Big Vote in U.N. Against U.S. Embargo Against Cuba

dailynews.yahoo.com ^ | November 27, 2001 | Evelyn Leopold

[Dqban22]

When the Soviet Union wanted the financing from the West for a gas pipeline to Western Europe; Germany, France, and other European countries diligently obliged. Reagan prohibited American banks from getting involved. The European banks, especially the Germans, sustained extraordinary losses, not so the Americans. History is repeating itself in Cuba. The smart Europeans are having extraordinary losses in their dealings with Castro. Castro buys but has defaulted in all his international debts. A report from Madrid in today’s TV news reported that 20 Melia hotels in Cuba have been shut down and that the country was in an economic chaos. Greedy entrepreneurs from Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil went to Cuba trying to make a quick profit by exploiting cheap slave labor and found out that in dealing with Castro you always loose.

[colorado tanker]

I agree that those who have dealt with Castro on credit have sustained losses. I understand the Canadians have been jobbed by the Cubans along with the Euros.

Although I would lift the embargo, I would not offer any government credits or loans for Cuba trade, and would certainly advise businesses to deal only for cash up front!

[mconder]

Those 167 nations have been free to commerce with Castro, and the U.S., as any sovereign nation, is free to deal with who ever it wants.

Since when does the U.N. respect the sovereignty of nations. It's end goal is world government or in the words of George Bush Senior, "A New World Order"

[Cincinatus' Wife]

From Sen. Dodd's Foreign Policy web page: Senator Christopher Dodd - …….."As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, Dodd has worked to bring peace to Latin America, end human rights abuses against the Latin American people, and reduce drug trafficking in the region. He stood up against right-wing military dictatorships in Panama, Cuba, El Salvador and Nicaragua and introduced a measure to prevent an arms race in Latin America." [End Excerpt]

___________________________________________________

Senator Dodd coddles Left-wing dictators, they are his political kin.
Time to engage Senator Christopher Dodd and DEMAND
he allow hearings on the President's nominee.

*******FREE OTTO[Excerpt]While the eyes of the world focus on the Middle East, the war on terror has its targets in this hemisphere, too. Unfortunately, President Bush's designated envoy to the Americas must fight this country's shadowy enemies with both hands tied behind his back. Otto Reich, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, is being held hostage by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) who refuses to hold a confirmation hearing on Reich's candidacy. Dodd apparently would rather brood over Reich's performance in the Reagan administration than permit him to address these clear-and-present dangers today:

Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, the increasingly erratic president of this key U.S. oil supplier, has declared himself "a Maoist" and befriended pro-terrorist dictators. A Caracas-based, anti-Chavez group called the National Emergency Coalition published a veritable Chavez photo album in the September 25 Washington Times. In one picture, Chavez rides in Saddam Hussein's Mercedes with the Iraqi thug at the wheel. During an August 2000 visit, Chavez called Iraq "a model" for Venezuela.

In another snapshot, Chavez hugs Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and says, "We have sister revolutions with equal struggles and the same destiny." Elsewhere, Chavez embraces Muammar Qaddafi and calls Libya "a model of participatory democracy." Chavez greets Fidel Castro as well and says that Cuba and Venezuela are "swimming together toward the same sea of happiness."

Chavez also appears to be arming Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Colombian defense officials say that between January 1998 and July 2000, they captured 470 clandestine FAL rifles stamped with the insignias of Venezuela's military and its arms manufacturers.

Cuba: Castro's worker's paradise seems to be a giant O'Hare Airport for suspected terrorists. As counterterrorism consultant Paul Crespo reported in the Nov. 5 issue of Insight, three Afghans detained in the Grand Caymans shortly after the September 11 attacks allegedly arrived there from Cuba. Two others, allegedly linked financially to al Qaeda, were stopped in Panama bound for Cuba.

....Snip....

"I need Otto Reich in place," Secretary of State Colin Powell pleaded with senators on October 3. Eight weeks later, Reich's State Department office literally remains empty, its desk unoccupied and bookshelves bare. Even as an overworked career diplomat juggles crucial security and economic matters in Reich's absence, Dodd could care less.

"That nomination's not going anywhere. That's the end of it," Dodd recently snapped. He has hurled at Reich a number of easily refuted ethical charges pertaining to his 1980s service as director of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and as Ambassador to Venezuela. However Dodd will not let his subcommittee hear Reich defend himself. Perhaps Dodd fears looking foolish once Reich demonstrates his innocence.[End Excerpt]

What is Senator Dodd afraid of?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for the post. Check this out.

Cuban Military Fight Economic Battle--Its Youth Labor Army annually produces tons of crops to feed a nation dependent on imported food a decade ago. ``It sounds like they are taking a page out of China's book,'' said Philip Mitchell, an analyst at the London-based institute. ``The Chinese military in the past has been heavily involved in industry and farming.''

[Dqban22]

Why should the Americans be interested in any kind of deals with a terrorist state with chemical, biological and cyber-warfare capabilities, whose leader, Fidel Castro, has pledge repeatedly to destroy the U.S. Isn't that some kind of masochistic pathos? Aren't we in a war against terrorism?

[colorado tanker]

The answers: We shouldn't; it would be; yes.

To me, part of a free society is economic freedom. If someone wants to sell Castro non-strategic widgets or artichokes, it's fine by me. Besides, trade embargoes don't work, they backfire by giving the target a tailor made excuse for the consequences of their failed policies. In general, embargoes inflict more pain on our producers than on the target.

[Dqban22]

The pain is not going to be for the producers but for the American taxpayers who are the ones who will end up footing Castro's unpaid bills. You do not sell to people who do not honor their debts, much less, you do not subsidize a terrorist country pledged to destroy the U.S. We are in awar against terrorism, are we not?

[colorado tanker]

I thought I made my position regarding Castro clear. No aid, no subsidies, no credit, no credits. Companies who trade with Castro should do so on a cash not credit basis. If they deal with Castro on credit, the losses are theirs.

I simply believe ending the embargo will hasten the demise of Castro's hateful regime. You obviously disagree. I think we do agree, however, that Castro's is an evil regime the sooner gone the better.

Happy holidays.