tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851163370258594999.post7351352975616072102..comments2023-11-16T03:57:05.158-05:00Comments on The Cuban Triangle: Egypt and U.S. democracy programsPhil Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06724525896667349935noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5851163370258594999.post-74616841701590330042012-03-13T23:41:21.797-04:002012-03-13T23:41:21.797-04:00In Egypt access to the Internet is legal and in Cu...In Egypt access to the Internet is legal and in Cuba it is not.<br /><br />Therefore by definition the Americans in Egypt who were set up a mesh network did not break any laws while Alan Gross in Cuba did.<br /><br />Cuba is a totalitarian state whose government considers itself to be threatened from a more powerful hostile nations and that considers that granting its population unhindered access to the internet to be a security risk. That is the reason why such access is illegal.<br /><br />From the Cuban government's point of view setting up a series of BGAN sites that would have allowed users with password access to have unsupervised access to satellite internet would be highly subversive because it would have allowed independent journalists and spies to operate freely from Cuba soil.<br /><br />The whole situation was highly illogical because a mesh network could have been created without risking an American citizen by simply setting up the BGANS in sites that had diplomatic protection.<br /><br />Therefore this was, if done unintentionally,something extremely dumb to do and if done intentionally a sophisticated provocation designed to create a crisis in US Cuban relations and to freeze any further measures to lift the embargo.<br /><br />In order to evaluate which of the two variants to believe we must remember that Gross was sent five times into Cuba and that he was at all times well aware of the danger that he could be caught.<br /><br />Obviously Otto Reich's article also contributes to increase the belief that this whole thing was planned as a provocation and that Alan Gross is being used as a sacrificial lamb buy opponents of better relations among both governments.<br /><br />The snafu caused by his detention also postpones the possible creation of such a network from diplomatic sites until sfter Alan Gross is released.<br /><br />Obviously this provides an additional incentive for the Cuban government to prolong his detention until they can find adequate countermeasures to neutralize a future mesh network. <br /><br />As the saying goes "Guerra avisada no mata soldados!"<br /><br /> CantaclaroAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com