Resisting a blockade

[Osolomia]

Volume 20 - Issue 21, October 11 - 24, 2003
WORLD AFFAIRS

Resisting a blockade
JOHN CHERIAN

Cuba's struggle against the economic blockade continues even as the United States remains internationally isolated on the issue.

AS it has been doing for the last 12 years, Cuba is once again submitting a draft resolution to the United Nations General Assembly this year demanding the lifting of the United States' economic blockade of the island. The almost total isolation of Washington on the issue was illustrated by the fact that, last year only three countries, including the U.S. voted against the resolution calling for the lifting of the economic and trade embargo against Cuba. The other countries supporting the U.S. were, its traditional ally Israel and the tiny island republic of Micronesia. The economic blockade is now more than four decades old. Despite the international community condemning Washington's policy of trying to subjugate the Cuban people by causing hunger and disease in the country, the Bush administration has been unrelenting. In fact, there are indications that Washington is even toying with the idea of intervening militarily in the island. Senior Bush administration officials have been suggesting that Syria, North Korea, Iran and Cuba, are on the U.S. military's hit list.

In May last year, U.S. Under-Secretary of State John Bolton, who belongs to the neo-conservative cabal in the Bush Cabinet, had alleged that Cuba was developing a biological warfare programme. Bush's brother Jeb Bush, who also happens to be the Governor of Florida, suggested after the fall of Iraq that Cuba should be the next candidate for regime change.

This year, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has earmarked $1.602 million to create independent non-government organisations (NGO) in Cuba and $2.132 million to bring about a political transition in Cuba. In all, USAID has spent $22 million in the last five years to undermine the socialist government of Cuba.

More...
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2021/stories/20031024000506300.htm

ON EDIT: Oops, supposed to be in Editorials, please move!

[La_Serpiente]

1. Bush is seriously in a bubble

Bush called on other nations to put pressure on Cuba. However, the EU has free trade with Cuba and Brazil just signed a 200 million dollar trade agreement with them.

[Osolomia]

2. It's been going on like this for over 10 years now

The US has been bullying the Rest of the World over this for a decade now but the Rest of the World continues to condemn the embargo and instead trade and freely travel to Cuba by the millions each year.

Clinton and all the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates except Kucinich are in the same "bubble".

[kybob]

3. how about this

what if those against the blockade, as a form of protest, load up boats with beans , rice, and medicines. then sail for Cuba. wouldn't such a boatlift send a clear message that the government is wrong.

[Osolomia]

16. 38 states have been sending boatloads for over a year now

but even the Democratic presidential candidates and their supporters still don't seem to get the message!

[Mika]

4. Monsters

Bush's brother Jeb Bush, who also happens to be the Governor of Florida, suggested after the fall of Iraq that Cuba should be the next candidate for regime change.

So.. when are Jeb's kids joining the Army for all of this liberating?

[Nihil]

9. Hmmm

Check out topic_id #187587 in this forum - "Well to be drilled off Cuba (Oil)" - and
re-read your first paragraph ...

Guess someone else's kids will come in useful again?

Nihil

[Osolomia]

17. So when is the potential Dem president going to oppose the Bush Doctrine

of regime change in Cuba? Hmmm.

[Say_What]

5. Cuba veto threat, votes hang in balance for Bush

<clips>

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has never wielded a veto pen in anger. Not for a $180 billion deficit-swelling farm bill. Not for a pork-encrusted appropriations bill. But this week, he's threatening. The House and Senate, by large majorities, voted to deny funds for enforcing a tightened ban on travel to Cuba, which Bush announced to much fanfare before an audience of Cuban-American hard-liners earlier this month.

...If the policy differences are reasoned, the politics are anything but. Polls suggest that Cuban-Americans are evenly divided on the issue, with perhaps even a majority favoring a "nonconfrontational" approach to Castro. Despite the balanced polls, it's hardly a political wash. Hard-liners in the Miami exile community control much of the Spanish-language media and wield disproportionate influence in Florida's crucial presidential vote. And while Cuban-American moderates assess political candidates on a range of issues, staunch anti-Castro Cubans tend to vote solely on which candidate will be tougher on the Cuban dictator.

