RUTHFULLY YOURS

PARIS—By choosing François Fillon as their candidate for the presidential election, the French center-right has opted for a mild-mannered conservative known for the alarm he has sounded about the country’s high public-debt levels.

The 62-year-old nominee for the center-right Républicains party emerges from the shadow of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who dominated the French right for over a decade with a brash and divisive leadership style.

Mr. Fillon served as Mr. Sarkozy’s prime minister, and the two men share a core policy stance that is socially conservative and favors rolling back the reach of the state. But Mr. Fillon’s calm demeanor marks a stark change in style for the French right.

An automobile and mountaineering enthusiast with a stately home in western France, Mr. Fillon at times clashed with Mr. Sarkozy, who once belittled his prime minister by describing him as an assistant. Mr. Fillon has struck back with a quietly prepared election platform that blew apart the center-right primary race in the final stretch and Mr. Sarkozy’s dreams of a presidential comeback.

“I love resisting a tenacious rival who is catching up with me or watching for an opening to jump into and overtake the person ahead of me,” Mr. Fillon said in a 2015 book describing his passion for politics and racing cars.

The son of a rural notary, Mr. Fillon boasts close ties with farming communities in the Sarthe, the region where he grew up and which he praises as “balanced, moderate and tolerant.” Unlike most French politicians who refrain from making public statements about their religious beliefs, Mr. Fillon hasn’t shied away from discussing his Catholic faith.

“I grew up in this tradition, and I kept this faith,” Mr. Fillon says in his book. CONTINUE AT SITE

It is never a sad day when a monster dies.

Fidel Castro, the mass murderer who sadistically tormented the Cuban people for nearly fifty years, died on Friday at the age of 90. Thousands of Cuban exiles understandably celebrated in the streets of Miami. Leftists around the world, meanwhile, dutifully mourned their fallen secular deity. Progressives always grieve when the vicious enforcers of class hatred die.

While leftists sob for one of the most evil tyrants of the modern era, those who cherish freedom and human rights are never sad to have one less monster walking the earth.

And so, on this significant occasion, it would do well to offer a reflection on the pain and blood that this particular monster left in his wake.

On July 13, 1994, 72 desperate Cuban citizens, including seniors and young children, floated on a wooden tugboat in a turbulent sea, trying to make their way to Florida and dreaming of the freedom that now lingered within their grasp. Their aspirations were met with a nightmarish jolt when Castro’s patrol boats suddenly rammed the back of their vessel. The frightened women held up their little children in the air to let Castro’s thugs know what the situation entailed. And the thugs returned their expected response: on the orders of the head beast in charge, they blasted the mothers with children in hand with their water cannon, mowing them — and all the other escapees on board — into the merciless waves.

Maria Garcia lost her son, Juanito, that tragic day. She also lost her husband, brother, sister, two uncles and three cousins. In all, 43 people drowned — 11 of them children. This evil murderous act became known as Castro’s Tugboat Massacre. Yisel Alvarez was 4 when she drowned. Carlos Anaya was 3. Helen Martinez was 6 months old.

Castro gave the orders for this evil massacre — and the deaths of Carlos, Yisel and Helen made him especially proud. That is why he personally decorated one of the water-cannon gunners himself.

Fidel had always derived special pleasure from sending helicopters to drop sandbags onto the rafts of would-be escapees from his prison-island, or to just gun them all down. The Tugboat Massacre, however, proved to be a special delight for him, because there were children involved. And the blood of innocent children, as Anna Geifman documents, is always a special delicacy for totalitarian death cults, whether they be of the communist or Islamist variety.

Mexico City — Fidel Castro was a remarkably lucky dictator. Unlike many — Romania’s Ceausescu and Libya’s Qaddafi come to mind — he wasn’t executed by his own people and instead died in bed at age 90. During the Cuban missile crisis, he wrung a secret promise from the U.S. that it would never invade Cuba. He then survived dozens of assassination attempts by the Kennedy administration until a Castro sympathizer named Lee Harvey Oswald put a stop to them and to the life of President Kennedy in 1963.

Castro ruled for another 45 years after that, until his retirement in 2008, persecuting dissidents, jailing gays, and murdering opponents. Even after he turned power over to his brother Raul, Fidel continued to be feted and admired by world leaders. Few dictators could have collected the kind of respectful foreign tributes that poured in from Western countries after his death last Friday.

Here in Mexico, which harbored the young revolutionary Castro and provided the launching pad for his return to Cuba in 1956, the response from government officials was pathetic. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico who had promoted bilateral relationships based on “respect, dialogue, and solidarity.”

Miguel Angel Mancera, the head of government in Mexico City, also expressed solidarity with Fidel on his Twitter account: “Death of an icon of history, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, go with the people of Cuba in their mourning. Rest in peace #MM”

But none of the Mexican officials descended to the depths of Jill Stein, leader of America’s Green party. She took time off fundraising to launch recounts of this month’s presidential election to tweet her homage: “Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!”

EU Leader Jean-Claude Juncker added to the encomia, tweeting, “With the death of #FidelCastro, the world has lost a man who was a hero for many.”

AMBOULI, Djibouti—French aircraft struck and likely killed one of the most wanted senior al Qaeda operatives in southern Libya this month, marking a new level of cooperation between France and the U.S. on targeting militants, U.S. officials said.

This wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. thought that a strike killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an elusive insurgent leader known as the “one-eyed terrorist” because of an accident years ago that left him disfigured. Reports of his death following previous operations to target him over the years have proved false.
Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar is seen in an undated picture from the U.S. Justice Department. ENLARGE
Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar is seen in an undated picture from the U.S. Justice Department. Photo: US Department of Justice/REUTERS

But based on what they described as the caliber of the intelligence, U.S. officials expressed greater confidence that the latest strike, conducted by French aircraft in southern Libya based in part on intelligence feeds from the U.S. earlier this month, likely was successful. Efforts are under way to determine its outcome, officials said. Officials at the White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the strike. A spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense declined to comment.

Mr. Belmokhtar has raised tens of millions of dollars for al Qaeda affiliates through smuggling and by taking European hostages and selling illicit goods, and is considered directly responsible for the deaths of at least three Americans, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. in 2013 launched a multiagency effort to find him that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the military’s Joint Special Operations Command and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Belmokhtar, once the head of the al Qaeda chapter in North Africa and the Sahel region—known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM—has been on the U.S. wanted list for at least a decade. He was thought to have been killed at least twice before, including in an airstrike in June and a drone strike last year.

If the strike this month was successful, it would represent a culmination of efforts by the U.S., French and other allies to capture or kill Mr. Belmokhtar. It would also reflect the extent of new military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries, U.S. and French officials said. The U.S. contributed intelligence to add to what French officials already knew about Mr. Belmokhtar’s whereabouts in anticipation of this month’s strike, U.S. officials said.

The killing of Mr. Belmokhtar would be the first confirmation that France has conducted airstrikes in Libya. Paris has for months tried to keep a low profile on its operations in the country, fearing that public military intervention would be seen as taking sides in Libya’s internal conflicts.

Yet the presence of thousands of militants in the country who have sworn allegiance to Islamic State and al Qaeda has prompted France to launch covert operations there for at least the last year, Western officials say. The missions include supporting local forces on counterterrorism missions and directly hunting down extremists, officials say.

After denying the existence of Libyan operations for months, France in July was forced to acknowledge its presence on the ground when three French intelligence agents died in a helicopter crash near the eastern city of Benghazi.

The U.S. and France have long had an intelligence-sharing relationship for counterterrorism purposes, but it became more formalized following last year’s Paris attacks. An agreement, announced by President Barack Obama in November 2015, directs U.S. officials to share operational planning and intelligence with their French counterparts.

The agreement has been expanded quietly, with more information sharing and intelligence cooperation, officials said.

Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s homeland-security adviser, wouldn’t confirm details of the recent strike. But she said France is one of the “most effective allies” in bringing pressure against Islamic State, in Syria, Iraq and in Africa.

“The French have been indispensable partners, bringing resources, expertise and determination to the fight,” she said.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is set to meet in Washington Monday with his French counterpart, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, with the military and intelligence relationship continuing apace since the Paris attacks. American senior defense intelligence officials met last week as part of the so-called Lafayette Committee, formed after the agreement made with France last fall. The first of the semiannual meetings was in May.

The strike in southern Libya this month stands in contrast to French airstrike operations following the attacks in and around Paris a year ago, when French officials, under pressure by the French public to respond to the attacks, conducted strikes against Islamic State over Syria, but with little initial coordination with U.S. officials.

The intelligence the U.S. shares with France, though expanded, is still not considered akin to the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance between the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The two countries are still working through longstanding issues when it comes to trust and the ability of both intelligence apparatuses to share information. But U.S. officials want to deepen the relationship as much as possible, U.S. officials said. CONTINUE AT SITE

On a trip to Cuba in the late 1990s I met a young man who was trying to earn hard currency as a tour guide in Old Havana. It was obvious he wasn’t trained for the job. But I didn’t care. I wanted to hear from locals and, as I discovered, he wanted to be heard.

Over the course of several days we walked around the crumbling city while I peppered him with questions about daily life on the island. I got an earful about the absurdity of revolutionary Cuba, the privation, the frustration, the alienation.

He was angry. But when it came to talking about the hypocrisy of Fidel Castro, who everyone knew lived lavishly while his subjects struggled to get by, my guide was more careful. One evening over dinner he whispered, “Maria, don’t put what I say in your newspaper or Fidel will . . .” and he put his hands around his throat in a gesture of strangulation. He was afraid.

I heard the news around 2 a.m. Saturday that the 90-year-old despot had finally departed. I thought of that young man. And of the many other aspiring 20-somethings I met on my trip who wanted me to know of their longing for freedom.

The death of Cuba’s former dictator Fidel Castro late Friday was met with both celebration and regret, with a number of American politicians spotlighting the violent oppression of his regime while some world leaders mourned his loss.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump labeled Castro a “brutal dictator” and described his legacy as one of “firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.” Trump said his administration will work to help the Cuban people move away from oppression.

“While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve,” Trump said Saturday. “Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty.”

President Obama, who has cultivated warmer relations with Cuba, offered condolences to Castro’s family and acknowledged the “powerful emotions” that the event will foster in the Cuban people. Obama did not relay any direct criticism of Castro for his leadership.

“We know that this moment fills Cubans—in Cuba and in the United States—with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him,” Obama said.

Cuban President Raul Castro announced the death of his brother late Friday in a televised address. Fidel Castro, who was 90 years old, ruled over Cuba for almost five decades before passing the power to his younger brother in 2008. A polarizing figure, Castro has been widely criticized for cracking down on political and economic freedoms, while some have praised him as a revolutionary.