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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  BOOK: CASTRO'S SON SAYS DAD DYING; BUT CUBAN LEADER DETERMINED TO OUTLIVE BUSH PRESIDENCY Fri Sept 21 2007 15:43:35 ET The highly anticipated book on Fidel Castro from one of the preeminent authorities on Cuban and Miami politics and CBS' consultant on Castro, Ann Louise Bardach, WITHOUT FIDEL: The Death of Castro and Other Tales (Scribner) confirms for first time that the Cuban leader is terminally ill and dying -- yet determined to outlive the Bush presidency. An excerpt of the book reveals: "A few weeks after Fidel Castro's surgery, his son, Antonio Castro, an orthopedic surgeon and the doctor for Cuba's national baseball team, was more forthcoming with some of his foreign counterparts at an international baseball event. Asked solicitously about his father's health, the amiable Antonio shook his head sadly, and said: 'Lo que el Viejo tiene -- es fulminante.' or 'What my old man has -- is insurmountable.'" Bardach will examine the last, secretive months of the Cuban leader, based on sources with access to Castro's private hospital suite. Bardach thoroughly debunks the PerezHilton "Fidel is Dead" rumor that was picked up by a credulous mainstream media last month. "As the rumors begat rumors, reaching critical mass by day's end on August 24th, " she writes, "Castro was, in fact, having a reasonably comfortable day and was watching his favorite show on television -- a news program of Cuban one-party punditry, La Mesa Redonda [The Roundtable]". "It hardly required rocket science to ascertain that the rumor was bogus. For one thing, Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba's US policy player -- went, and stayed on, vacation. At the same time, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, flew off to Brazil to attend a Summit and soon after, skipped off to Iran. Moreover, Raul Castro had made a secretive trip to Italy, a crucial partner in Cuban tourism, in which he toured a state-of-the-art resort and golf course in Tuscany. Clearly, the top three men in the Cuban political firmament would never have ventured outside of Havana had Castro inched closer to death's door. By 9 p.m. on August 24th, Miami radio and television's rumor frenzy had devolved into a no-news meltdown. One more time it was achingly clear to all that Fidel Castro Was Not Dead -- Yet Again." The book concludes with the succession of his brother, Raul, as commander-in-chief whose reign began on July 27th, 2006. Bardach makes the case that Raul may well be the best -- and only -- man to lead Cuba out of its 47 year cocoon of isolation and hostility towards its northern superpower. Developing... |
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