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Obama appoints Castro-lover as White House counsel
Gerard Jackson
Obama's appointment of Gregory Craig as White House counsel is further evidence of just how leftwing — not to mention anti-American — the Obama regime could be. Craig is a truly nasty leftist and Castro-lover. One need look no further than the infamous Elian case to realize how deeply compromised Craig is. Wanting to strike a propaganda blow against the US Castro hired Craig to do what was necessary to drag Elian back to Castro's prison island. Being the leftist he is, Craig enthusiastically obliged.
Several highlights from the Elian case will reveal Craig's ruthless contempt for liberty. Dr Caridad Ponce de Leon was sent by Castro to 'treat' Elian. On Thursday 27 April an alert INS agent discovered that the good doctor was carrying diazepam and phenobarbital, both of which he had smuggled into the country. Any adult in need of this medication should have no difficulty getting a prescription. So why did Dr de Leon feel the need to smuggle them into where Elian was being kept?
These drugs can act as sedatives that can create a false sense of wellbeing — just the thing for happy photographs. Cuban officials blasted the confiscation of the drugs, fuelling further suspicions about their intended use. These suspicions were strengthened by the fact that Dr de Leon was on her way to the Wye Plantation* in Maryland where Elian and his father had been kept in isolation on Clinton’s orders.
Comments by Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly and who has acted as Castro's front man on the Elian affair, strongly suggest that the drugs were intended for Elian. Enter the compassionate and honourable Greg Craig who immediately leapt Dr de Leon's defence, asserting that the good doctor was a great comfort to Elian. What Craig was unable to explain was why Elian always appeared so calm after a visit from this Castro-appointed doctor.
Strangely enough, two experts appointed by the INS refused to recommend an extension of Dr Ponce de Leon’s visa. However, after deciding not to extend the Doctor’s visa INS officials were instructed to reverse their decision, which they did. Theses instructions came from Doris Meissner, INS Commissioner, a close friend of the Clintons and a noted left-winger considered to have pro-Havana sympathies. Nevertheless, Dr Ponce de Leon suddenly left for Havana, refusing to give a public explanation for her return.
The circumstantial evidence points to Elian having been drugged. This raises questions concerning the role that Greg Craig would have played in what amounted to child abuse. His actions in helping restrict access only to Cuban agents and Clinton officials would have made the continued drugging of Elian easy while protecting Craig from any embarrassing disclosures. The drugs would why Craig was so eager to eager release of photographs showing Elian in a happy mood being 'treated'. Suspicion of Elian being drugged were followed by demands for a saliva test. Gregor Craig — with the help of Clinton officials — was refused a requests
Craig’s attitude toward liberty and the truth can easily be gauged from his contemptible statement that Elian's father was "free to state his views honestly and openly, without coercion, without fear of retribution." And if Gonzalez had really wanted to defect, he could have done so during a private Janet Reno and Doris Meissner. Two things:
1. Does anyone imagine that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would have been stupid enough to put his life in the hands of this pair of Castro stoogies?
2. In any event, Craig knew that Castro was keeping members of Gonzalez’s family hostage in Havana.
I think readers will have no trouble determining the kind of miserable creature Greg Craig really is. But yet there is more to come. Craig and Castro admirer in the media arranged for Juan Miguel (Elian's father) to be interviewed by 60 Mminutes. As you can imagine, the interview was a complete farce. It plain that the whole thing was nothing but a shameless stage-managed piece of Castro propaganda.
Every question that Dan Rather (another honourable lefty) had been given to him in advance by Gregory Craig. Juan Miguel had no problem answering them because he had been carefully coached beforehand by Craig. (No doubt Cuban secret policy were on hand to make sure that Miguel got Craig's message).
Gregory Craig is a truly sleazy piece of work. He supported the bloody communist conquest of a good deal of South East Asia. He supported the Marxist-Leninist Sandinistas. He was also an aid to Ted 'KGB' Kennedy. And surprise, surprise he has been advising Obama on South and Central America. I guess this means that the region's America-hating thugs are expecting a pass from an Obama White House. My bet is that they'll get one.
* R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir Smith Bagley threw a party at his mansion where Elian Gonzalez was the guest of honour after the boy was forcefully from the home of his Miami relatives. During the party, agents of the Cuban Interests Section (secret police) in Washington DC provided delicacies like smoked salmon, shrimp and fruit that although taken for granted here in the United States, are unavailable to most of the Cuban population back on the island. Yet, Bagley who is a tremendously rich WASP sees no problem in giving money to organizations that front for Castro while the island's population is ground down by Marxist thugs. Incidentally, Bagley is a big Obama supporter.
It's not unusual for the very rich — not to mention delusional — to support leftwing thugs. Edwin Janss, founder of the leftwing Janss Foundation, said that "when the revolution came, the houses of his neighbours would be people’s palaces". Naturally, his house and wealth would be protected against any revolutionary excesses. Then we have Aris Anagnos, a Los Angeles real estate magnate and fanatical Marxist-Leninist. Alexander Helphand, alian Parvus, was a millionaire who helped bankroll Lenin. While Helphand died of old age his son died in the Gulag. (Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography, Free Press, 1994).
Gerard Jackson is Brookesnews' economics editor
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 24 November 2008