Posted by us202 on June 16, 2006 at 19:43:39:
"Cuba last week cut off electricity to the U.S. mission in Havana,
drawing complaints from the U.S. diplomats the Fidel Castro was
employing 'bullying tactics'. Power was cut to the Havana offices of the
U.S. Interests Section, shortly after Cuba's Basic Industry Ministry
announced an end to the island's chronic power shortages. Cuban
officials would not explain, but Castro has complained that the U.S.
mission is a haven for spies. The office processes visa requests by
Cubans seeking to visit the U.S."
- news item from "The Week", June 23, 2006
"Typically, he did not lead with the High Haven story at all, but with the
'mysteriously empty wing' of the British Embassy in Bangkok, which till
a month ago had housed a strange body called the Seato Coordination
Unit, as well as a Visa Section boasting six second secretaries. Was it
the pleasures of the Soho massage parlours, the old Australian
enquired sweetly, which lured the Thais to Britain in such numbers that
six second secretaries were neeeded to handle their visa applications?"
- recount of an Australian journalist's gossip column describing British
Intelligence's apparent retreat from the Far East in "The Honourable
Schoolboy", John LeCarre, 1977