Posted on 12/17/2014 1:59:46 PM PST by Citizen Zed
For more than 50 years, Cuba has refused to cash the checks because it hasn't recognized the legitimacy of the lease the US entered into with the country in 1901, which the Cuban Constitution says gives the US "complete jurisdiction and control" over Guantanamo.
Now, with today's historic announcement by President Barack Obama that relations between the US and Cuba are on the mend, there are questions about whether Guantanamo came up during the discussions between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.
State Department documents that include copies of uncashed rent checks — they were recently released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — say the US is technically in default of its lease agreement with Cuba, which states that Guantanamo is "to be used only for a coaling station [a place to refuel Navy vessels]."
On April 26, 2006, Timothy Zuniga-Brown, a State Department diplomat, sent an email to Thomas Gerth, a senior adviser to the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs, asking him to confirm information and questions he was sent "regarding the status of the lease over Guantanamo." Zuniga-Brown — the bolding in the email is his — was concerned "some of the wording here sound[ed] a little loose":
Cuba's constitution, which was adopted in 1901, included what is called the Platt Amendment, legislation that established conditions for American intervention in Cuba and gave the United States the right to maintain a military base on the island in perpetuity. The lease contains several critical provisions relevant to whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction over the base. First, the lease gives the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" of that territory, saying merely that it "recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba." Secondly, the lease can only be terminated on the mutual consent of both parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.vice.com ...
Is that why he cleared out Camp Gitmo... as a start?
“Would Obama completely remove the U.S. presence from Cuba? “
Yes, he would. And he would do it for no concessions whatsoever from Castro.
Since Obama has been unable to close gitmo so far, my money says he will cede it back to Cuba and Castro will close it or turn it into a propaganda museum.
Bingo, there is his excuse for handing Gitmo to Castro while throwing his hands in the air and saying “It’s not my fault! Bush caused us to default on the lease!”
Obama and Raúl Castro thank pope for breakthrough in US-Cuba relations.
Pope Francis, before visiting The Holy Land boasted to be himself the “Che” of the Palestinian people.
A Marxist leaning Pope blessed the Marxist American president embrace of Castro's genocide communist regime condemning the Cuban enslaved people to eternal damnation. On the deal Castro liberated an American illegally imprisoned in Cuba in exchange for the freedom of three Cuban spies serving prison terms in U.S. and the normalization of relations with a country that occupied for decades a top position in the list of the State Department ‘s terrorist countries.
The Cuban regime tried to obliterate New York and Washington with a nuclear attack during the October Missile Crisis of 1962. “In November 1962, the Castro brothers’ and Che Guevara’s agents had targeted Macy’s, Gimbels, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan’s Grand Central Station with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The Holocaust was set for detonation the following week, on the day after Thanksgiving.” (Humberto Fontova)
Castro has been a strong ally of Islamic terrorism. Cuba continues to serve as a base for coordination and mutual support among transnational terrorist organizations. At Tehran University he stated to the thunderous applause of students and faculty, "The imperialist king will finally fall,” (AFP, May 10, 2001). Immediately afterward the Iranian Press Service proudly proclaimed that "Iran and Cuba reached the conclusion that together they can tear down the United States.” (IPS, May 10, 2001).
According to World renown and highly respected American investigative journalist and author, Claire Sterling, : “All of the world’s emerging terrorist bands in the 1970’s were indebted to the Cubans and their Russian patrons for that honeycomb of camps around Havana. None could have started without rudimentary training, and those who didn’t train in Cuba were trained by others who did.” (“The Terror Network, The Secret War on International Terrorism.”)
As reported by Sterling, “Castro was training the advance guards of the coming European fright decade – Palestinians, Italians, Germans, French, Spanish Basques – and forming guerrilla nuclei in practically every Western hemisphere state south of the American border. As far back as 1962, Castro’s camps were taking in 1,500 Latin American guerrillas a year. . ‘Any revolutionary movement anywhere in the world can count on Cuba’s unconditional support,’ declared Castro at the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana”. It was then and there that the international terrorism network was consolidated under Castro’s leadership.”
It is suicidal turning a blind eye to Castro, a deadly enemy at 90 miles south of Key West that does not hide his hatred for U.S.
After the restoration of diplomatic relations comes the end of the embargo.
To complete Obama’s betrayal of the American people, with the normalization of relations comes the opening to Cuba of the American and International bank credits that will sustain the Cuban regimen passing to the American taxpayers the same heavy burden that helped to bankrupt the Soviet Union.
When The FBI Tracked Terror-Suspects—Literally!
Humberto Fontova | May 10, 2013
http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2013/05/10/when-the-fbi-tracked-terrorsuspectsliterally-n1592705
The chimpanzee with his flying monkeys are trying to do as much damage as possible in the next two years, i.e. scorched earth. The Great OZ has spoken.
We still have a loophole on that one. Thanks to EPA rules, coaling stations need lots of support. Can’t have prisoners on those ships until they get their coal.
Ahhhhh....Gitmo....Watch this maneuver. He’s simply going to release them. Has to fulfill those promises ya know.
Have to remember....the pope believes in communism.
It seems he has taken the ultimate passive/aggressive route to closing Gitmo.
yeah I read this earlier, I am dumbfounded and without words other than disgust. But now Putin can Save Russia by selling those Nukes to Iran, John Kerry can oversee the transaction to make sure they get their money’s worth, then he can finally come home, Iran can ship them to their old friends and our new friends in Cuba for safekeeping and out of the view of the UN. John Kerry could take a quick boat ride every month to check on them, he does have a New boat ya know, and since he was in Vietnam he knows what he is doing. All is well right?
pardon my sarcasm, but what I really feel would probably get me banned or a visit from guys in black suits.
This all about closing GITMO...
When Obama said he might travel to Cuba, both my wife and I said, simultaneously, “He’s going to give them back Guantanamo!”
Not only would he do that, he would turn over Gitmo to them and probably give Castro the Florida Keys as "reparations" and let them Eglin AFB to assuage the hurt feelings they have concerning the embargo.
I think Cuba just want parts for the 1955 Chevy’s still on the streets.
Don’t most Treasury checks say “must be cashed within 180 days” (or some figure) on the back? Tough luck for Cuba, no do overs.
Those rent checks are pocket change compared to the taxpayer money that King Obongo is going to hand over to the Castros.
IIRC government checks over 1 year old are invalid and have to be reissued to be negotiated.
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