Posted on 10/11/2002 12:52:57 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker
Havana (dpa) - Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Friday Cuba was ``greatly satisfied'' by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
``It is positive news and it gives us great satisfaction,'' Perez Roque told reporters.
``Justice has been done by giving the prize to president Carter,'' Perez Roque said, adding that it ``makes me happy to know that he was chosen.''
The prize to Carter reflects ``recognition of his moral qualities and his authority as a righteous man'', Perez Roque said.
The Cuban foreign minister spoke to reporters just before the opening event at a gathering in Havana of former U.S., ex-Soviet Russian and Cuban officials to debate the Cuban missile crisis 40 years on.
Carter visited Cuba in a historic trip in May as the first U.S. president in or out of office to travel there since the Cuban revolution in 1959.
Although Carter, during an unprecedented speech broadcast live uncensored on Cuban television and radio, called on the regime of Fidel Castro to allow a referendum on political and social changes in Cuba, he also called on the United States to lift its longstanding economic embargo on the socialist island. During his stay Carter met several times with Castro and also met with political dissidents.
In a speech shortly after Carter's trip, before Cuban exiles in Miami, U.S. President George W. Bush rejected his plea and pledged to maintain the embargo until democratic change is wrought in Cuba.
The U.S. Congress has taken a different tack though, and last month U.S. agro-business firms held an exhibition in Havana which only came about because the congress has allowed cash sale of food products and medicines to Cuba.
This headline tells a lot about the Democratic Party, Jimmy Carter, and their waltz with Communism.
A man desperately in search of a "situation" on which to impose himself in order to somehow secure a positive place in history.
At least Jerry Ford just shut up and went and played golf.
"We've never had a such a pushover since, though Clinton was often distracted," said Kim Jong Il.
"I think he is just the man America needs now," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said from Tehran.
"We had fun, Jimmy and me," reminisced Idi Amin from Ryadh.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released
today by the office of House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt:
''Jimmy Carter has devoted much of his long and illustrious career
to bringing peace, prosperity and human rights to millions of people
across the globe. I can think of no more worthy recipient for this
year's Nobel Peace Prize.
''In honoring President Carter, the Nobel Prize Committee has
recognized his work as President and in his post-presidential tenure.
His achievements are many, highlighted by orchestrating the Camp David
Peace Accords, promoting the values of democracy though
election-monitoring around the world, participating in Habitat for
Humanity and other charitable organizations, and working tirelessly to
resolve violent conflicts through mediation and negotiation, all of
which have benefited the lives of innumerable men, women and children.
''Jimmy Carter's commitment to the values of human dignity, freedom
and opportunity has inspired all Americans - indeed, people all over
the world. I commend the Nobel Prize Committee for selecting such a
wonderful human being with an unstinting devotion to improving the
lives of others.''
I love it. Just what the dems need at election time. As Babs would say, "Memories... of the way we were..."
BWAHAHAHAHA...choke-gasp-fart-HAHAHA...wheeze (struggling for breath)...ahahaha!!...pass out.
FMCDH
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