Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
I like it that!
Posted on 12/17/2006 8:24:19 AM PST by do the dhue
HAVANA -- International diplomacy is the art of mixing tact with patience, and both are in abundant supply as a 10-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers concluded its second day of meetings in this balmy seaside city.
Beginning with breakfast at 8 o'clock with a group of European ambassadors stationed here and concluding almost 12 hours later with a strategy session back at the hotel, the lawmakers are learning firsthand that establishing a rapport with Cuba requires painstaking delicacy.
"Diplomacy can be testing and testy," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Far Rockaway), a member of the House International Relations Committee. "[Interim leader] Raul Castro said recently that Cuba is ready to negotiate, and I think we need to take advantage of that. This is a relationship where both sides have needs that can be met."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Wish it were, but I just heard on FNC that the White House is less than pleased with them.
There must be some way to crack down on these self-appointed "delegations" running around, undermining American interests.
Shouldn't this be Condi's job, if anyone's?
Outrageous. If a Republican had done something of this sort to undermine Clinton, he'd probably have been jailed for it. The Democrats of this country are doing what the leftists in Mexico tried to do--even though they lost the election, they're trying to take over the country anyway.
Oh, wait...it's Europeans doing this. Nevermind. We have no control over their policies and politics. We'll just show up to save their bacon again when they need us. *Rolleyes*
Problem is 6 Demrats and 4 Repubs. Then they called it bipartisan. I don't care what party they are in, if this is illegal then impale them all.
Well , as USUAL ,the republicans allow this to happen and say NOTHING ! Thats why we lost to the Dem morons in the first place. We DO NOTHING and the Dems dump all over us. I GAURENTEE those Dems were down there looking for future money prospects for themselves , hotels , land whatever.
The more the things change for Castro's apologists, the more the things remain the same. Here they go again… the same discredited American politicians are trying to rescue and help to survive the communist regimen even after Fidel Castro’s death.
Congressman Jeff Flake seems to enjoy being a thorn in President Bush foreign policy towards the tyrannical Cuban regimen.
On May of 2002 I read this article dealing with a previous escapade by Rep. Flake to his paradise island.
REP. FLAKE, THERE ARE POWERFUL REASONS FOR NOT TRADING WITH CASTRO
By Jesús J. Chao*
Houston, Texas
Columnist
La Nueva Cuba
May 11, 2002
When Castro sees American congressman, Jeff Flake, he keeps “laughing day and night” at this valuable and useful idiot who works diligently for him, perhaps without pay, instead of representing the best interest of the American taxpayers and the security of his own country.
Flake maintains that Castro “is not a man who has missed too many meals because of the embargo.” Certainly no, Castro is among the richest heads of state in the world with over 1.5 billion personal fortune.
Cuba can freely trade with the rest of the world, but he starves his people as Stalin did with the Ukrainian peasants. The big problem is that whoever trades with Castro is never paid back. Flake, wants you, American taxpayers, to feed and maintain Castro’s repressive apparatus.
THERE ARE POWERFUL REASONS FOR NOT TRADING WITH CASTRO.
1st.-- Cuba is, and has been a terrorist state for 43 years, and counts with advanced chemical, biological and cyberwarfare capabilities aimed against our country. The cooperation between the Cuban regime, Iraq and Iran in the chemical and biological research is well documented.
Just a few days ago the Bush Administration made public their deep concern about Castro’s menace to our security.
A few months before the September 11 attack Castro affirmed at the University of Tehran that their cooperation would put the U.S. down to its knees. That was an ominous threat that materialized on the 9/11 attacks to our country.
Castro plays a central role in the international terrorist network as recognized by the U.S. State Department, with strong nexus with the Islamic terrorism. Right after the attack without even counting with Fidel Castro, Prime Minister Putin dismantled their most important Russian spy and electronic base, which was located in the outskirts of Havana.
Castro went berserk when he found out about it by the media. Did Castro’s partners in the Islamic terrorism gather the necessary intelligence for the success of the attack through Castro’s access to the Russian spy base?
Castro once tried to nuke our cities and he has the means and the will to fulfill his dream of destroying our country.
If we are involved in a worldwide war against terrorism, Cuba at 90 miles from our coast should be a prime target in that war; so, those involved in appeasement policies towards Castro and in the promotion of the lifting of the commercial embargo against Cuba are in fact aiding and abetting our worst enemy.
2nd.-- Cuba has defaulted in all its international financial deals and Castro encourages other Third World nations to follow his example. Why are we going to sell to someone without the expectation to ever be repaid.
