Cuban coast guardsmen take patrol boat to Key West

[AZTOY]

Cuban coast guardsmen take patrol boat to Key West

Friday, February 7, 2003 Posted: 11:21 AM EST (1621 GMT)

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KEY WEST, Florida (CNN) -- Four camouflage-clad, Cuban coast guard members arrived Friday morning in Key West, where they told police they had raced across the Straits of Florida in a Cuban patrol boat they took while on duty, police said.

The men told Police Officer Matt Dorgan at 4 a.m. EST that they had left Cuba three hours earlier and tied up the 30-foot escape boat at a nearby dock, according to Key West Police Department spokeswoman Cynthia Edwards.

The boat was flying the Cuban flag, and one man told police he was a 14-year veteran of the Cuban coast guard.

The men were taken to the Monroe County Detention Center to await officers from the U.S. Border Patrol.

Edwards said one of the men allowed police to confiscate the Chinese handgun he was wearing in a holster. He had two loaded ammunition magazines.

The boat, which was discovered at Hyatt Resort marina, had a light bar with blue lights and twin 200-horsepower outboard engines. Officers found two AK-47s and eight loaded magazines on the boat, Edwards said.

The radio on the boat was monitoring the U.S. Coast Guard frequency.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/02/07/cuba.boat/index.html

 

[MonkeyMan]

Not quite as spectacular as the Soviet pilot that defected with his MIG but just as effective. I'm guessing that since he's a member of the Cuban CG at least he's not a felon like the last bunch Fidel tried to send us.

 

[jmbg29]

Welcome aboard boys!

Oh, and Tio Fidel... you!

 

[foghornl]

And the horse you rode in on, Fidel....

 

[Apple a Day]

One of my cousins did the same thing back in the '60s. He was a lot more comfortable on the way over than the cousins who came over during the Mariel boat lift.

 

[denfoote]

They made it to shore!! They're in!!!
Welcome to America, boys!!

Oh, and to Fidel: Before you croak, could you please send me the engraved Makarov you got from Leonid?????!!!!!

 

[CZ-75]

I think we should pitch in for a few stogies for Fidel, so as to get him back out of remission. Let his island's most famous product do what the CIA couldn't.

 

[DadOfThree]

We are now at condition orange for terrorism and 2 guys in a twin engine Cuban military speedboat (flying a Cuban flag no less) comes in to dock at a U.S. port. These guys are lucky they weren't turned into fish food about 12 miles out by the Coast Guard. Glad they made it here and really glad they weren't here to blow something up.

 

[CZ-75]

You overestimate our capabilities.

Think of all the guys who bring coke in from S. America.

Prices are down for coke, last I read (= supply greater than demand).

 

[KY Moose]

Dé la bienvenida a chicos de florida

Just goes to show how wide open our shores and borders are.

 

[Kahr carrier]

Man I wonder if they had some Cigars with them??

 

[Nando Aqui]

Ex-guardacostas: ¡Bienvenidos al mejor país del mundo entero!

Yes, it is easy to understand how difficult it is to effectively patrol every single potential point of entry into the U.S., but it is still scary; especially while under Orange, as mentioned above.

Alex
------------------------------------------------

Speaking of breaching security, did you guys hear about this:

" (07 Feb 03) The Post's David Montgomery reports that the 57-year-old Weaver, a nondenominational Christian minister from Sacramento, crashed the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, breezing through the ballroom entrance without a ticket and handed President Bush what he later described as an eight-page typed "message from God" about Iraq."

Full Story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37895-2003Feb6.html

Note: in my preview, the last portion of the site address appears as:

"wp-dy...5-2003Feb6.html"

That portion should be:

"wp-dyn/articles/A37895-2003Feb6.html"

I don't know why it appeared differently than what I entered.

 

[Coronach]

Moved to L&P

Mike

 

[TarpleyG]

I think they should ship 'em right back to Cuba on the next boat/plane/submarine/whatever...

I am really tired of this "let's close off the borders to everyone (but it's okay if you're an oppressed person from a COMMUNIST government)" crap I hear so much of.

The Haitians and Mexicans are just as oppressed but they are usually turned right around after processing and sent back.

What the hell folks? Some of you here are always whining about how easy it is for outsiders to get here and stay here in our post-9/11 world.

If you want to come over, do it the right way. Don't just float up on our shore and expect an open armed welcome and that the cops are gonna buy you a beer at a bar in Key West.

MAKE UP YOUR MINDS for cryin' out loud!!!

P.S. And the rhetoric from the media is really going to make me puke. On the news last night these guys were "armed to the teeth" with AK-47s and thousands of rounds of ammunition and could kill us all!!!

