I find it very interesting and disturbing that not one piece of information about the protests regarding the injustices and terrorism at the US gulag in Guantanamo, Cuba, has made any connection to the treatment of the Cuban Five Heroes incarcerated in five different federal gulags within the United States. Cindy Sheehan, who is protesting at the US gulag in Cuba, has also made this omission. Hopefully, she will make this connection before she leaves Cuba. It is hard not to know about the Five when in Cuba, as their pictures are posted in many places and there is continual discussion and actions regarding their case.  

Connections that should be made and part of the discussion: 
 
1.  Both the Gitmo prisoners and the Cuban Five heroes are political prisoners that have had their human rights violated.  
 
2.  Both have had their legal rights violated. 
 
3.  Both have had malicious and erroneous charges against them. 
 
4.  The UN has condemned both the treatment of Gitmo victims  and unjust treatment of the Five.  
 
The Cuban Five were held without bail for 33 months and held in isolation for 17 months. They were not allowed to contact their families by letter nor telephone for approximately 2-1/2 years.   
 
The wives of two of the Five have not been allowed to visit their husbands. Adriana, Gerardo's wife, has not been allowed by the US to visit Gerardo since his arrest September  12, 1998, for over eight years. Olga, Rene's wife, has not been allowed a visa by the US since she was forced to return to Cuba. Olga was in the US with Rene when he was arrested.  After about two years, she was arrested for no other reason than to attempt to break Rene. It did not work. Olga was released and told she had to return to Cuba but was not allowed to take her young child back to Cuba with her. Instead, Rene's mother in Cuba had to fly to the US and pick up the child, Ivette, from Rene's grandmother. Ivette has not seen her father since she was two years old.  Two of the wives, Rosa Aurora (Fernado's wife) and Adriana (Gerardo's wife) may not be able to have children, due to the unjust period of incarceration and delay after delay with US government appeals and the paralyzing pace of the US justice system.  Two of the Five, Rene and Antonio, were born in the US and, thus, are US citizens. 
 
The Five were not allowed a change of venue. There was a 100 percent assurance that the Five could not have a fair trial in Miami. The trial was a circus, and jurors were intimidated by the Miami Mafia groups. The jurors were never sequestered.  
 
Even the US Miami prosecution has to admit that they could not prove espionage. So, they charged three of the Five with "conspiracy to commit espionage. They also had to admit they could not prove a murder charge against Gerardo. So, they charged Gerardo with "conspiracy to commit murder." Even one of the three judges in the first appellate hearing in 2005 asked: Where is the murder? The prosecution wove a web of deception in trying to accuse Gerardo of conspiring with the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue plane in February of 1996. Note: Brothers to the  Rescue  (BTTR) is a terrorist group. They had been warned over and over not to enter Cuba airspace and make flights over Havana. Cuba even contacted high military personnel in the US and told them to tell the US State Department and the Pentagon that Cuba would shoot-down the next illegal flight in Cuban airspace.

In February, 1996, the BTTR deviated from their planned flight schedule (an illegal act) and headed to Cuba.  It was the FAA, not Gerardo, who warned Cuba BTTR were headed to Cuba.  Cuba did warn the BTTR leader, Bay of Pigs Veteran and terrorist Jose Basulto, that the planes were entering Cuban airspace and would be shot down if they did not turn back.  Allegedly Cuba has a tape of Basulto laughing as he turned his plane around but led the other two planes, each with two younger men, right into the line of fire.  It is important to ask the obvious: What would the US have done if Arab airplanes continually violated US airspace? I think we know. The US would not have even given a warning, but would have shot them down without a moment's hesitation.   
 
The Five should have been freed in August of 2005, when the three-judge Appellate court in Atlanta Georgia confirmed that their trial was unjust and they deserved a new trial in a new venue.  This  decision followed the UN HRC Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions decision that the Five's trial was unjust, they deserved a new trial in a different venue and that the US government needed to remedy this injustice.  
   
Much more could be said about the injustices against the Cuban Five. The above is just a general outline.  However, why do the US activists feel so committed to making public the torture of the political prisoners at Gitmo, while ignoring the torture of the Cuban Five who are also political prisoners? Could it be that it is more comfortable to support victims who are not in our backyard?  Could it be that the Five were arrested while Clinton was President, instead of Bush Jr.? Could it be that the mainstream public and many of the activists are just ignorant of the case of the Five because the mainstream media and much of the progressive media ignores their case?   
 
Not only are the Cuban Five NOT terrorists, but they are anti-terrorists.  They entered the US to infiltrate the Cuban American Mafia terrorists, so they could report back to Cuba about future terrorist plans against Cuba.  They also were trying to protect US citizens, as, in the past, US citizens, who spoke for dialog with Cuba and taking down the US cruel blockade and travel ban, have been terrorized and/or killed. The Five had no weapons. They did not seek nor obtain one piece of classified information -- no military secrets, nothing that would affect national security of the US.   
 
It is time, way past time, to start connecting the dots regarding all victims of US torture and terrorism. The situation of the Cuban Five cannot be disconnected from the situation of the victims of the US military base in Guantanamo. We cannot break the silence of US terrorism without acknowledging the Case of the Five Cuban Heroes who, again, are political prisoners suffering right here in the US. 
 
Joan Malerich writes from St. Paul, MN.