The American taxpayers should be aware that they are the targets of the scam by which the multinationals sell to Castro whatever he needs and we, the taxpayers, end footing the bill. Castro for 42 years has been with commercial ties with over 150 nations.
Now when he has exhausted the patience of nations foolish enough to have given him credit. Castro’s puppets in the media, and the Congress in cahoots with some greedy commercial circles are wanting for the American taxpayers to shoulder the heavy burden of subsidizing his regime to the tune of 9 billion dollars annually.
Is not enough the billions of dollars in pork just approved by the Congress for the benefit of ADM and the powerful agriculture lobby? How much blood does Rep. Flake and Castro’s lobbyists want to extract from the overburdened American taxpayers?
3rd.-- The American companies can not legally conduct business with Cuba without violating several American laws.
A.- Trading with the Enemy Act.
B.- U.S. Commercial Embargo Against Cuba.
C.- Helms-Burton Law.
D.- Involvement in bribes in commercial dealings with another nation.
Foreign companies must hire the workers through Castro who keeps 96% of their salary for himself and the repressive apparatus.
E.- Involvement in slave labor of foreign workers in connivance with the local authorities. This is another factor necessary to reconcile with. Every deal; every investment in Cuba is a “joint venture” in partnership with the Cuban tyrant, and that includes being part of slave labor practices, for which those entrepreneurs and multinationals, sooner or later, will pay dearly just as it happened with the companies involved in slave labor during the Nazi era.
The scam consists that for each worker they employ, the foreign companies must pay Castro $300 to $500 monthly in dollars and the Cuban dictator pays them 500 to 600 worthless Cuban pesos, which is the equivalent of $12 to $20 dollars or 96% bribe, an outrageous bribe without parallel in the world.
That outrageous business practice is in violation of international and American labor laws and will expose those companies to huge law suits for the slave labor exploitation of the Cuban worker in cahoots with the corrupt communist regime.
We have to wonder why there are so many American politicians promoting the violations of our trading laws, and in the process, they are endangering the security of the U.S. Why is the Treasure Department authorizing all those business trips and all kind of conventions in Cuban soil by which American citizens circumvent and break the U.S. laws? Why is Rep. Flakebetraying President Bush’s war against terrorism and stabbing the American taxpayers in the back?
As Senator Jesse Helms rightly stated: "Unfortunately, some in Washington are all too willing to give Castro what he wants. At the least they should stop pretending that they are doing this to promote Cuban democracy and American values.
CONGRESSMEN TO THE RESCUE OF CASTRO'S REGIMEN
12/15/2006
Posted on 12/17/2006 9:31:40 AM PST by Dqban22
Flake: Our Very Own Neville Chamberlain Visits a State-Sponsor of Terror Country
"HMJ, Western Hemisphere Policy Watch" 12/15/2006
"It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about "me" and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo."
(From the Banks of the Potomac) We have yet to ascertain what fascinates Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake about Cuba and Fidel Castro. For years he has taken taxpayer-paid junkets to a state sponsor of terror - an ironic thing for a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative. This latest trip to Cuba clearly demonstrates Flake's callous view of Cuban-Americans or U.S. policy in a post-09/11/01 world.
We single out Flake, and this applies equally to other Republicans, because they should know better. With the Democrats? Well, there are some good ones but not a majority in the U.S. Congress would ever support a hard line position against the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) and the Cuban regime generally.
A few months ago Flake (pictured at the left) and Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Bill Delahunt requested a GAO Audit of U.S./Cuba programs. So far, not too bad. We agree that these programs have to change, but that is just about the only thing we agree on. If you want to read about the GAO audit, we posted several pieces on it (here is one). It is what Flake is now doing with the results of the report that irks WHPW Editors.
Imagine for a moment if during World War II a U.S. Congressman had ordered a study of U.S. efforts to undermine the Nazi regime. Rather than fix problems in the program quietly, so the enemy did not figure it out, this Congressman puts a target on it by releasing a report about how effective that program happened to be. Then, to add some flavor, takes a copy of the report with him to Germany to share with the Nazi high command. Well, that is exactly what Flake and company have done with the Cuba programs.
What do these Congressmen seek to gain by sitting down with the leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP)? The CCP has tortured and murdered American citizens, spies on the U.S. including implanting agents deep in our military (see this link as an example), and work to undermine U.S. interests throughout the Western Hemisphere in a variety of ways. And, this is not even discussing how the CCP treats its people and locks up dissenters in political jails. We doubt this crew will be thinking of any of this as it stays in the Hotel Nacional, sips mojitos with CCP officials, or begs to meet with Raul Castro.
