Senate committee gives its blessing to lifting Cuba travel ban

Bush is gonna be forced to veto the bill!! If not the Gusanos in Little Havana are gonna be plenty pissed!!

<clips>

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a vote of 13-5, approved lifting a ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens, following recent similar votes in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate.

The bill would withhold funds to enforce the travel ban, effectively ending restrictions on US citizens' travel to Cuba.

Lawmakers made some modifications however, unanimously approving an expression of "outrage" about human rights conditions in Cuba.

They also unanimously approved a measure which would require the US State Department to issue a report on Cuba's alleged financing of terrorism.

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031106/pl_afp/us_cuba_politics_031106195019>

It's time to end our imperialist efforts to destroy socialism in Cuba.

Viva Cuba!! :hi:

"Lawmakers made some modifications however, unanimously approving an expression of "outrage" about human rights conditions in Cuba."

Now, if they would just stop rubber-stamping for TraitorCo...

This Cuba thing seems a good start!

It's a damned good START.

There are some issues to be corrected within our own perceptions concerning branding Cuba a dangerous nation, however. I would suspect this issue was introduced by the Republicans on the committee, for sure. They apparently don't take time to read reports by our own military officers and our own C.I.A.!

This article discusses a trip made by one officer, and there have been quite a few others I've read about:

(snip)


Posted on Mon, Mar. 04, 2002

Retired U.S. general says Cuba no threat, urges links

HAVANA - A retired U.S. Army general said Sunday that he talked for 12 hours with President Fidel Castro and encouraged the Cuban leader to release 250 political prisoners in this island's jails in an effort to encourage dialogue with the United States.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, now a university professor visiting the island with the Center for Defense Information, told a news conference that Cuba did not present a military risk to the United States.

''They represent zero threat to the United States,'' he said.

The general said he told Cuban authorities during meetings on Saturday that the United States did not present a military risk to the island, either. He said he also met with Castro's younger brother, Gen. Raúl Castro, Cuba's defense minister.

McCaffrey said he supported increased cooperation between the United States and Cuba in the areas of drug interdiction and fighting terrorism. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/2786267.htm

I would really like to know the real reasons for his idiocy in this matter.

If he vetos the bill all the ag and farm folks that have been trading with Cuba and are in favor of normalizing relations with the island will be very unhappy and they have much deeper pockets than the CANF.

Should be very interesting--his own party turning on him more and more. Tom Delay--a Cuba hater from way back--picked the committee. They were stacked 17 to 10 in favor of keeping the travel ban in place!!

On edit: Correction: The Delay-picked committe's "decision is expected later this month, potentially forcing U.S. President George W. Bush to exercise a veto for the first time in his administration."

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-06-120526.asp?reg=AMERICAS

I would really like to know the real reasons for their idiocy in this matter!

Barcardi

Ready to pick your jaw up?
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
Thu, Oct. 23, 2003

.... There you are -- thinking you're way too old and have been around this block too many times to suddenly up and evince moral outrage over a little callousness here or a dollop of favoritism there. Suddenly you find yourself whomperjawed, outraged, stupefied with disbelief.

.... The amendment itself is a little charmer designed to help the Bacardi rum folks with a trademark problem they have with one of the world's oldest rum labels, Havana Club. Not being an expert on fundamentalist theology, I have no idea whether assisting a rum company fits into a biblical worldview, but I can tell you that Bacardi-Martini Inc. is a Bermuda-based company run by a family of prominent Cuban exiles who happen to be very generous, very large campaign donors. They have been especially generous to Tom DeLay for several years now.

... (Note: In the now-defensive, formerly liberal media we are pleased to have an actual conservative group protesting along with us here, because if it were just liberals, who would care? A connection between special legislation for Bacardi and huge campaign contributions? What are you, a commie?)

OK, now that you have been fully prepped on this deal, I give you the Outrage Moment. One Jonathan Grella, spokesman for Tom DeLay, when asked about all this, said: "It's wrong and unethical to link legislative activities to campaign contributions."

Let's make sure we all understand what is being said here. Grella asserts that there is no conflict of interest between a public official using his power to change the law in exchange for a hefty campaign contribution -- the immorality occurs when the press and/or public interest groups point out this connection. That's when I went slack-jawed.

More...
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/7083039.htm

The corrupt pols in Miami have to be hysterical at this point.

<clips>

...The bill's opponents attempted to attach four amendments, all of which failed. One would have conditioned eliminating the travel prohibition to Cuba's Fidel Castro first freeing 75 dissidents, jailed earlier this year and sentenced to long prison terms.

