Senate panel chairman says policy toward Cuba `has not worked'

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thu, Oct. 02, 2003

Senate panel chairman says policy toward Cuba `has not worked'
BY RICHARD BRAND
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba during a hearing Thursday, saying the 43-year-old trade embargo on the communist island nation "has not worked."

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who has usually maintained a low profile on Cuban policy, also signaled for the first time that he could support ending the travel ban "at an appropriate time."

But Roger Noriega, the recently confirmed assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs, said after he addressed the committee that President Bush "will veto any measure to change the current restrictions."

Lugar's cautious statement calling for a re-examination of U.S. policy appeared to reflect pressure from some farm-state Republican senators who would like to end the embargo altogether.
(snip/...)

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/6919154.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Looks like U.S. businesses are going to do things their way

and leave the spinning and plotting to the _Bush State Department lunatics and their feisty, demented, violent friends in the Cuban Mafia in Miami!

(snip) 80 Adams Ranch cattle among shipment bound for Cuba
By Chris Kauffmann staff writer
October 3, 2003

FORT PIERCE — No bull, it's a meaty deal for Bud Adams.

Early next year, the chairman of Adams Ranch Inc. will be shipping 80 head of cattle to Cuba as part of the first sale of Florida-raised beef cattle to that country in more than 40 years.

"This is strictly a business deal," Adams said Thursday. "We're not interested in their politics, we're not interested in changing the world. I do believe, though, young Cuban people need more protein and milk in their diets."
(snip)

(snip) "We are setting the foundation for the re-supply of cattle from Florida to Cuba," John Parke Wright, the president and chief executive officer of J.P. Wright & Co., said in a statement.
(snip)

"Cattle trade between our two nations was a significant part of the Florida economy before the embargo. This exchange opens the door to restored ties between family farms in the U.S. and Cuba."
(snip/..)

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_business/article/0,1651,TCP_1012_2317885,00.html

[Vogon_Glory]

2. It's Not Just Bush Keeping the Travel Ban in Place

It's not just George Deucey-U Bush keeping the travel ban to Cuba in place, it's Congressional Republicans. There was a move during the last year or so of the Clinton administration to loosen travel restrictions to Cuba, the move got as far as the joint House--Senate committee, then emerged with even stronger restrictions on American citizens wishing to visit Cuba.

Progressives need to remind their friends that getting rid of the fellow at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is just part of the job of setting the US back to rights. The rest of it means throwing Republican incumbents in the House of Representatives and in the US Senate out of office, and stymying the aspirations of wanna-be Republican candidates.

[Osolomia]

4. And where do the Dems stand?

Who on earth do Dems think they're fooling?

[Say_What]

3. Freedom to Travel to Cuba, International Policy Report

in pdf format at www.ciponline.org

<clips>

“Our 40-year policy of trying to isolate Cuba and choke it into submission with economic sanctions is in its entirety obsolete and counter-productive. Yet we stick to it so wooden-headedly that it has become something of a national embarrassment. The worst of it, the most indefensible, are the travel controls, which violate the rights of American citizens as well as being an ineffective policy instrument.”1
–Dr. Wayne Smith, senior fellow, Center for International Policy, and former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana

...“Many may ask why a conservative Republican is pushing for engagement with a Communist country. I am one of many in Congress who have taken note of the fact that our restrictions for the past 40 years have done little to bring about change in Cuba, while the recent success of our trade engagement throughout the world is beginning to pay dividends. “ . . .We have a couple of options: continue sitting idle or bomb Cuba—not with ordnance but with policies of engagement and Sears catalogues. “I prefer the latter because I believe those who travel to Cuba, the U.S. business industry, our professional academics, and the American tourist can and will make a difference in Cuba.” –Senator Larry Craig (R-ID)

...“I cannot understand why any American is fined for exercising right to see this beautiful world,” Slote told the forum audience. “Even if the fine were reasonable, the way it is being administered against me and others seems heartless . . . I hope others do not have to continue to suffer as I have." -Joan Slote, mother, grandmother, a breast cancer survivor, and a medalwinning bicyclist in the senior Olympics.

...“If you believe in our constitutional rights, if you believe in the job-creating power of travel and trade, if you believe our citizens are the best ambassadors of American values, and if you agree with President Bush that economic engagement is the engine of liberty, then we need legislation to legalize travel by Americans to Cuba.” -Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA), prepared remarks for the Freedom to Travel Forum

...“The Cuba Working group on the House side continues to grow. We have now some 52 members-26 democrats and 26 republicans. And our enthusiasm continues to prosper–and it was nice to see that the Senate followed our lead and created their own Cuba working group . . . we are now working on a bicameral basis, not just simply a bipartisan basis and that will make a difference.” –Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), a founding member of the House Cuba Working Group, at the Freedom to Travel Forum

http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/ipr/freedomtotravel.pdf