For the first time in decades we have the CCP and the Cuban Armed Forces how we want them: really scared and vulnerable. We have them where we want them. We can and will force them to change before the Cuban people take matters into their own hands and change it for them (with sticks and stones if they have to). And, what do these Congressmen do? Step into this political mosh-pit for a voyeuristic junket, with spouses, to the Cuban gulag! Shame on them.
Early reports from our sources inside-the-beltway indicate that the focus of this trip is designed to reassure the CCP, the FAR, and others in the regime that there are people in the USG that they can work with, to ignore the Cuban-Americans in Miami or the hardliners in Washington. The Democratic Congress and the few Republicans that support them will see to it that policy changes, that the CCP gets to stay in power, and that there will be no negative repercussions for decades of hard line rule. Sad, so sad.
On a bright note, Neville Chamberlain went down in history books as an appeaser and a coward. The cooler and patriotic forces in England prevailed and she was victorious. Freedom seekers always beat out cowards. We know that should be the case here as well. It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about "me" and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo.
We hope that the Bush Administration's foreign policy team on this matter will work smart to counteract this propaganda trip. We have the political upper hand. Let's use it and not squander the political goodwill that we have created with millions of Cubans in Cuba that do not support that system.
Posted by From the Banks of the Potomac ...
Republican senator Arlen Specter and Rep. Flake proves beyond any doubts that you do not need to be a democrat to be a perfect useful idiot.
THE SOVIET UNION SUBSIDIZED CASTRO TO THE TUNE OF 5 BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALY, REP. FLAKE WOULD LIKE TO DO LIKEWISE, IS THAT A CONSERVATIVE POLICY?
CONGRESS HAS NO BUSINESS FORCING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS TO SUBSIDIZE FIDEL CASTRO'S REGIME
cubacenter.org. | 9/2/2002 | FRANK CALZON
Should American Taxpayers Subsidize Fidel Castro? by Frank Calzon
Executive Summary
At the end of July, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on two amendments, each approved by 95 vote margins, to end restrictions on travel and lift restrictions on financing exports to Cuba. The Senate will consider the legislation soon.
While the White House has threatened to veto any legislation that would “bolster the Cuban dictatorship,” the anti-Embargo lobby argues that US tourism will benefit Cubans without strengthening Castro, and that trade with Havana will mean substantial American profits. These arguments are misguided at best and disingenuous at worst.
Fidel Castro is broke, and at issue is not trade, but extending American export credit and export insurance to his regime, both of which are funded by American taxpayers. Since last year, American companies are allowed to ‘trade’ with Castro’s government on a cash and carry basis. But when Castro defaults on his purchases, under the proposed policy American taxpayers will have the burden of picking up his tab.
Agriculture Subsidies
Nine American presidents, from both political parties have supported restrictions on travel to Cuba. And while the anti-Embargo lobby and many editorial pages across the nation try to explain away this long-lasting U.S. policy in terms of domestic political considerations (i.e., the Cuban American vote), the facts prove otherwise.
In a July 11th letter to the House Committee on Appropriations, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill said that: “Trade by other nations with Cuba has brought no change to Cuba’s despotic practices, and it has frequently proved to be an unprofitable enterprise.”
Unprofitable, indeed. France, Spain, Italy and Venezuela have suspended official credits to Castro’s Cuba -- not because of the Cuban communities in those nations -- but because Cuba has failed to make payments on its debt, including debt incurred on agricultural purchases. Powell and O’Neill wrote that, “two governments have approached the U.S. to complain that Cuba’s payments of cash for U.S. agricultural products have meant that they are not getting paid at all.”
Reuters reported on July 8, 2002 that, “Direct foreign investment in Cuba plummeted to $38.9 million in 2001 from $488 million the year before.” And earlier in the year, despite Castro’s tantrum, Russia closed its spy facility near Havana, thus denying his government $200 million per year in rent payments.
Castro’s current creditors are far from happy with these circumstances, as many have not received payment on interest or principal credit since 1986. Without even counting Castro’s debt to Russia, which he will not pay because he declares his debt as to a country that “no longer exists,” Havana owes billions of dollars to western banks and former socialist countries.
