Fidel Castro health watch

Here we go again...

Headline reads: Rumor has it Castro is dead — once again

On Friday, the rumors heated up again for the third week in a row: Fidel Castro's death would be announced, first at 2 p.m., then at 4, then at 5.

For the past year, since the Cuban government said Castro had ceded power to brother Raul after intestinal surgery, rumors that Castro is on the brink of meeting his maker keep boiling over and dying down.

Friday, teary callers told Ninoska Perez, of Radio Mambi, they were sure this was it, and Perez, as usual, reminded, "The moment will come, but this is not the moment."

Via Seattle Times.

Fidel Castro health watch

He's still alive and he's looking good.

It looks like he's out of the woods so I'll quite this series of reports unless he dies.

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Fidel Castro health watch

He seems more and more alive every day.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday warned of a possible U.S. invasion of Iran.

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Fidel Castro health watch

He's currently alive and increasingly revitalized.

Stepping back from previous assertions that Fidel Castro was near death, U.S. officials say that the image of an increasingly revitalized Castro is impeding the island's day-to-day leadership from making major changes.

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Fidel Castro health watch

I'm a bit behind the curve on this due to my so called life.

Fidel Castro is neither dead nor dying. In fact...

The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, will be in "perfect shape" to stand for parliament again in a year's time, the head of the country's national assembly has said.

"I would nominate him," said Ricardo Alarcon told reporters yesterday. "I'm sure he will be in perfect shape to continue handling his responsibilities."

A personal note. I've had intestinal surgery and it takes one hell of a long time to recover. And I'm much younger than Castro. The human body doesn't like to be invaded and, I would guess aside from heart or brain surgery, there's no more violent invasion of the body than an operation on the intestines.

Hell, my stomach now looks like a road map and I have two navels.

Meanwhile, Bushco is collectively crying because Castro isn't on his last legs.

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U.S. speeds visas for Cuban doctors in other countries

Somehow this seems like supreme hypocrisy, that we'll accept Cuban trained doctors, but still belittle Fidel Castro's rule, but I can't put my finger on it. Or did I?

Hundreds of Cuban doctors and other medical personnel who defected in other countries have applied for fast-track entry into the United States under a 6-month-old special program, U.S. officials said.

More than 100 already have arrived in the United States under the program, and hundreds more are hiding in places such as Bolivia and Venezuela, awaiting U.S. background checks to ensure that they're medical professionals, not rights abusers or Cuban government agents.

After a slow start, the program, intended for Cuban medical personnel who defect while they're working abroad, has received so many applicants that Cuban-American activists are scrambling to assist the new arrivals. There are reports that Cuban authorities are visiting family members of doctors stationed abroad to warn them of reprisals if their relatives flee.

"It's a hugely successful program," said Emilio Gonzalez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security. "The word is getting out, and obviously we get an increased number every week."

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Fidel Castro health watch

Latest news is he's OK and feeling well.

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Fidel Castro health watch

Today the Cuban leader is recovering well.

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On Protecting Sources

I'm just gonna steal this whole item. But you need to know this.

Yesterday was a frustrating day for me. I had the opportunity, thanks to another of the significant think tanks in town, to pose a question to one of the more important international diplomats of the moment.

I asked this diplomat to make clear something that the neocons have alleged was a fabrication by a European government. I asked the question very carefully and asked it in front of about 300 people. The meeting was "entirely off the record."

The diplomat who responded before people like Helene Cooper of the New York Times and Jim Hoagland and Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post in the audience said some extremely interesting things. I connected with the diplomat later and tried to lift the veil on the "off the record" commentary -- without success.

Now, I know something that is extremely important about the conduct of American foreign policy and cannot report it. Helene Cooper actually chased me out of the room to ask what I was going to do with the info -- and we were both flummoxed -- realizing we were stuck but fearing someone else might scoop us in reporting the info that came after a question I posed.

I understand the realities here, and I won't write this up unless I find independent confirmation of what I learned. I have thoughts on how that might be possible.

But all this stuff about journalistic propriety came up yesterday as well on a second front when I hosted a meeting for the Cuba-diva herself, Anne Louise Bardach, who spoke both about her new book, The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro, but who gave a talk at the New America Foundation I chaired and co-hosted with The Nation Institute titled "Cuba, Castro, and What Comes Next?"

Bardach was terrific -- but she's been trying to connect to an anonymous source of mine for some years -- and that source has not been cooperative. I've lived up to my commitment to this person, who happens to be a soldier, but it's clear that Bardach would be an excellent person to run further with some information related to Cuba than what I have written.

Blogging is different than journalism -- but there are norms and best practices that I think serious bloggers need to live up to. The blog has grown so much and is read so widely among Washington types that I consider this both my own sandbox for oped-style commentary, but it is also a place that breaks some news. So, I have to maintain an approximation of journalistic standards.

I realize that this is a disappointing post. Perhaps you'll get a sense, however, as to how I feel sitting on some of the most interesting foreign policy information out there and am completely unable to write about it. ARGHH!

More later.

Note: Links are in original.

(courtesy link)

Must Read IMHO

The prescient Fidel Castro. It kinda gives ya the shivers.

Fidel Castro health watch

Now he's a party animal. Apparently reports of his impending/actual death were a bit off? Just asking.

Fidel Castro is having a party that has dampened his foes' plans to dance on his grave, supporters of the ailing Cuban president said as they celebrated his latest television appearance.

This is turning into quite the melodrama.

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Ya just never know

SPIIDERWEB™ is now being referenced by the Havana Journal™.

I suppose with a post title of "Fidel Castro health watch" its not too surprising.

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Fidel Castro health watch

Today he's on the mend: Chavez.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that Cuba’s Fidel Castro has visibly improved, describing how the ailing Cuban leader has gained weight and is walking around and studying.

“A notable improvement,” Chavez said yesterday, describing Castro’s condition when the two met recently in Havana.

“He has gained several kilograms, and I think he is walking about more than me, analysing, studying,” Chavez said at a news conference in Caracas.

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