The National Network on Cuba is part of a U.S.-based movement that is opposed to war and political, military and economic intervention abroad.

The NNOC condemns the war being waged today by the U.S. government against the people of Afghanistan under the pretext of a war on terrorism. We condemn the Sept. 11 attack on the WTC [World Trade Center] and the Pentagon which caused the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women, and children and share the grief of their families. But the shock and insecurity felt by the U.S. people in the wake of those actions has been cynically orchestrated by the U.S. government in a calculated campaign to broaden support for U.S. war aims which have nothing to do with combating terrorism.

The Bush administration has stated it will not limit its attacks to Afghanistan, but will expand it to other nations, including in the Western Hemisphere. We condemn this expansion.

Nor is this war limited to peoples abroad. People living in the United States are also its victims. Racial profiling and attacks on immigrants have been intensified. The government has persuaded Congress to permit serious restrictions of our basic Constitutional rights and civil liberties. We reject the idea that the United States has the right to decide what is a terrorist nation.

The fact that the U.S. State Department has long included Cuba on its self-described list of "terrorist nations" is a clear example of the illegitimacy of this policy and practice.

The Cuban Revolution has never engaged in nor backed terrorist actions. On the contrary, for four decades its people have been the victims of U.S.-sponsored terrorism. By its own admission, and as reported by U.S. Congressional committees, the United States has supported or condoned hundreds of violent acts, including plane hijackings, biological warfare, sabotage, murders, and attempted assassinations since the Cuban Revolution came to power in 1959. Most recently, it has also included terrorist attacks against tourist facilities in Cuba. It continues to provide immunity and safe-haven to the perpetrators of violent, terrorist acts against Cuba, most notoriously in the case of Orlando Bosch, a man so known for his propensity for terrorist actions that the U.S. Attorney General urged that he be deported lest the United States' credibility and security be compromised.

Orlando Bosch is the perpetrator of a 1976 bombing of a Cubana airplane carrying seventy-three civilians. This was the world's first terrorist action involving the bombing of a civilian airliner. Orlando Bosch was recruited, trained, and supported by the CIA. He was then pardoned by the previous Bush administration, and to this day walks freely through the streets of Miami.

We condemn the terrorist acts against Cuba which have occurred over the last forty-two years. We oppose all U.S. policies that have sponsored U.S.-based terrorism against Cuba. We also condemn the U.S. government history of targeting opponents of these policies.

The National Network on Cuba demands that the U.S. government stop supporting and acquiescing in acts of terrorism against Cuba organized, financed and often carried out from U.S. soil. We demand that the United States government investigate and prosecute U.S.-based anti-Cuban terrorists.

We appeal to all Americans to join us in opposing the prosecution and incarceration of the five Cubans imprisoned in Miami, whose only crime has been to monitor and attempt to prevent this U.S.-based terrorism against the Cuban people. At a time when the American people have been made particularly sensitive to the human toll of such terrorist acts, those who have fought against such acts should be viewed as heroes, not as criminals.
 
 
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