The situation in Cuba is thus much more a problem of policy than politics. President Bush announced his “U.S. Initiative for a New Cuba” on May 20, 2002, and declared that, “Cuban purchases of U.S. agricultural goods ... would be a foreign aid program in disguise.” And who pays for aid to foreign governments, but the American taxpayers who will eventually foot the tab for the defaults on his debts.
If this is not enough evidence, those lobbying for American credits and imminent subsidies should ask the Canadians for their advice. On August 7, 2002, the Montreal Gazette reported that, “Lilac Islands, a 15,000 ton Cuban-owned ship, has been held in the port of Conakry, the Guinean capital, for the past month while an Ontario company, armed with legal judgements, pursues Cuba for more than $3 million U.S. Last week, Guinea’s Court of Appeals upheld the continuance of the steel-laden ship’s detention-pending the payment of more than $275,000 in debt to Adecon Ship Management of Mississauga. Adacon claims the total debt on several judgements exceeds $3 million.” Imagine U.S. companies chasing down Cuban cargo ships in international waters to collect payment, while American taxpayers sit on the sidelines knowing that they’ll pick up the bill when the debtor doesn’t pay.
Trade with Cuba does not represent trade with Cuban business owners, entrepreneurs or consumers; Trade with Cuba is trade with the Castro government itself, which monopolizes virtually all enterprises and exploits Cuban workers as their sole employer. Said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security advisor, “In Cuba, Fidel Castro is still the one man through whom everything has to go. Any trade that goes through Cuba is going to strengthen Cuba’s regime.”
Regime Supporting Terror
While the anti-Embargo lobby insists on the right of American tourists to travel to Cuba, they ignore other rights and national security considerations. Each right must be weighted against its impact on other rights. As John Stuart Mill once said, “one man’s right to swing his arm ends where my nose begins.” And in the case of Cuba, the desire to travel must be weighed against the risks inherent in subsidizing a regime that poses a national security threat to the United States.
Consider: In their July 11th letter to the Appropriations Committee, Secretary Powell and Secretary O’Neill said that, “A relationship of continuing hostility exists between Cuba and the United States;” that “Cuba has long been listed by the State Department as a state-sponsor of terrorism;” and that, “[Cuba] continues to harbor fugitives from the American justice system, and it supports international terrorist organizations.” Castro has provided a safe haven for more than 70 fugitives from U.S. justice, including several accused of killing American police officers.
Due to the end of Soviet subsidies and his disastrous economic policies, Castro is bankrupt. His lack of cash restricts his ability to engage or support anti-American actions around the world.
But his anti-American commitment remains. On May 10, 2001, Agence France Presse quoted Castro’s speech at the University of Tehran, where he stated: “Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees.”
What, specifically, does Castro have in mind? In a May 6th speech, John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, warned Americans that “Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort ... [and] has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states.” Few are demanding that the administration produce a “smoking gun” to prove its assessment of the threat posed by Iraq, Iran, or North Korea, but the evidence is surely in on Castro, who needs American tourism to make up for Soviet money lost, so he can once again pursue a more active anti-American role in the world.
What Opening the Travel Ban Will Do
Some say that the opening of U.S. tourism to Cuba will bring the two cultures together, but the reality is far different. Currently, Castro sets aside hotels, beaches, stores, restaurants, and even hospitals for foreigners, and prohibits his own people from staying in those hotels and patronizing those facilities. U.S. tourism under current conditions would freeze in place Castro’s tourist apartheid, and likely exacerbate it. People-to-people contact under Castro’s regime is far from likely.
But contact between cultures of a different, and often nefarious, kind is much more likely. A March 2002 report released by Johns Hopkins University says that Cuba is “increasingly reported to be a major destination for sex tourists from North America and Europe. The increase is attributed to a concurrent drop in political restrictions on travel to Cuba and a crackdown on sex tourism in Southeast Asia, causing sex tourists to seek out alternative destinations. According to general news reports, Cuba is one of many countries that have replaced Southeast Asia as a destination for pedophiles and sex tourists ... Canadian sex tourism is also cited as largely responsible for the revival of Havana brothels and child prostitution.”
Conclusion
In their same May letter to the House Appropriations Committee, shortly before the body passed two amendments ending restrictions on travel and financing exports to Cuba, Secretaries Powell and O’Neill stated that, “Current economic circumstances in Cuba do not support changing our position on trade with Cuba. Moreover, the lack of a sound economic rationale makes it more likely that Castro would use any liberalizing of our trade position for his political benefit.”
