Cuban Refugees, Policeman, Homeland Security Expert Agree
She was only three years old, but Dr. Irma Aguirre remembers
the scene very well.
Armed guards standing in the doorway of the family's Havana
home told her father that he was free to go to America. The
Castro regime was letting him out of the concentration camp
for that purpose.
But if he chose to leave, he was leaving alone. He could
never return to collect his wife and children and parents.
His elderly mother said, "Just go! God will get us out."
Within a matter of time, her prediction came true.
The family was reunited in America where she grew up and
became a doctor who carries on a general practice in Bryan
with a specialty in plastic surgery and dermatology.
Her father had originally fought alongside Fidel Castro when
he offered hope for a new way and change from the
dictatorial Fulgencio Batista regime. After Castro was
captured by the Batista forces and sentenced to the death
penalty, the Archbishop of Havana interceded and had him
pardoned. He was then sentenced to 13 years behind bars and
gained his freedom after two years.
The doctor recalls that her father changed sides in the
revolution, joining the brigade of freedom fighters trained
by the CIA who were left to die on the beaches of the Bay of
Pigs when the White House withdrew guaranteed air support
and naval forces.
Eventually, he was ransomed by the U.S. and the whole family
was reunited in America.
What had happened?
The Batista regime was smart enough to read the writing on
the wall. They left in the middle of the night one evening
in 1959.
"All Castro had to do was walk in and take over," she
recalls.
A fellow former refugee, Dr. Juan A. Baldor, who chairs the
Spanish Department at Dallas Baptist University, has a
similar memory.
Pointing to a canvas duffel bag, he decalred to a crowd of
about 75 people gathered in the Guadalajara Room at Rustic
Creek Ranch on I-35W, "That bag contained all my family's
earthly possessions.
The year was 1962, just a few months before the Cuban
missile crisis. They were herding his father, his wife and
two children onto a "freedom flight" for Florida.
A Cuban guard took his father's last seven cents away from
him, saying "We'll just keep this for you while you're
away," or something equally witty.
Dr. David McIntyre, former head of the Texas A&M Integrative
Center for Homeland Security and head of a doctoral program
in the subject who resigned to run for Congress, a former
instructor at the Army War College, staff member of the
Office of Chief of Staff, and a Lt. Col. when he retired,
agreed, saying that the economy is just as much as part of
national security as anything else.
There is one thing that is paramount to Americans keeping
their freedom.
A culture of corruption will ultimately cause Americans to
forfeit their privileges.
Sgt. Bert Hernandez, a former Green Beret whose parents came
to America in 1957 from Mexico City and were naturalized the
next year after a 10-year wait, agreed in his presentation.
"My father told us we would have to come to America legally
because if we came before we were supposed to and moved in,
what was that telling our new neighbors about our beliefs?
About our respect for the law?"
Why did the brothers Hernandez, Bert's father and his uncle,
want to come to America? They joined the Army Air Corps to
learn to be pilots.
When America decalred war on Germany, they had to return to
Mexico where they joined the Mexican Air Force.
It was the conduct and courtesy of American police officers
that most impressed Mr. Hernandez Senior, recalls Bert. In
Mexico, the cops are on the take. They steal. They lie.
Their last concern is the well-being of the citizens.
Not so in the America of the thirties. Here were policemen
who were dedicated to seeing the young cadets made it back
to the base in good health, no matter if they had been
drinking.
The result is that Bert Hernandez is today a reserve Wooday
Police Officer with a Master Certificate from the Police
Academy.
Dr. Baldor gave the audience a checklist of 9 elements that
totalitarian governments instill in their takeover of a
nation's freedoms.
1. To diminish or prohibit religious thinking. He recalls
being instructed to pray for candy and not getting any.
Then the teachers told the kids to pray to Castro for candy.
When he opened his eyes, he found candy on his desk top.
2. To destroy core family values. Children are encouraged to
inform on their parents for legal and political infractions.
3. Close all private schools and day public schools and
replace them with boarding schools run by the government in
which the children are separated from the family.
4. Alter textbooks to reflect the government's agenda.
Education goes on, he said, because "Castro had to be sure
the masses could read his propaganda."
5, Control media and control free speech. Reduce sources of
information to only those approved by the government and
promptly jail and punish any people who speak out against
government practices.
6. Take away the right to bear arms.
7. Forbid freedom of assembly.
8. Remove an individual's drive and incentive to be
productive, to take risks. You can only do so much good and
then there is no further incentive to hustle.
9. Break the will of the individual. "You surrender yourself
to a government that considers you an incompetent. In turn,
they agree to take care of everything for you."
What type of care?
Consider the rations doled out to each Cuban citizen each
month. Five pounds of beans, two pounds of rice, no meat,
no fish, two rolls of toilet paper - and the list goes on.
It doesn't mean you will get it. They are out of these
things all the time.
"Standing in line waiting to get whatever they have just
gotten in is a central fact of life in Cuba."
He began to tick off conditions imposed by the Obama
Administration.
There are 30 czars who direct government agencies in
everything from law enforcement to agriculture and health
care who are appointed by the President and are not
confirmed by the Senate. The federal government refuses to
protect our borders and enforce our immigration laws. The
president mocks the words of the Bible and says that America
is not a land of Christians.
"The danger is the loss of freedom happens gradually. We
must be vigilant or what happened in Cuba could happen
here," said Dr. Baldor.
At present, there is a lottery in Cuba in which the winners
are allowed to leave the country, he concluded.
He received a standing ovation.
When Dr. McIntyre came to the lectern, his remarks were
eagerly anticipated.
His premise is this. We can do one of two things. We can
make America safe at the cost of all your liberties, or we
can make Americans safe and keep our liberties.
The problems are manifest and they reside in the culture of
the government.
First of all, there is a fabulously competent intelligence
apparatus that was designed to function at optimum
efficiency - in the cold war. But times have changed. This
is a time when intelligence items just don't get through to
the right people because the people who operate the system
just don't get it. There are some 18 agencies involved. No
one person is really in charge. No one is there to make key
decisions and everyone hides the truth from everyone else.
Secondly, the paradigm of the armed forces has shifted 180
degrees. The world has turned upside down.
It used to be that the main stems of the Army and Navy stood
ready to wage war, requiring massive commitments in
manpower, materiel and funding. There was a smaller, more
economical Army devoted to Special Ops, undercover troopers
who trained and operated with indigenous populations
wherever they fought.
Now, the roles have reversed. The standard Army trains
troopers to go and carry out special ops as a form of
warfare, not as a fifth column or advance guard, but as the
main assault force.
To make matters even more complicated, there is an entire
world filled with obsolete, worn-out American war machinery
that is too dangerous to rely upon. Most aircraft are in
too decrepit condition to fly civilians, but they are still
used to fly military personnel.
His best prediction: Look for a return to Clintonian
defense posture, a reduced military presence worldwide, a
reduction in force and little emphasis on rebuilding
America's arsenal.
The number one national security issue - the economy.
The number one homeland security issue - border security.
Both are imperiled by a resonant culture of corruption.
The TEA Partiers are resolved to pick up the slack, turn
slackers out of office and run candidates who will heed the
warnings of the patriots who addressed them on Sunday.
DVD presentations of the speakers are being prepared and
will be available through www.burlesonteaparty.org
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