Bush's policy is tailored to the particular needs of the hard-line exiles down to its last inseam. While targeting Cuba's tourist industry, Bush has loosened travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans who have relatives on the island nation, because aging Bay of Pigs-era immigrants are despairing of the chance to see long-lost brothers and sisters. While trying to keep dollars out of Cuba, the White House allows Cuban-Americans to send generous sums to their families in the homeland. Family bonds transcend politics.

Still, the hard-liners have hardly acted grateful, perhaps aware that they hold Bush's electoral chances in their hands. They recently attacked the president for enforcing a long-established policy and returning a group of Cubans trying to make it to Florida in an old Chevy truck-turned-raft.

<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/28/cuba_veto_threat_votes_hang_in_balance_for_bush/>

[Mika]

6. On the Chevy rafters

They recently attacked the president for enforcing a long-established policy and returning a group of Cubans trying to make it to Florida in an old Chevy truck-turned-raft.

Out of those nine Cubans on the Chevy/raft only 2 qualified for a legal US immigration visa (which they all applied for after their return to Cuba). But the US's Cuban Adjustment Act allows all Cubans who touch US soil to stay, thereby bypassing the legal background check requirement for all other immigrants.

The USA offers over 20,000 LEGAL immigration visas per year to Cubans (and Bush just announced that the number would increase), more than any other single country in the world. Cuba prevents none.

Cubans who are intercepted by the USCG are returned to Cuba (if caught at sea) - by US law. But IF they make it to US soil, no matter who they are or what their criminal backround might be, they get to stay in the US and enjoy perks offered ONLY TO CUBAN IMMIGRANTS. perks like instant work visa, instant green card, instant access to sec 8 taxpayer assisted housing, instant social security, instant welfare, and more.

These perks are not offered to any other immigrant group let alone illegal entrants, but yet, without the perks offered to Cubans, immigrants still pour into the US from all over the Caribbean and the Latin Americas - many taking greater risks than Cubans to get here.

What for? Jobs.

Understand that most of the Cuban immigrants that have come to the US have come here for the same reasons that immigrants from all over the Caribbean and Latin Americas come to the US.. jobs. Jobs that help them earn enough money to send some back to their family in their homeland. The majority of Cuban immigrants don't have an all consuming hatred of Fidel Castro, and the USA offers Cubans many avenues and a wealth of exclusive perks for immigrating here.. plus Cuban immigrants and Cuban-Americans can send money to their family in Cuba & they can travel back to their homeland and take money and goods.. just like almost all other immigrants from the Caribbean do.

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. Jobs

Sorry, but there is nothing wrong with wanting economic freedom which clearly they lack in Cuba.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Brazilians, Mexicans, and other illegal immigrants

Do THEY lack economic freedom too? Or is it all just dumb, apolitical lack of money?

[Muddleoftheroad]

10. Much of the world

has less economic freedom than we do. Lots of places have less political freedom than we do as well.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Do you think Brazil and Mexico are among those? (nt)

[Muddleoftheroad]

13. Mexico certainly is

Not sure about Brazil.

Does that mean we should allow all of their immigrants into the U.S.? No.

[Say_What]

14. Why the double-standard for refugees from Cuba when Haitians

are sent back post-haste. What about the Mexicans that die crossing the Sonoran Desert or worse are used as target practice at border crossings? How about those from Asia who die in cargo holds or that are dropped out of airplanes? Why the double-standard for Cubans?

Can you spell P_O_L_I_T_I_C_A_L___A_G_E_N_D_A ?

