Re: Query

["Stuart Lawrence" <stuartwl@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Going back to the point of the original query (that was yours, Louis,
wasn't it?), the Cuban leadership has itself made a point of
highlighting the hypocrisy of repressive US laws regarding foreign
political ties:

This is from 1999:

RICARDO ALARCON ON THE NEW LEGISLATION

We won't let ourselves be destroyed

BY ALDO MADRUGA (Granma International staff writer)

WHEN the United States establishes laws with the express and public
purpose of imposing its will on the Cuban people and, on top of that,
imprisons and imposes hefty fines on its citizens who fail to comply
with them, how could this little Caribbean nation give up the right to
combat and legally sanction those persons who, within their own borders,
become the accomplices of the aggressor and facilitate and contribute to
the asphyxiation of their own country?

This was one of the great truths expressed by Ricardo Alarcón, president
of the National Assembly of People's Power, at a Havana press conference
convened to discuss the Act for the Protection of National Independence
and the Economy, recently approved by that highest legislative body.

<snip>

"You have to be crazy to believe there's any relaxation," he emphasized,
commenting that all these laws and measures taken against are moreover
the harshest to have been applied to U.S. citizens themselves in this
context.

The leader of the Cuban National Assembly had previously dealt at length
in that institution with the extensive body of U.S. legislation that
harshly represses any link between a U.S. citizen and a foreign power,
or a government, political party, international movement or any persons
or foreigners that the state considers its enemies.

GLASS HOUSES

By means of example, Alarcón referred to the 1940 Voorhis Act; the
Registration of Foreign Agents Act; and the 1950 Internal Security Act,
which "left many workers unemployed, sent a large number of Communists
to prison and led to the disappearance of an independent,
class-conscious trade union movement in the United States.

"But don't believe that the U.S. restrictions or prohibitions concerning
overseas contacts appeared in the framework of the cold war, as a
consequence of ideological confrontation, etc.

"George Washington was the first to propose repressive legislation of
this nature in the United States, and the Logan Act came into existence
in January 200 years ago."

Alarcón added that this isn't a law that has been filed away, a museum
piece, explaining how it has evolved over time, while maintaining its
essence to date in different versions, as is the norm and tradition
within U.S. jurisprudence.

The Cuban leader informed National Assembly delegates that the Logan Act
is to be found in the 45th chapter of Title 18: Crimes and Criminal
Procedures, which states that any U.S. citizen, wherever he or she may
be, who, without authorization from the United States, directly or
indirectly establishes or enters into correspondence or any form of
contact with a foreign government or official, or an agent of a foreign
government, can be fined up to 5000 dollars or serve a prison term of
three years.

"From January 1799 to January 1999, the crime of entering into
correspondence or any kind of communication with a foreign government or
a foreign agent has not gone lightly punished," he argued.

"And why did it occur to George Washington that this law was required?"
he asked. "Because there was a gentleman called Logan who dared to write
a number of articles in a certain U.S. newspaper expressing the view
that it wasn't essential for France and the United States to go to war,
which was a problem under discussion at the time.

"So, with the allegation that Mr. Logan had those ideas because of his
French friends," he continued, "they invented the crime of entering into
correspondence or some kind of contact with persons in foreign
countries, which is still standing, because what I read out to you is
the text after some minor changes were made to it in 1994."

The essence of that act is also alive, for example, in current Treasury
Department regulations concerning the so-called relaxation of the
blockade, Alarcón noted.

He read out one section stating that any person subject to U.S.
jurisdiction to have traveled to Cuba without the authorization of the
Foreign Assets Office of the Treasury Department will automatically be
considered as involved in prohibited transactions in relation to such
trips. This is also valid in the case of persons invited with all
expenses paid, who must demonstrate their innocence in a sworn statement
and confirmatory documents.

"According to U.S. newspaper reports," he commented, "approximately 379
citizens in that country have been sanctioned under legislation which
restricts any contact with Cuban authorities or Cuban citizens. This is
part of the policy of that great nation to the North, the alleged
champion of human rights and freedom.

"Cuba has an obligation to confront the blockade's application, in
juridical and penal terms, in defense not only of its own sovereignty
but also that of other nations that are under threat and, moreover, to
support the rights of the American people, which are also being trampled
on due to its government's arbitrary laws," the parliamentary leader
affirmed.

full:
http://www.granma.cu/documento/ingles/010-i.html