That amendment also lost by a 13-5 margin.

Senators did agree to include a provision that instructs the State Department to issue a report every six months on Cuba's financing of terrorism. The report's conclusion, however, would not have any impact on the travel ban itself.

The Cuba issue has sharply split Congress, with a small but powerful Cuban community in Florida lobbying hard to kill any efforts to ease the embargo.

"It's not about Cuba," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and travel ban foe. "It's about domestic politics."


<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3771896>

Sen. George Allen, a Virginia Republican, said Cuba practiced a "tourism apartheid," where visitors were herded into beach resorts where they had little interaction with local Cubans, failing to make Cuba more democratic.

American tourists to Cuba, including posters right here at D.U., have rented cars, bicycles, etc., and gone ALL OVER CUBA, WITHOUT A CHAPERON. They have traveled on the funny buses, taxis, have stayed in private homes, have walked on foot all over the place.

Some D.U. non-Cuban posters have permanent friends there with whom they communicate. One of D.U.'s posters even has a Cuban god-child.A couple of D.U. posters have been to clinics there, one of them went to a clinic used by the general population. One poster has had dental work done there. One poster spoke of walking around in one of the towns, and inspecting the election material posted prior to an election. Another poster was there during the election of 1998. George Allen needs to know we're on to him.

As I have said, the only people who will ever believe this baloney from people like George Allen are people who have are mentally lazy, and can't be tempted to do some reading, and stay alert long enough to start connecting the dots.

and I wish that the poster to the other Cuba board that gave us regular updates on Radio Poderosa happenings was around. Damn :-(

without being branded a Moron just goes to show how many Americans will swallow what they're told hook, line and sinker no questions asked and ignore the huge, humungous mountain of evidence to the contrary that even a simple Google search finds in a flash. There's no excuse for ignorant bigotry from people who ought to know better by now, and that includes some of the pathetic excuses for dems around here.

Haven't seen a thing. You caught the very first word on it.

Excellent developement. Wanna call the Versailles Whatsits in Little Havana and ask for their opinion of today's developements?

You remember that Cuban "exile" Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart got called a "communist" by someone in Miami recently, when the House overrode his mightiest efforts? That was hilarious. Can't remember who stepped forward to thrust that sword in.

Interesting observations from the island a few days ago.

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THE amendment to the Treasury-Transportation Appropriations Bill directed at hindering the prosecution of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba, is at the center of an unheard-of controversy within the U.S. Congress.

Senator Max Baucus, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, has declared that a veto by Bush, announced by the amendment’s enemies, would whip up a firestorm.

For many the controversy is almost surreal. A few months ago, Dick Armey – leader of the majority in the Chamber and the architect of maneuvers that have blocked the success of similar legal initiatives in recent years – made a surprising admission. The Republican member for Texas stated that the United States should declare the embargo imposed on Cuba null and void and allow U.S. citizens to travel to the island.

Moreover, he said that he had supported the embargo in recent years out of a sense of loyalty to his Republican colleagues Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart.

Fellow Republican George Nethercutt confided that Army’s frankness surprised him, but then he realized he had made that statement in Kansas, and thus understood.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/noviembre03/mar4/44viajes-i.html

recently, when he returned from a trip to Cuba this year. He said that he met a young Cuban boy who grilled him on aspects of a bill affecting Cuba pending in Congress. He was very impressed the kid knew so much about what was going on here.

When you see how much detail they include in this article, it's easy to see that the readers feel very familiar with US/Cuba relations.

Also, interesting to note that they are thinking the same in Cuba that any Cuba-watchers here have been mulling over every time it looks as if there's a breakthrough coming. People acquainted with what the "exile" community has done already would of COURSE be watching for the next flare-up, the next planned "event" which would scotch the progress made up to that point. It's happened a lot already. People learn not to expect anything until the next goal is realized.

The cool send-off at the end of the article:

Tax payers in that state are wondering what the south of Florida would be like if Díaz Balart and Ros-Lehtinen concentrated on problems affecting Miami rather than their covetous interest in Cuba.

Wooo Hooooo! :bounce:

in this updated article on the Senate voting to lift the travel ban.

<clips>

...But Enzi and Baucus, joined by Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, said removing the provision would be a direct act against the will of Congress and a majority of Americans.

"If the conferees produce a conference report that excludes our amendment, we will consider all parliamentary options available to us to respond to that eventuality," they wrote.

Congressional leaders will also have to decide how to deal with Cuba language included in a $17 billion agriculture and food spending bill being debated by the Senate on Thursday.