[Judi Lynn]

15. Too many Lincoln Diaz-Balart lovers around heah!

Hey, a photo bonus! Just found a "pitchur" of his dear own poppy, Rafael Diaz-Balart, the very ex-brother-in-law of Fidel Castro:



On edit: Found info. on Rafael Diaz Balart, wanting to know what other positions he held in the Batista regime beyond simple Senator:

(snip)In July 1960, counterrevolutionary groups were particularly active, as much on the island as abroad. By the end of 1959, the U.S. government, through the CIA, was already fomenting the counterrevolutionary movement on the island as well as Batista supporters’ groups in Miami, led by individuals such as henchman Rolando Masferrer and Rafael Diaz-Balart, former minister and collaborator with the Batista dictatorship, grandfather of the current U.S. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the son of Rafael Diaz-Balart, deputy minister in the Batista government. . (snip/...)
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/junio/mier25/25julio-i.html

[Say_What]

20. Calle Ocho kiddies are soon in for a very rude awakening

When--and it is a matter of when, not if--the embargo is lifted the Banana Republic of Miami can look forward to:

No more anti-Cuba industry.

Ditzy-Balistic brothers and Ros-Lithium political history.

No more 27 million US taxpayer dollars for Radio and TV Marti.

Radio Mambi and the rest of the *exile* stations won't have a reason to round up the herd.

No more murder and intimidation for wanting normal relations with the island.

What will the likes of these neanderthals do without their one-issue-agenda?

Thanks for the info on the Batista henchmen, many of whom walk the streets on Miaimi free. Many others are showing up daily in the El Nuevo Herald obits. Miami--'muriKas very own terrorist-R-us city.

[Say_What]

22. Speaking of Cuban *exile* terrorists

El exilie's favorite hero--pardoned by Bush I--Orlando Bosch Avila

[Say_What]

23. Cuban Government Releases List Of 'Terrorists

<clips>

...On it are the names of persons the Cuban Government regards as terrorists -- people who have participated in actions against the Island Nation in attempts to topple the Castro government.

There is Luis Posada Carriles, who is jailed in Panama, accused of attempting to plant a bomb under Castro. There is Orlando Bosch, who is credited with blowing up a Cuban airliner. Also on the list Andres Nazario Sargen, who heads up Alpha 66, the group of aging exiles who once invaded the Island on a regular basis.

Roldofo Frometa made the list, and headlines lately, when he told the press that exiles had shot up accused Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque. We learn that Felipe Valls who owns the Versailles and La Careta Restaurants is a terrorist according to the Castro government, as is radio host Ninoska Perez. Dr. Manuel Cereijo is the 17th person mentioned, the mild mannered retired professor makes the list because he is friendly with the leadership of the Cuban American National Foundation.

Most of the CANF members are listed, too.

<http://ciponline.org/cuba/cubainthenews/newsarticles/nbc012103tester.htm>

[Judi Lynn]

33. Now THAT'S INTERESTING!

This should really shake up a lot of the guys on the list, too. It's one thing for them to blow off, boasting about getting into Cuba and shooting Cubans for the merriment and entertainment of their fellow Miami Cuban Mafiosos, it's quite ANOTHER thing to learn that the Cuban government even knows their BEEPER NUMBERS!

This is really interesting. You would hope it will make some of them a little more thoughtful before they load up their boats with weapons and chug on over to Cuba to shoot up some hotels or people on the beach in yet another float-by!

[Osolomia]

25. The Peril and the Promise, why the preferential treatment for Cubans?

The Peril and the Promise
Associated Press

MICHES, Dominican Republic Oct. 28, 2003 — Ramonita de Jesus never made it to a better life. Nor did her husband, Manuel Reyes.
They drowned a year apart crossing the treacherous waters from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico _ just two among the many islanders who perish every year in the constant ebb and flow of illegal immigration across the Caribbean.

Yet the lure of prosperity beyond the horizon never dims. Over the past year, the number of boat people picked up in the Caribbean by the U.S. Coast Guard has doubled.

