In 1981, Wesley Cook (aka Mumia Abu-Jamal) murdered Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in cold blood, shooting him first in the back and then in the face, at point-blank range. In addition to overwhelmingly conclusive forensic evidence, Cook was identified as the killer by multiple eyewitnesses, and he later bragged of perpetrating the infamous deed to additional, multiple witnesses.

But to the Communists, leftists, and their dupes the world over, the cop killer has become a rallying symbol. The still-defiant and unrepentant former Black Panther is a media darling and a prize cause célèbre of Hollywood's radical chic set. Ed Asner, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone, Woody Harrelson, Paul Newman, Whoopi Goldberg, and dozens of other celebrities have joined with Jesse Jackson and the usual race-baiting hucksters in "Free Mumia Now!" concerts, marches, petition drives, and demonstrations. The death row inmate is allowed to broadcast Marxist harangues over the radio from prison and has even delivered a videotaped college commencement address.

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez, on the other hand, has no celebrity cheering section. Like millions of other prisoners in Communist gulags, he is a nameless cipher, ignored by the professional compassion lobby. His case has not won the tearful sympathy of Ramsey Clark, Randall Robinson, the Reverend Joan Brown Campbell, the National Council of Churches, the Congressional Black Caucus, the ACLU, the New York Times, or CNN. Indeed, these self-anointed champions of human rights are so breathlessly infatuated with Dr. Biscet's jailer, Fidel Castro, that they can barely contain their ardor for the bearded dictator's glorious revolution.

According to Dr. Biscet's distraught wife, Elsa Morejon Biscet, the 39-year-old physician's health has been rapidly deteriorating and she is in fear for his life. Confined for 42 days alone in an unlit Cuban punishment cell, he lost 20 pounds. Already malnourished and suffering from an untreated gum infection, he has lost many of his teeth.

"He is terribly thin and weak but he is in good spirits and his faith has not diminished," Mrs. Biscet told THE NEW AMERICAN in an August 30th telephone interview from Havana, after having returned earlier that day from an unsuccessful attempt to see him at the notorious "Cuba Si" prison. "The prison authorities did not allow me to see Oscar, but they did give me a note from him," she said. Two weeks earlier, she had had her first prison visit with her husband since his solitary confinement ordeal. His starved appearance had shocked her and provided added urgency for her effort to arrange for a Catholic priest to visit him. "They have not allowed Father Luis to visit him and they have taken away his Bible, but he is not one to get discouraged by these hardships; he has a very strong faith in God," Mrs. Biscet related to THE NEW AMERICAN. "While in solitary, he was kept in darkness, so the only thing that kept him sane, he told me, was prayer, prayer, and more prayer." The interview was arranged by Dr. Angel Garrido, a Miami psychiatrist who closely follows Dr. Biscet's case and is trying, along with other Cuban-Americans, to draw attention to his plight. "Dr. Biscet is one of those heroes who come along only a few times in a century; his beliefs and principles -- and willingness to suffer for those convictions -- place him in a class of rare individuals," Dr. Garrido told THE NEW AMERICAN. "He has confronted Castro's brute force and tyranny with complete nonviolence and with courageous faith and commitment. He has refused to take the easier way out even at the risk of his life."

Imprisoned for three years for the "crime" of flying the Cuban flag upside down -- an international symbol of distress -- he has been subjected to beatings, brutal interrogations, and psychological abuse, and has been thrown into cells with common criminals and insane individuals. But as a nonviolent, pro-life, Christian convict in Castro's totalitarian system, Dr. Biscet does not qualify as a politically correct "prisoner of conscience" or merit the earnest solicitude of the academic, entertainment, and media worlds.

A specialist in internal medicine, Dr. Biscet is also an unyielding advocate of the rights of unborn children and infants. His heroic opposition to, and exposure of, Cuba's abortion and infanticide policies evoked predictable retribution from the Castro regime. In 1997, Dr. Biscet and others conducted a clandestine 10-month study at Hijas de Galicia Hospital in Havana, gathering unofficial statistical data on abortion techniques. The result was an investigative report documenting the common practice of infanticide in state-run hospitals throughout the island. In the report, Rivanol: A Method to Destroy Life, which was made public in April 1998, Cuban mothers gave testimony on how their babies were killed after being born alive. A copy of the report was officially delivered to the Cuban government with a letter to Fidel Castro denouncing the Cuban National Health System for genocide. A copy of the study was also sent to the United Nations Commission of the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Switzerland.

In February 1998, Dr. Biscet was officially expelled from the Cuban National Health System, rendering him unable to perform as a physician in his own country. His wife, who is a nurse, also lost her job because of his human rights activities. The couple and their adolescent son were evicted from their home in March 1998, and have had to depend on the charity of friends to survive. So much for the glories of socialized medicine.

Undaunted, on February 22, 1999, Dr. Biscet staged a peaceful demonstration, waving pro-life placards outside Hijas de Galicia Hospital, where he and Migdalia Rosado, another activist, were savagely beaten by a mob of Communist thugs from the hospital staff, including the hospital's director, Dr. Laura Fernandez. Dr. Biscet was charged in the incident with "disorderly conduct." His other "crimes" stem from a press conference held by the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights (which Biscet founded in 1997) a few days prior to the November 1999 Ibero-American Summit in Havana. At the press conference, the Lawton Foundation and numerous members of the opposition movement announced a peaceful march through the streets of Havana to call for human rights and for freedom for all political prisoners in Cuba. At this conference, two Cuban flags were displayed in an inverted vertical position as a sign of protest for the human rights violations in Cuba. Those who attempted to march in the demonstration were set upon and viciously beaten by government-sponsored mobs. Biscet was tried and sentenced for the so-called crimes of "dishonoring national symbols," "public disorder," and "inciting delinquent behavior."

"It is Dr Biscet's heroic adherence to faith and principles that have put him in prison, not any criminal acts," says Dr. Garrido. "Dr. Biscet has said: 'Remember that I have dealt with misery, pain, and death face-to-face and I have never relinquished my soul. I live to decrease the suffering of the Cuban people, even though I cannot eradicate those sufferings. Castro has to recognize in me an eternal rival.' And he most definitely is a rival whom Castro fears and cannot figure out how to deal with. It is very important for people of conscience to support him and other religious/political prisoners, both with their prayers and by petitioning their senators and congressmen to pressure the Castro regime for his release."

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