Providing trade benefits to America’s enemies, especially those on the State Department’s list of terrorist nations, makes as much sense as selling U.S. scrap metal to Japan in the 1930s -- some of which was used to build up the Japanese military and, later, attack Pearl Harbor.
But apart from security policy, one of the greatest advantages of the U.S. embargo on Cuba is that it has saved U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars in unappropriated export insurance and subsidies. American banks aren’t among the consortium of creditors, like those in France, Spain and Canada, who have been waiting for years to be paid what they are owed.
Fidel Castro is broke. He can’t pay his debts, and several of his most important trading partners have suspended credits and export insurance. Yet, like the second to last scene in a bad Hollywood western, some are out trying to muster a cavalry to save his regime. This time, it is a cavalry of American tourists and special interests whose objectives will only strengthen the Western Hemisphere’s most enduring dictatorship.
Capital markets lie only when con artists run the show. And forcing American taxpayers to subsidize Cuba, which has seen a 92% decrease in foreign investment (from $488 million in 2000 to $39 million in 2001) is a leap from a precipice trumping Enron and Worldcom combined. A policy of moving exports from a cash-and-carry basis to credit extensions is like sentencing taxpayers to investing in Enron or WorldCom right before those stocks plummeted. American taxpayers did not have to bail out those companies. And they should not be forced to bail out the head of an openly hostile government, especially when his default is more a question of “when” than “if.”
If you are interested in contacting your senator or representative on this important issue, please write to:
Your Senator United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Your Representative United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
You can also call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121, and ask for your senator or representative by name.
AMERICAN CONGRESSMEN AIDING AND ABETTING THE CUBAN COMMUNIST REGIMEN
The mission of a group of American representatives trying to rescue and support the survival of the communist regimen even after Fidel Castro death borders in treason.
Have the American people forgotten that Castro tried to obliterate our cities by a nuclear missile attack during the Crisis of October of 1962, and the fact that Castro’s hatred towards our nation has not diminished during the 3 decades, just the opposite?
No less ominous is the menace that represents now the Axis of evil formed by Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and several other Latin American countries on the verge to fall under communist regimes subservient to Cuba ’s anti-American policies.
Birds of the same feather flock together. Representatives William D. Delahunt and Jeff Flake seem to enjoy the hospitality of the torturers of the Cuban people during their frequent visits to Castro’s gigantic gulag. Representative William Delahunt is also a strong defender of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan little tyrant.
During one of his frequent friendly visits to Cuba , right after 9/11, Delahunt placed a New York Fireman's cap on Castro's head, one of the main sponsors of Islamic terrorism. That was sacrilegious and offensive to the memory of those murdered on 9/11. Evidently, these people do not have any sense of shame or respect for their own country.
I believe that the main point of concern, regardless of any other important considerations, is that Castro's Cuba is the main haven and sponsor of terrorism in this hemisphere and those representatives, senators and business people, in dealing with Castro, are aiding and abetting terrorism and therefore, undermining the President's war against terrorist countries, and that in plain English is called treason.
Normalization of diplomatic relation with a terrorist state whose leader pledged three months before the September attack to put us to our knees? Castro has state of the art biological, chemical and cyber warfare capabilities
The irresponsibility of some American politicians is beyond irrational. One of the most stupid proposals was to provide the Cuban regime with state of the art radar under the pretense that Castro, whose one of his main sources of income is drug trafficking, will cooperate with us in the interdiction of drugs coming into the U.S. That is absolutely insane, that, in fact will facilitate the movement of drugs into the U.S. and enable him to easily fulfill his dream of obliterating our country as he pledged a few months ago at the University of Tehran in Iran .
We should keep in mind that in that trip Castro visited the main centers of terrorism in the Middle East . Was Castro giving the necessary intelligence information to the Al Qaeda terrorists that made possible the successful attacks of September 11th? The Russians have a spy base in Cuba that is their main source of intelligence. Why did the Russians decide to close their spy base there immediately after the attack? Were the Russians trying to disassociate themselves from Castro and the Al Qaeda partnership? Senator Specter recognized the extraordinary intelligence capabilities of the Cuban regimen. Castro in fact, had a mole at the highest levels of the Pentagon. Are we going to put our security in the hands of our worst enemy?