"There is nothing here," said Augustina Paulino, Manuel Reyes' mother, her eyes filling with tears. She said poverty and a lack of jobs drove the couple to risk the crossing _ her daughter-in-law in 2000, her son in 2001 _ leaving her to raise their three orphaned children in her wooden shack.

The dead can't be reliably counted, though they are at least in the hundreds every year. Boat people picked up alive by the U.S. Coast Guard are at their most numerous since 1996 _ more than 5,300 in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, including about 2,000 Haitians, 1,700 Dominicans and 1,500 Cubans.

More...
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/102803-boatpeople.html

[Judi Lynn]

36. Fascinating article, one which will NOT be read, no doubt

by some of the lamer anti-Cuba advocates, as it would only confuse them.

They simply get befuddled when any discussion about Cuban immigrations compares Cuban immigration with any other economic immigration from Haiti (600 miles of ocean away) or Central America or Mexico. They never read the information available, as it would only deteriorate their infantile propaganda blatherings.

The comment from the woman raising the three orphans, surviving their parents' deaths by drowning was heart-breaking.

It's good for Americans to realize that there IS a name for the desperate search for economic survival in the Caribbean: "Island hopping." They don't all come here.

(There also is a Haitian population in Cuba now, of people who fled to Cuba for various reasons.)

[Muddleoftheroad]

32. Sure

Politically America does not like the Cuban government. I wish we did more of this instead of just focusing on Cuba.

[Say_What]

34. No sh*t Sherlock, tell us something the planet DOESN'T know

:spank:

[Osolomia]

18. Americans are the only people on the planet without the freedom to travel

to Cuba and see it for themselves.

Americans are also the only people on the planet who insist on maintaining an immoral and unethical economic emabargo against the island.

Your standard of "freedom" obviously leaves a lot to be desired.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Rip up the Cuba embargo, Bush’s stance is just political pandering

October 28, 2003

Rip up the Cuba embargo

Bush’s stance is just political pandering


Published by news-press.com on October 28, 2003


The tattered trade and travel embargo against Cuba came a little more unraveled last week. President Bush should follow Congress’ lead and rip the thing up.

The Senate voted 59-36 to effectively end restrictions on Americans traveling to the island, using language identical to what was passed in the House last month. The legislation would block money for the enforcement of travel restrictions.

Opposition to the travel ban and the U.S. trade embargo is growing across the United States, as more people realize that the sanctions only help entrench Fidel Castro, rather than bring him down, and hurt U.S. businesses in the process.

For the first time, enough Republicans joined Democrats to prevent the measure from being stripped from the spending bill for the Transportation and Treasury departments.

President Bush warned again that he will veto the bill if the provision remains. He is pandering to the Cuban exile vote in Florida, whose strategic importance in presidential politics is the only reason this policy survives, a relic of the Cold War. (snip/...)

http://www.news-press.com/news/opinion/031028edit1.html

Great to see an article like this from SOUTH FLORIDA! Wooo HOOOOO! Whoopeee! Wow! :bounce: :bounce:

[Osolomia]

19. The editorials keep on coming, and coming, and coming...

Here's just one in a steady stream that's been going on for weeks now, Dem presidential contenders better be listening:

Editorial: Cuban hard line
It's time to loosen the terms on trade and travel
Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Pushing and pulling in recent weeks between the Bush administration and Congress on U.S. policy toward Cuba shows the president and the Republicans focused on partisan political advantage rather than on overall U.S. interests.

Put more specifically, President Bush's intended policy on Cuba is oriented toward keeping Cuban exiles in Florida happy, rather than toward bringing about democratic change in Cuba itself or promoting U.S. exports to that country.

... The problem is that this approach does not reflect the reality of the evolving situation in Cuba, or U.S. economic interests. Nor does it show respect for the freedom of Americans to travel to Cuba.

... The president's Cuba policy is, at best, out of accord with its goals. At worst, it is dictated by a Republican quest for votes and campaign funds. Whatever its basis, it should be changed to an open-door policy on trade and travel now.

