Most readers will be familiar with the expression "the pot calling the kettle black", a saying that dates back to the 17th Century, when it was defined in a dictionary of cant published in 1699 as "when one accuses another of what he is deep in himself".

A present-day example of this is US government spokesman Colin Powell, referring to Iraq as if it is a host country to terrorists, with implied Al-Qaeda connections.

The US state of Florida and, in particular, the city of Miami welcomes terrorists with open arms so long as they are Cuban and opposed to the socialist government of that country.

Naturally, they do not call themselves "terrorists" but by their deeds we know them.

These deeds are well documented, not implied, including 600 attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, the blowing up of the French ship La Coubre in 1960 in Havana harbour, which killed 116 people, and detonating bombs on a Cubana Airlines civilian aircraft in 1976 with the loss of 73 passengers and crew.

In four years alone - between 1997 and 2001 - there were more than 60 attempted terrorist attacks on Cuba.

As Noam Chomsky, the US Nobel Prize winner, said when speakIng in London on June 16, 1996: "The US terrorist campaign against Cuba is the longest and most brutal terrorist war ever launched by one state against another in history."

-C C Fraser, Carlyle Street, Brighton