Fontova vs. Peters: Knockout!

Hey folks, author and Babalu contributor Humberto Fontova has been interviewed by Frontpage and it’s a GREAT read. In the interview Fontova takes on Sherritt, Phil Peters, Larry Craig, Charles Rangel et al.
A brief excerpt:

Fontova: Well, Mr. Peters is unquestionably the mainstream media’s top source for sound bites on Cuba ‘s so called reforms and transition. He’s quoted everywhere from the Washington Post to the Miami Herald, and from the AP to Reuters. These sound bites always — and I mean always — manage to include a few jabs (however subtle) at U.S policy towards Cuba .
Peters’ zeal against the so-called U.S. embargo of Cuba (the U.S. is actually Cuba’s biggest food supplier and fourth biggest trade partner ) strikes many as excessive for someone with a purely intellectual stake in the matter. Moreover, Peters snipes at all aspects of U.S. policy, even the traditional one of accepting Cuban refugees. It’s like he follows the entire list of Castro’s directives to his own captive media.
FP: Why do you think he has be become one of the mainstream media’s favorite sources for Cuba sound-bites?
Fontova: Primarily because he echoes their anti-U.S. policy viewpoint. But he does it from the point of view of a “former Reagan-Bush State Dept. official” and “Vice Pres of a free-market” think tank, you see. So he’s billed as being free from any leftist taint which gives his observations and opinions a more mainstream cachet than if they issued from, say, Noam Chomsky or Saul Landau.
FP: What do you think explains the fact that he is a frequent guest of the Cuban regime — which rolls out the red carpet for him?
Fontova: Cuba ‘s Stalinist rulers are not overly keen on hosting anyone who will alert the outside world to their high-living and repression, and they have various methods of making it worthwhile for their guests to cooperate in the cover-up.
A year ago, reporters Gary Marx of The Chicago Tribune, Stephen Gibbs of the BBC, and César González-Calero, of the Mexican newspaper El Universal, were all booted from Cuba . The regime cited their “lack of objectivity” for the booting. And it’s not like they were reporting on Raul or Fidel in the manner Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson, for instance, reported on Ronald Reagan or George Bush–much less Richard Nixon. These reporters seemed to take their job titles seriously and deviated somewhat from the normally subservient and lame style of reporters and press agencies who are granted Havana bureaus.

We don’t call him the surgeon for nothing.
Read the whole damned thing here.