More...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03301/234646.stm

[Say_What]

21. Like the Energizer bunny,

this thing ain't going away.

[Osolomia]

26. Expect to see some bushwhacked propaganda as the annual UN vote approaches

Although this year the recent historic votes in Congress to lift the travel ban leave the US delegation with even less of a leg to stand on on the world stage. Rather undemocratic of them to even try actually. November could end up with Bush vetoing lifting sanctions the same day that the United Nations condemns the embargo at this rate.

[Say_What]

30. Part of me want to see him veto the bill --it will

be his undoing in more ways than one.

[Osolomia]

35. FYI, UN votes on the embargo next week, Nov 3-7th

another slap in the face for the Bushistas and DINOs.

[Osolomia]

28. Cuba policy will change even if president doesn't

Cuba policy will change even if president doesn't
Palm Beach Post, FLORIDA!
Wednesday, October 29, 2003

... The senators who voted for a Cuba policy acknowledging that it's no longer 1962 include some of the most conservative and liberal lawmakers. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, voted with Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. James Inhofe, R-Okla., voted with Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, sponsored the bill and voted with Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. Sixteen Republicans voted to loosen the travel restrictions even after Mr. Bush threatened to veto the change, which is an amendment to the spending bill for the Transportation and Treasury departments. The House passed a similar amendment last month.

Many farm-state senators see Cuba as a potential market. Kansas Republicans Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts voted to end travel restrictions. So did the senators from Idaho, Nebraska and Colorado. Others understand that engagement, not isolation, offers the best chance to influence a post-Castro Cuba. Leaders of the Varela Project, Cuba's democratic movement, want more American involvement, not less. Most of the holdouts were ideologues who can't get past the Cuban Missile Crisis and, of course, Democrats in Florida -- Bob Graham, Bill Nelson -- and New Jersey -- Jon Corzine, Frank Lautenberg -- who pander to the vocal minority of Cuban-American voters.

Similarly, President Bush has responded recently to threats from Cuban-American legislators by announcing that he will increase enforcement of the travel restrictions. So Americans can travel to the Axis of Evil -- Iran, North Korea -- but not to Cuba. The White House said the president would veto the spending bill if the travel ban repeal is included. Even a veto, however, will not alter the changing sentiment toward Cuba. Food and medicine flow more freely to the island. Four years ago, the Senate kept the travel ban in place. The wrecking ball may not strike this time, but the policy will continue to crumble.

More...
Palm Beach Post

[Judi Lynn]

29. Anti-travel ban and anti-embargo articles crafted in Florida

seem even more interesting, knowing they are written by people living not that far from a community with a horrendous history of violence toward people who speak out against their beloved federally enforced bullying of Cuba.

They'd better live it up, and enjoy it while they can, the whole thing's going to end, and they'll be screwed, since they don't seem to have any other skills other than jerking our Congresscritters around, and pitching fits.

Found another article on the subject:

(snip) CUBA Lift the sanctions

10/28/2003


FORWARD LOOKING hardly describes the Bush administration's policy toward Cuba. The policy is rooted in a bygone era. The House and Senate must keep trying to bring the administration into the 21st century on this issue.

The Senate tried again last week by voting 59-36 to end the sanctions on travel to the island. The bill's language is identical to a measure that the House approved last month. President George W. Bush is threatening to thwart this effort by vetoing a $90 billion funding bill for the departments of transportation and treasury, to which the Senate attached the Cuba provision.

Mr. Bush has framed his opposition as standing up for human rights and punishing a dictator. Both are morally defensible positions, but it is not as if our country doesn't talk to and do business with other undemocratic leaders and nations. A more enlightened posture is the one the United States has adopted toward China, in the belief that more contact between nations will lower cultural barriers and hasten the flow of democratic ideas and attitudes. Cubans cut off from family and friends would benefit enormously from more contact with American visitors, and what would likely be a huge influx of cash from tourism.

