The headline in yesterday's Miami Herald reads, "Funding for free Cuba is frozen - Money destined for Cuba democracy programs has been frozen following charges of massive fraud." and follows with:

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.

-

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

-

A report by the Cuban-American National Foundation released in May showed that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report said, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/612979.html

But the story doesn't end there. Looking into the Center for a Free Cuba finds it backed by the International Republican Institute, which is chaired by (drumroll) John McCain.

IRI’s board of directors is chaired by U.S. Senator John McCain and includes former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, former Presidential Envoy to Iraq L. Paul Bremer, III and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft

The IRI website proclaims it to be, "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide by developing political parties, civic institutions, open elections, good governance and the rule of law."

But the Council on Hemispheric Affairs says, "The International Republican Institute’s ostensible democracy-building mission serves only as a screen for its energetic and unscrupulous promotion of an ultraconservative Republican foreign policy agenda.", and that it's Cuba program is a, "blatant attempt to funnel taxpayer funds to boondoggle programs of some of the most hardline factions of the Cuban-American community, who have long been a crucial pillar of support for the Republican party, especially in Florida."

It goes on to say, "Despite its elaborate rhetoric and claims to nonpartisanship, the IRI in fact operates as the powerful and well-funded foreign policy arm of the ultra rightist wing of the U.S. Republican Party.", and, "IRI’s seemingly innocuous activities, which are said to include party-building, media training, the organization of leadership trainings, the dissemination of newsletters and the strengthening of 'civil society', mask a far more aggressive and calculated attempt by the organization and affiliated hard right Republican Party ideologues to destabilize liberal political movements and governments (which it sees as containing the germ plasm of communism) in this hemisphere and around the world. Its central, though unstated, mission is to see to it that such vanguard movements have leaders perceived as being more agreeable to Washington’s orientation on a given issue.", and states also that, "Entities backed by the IRI, on the other hand, invariably show marked solicitude for the interests of large U.S. financial institutions and corporations—such as Chiquita Banana, whose former chairman Carl Lindner has long been one of the country’s primary donors of soft money to the Republican Party and was recently named a 'Super Ranger' fundraiser for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign."

This is the same Lindner who the largest GOP funder in America, including McCain's campaign, and who, while the chariman of the parent company of Chiquita, before it was bought out by George H. W. Bush, paid South American terrorists against the policy and laws of the US State Department:

When McCain needs money he knows where to turn; Carl H. Lindner Jr.; Chairman and CEO of the American Financial Group.

Lindner, who is on McCain's Ohio Victory Team, hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain which raised about $2 million for his presidential campaign. SourceWatch (link) reports that Lindner has donated more money, $2.6 million to federal candidates including President Bush, the Republican party and Political Action Committees, than any other American.

But according to the Justice Department, while he was serving as the Chairman of the Board of Chiquita Brands; which was owned by what was once George H. W. Bush's Zapata Corporation, which owns Zapato Oil and engages almost exclusively in off-shore drilling (oh really?); company officials "knowingly engaged in a scheme to pay at least $1.7 million" in protection payments to right-wing AUC and leftist FARC and ELN guerrillas in Columbia.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs goes on to state:

Behind this network of Cuban-American organizations, funded by the NED and the IRI, and led and supported by an array of ultra-conservative Republican figures, lies a clear political intent that is far different from simple “democracy promotion” in today’s Cuba. On the contrary, the goal of the generous funding for these organizations is to cement the Republican loyalty of some of the most wealthy and powerful members of the U.S.-based Cuban community, whose leadership eagerly defends the interests of such organizations in each funding cycle of the IRI and NED grant making. The IRI played an important role in paving the way for Governor Jeb Bush’s rise to power in Florida, appointing him as co-chair of an IRI “Cuba Transition Team” in 1995 after he lost his first race for governor of Florida. This position helped allow him to build the strong ties he maintains to this day with the most conservative faction of Florida’s Cuban-American community, which has been crucial to his gubernatorial victories as well as his brother’s victory four year ago in the presidential race.

Not enough can be said about the IRI and McCain's links to it and the Cuban-American groups it is funding in Florida; and why.