Gold9472
07-03-2007, 08:34 AM
Cuba's Castro Says God Protects Him From U.S. Assassination
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ai9gAVkjvzqw&refer=latin_america
By Bill Faries
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro said that God has protected him from assassination orders he says were issued by U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush.
"Now I understand why I've survived the plans of Bush and the other presidents who ordered my assassination -- the Good Lord protected me," Castro wrote in an editorial published by the Havana daily Granma.
Castro was responding to comments made yesterday by President Bush at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. "We'll continue to press for freedom on the island of Cuba. One day, the good Lord will take Fidel Castro," Bush said.
Castro's essay is his second since a June 21 vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to increase funding for a State Department "Cuba Democracy" fund fivefold to $45.7 million next year. House and Senate Democrats introduced a proposal to lift travel and some farm trade restrictions against the island that same day.
The editorial by Castro, 80, is the latest in a series of essays he has published in Granma, his main avenue of communication since undergoing intestinal surgery last July. He turned temporary governing authority over to his brother Raul Castro at the time, and has not appeared in public since.
"The President was commenting on an inevitable event," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said when asked about Bush's comments, according to the Washington Post.
"It would appear that this brilliant official and his boss are going to live for thousands of years," Castro wrote in response to Johndroe's statement.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ai9gAVkjvzqw&refer=latin_america
By Bill Faries
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro said that God has protected him from assassination orders he says were issued by U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush.
"Now I understand why I've survived the plans of Bush and the other presidents who ordered my assassination -- the Good Lord protected me," Castro wrote in an editorial published by the Havana daily Granma.
Castro was responding to comments made yesterday by President Bush at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. "We'll continue to press for freedom on the island of Cuba. One day, the good Lord will take Fidel Castro," Bush said.
Castro's essay is his second since a June 21 vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to increase funding for a State Department "Cuba Democracy" fund fivefold to $45.7 million next year. House and Senate Democrats introduced a proposal to lift travel and some farm trade restrictions against the island that same day.
The editorial by Castro, 80, is the latest in a series of essays he has published in Granma, his main avenue of communication since undergoing intestinal surgery last July. He turned temporary governing authority over to his brother Raul Castro at the time, and has not appeared in public since.
"The President was commenting on an inevitable event," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said when asked about Bush's comments, according to the Washington Post.
"It would appear that this brilliant official and his boss are going to live for thousands of years," Castro wrote in response to Johndroe's statement.