(snip) But Cuba is a key election issue for Mr. Bush and the GOP leadership. South Florida is full of anti-Castro Cubans whose votes will come in handy in the GOP fight for Florida in the 2004 presidential election. (snip/...)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Say_What]

31. 'Democrats in Florida and New Jersery who PANDER

to the vocal minority of Cuban-American voters.'

...'So Americans can travel to the Axis of Evil -- Iran, North Korea -- but not to Cuba.'

...'The wrecking ball may not strike this time, but the policy will continue to crumble.'

Great editorial!! Thanks, for posting. Wonder if they're getting the typical death threats.

[Say_What]

24. Coffin nails Senate joins House in pushing Bush for freer travel to Cuba

<clips>

...The rare bipartisan effort in both Houses sets up an election year confrontation between a Republican–controlled Congress and a Republican president whose Cuban views are no longer in sync with his own party or the majority of Americans.

Neither house has enough votes to overturn a presidential veto, which seems all but assured.

The president is disinclined to antagonize a half million conservative Cuban–American voters in Florida, where his second term also could be decided.

His dilemma is that there are nearly that many Cuban–Americans, second and third generation children of exiles, who favor free Cuban trade and travel.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/co5_1028.html

[Judi Lynn]

27. Remember when Bush's State Department claimed Cuba jams US broadcasts

to people in Iran?

They were WRONG, yet we're just not hearing that apology!

(snip) Cuba-based jamming of U.S. broadcasts to Iran stops



WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 — Cuba-based jamming of U.S. satellite broadcasts to Iran was carried out by Iranians, not by the Cuban government, and it has stopped, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Tuesday.

The U.S. State Department in July said it had formally asked the Cuban government to investigate the jamming, which U.S. officials said was disrupting both U.S. government and private television broadcasts aimed at the opposition in Iran.
It appeared to be a case of cooperation between two ideologically distinct governments that Washington dislikes. Cuba is ruled by the communist government of President Fidel Castro, while Iran is dominated by Muslim clerics.

(snip) ''We approached the government of Cuba about some jamming that was emanating from Cuba. It was not the government of Cuba. It was another entity, and it has ceased,'' Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Asked it was Iranians who had carried out the jamming, he replied: ''Yes it was.'' (snip/...)

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters10-28-124043.asp?reg=MIDEAST

WHERE DOES MSNBC GET OFF claiming that "It appeared to be a case of cooperation between two ideologically distinct governments that Washington dislikes?"

So RICHARD ARMITAGE is quoted in this article. I looked up Richard Armitage. Check out this glowing report of even one more shady _Bush appointee:

(snip) Armitage-better known as "Armitage The Executioner"-was denied a 1989 appointment as Assistant Secretary of State because of his links to Iran-Contra and other scandals. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan years. US government stipulations in the Oliver North trial specifically named Armitage as one of the officials responsible for illegal transfers of weapons to Iran and the Contras.

Activist group Voices from the Wilderness notes: "Armitage has also been routinely exposed as a Bush-era covert functionary who has been linked to covert operations, drug smuggling and the expansion of organized crime operations in Russia, Central Asia and the Far East."
http://www.chicagomediawatch.org/02_1_nation.shtml


Armitage

Absolutely hideous.

[caysalbanks]

37. bush cousin seeking political asylum in venezuela over cuba

current member of the Presidential Families of America, cousin to G.W. and nephew to G.H.W. is currently seeking political asylum with the Venezuelan embassy in Panama over threats relating to his attempt to publicly diclose evidence of the Bush admin. attempts to manufacture testimony and declarations relating to human rights issues in Cuba..
The evidence, much of which the U.S. attempted to use to instigate another international incident,stems from the longtime practice at the American Interest Section in Havana, whose staff routinely threatens u.s. citizens with arrest back in the states if they dont sign statements stating that the were mistreated by the Cubans.
Since May 25, 2003, the presidential cousin, Mark Lewellyn Lindsey,
of Scottsdale Arizona has been seeking asylum in various embassies, and has been denied by all. currently his situation looks pretty dim as the Venezuelan consulate in Panama has yet to reply. His e-mail is [e-mail]

[Judi Lynn]

38. What more can you tell us?

This is very interesting, caysalbanks.

