They are GOING CAPITALISTwith the death of Chavez!
BREAKING NEWS: Fidel Castro is dead
I know it's just a rumor, but you know how married couples are sometimes.
"Talk grows of taking Cuba off terror list; Kerry reviewing policy that could pave way for renewed relations" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, February 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — High-level US diplomats have concluded that Cuba should no longer be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, raising the prospect that Secretary of State John F. Kerry could remove a major obstacle to restoring relations with the Cold War-era foe, government officials said.
Cuba no longer actively supports terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or former members of Spain’s Basque Fatherland and Liberty, also known as the ETA, according to State Department findings.
How sickening is it that the State Department of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the entire world is casting judgments?
And interviews with a series of top administration officials and members of Congress indicate there is a growing consensus in policy and intelligence circles that Cuba’s support for terrorist groups has been terminated and the country should be removed from the list — much like the George W. Bush administration did with North Korea in 2008.
It's because they, like North Korea, are broke.
Kerry has met in recent days with officials to review the Cuba policy.
The pressure to de-list Cuba as a terrorism sponsor comes as a bipartisan congressional delegation traveled to Cuba this week to discuss how the two estranged nations might find ways to lift a US embargo in place for five decades and cooperate on a host of economic, agricultural, and security matters.
But the delegation, which included Representative James P. McGovern of Worcester, left Cuba on Wednesday after failing in its immediate goal: to win the release of an American prisoner, Alan Gross. The nearly four-year standoff over Gross is among a number of matters holding up efforts to improve relations.
Related: Globe's Cuba Coverage is Gross
They were there on a retrieval mission.
But despite that failure, the meetings were constructive, and the tone promising, McGovern said in a phone interview, after meeting with President Raul Castro in Havana on Tuesday.
“They are interested in improving relations because it is in their interest. I feel they are really interested in sitting down and engaging, where everything is on the table — the embargo, the travel restrictions, migration, everything,” McGovern said.
The Gross case, he said, can be resolved, but it is “going to take some negotiations.” Gross is an American contractor who was arrested in 2009 while providing communications technology to Cuba’s Jewish community as part of a US-financed democracy-building program.
Translation: He's a SPY!!
Related: Cuba says US prisoner has no cancer
Well, if he does he's in the right place for treatment. Kept Chavez alive for two years.
A major impediment to normalizing relations with Cuba, according to McGovern and others, is that Cuba has been listed by the State Department each year since 1982 as a sponsor of terrorist groups. Yet that is a view no longer held by a number of senior US officials. Even North Korea, which the Obama administration has criticized for conducting nuclear tests and making threatening comments toward the United States, is not listed as a terrorism sponsor. That contrast is one reason for calls within the State Department to consider taking Cuba off the list.
“There is a pretty clear case . . . that they don’t really meet the standard anymore,” said a senior administration official with direct knowledge regarding US-Cuba policy who was not authorized to speak publicly. “They have neither the wherewithal nor are they doing much.”
Translation: The Cuban Lobby in Florida doesn't carry as much pull in AmeriKan politics these days.
In addition to Cuba, the list of terrorist sponsors includes Syria, Sudan, and Iran.
The U.S. and Israel didn't make the list?
Inclusion imposes strict sanctions. For example, it prohibits the United States from selling arms, providing economic assistance, and restricts financial transactions between citizens. Countries that were removed from the list in recent years include North Korea, Libya, and Iraq.
The United States initially cut off diplomatic relations in 1961, and later put in place a trade embargo. Cuba served as a satellite for the Soviet Union and flash point of the Cold War, most famously in 1962 when Russia placed nuclear missiles on the island.
Ah, yes, the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK's finest hour.
Related: Russian Roiling
That can't be helping.
The Cuban government also armed and trained Marxist revolutionaries across Latin America and Africa during the 1970s and 1980s.
US officials emphasized that there has not been a formal assessment concluding that Cuba should be removed from the terrorism list and said serious obstacles remain to a better relationship, especially the imprisonment of Gross.
This isn't about policy or people, folks. This is all about getting their spy back by offering hungry Cubans a carrot.
Cuba has said it would release the 63-year-old in exchange for the so-called Cuban Five, convicted Cuban intelligence operatives being held by the United States.
Looks like a good deal to me.
Related: Cuban Five
Yes, the Cuban Five were reporting to the United States the harboring of terrorists in Florida. For being with us and against the terrorists they were imprisoned.
The Obama administration, however, has publicly refused to entertain such a trade, and officials said there is unlikely to be significant improvement in the relationship until Gross is released.
Then this article is really nothing more than a front-page fraud designed to push an agenda, isn't it? The headline should have read "Free Alan Gross."
But Kerry, who played a key role in normalizing relations with communist Vietnam in the early 1990s, is seen as particularly receptive to new ways to change a relationship many believe to be a relic of the Cold War....
I sense a post coming regarding them.
A number of other big obstacles also block a new approach in US-Cuban relations. A primary one is the Cuban government’s continued crackdown on political dissidents. US officials maintain that while Cuba has liberalized some aspects of its economy and recently lifted restrictions on Cubans’ ability to travel outside the country, it still does not tolerate opposition to its one-party system.
As a result, there remain deep divisions over US-Cuba policy. Roger Noriega, who served as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs in the Bush administration, said “the fact that the Cuban people are systematically denied human rights remains the single biggest obstacle. It is not about us. It is not about Alan Gross. It is not about the terror designation. It is the reality on the ground. Until they dismantle the police state and free political prisoners no unilateral steps should be taken.”
I find that so offensive from a neo-con war crook.
Even the State Department’s most recent reports to Congress have downplayed Cuba’s role in terrorism....
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I don't see why we just can't trade with them, but....
Related: Cuba’s reforms pave way for new US policy, too
Cuban Cut
Raul Castro talks of stepping down
Raul Castro gets new term, younger leader is VP
Some minor problems still to be worked out:
"Cuba denounces US diplomatic mission" Associated Press, November 03, 2012
HAVANA — Cuba denounced the American diplomatic mission on the island on Friday for what it called subversive activities designed to undermine the government of Raul Castro, a shot across the bow just four days before the US election.
That's what they do, yeah.
The Foreign Ministry said the Americans illegally give classes inside the walls of the US Interests Section, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, and provide Internet service without permission.
It vowed to defend Cuba’s sovereignty ‘‘by any legal means’’ at its disposal, but gave no details.
US officials have long maintained that they are doing nothing illegal in Cuba and that supporting free speech, cultural activities, and Internet access is a common practice at missions around the world.
Yeah, overthrowing other regimes is all legal.
‘‘We are absolutely guilty of those charges. The US Interests Section in Havana does regularly offer free courses in using the Internet to Cubans who want to sign up. We also have computers available for Cubans to use,’’ State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.
‘‘Obviously this wouldn’t be necessary if the Cuban government didn’t restrict access to the Internet and prevent its own citizens from getting technology training.’’
Cuba accused the diplomatic mission of more nefarious motives.
I can't imagine why they would think that.
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