Posted on 05/29/2015 9:15:59 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
The U.S. State Department announced today that Cuba has been dropped from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"The rescission of Cuba's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism reflects our assessment that Cuba meets the statutory criteria for rescission," the department said in a statement. "While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation."
The move follows last month's historic meeting in Panama between President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.
Reuters notes: "The removal of Cuba from the U.S. terrorism list eliminates an obstacle toward restoring diplomatic ties between the United States and the communist-led Caribbean island state after 54 years."
The decision comes after the White House fulfilled a 45-day prenotification of the change to Congress.
As NPR's Sam Sanders reported on April 14 — when the White House submitted the request for review of Cuba's status — the move is a major step in normalizing relations between the two countries.
In an interview last month with Morning Edition, President Obama said that the change in the relationship with Cuba is "a real opportunity" for both countries.
"Our hope is to be in a position where we can open an embassy there — that we can start having more regular contacts and consultations around a whole host of issues, some of which we have interests in common," the president told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep.
Removing Havana from the list lifts some sanctions, but others would remain in place, according to Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Speaking to All Things Considered host Robert Siegel last month, Jacobson said that "it is as much a change in reputation" as it is about sanctions.
"To be on that list is a mark in some ways that countries bear. But it does take them off of certain forms of sanctions that they will no longer have to be constrained by," she said.
Because the leftover relatives there are potential new Democrat voters.
One more example of liberals leading with feelings and ignoring truth.
Does this mean that Cuba gets all that back rent for Gitmo?................over a hundred million dollars last I heard................
That’s 0’s gift to the Castros and his middle finger to the USA.
Only 9 miles from our coast?
We really need a true Constitutional Conservative in the White House.
“Does this mean that Cuba gets all that back rent for Gitmo?................over a hundred million dollars last I heard................”
President Obama sends Castro a rent check each month for GitMo, but Castro has never cashed one of the checks in more than 50 years.
It may be time to see if they bounce?.....................
In the mean time FARC is growing bolder in Colombia...
For those that dont know Colombians are VERY pro USA and publically have thank the USA(in the past) for assisting them .
Colombia is now a very prosperous country but could swing back if FARC and their Casto Cuban buddies are not pursued.
... to permanently screw the Cuban people over.
The most bastardized word phrase by liberals!
harf harf harf must now be in charge
The trail of blood and suffering left by Castro’s exploits, especially throughout Africa and Latin America, has had no bearing on the Pope and on the American sycophants support for the longest lasting and most brutal regime in the history of this hemisphere, they keep supporting Castro disregarding that his victims by the tens of thousands were both blacks and whites, Cubans as well as Latin Americans and Africans.
Claire Sterling’s "THE TERROR NETWORK" is a scholarly research book for those who want to delve deeper on the history of Castro's terror network:
Claire Sterling wrote: "All the world 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 trained in Cuba were trained by others who did.”
The fact is that Obama is embracing the same tyrants who tried to nuke New York and Washington in October 1962 and in November the FBI broke a plot by Cuban diplomats that planned a series of bombs attacks at Macy, Bloomingdale and New York Central Station during the most busy business day, the day after Thanks Giving, and terrorist plot that would have killed more victims that the attack to the Twin Towers.
The hate of the Cuban tyrants against the United States has not diminished a bit but very soon Obama will finance with American taxpayers money Castro’s international terror network.
Che Guevara expressed in paradigmatic words the essence of Castro’s regime when he stated: “We must above all keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm… hate as a factor of struggle, intransigent hate to the enemy, hate that can push a human being beyond his natural limits and make him a cold, violent, selective, and effective killing machine.“
In 1998 Archbishop Bergoglio wrote that the Cuban Stalinist regime “is the closest to the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.”
This is the kind of regime president Obama and Pope Francis want to support, finance and perpetuate in Cuba and want to promote as a model for the rest of Latin America.
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