Many of us are acquainted with very crude actions from the _Bush heads of the American Interests Section in Havana.

[Say_What]

39. Is this like that other post where you said NATO training in Colorado was

gonna invade Havana?

You'll need to provide some credible links for folks here to take you seriously.

[Judi Lynn]

40. So what is this, another sneaky trick from our State Department?

You have to remember they recently accused Cuba of intercepting their propaganda transmissions to Iran, and they were really nasty about it. They had to retract their accusations, but OF COURSE THEY NEVER APOLOGIZED. They left the impression that Cuba's always in trouble at all times, no matter what.

This sounds as if it could fall into the same category:

Feds Ask Cuba About Missing Florida Boaters
Two Men, 13-Year-Old Boy Missing Since Oct. 17
Associated Press

POSTED: 11:39 a.m. EST October 29, 2003

NAPLES -- The U.S. State Department is asking the government of Cuba for any information about whether three missing Florida boaters are being held on the island.

The query comes amid rumors that a radio report claimed the two adults and 13-year-old boy are in Cuba. So far, officials say that has not been confirmed. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana has said there is "no information right now" about the trio.

The 24-foot boat What's Left has been missing since the evening of Oct. 17. On board were owner Gary Lisk, his friend Neil Eddleman and Eddleman's 13-year-old son Neil, all from Naples.

The Coast Guard helped friends and family in the search of 130,000 square miles off Florida until last Friday. No trace of the boat, or those on board, was found. (snip/...)

http://www.nbc6.net/news/2591472/detail.html

BUSH'S government is the entity which disappears people and keeps them totally out of reach of their families, friends, and homelands.

[Osolomia]

41. Kucinich still the only Dem candidate resisting the blockade

Kucinich talks to students
Hampton Union, New Hampshire
Tuesday, October 28, 2003

… He began by quoting Wordsworth, the 18th-century Romantic English poet, "Whither is fled the visionary dream?" and launched into a provocative attempt to answer that question.

… Accordingly, he is a proponent of engagement with all the governments of the world, including, he said in response to a student’s question, Cuba, which has been isolated by every American administration since Fidel Castro led a revolution there in 1959.

Kucinich believes that having a dialogue with nations rather than excluding them from the international community is the way to bring about positive change. He advocates working with the United Nations to defeat terrorism, emphasizing the importance of "understanding the causal links" that lead to terrorism.

Kucinich’s ultimate goal is to "create a world where each person could unfold to his or her potential, where we could answer Wordsworth’s question, ‘My friends, it is here.’"

More…
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/hampton/10282003/news/57645.htm

[Judi Lynn]

42. Congress backs lifting Cuba travel restrictions But White House threatenin

Publication Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2003



Congress backs lifting Cuba travel restrictions
But White House threatening to veto bill

By Jim Abrams Associated Press

Congress is taking steps to open Cuba to American travelers, a move that goes against both White House efforts to enforce the travel ban and the four-decade-old U.S. policy of isolating the communist country.

"Today’s vote is a clear and undeniable sign that the end is near for the Cuba travel ban," said Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, after a 59-36 Senate vote Thursday to bar the use of government money to enforce current travel restrictions.

The House last month also voted to ease travel restrictions as part of its version of a $90 billion bill to fund Transportation and Treasury department programs in the budget year that started Oct. 1.

The White House, which recently moved to step up enforcement of the travel ban, has threatened a presidential veto of the spending bill – which contains money for highway, law enforcement and anti-terrorism programs – if it contains the Cuba language. (snip/...)

http://www.keynoter.com/business/20031029s02.html