Ask GE about United States of American Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger!
(2019-10-03 at 13:46:23 )

Ask GE about United States of American Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger

For anyone who thinks that the United States embargo on Cuba harms only the Cuban people, I would recommend talking to the executives at General Electric. They will tell you about the $2.7 million that the feds just took from them for violating the embargo, unintentionally.

Like United States sanctions against other countries, the United States embargo against Cuba is aimed at causing maximum economic harm on the countrys populace as a way to achieve regime change within the country.

Ever since the embargo was first established in 1960, the idea has been that if enough misery could be inflicted on the Cuban populace, it would rise up in a violent revolution, oust the Cuban communist regime, and install another pro-United States dictatorship, like that of Fulgencio Batista, the crooked and corrupt dictator who was ousted by Fidel Castro in 1959.

The plan has never worked.

Even though the socialism that Castro brought to Cuba has itself caused massive impoverishment, the last thing most Cubans want is to be back under the control of the United States government.

What many United States of Americans, especially Cuban-Americans, do not realize, however, is that the United States embargo is also an attack on the economic liberty of the United States of American people, something to which GE can attest.

A fundamental principle of a free society is the right of people to travel wherever they want and to spend their money any way they want.

In fact, that is one of the major deprivations of freedom in Cuba and other communist countries. Communist regimes do not recognize freedom of travel and economic liberty as fundamental, natural, and God-given rights.

The Red scare

In 1959, the Cold War was in full swing. It had been almost 15 years since the United States government had been converted from a limited-government republic to a national-security state.

After the Central Intelligence Agency, which was a core element of the new national-security state, was established in 1947, it immediately assumed the omnipotent powers of regime change and assassination.

When Fidel Castro established a communist regime in Cuba, United States officials went ballistic.

In their minds, the Cuban Revolution was proof positive that the Reds were on the verge of taking over the United States of America. Cuba was said to be a communist "dagger" pointed at the United States of Americas neck from only 90 miles away from Americas shores.

There was no way the United States could survive, it was believed, with a communist regime so close to the United States.

Never mind that Cuba never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.

Never mind that Cuba never expressed any interest in invading and conquering the United States.

Never mind that Cuba was an impoverished Third World country.

Never mind that there was never any possibility that Cuba could defeat the United States militarily.

If the communist regime in Cuba was permitted to stand, it was believed, the United States of America was certain to fall to the Reds and the international communist conspiracy that was supposedly based in Moscow.

The United States national-security state came up with various ways to bring down the Cuban regime.

One was through an invasion by CIA-sponsored Cuban exiles, which failed miserably.

When the Pentagon proposed a fraudulent plan called Operation Northwoods, which called for a United States military invasion of the island, President Kennedy summarily rejected it. The CIA also came up with schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro, but that those also were unsuccessful.

Regime change via embargo

That left the embargo as the hope for bringing down the Castro regime.

United States officials, however, were reluctant to impose an outright prohibition on United States of Americans traveling to Cuba because then they would be seen as destroying what people have long considered is a fundamental right - freedom of travel.

So, instead, United States officials prohibited United States of Americans from spending money in Cuba without the official permission of the United States government.

It did not matter to them that they were destroying the right of economic liberty, any more than it mattered to Fidel Castro that he was doing the same thing in Cuba. Of course, the ban on spending money effectively operated as a ban on travel to Cuba.

But the ban obviously applied only to United States of American citizens and United States of American businesses.

The United States government lacks the authority to destroy the fundamental rights of foreigners, many of which continued doing business with Cuba, much to the anger and chagrin of United States officials.

GEs "crime"

General Electric is an United States of American company. The $2.7 million fine it just paid to the Treasury Department was for violating the United States embargo on Cuba.

Was that because GE was caught spending money in Cuba? Nope.

So, why then was it fined $2.7 million? And why did it agree to pay the fine?

Three GE subsidiaries performed services for a Canadian company named Sherritt International Corp. It turns out that Sherritt has a joint venture with Cubas state-owned nickel company. The joint venture is named The Cobalt Refinery Company. When Sheritt got billed for the services that GE was providing to it, checks to GE were issued out of Cobalts account and deposited by GE.

So, what is wrong with that?

Well, it turns out that Cobalt is on the Treasury Departments official list of companies that United States companies are prohibited from doing business with because Cobalt does not voluntarily comply with the United States embargo on Cuba.

In other words, it is not just against the law for United States of Americans to spend money in Cuba. It is also against the law for them to receive money from a Canadian company that does not voluntarily comply with the United States embargo and continues doing business in Cuba.

GE has software designed to identify companies that are on the United States governments verboten list. In this case, however, the software failed to catch Cobalts name because it only had an abbreviation of Cobalts name rather than its full name.

When GE discovered its "crime," like the good little citizen it is expected to be, it turned itself in to the government and confessed.

Because of that and because United States officials determined that GEs offense was "non-egregious," they decided to go easy on GE by settling for a $2.7 million civil fine and no criminal prosecution.

GE was, of course, lucky because not all United States of Americans who violate the United States embargo on Cuba are given such a "sweet" deal.

It is just another day of life in a "free" society, one in which out-of-control United States officials plunder and loot United States of Americans in support of a crooked, corrupt, failed, and destructive foreign policy.

Reprinted here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!