when they travel to Castro's Cuba.)

Cuba is one of the grimmest dictatorships on the planet. Its leading dissident, Oswaldo Paya, is a man of great principle and lives under siege.

Would the Cuban Stalinists have dared to interfere if Mr. Hague had gone to meet him, as he should have done?

Mr Hague was accompanied on this curious trip by the mysterious Lord Ashcroft, widely known as 'the man who bought the Tory Party'.

What is he getting for his millions?

It's no wonder that in March of last year -- seemingly out of nowhere -- Hague called for the immediate lifting of U.S. sanctions towards Cuba.

It was all about business.

For more on the private jets, luxury yachts and business interests behind the Cuban foray of Hague and Lord Ashcroft, click here.

A Vivid Reminder

Yesterday, we posted a note on the recent beating and arrest of 37 dissidents for protesting the brutal prison conditions of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Zapata Tamayo, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, is serving a 25-year sentence for "disobedience."

In response, the Castro regime decided to give these 37 dissidents a taste of the prison conditions as well.

Hopefully, these real time pictures of the prison cell where they were held will serve as a vivid reminder of the brutality of this regime and of the importance of modern technology in holding it accountable.