When are we going to stop playing around with these TRAITORS? We need to find a short rope and a tall tree instead of giving them free room and board forever.
And while we are at it:
Posted on 03/19/2002 10:25:10 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
When are we going to stop playing around with these TRAITORS? We need to find a short rope and a tall tree instead of giving them free room and board forever.
And while we are at it:
U.S. Pressure on Cuba May Increase: Otto Reich views Castro as menace
-[Excerpt]Shortly after Reich took office, the administration began a policy review of Cuba with a view toward determining Cuba's potential for damaging U.S. interests.
One issue under study, according to a senior official, is the role Washington says Cuba plays in international terrorism. Cuba is on the State Department terrorist country list, a designation based on ties Cuba maintains with other countries on the list, including Iraq, and the haven Cuba provides for foreigners linked to alleged terrorist organizations.
As a result of the policy review, the Cuba section of the next State Department terrorism report, due next month, may add to the rationale for keeping Cuba on the list.
A key unanswered question is what action the administration would take against Cuba if the policy review concludes the island represents a genuine threat to American interests. [End Excerpt]
U.S. policy on Cuba to receive full review [Excerpt] The Bush administration has ordered what it calls the first comprehensive review of U.S. policy on Cuba in several years in an effort to find more effective ways to bring about democratic changes on the island, senior administration officials say.
Otto J. Reich, the Cuban-born top State Department official in charge of Latin American affairs, said in a telephone interview that he has ordered a review of all areas of the policy, including the four-decades-old U.S. trade sanctions on the communist-ruled island. The review is scheduled to be completed within weeks, he said.
While not ruling out any outcome, Reich said the administration is seeking to make the policy more effective and thus is not likely to loosen the embargo -- a position that would have Congress and the White House headed in opposite directions.
…………. Reich, who will be officially sworn in Monday as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said one area of innovation may be greater support for civil society groups in Cuba. Other U.S. officials say this may include support for human rights activists who are deemed ''traitors'' by the Cuban government.
The officials say they are considering ways to overcome the Cuban government's jamming of the U.S.-financed Radio and TV Martí, and new rules to limit travel by Cuban diplomats in the United States.
''We are going to review the whole thing,'' Reich said. ``The problem is that we have relied entirely on one component of the policy, the embargo.''
He added that U.S. foreign policy has a variety of tools at its disposal, including ''political, economic, diplomatic, informational and military components,'' and that some of these may be employed.
Asked specifically about the trade sanctions, Reich said that ``we are taking a closer look at the efficiency of our economic sanctions. I don't think we are going to loosen them. Unless we have changes in Cuba, we are not.'' [End Excerpts]
Cuba Calls U.S. LatAm Official Reich a 'Terrorist'--State TV aired a round-table discussion on Reich which was announced earlier Thursday by Cuba's ruling Communist Party, in a short communique on the front page of its daily Granma, as a discussion on "Otto Reich: a Terrorist in the U.S. Government." "Right from the start of his activities in such an important position, he has begun pouring out his sick and visceral hatred of the Cuban Revolution," the communique said of Reich, a Cuban-American known for his opposition to Castro.
what the..????
Then there's the espionage. By using an agent such as Montes to influence threat assessments, Havana may hope to build support for ending the U.S. economic embargo. A less menacing Cuba, after all, is a more attractive trading partner. A House vote on lifting the embargo drew 201 votes earlier this year - a failure, but tantalizingly close to success.
A more direct benefit from Montes involved specific knowledge of U.S. contingency planning - in other words, secret information on how the American government intends to respond to potential crisis situations. Shortly before Montes observed a war-games exercise put on by the U.S. Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Va., for instance, she received this message from Cuba: "Everything that takes place there will be of intelligence value. Let's see if it deals with contingency plans and specific targets in Cuba, which are prioritized interests for us." This type of knowledge helps Cuba understand how much it can provoke the U.S. without suffering consequences. What would happen, for instance, if it encouraged a throng of women and children to climb the fences at the Guantánamo Bay naval base? Or if it tried to spark a new Mariél boatlift incident?[End Excerpt]
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