GT

 

[2dogs]

Aside from the humor of the situation (recall the movie "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" where the Soviet sailors are walking around trying to fit in while warning "Emargency, Emargency- Evree one to get from street" with Russian accents).

Isn't a little troubling that these guys, in foreign uniforms, flying a foreign flag, and armed, were able to just cruise on up and park- then go traipsing around town? What if they were Iraqi's or Al Queda and a bit more discreet on entering- could have done some real damage, no? For what we're paying in taxes shouldn't SOMEONE have noticed this?

Sheesh.

 

[jmbg29]

The Haitians and Mexicans are just as oppressed but they are usually turned right around after processing and sent back.

Totally different circumstances. The Mexicans are under duress from poor economic circumstances. The majority of Haitians fit this category, as well as having an astronomical rate of infection with little things like H.I.V. and tuberculosis. They are welcome to stay in they're own little hellhole of a country, thank you very much.

If you want to come over, do it the right way.

Under current American law, they are legally allowed to come to this country the way that they did. Please try to pay attention.

MAKE UP YOUR MINDS for cryin' out loud!!!

See above.

P.S. And the rhetoric from the media is really going to make me puke. On the news last night these guys were "armed to the teeth" with AK-47s and thousands of rounds of ammunition and could kill us all!!!

Seems that the inability to think rationally, and/or pay attention to detail, is pretty common down there.

 

[TarpleyG]

Gosh. I hope that wasn't an attack on my character. I might be offended and turn you in to a mod...

I wouldn't do that like some others and yes I DO pay attention. I am not old enough to have lived through the whole "Cuban getting to land" thing but I would have disagreed with it then too. IIRC, a liberal, democratic regime allowed that to be passed. I could be wrong and will go look it up.

Also, you have another thing coming if you don't think the Cubans are living in poverty like the Mexicans and Haitians. The rich over there are VERY wealthy while the POOR are very much so. There is no middle class.

I don't want any of them piling over here in that fashion. My mother-in-law is Colombian. She didn't wash up in Key West on a boat or raft. She went through the proper steps to come here. I realize this isn't really an option for the Cubans so maybe we should be targeting Fidel as an enemy of the state just like Saddam and N. Korea.

Anyway, I am finished debating this.

GT

 

[jmbg29]

Also, you have another thing coming if you don't think the Cubans are living in poverty like the Mexicans and Haitians. The rich over there are VERY wealthy while the POOR are very much so. There is no middle class.

Not in dispute. Never was.

I am not old enough to have lived through the whole "Cuban getting to land" thing but I would have disagreed with it then too.

Your disagreement with it was also not in dispute. It sounds like you may have gone to Socialist Indoctrination Camp. That isn't your fault, they used to be Public Schools, but they were swarmed and taken by the enemy about 30 years ago. Kids are no longer taught why stopping Communism/Socialism is important. Quite the opposite in fact. Now they get brainwashed into thinking all situations are exactly the same, with one exception of course, if the U.S. is involved in any way, they are to be considered the "Bad Guy". So unless somebody told you about the history of U.S. vs. Coobah, or you stumbled across it yourself, how could you know?

IIRC, a liberal, democratic regime allowed that to be passed.

Sort of. We used to have a policy of accepting "wet foot" Coobahns. When Klinton came to power, he couldn't repeal "special asylum" for Coobahns completely, so he implemented the "dry foot" aspect in 1994. Meaning that those interdicted offshore were to be sent back (to slave labor camps). Bubba didn't want to face the disappointment of having a Communist dictatorship go down in flames on his watch. Besides, if Tio Fidel failed because he didn't have enough slave labor, where then would Bubba get his favorite sex to..., uh...cigars?

The point is that the U.S. is again trying every imaginable way to siphon off the best and brightest from Coobah. The thinking goes along the lines of: if they are clever enough to get here without getting caught, that will be fewer clever people to prop up the thronging masses which = Tio Fidel's power.

maybe we should be targeting Fidel as an enemy of the state just like Saddam and N. Korea

At this point we could. Back when options like the "wetfoot" thing were implemented (all other asylum seekers actually had to get here first), we were tiptoeing around in the hope that WWIII wouldn't erupt. Today we could take Coobah in a very short afternoon.

As for the U.S. Coast Guard not catching these guys? I'm confident they spotted them, they just make sure to look away long enough for them to get ashore.

 

[Keith]

>>>>If you want to come over, do it the right way. Don't just float up on our shore and expect an open armed welcome and that the cops are gonna buy you a beer at a bar in Key West.<<<<<

If Cubans COULD apply for immigration, the law wouldn't exist.

Keith

 

[jimpeel]

CZ-75

I think we should pitch in for a few stogies for Fidel

Great! I vote for pitching him off the 78th story of the Empire State Building.