Nevertheless, Senator Specter is another of our unscrupulous politicians embarked in the mission to appease and support the Cuban communist regime even after Fidel’s death. Courting tyrants do not bring freedom and peace to the oppressed peoples. Carter’s policies of weakness brought us to the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and more recently, the blessing of Hugo Chavez electoral fraud that made possible establishing “democratically” a communist dictator for life in Venezuela. It was Reagan’s policies of peace through strength that brought back freedom to half of Europe and the dismembering of the Soviet Union.
The American representatives of the Chamberlain sector in the Congress returned covered in shame from their appeasement trip to Cuba. Even though the missionaries of appeasement did not meet with the Cuban dissidents to avoid offending the Cuban rulers, they were not received by neither their “Máximo” leader nor by the tyrant in wait, Raul Castro, this in spite that they affirmed that Fidel Castro had no cancer much less dying. In their final declaration they avowed that with the Congress under the control of the democrats they would be able to pass legislation in support of the Cuban regime.
AFTER THEIR SUCCESS, THEY CAN PROUDLY PROCLAIM PEACE IN OUR TIME!!!! LONG LIVE FIDEL CASTRO AND HIS REGIME!!!!
All those involved in dealing with the enemy should be court martial for treason. Lenin affirmed that we would be the ones selling the rope to the communists in order for them to hang us. You go much further; you are providing the rope free of charge to Castro.
That ADM money sure goes a long way.
Flake: Our Very Own Neville Chamberlain Visits a State-Sponsor of Terror Country
“HMJ, Western Hemisphere Policy Watch” 12/15/2006
“It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about “me” and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo.”
(From the Banks of the Potomac) We have yet to ascertain what fascinates Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake about Cuba and Fidel Castro. For years he has taken taxpayer-paid junkets to a state sponsor of terror - an ironic thing for a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative. This latest trip to Cuba clearly demonstrates Flake’s callous view of Cuban-Americans or U.S. policy in a post-09/11/01 world.
We single out Flake, and this applies equally to other Republicans, because they should know better. With the Democrats? Well, there are some good ones but not a majority in the U.S. Congress would ever support a hard line position against the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) and the Cuban regime generally.
A few months ago Flake (pictured at the left) and Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Bill Delahunt requested a GAO Audit of U.S./Cuba programs. So far, not too bad. We agree that these programs have to change, but that is just about the only thing we agree on. If you want to read about the GAO audit, we posted several pieces on it (here is one). It is what Flake is now doing with the results of the report that irks WHPW Editors.
Imagine for a moment if during World War II a U.S. Congressman had ordered a study of U.S. efforts to undermine the Nazi regime. Rather than fix problems in the program quietly, so the enemy did not figure it out, this Congressman puts a target on it by releasing a report about how effective that program happened to be. Then, to add some flavor, takes a copy of the report with him to Germany to share with the Nazi high command. Well, that is exactly what Flake and company have done with the Cuba programs.
What do these Congressmen seek to gain by sitting down with the leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP)? The CCP has tortured and murdered American citizens, spies on the U.S. including implanting agents deep in our military (see this link as an example), and work to undermine U.S. interests throughout the Western Hemisphere in a variety of ways. And, this is not even discussing how the CCP treats its people and locks up dissenters in political jails. We doubt this crew will be thinking of any of this as it stays in the Hotel Nacional, sips mojitos with CCP officials, or begs to meet with Raul Castro.
For the first time in decades we have the CCP and the Cuban Armed Forces how we want them: really scared and vulnerable. We have them where we want them. We can and will force them to change before the Cuban people take matters into their own hands and change it for them (with sticks and stones if they have to). And, what do these Congressmen do? Step into this political mosh-pit for a voyeuristic junket, with spouses, to the Cuban gulag! Shame on them.
Early reports from our sources inside-the-beltway indicate that the focus of this trip is designed to reassure the CCP, the FAR, and others in the regime that there are people in the USG that they can work with, to ignore the Cuban-Americans in Miami or the hardliners in Washington. The Democratic Congress and the few Republicans that support them will see to it that policy changes, that the CCP gets to stay in power, and that there will be no negative repercussions for decades of hard line rule. Sad, so sad.
On a bright note, Neville Chamberlain went down in history books as an appeaser and a coward. The cooler and patriotic forces in England prevailed and she was victorious. Freedom seekers always beat out cowards. We know that should be the case here as well. It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about “me” and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo.
We hope that the Bush Administration’s foreign policy team on this matter will work smart to counteract this propaganda trip. We have the political upper hand. Let’s use it and not squander the political goodwill that we have created with millions of Cubans in Cuba that do not support that system.
Posted by From the Banks of the Potomac ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.