The provision would allow visitors to Cuba to bypass a Treasury Department licensing restriction that has complicated efforts to sell food and medicine in Cuba. Congress in 2000 approved limited exports of food and medicine to the island, but supporters of more open relations say the administration has denied several applications from farm groups wanting to travel to Cuba to promote their products.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/11/06/cuba.travel.ap/index.html

Good for the Senate committe voting to cut funding for enforcing the travel ban to Cuba, but I wish anti-travel ban Senators would be more ingenuous. I wish they'd find pet Bushie legislation, the sorts of bills the Shrub really wants passed but barely has enough votes to squeak it through the Senate, and tie amendments defunding the enforcement of the travel ban to those bills.

So the Gomez-Mena family wants sugar subsidies? Well, tie an amendment defunding the travel ban to Cuba.

Boy George wants Star Wars anti-missile research? Tie an amendment defunding the travel ban to it.

George the Lesser wants more money for marijuana eradication? Tie an amendment defunding the travel ban.

And so on.

The travel ban for American citizens wishing to visit Cuba is unAmerican and infringes on the rights and liberties of American citizens. It's past time for the travel ban to go.

Senators push for open travel to Cuba
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
November 6, 2003, 8:23 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress are turning up the heat on House and Senate negotiators to keep intact legislation that would relax the ban on travel to Cuba.

In a letter Thursday to members of the conference committee drafting a compromise transportation appropriations bill, four senators, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., said they "will do all in our power" to make sure the travel restrictions end.

... House Republicans who favor open travel sent a similar letter to the conferees in recent days.

Adding emphasis to the point, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 13-5 Thursday to pass a bill that would prohibit travel restrictions to Cuba.

... In the letter, the four senators threatened to "consider all parliamentary options available to us." Those would include delaying tactics, efforts to send the bill back to committee, and possibly a filibuster.

More...
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--cuba-travel1106nov06,0,5499434.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Imagine, all these people out their fighting Bush without the support of DU or the presidential contenders. Go figure!

It's coming here too in 2004 and we'll finally catch up with the UK, France, Germany and others that have seen the Socialism light.

Castro has exibited that Socialism works!

eh!

will go against the royal's wishes. I believe * just doesn't publically want to take the blame for it from the Miami Cubans.


Great set up after all.

They are playing to their Cuban-American clientele:

Posted on Fri, Nov. 07, 2003

Panel OK's Cuba travel
A Senate committee approves yet another measure that would ease U.S. restrictions on visits to Cuba.
By NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com

CONGRESS

A new bill that would repeal the U.S. ban on tourist travel to Cuba was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, highlighting the widening gap between lawmakers who oppose U.S. sanctions and a Bush administration bent on keeping them.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, spearheaded by Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., would prohibit the president from restricting travel to Cuba except in case of war. It was approved by a 13-5 vote.

An amendment intended to sabotage the bill was earlier rejected by the committee. Proposed by Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and others, the amendment would have eased the travel restrictions if Cuba met certain conditions, including the release of all 75 dissidents arrested in March.

Lawmakers on opposing sides of U.S.-Cuba policy also flexed their political muscles over a measure, approved by the House and Senate but now before a conference committee, to deny the Treasury Department funds to enforce the travel ban. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7204029.htm

On edit:

Take a stroll down memory lane, see the photo of Miami's former mayor, from the days of Elián Gonzalez, Loco Joe Carollo!






The feel of a Banana Republic right here in America.
A free absentee ballot with every rental car.

Even the CANF knows the travel ban is history. Loco Joe must be frothing at the mouth :evilgrin:

<clips>

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, the Cuban American National Foundation congratulated a bi-partisan group of senators for their efforts to defeat a bill to lift the ban on tourist travel to Cuba.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), was marked up today in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), George Allen (R-Va.) and Norm Coleman (R- Minn.), introduced amendments conditioning the lifting on travel to Cuba on that regime respecting the civil and human rights of its citizens, ending tourist apartheid, and allowing international organizations to inspect the human rights situation.

Sen. Bill Nelson introduced three amendments to the bill, the two which did not pass would have called on the Cuban regime to abolish its system of tourist apartheid and would have amended the National Security Act of 1947 and Intelligence Authorization act to require the Secretary of the Treasury provide a separate statement detailing Cuba's support of terrorist financing. The third Nelson amendment, which was agreed to, requires the Secretary of State to submit a yearly report to Congress regarding Cuba's financial support of terrorist groups and/or actions.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but is an active and vocal supporter of freedom and democracy in Cuba, also played a key role in garnering support for the conditioning amendments.

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usnw/20031106/pl_usnw/canf_congratulates_senate_members_for_efforts_in_trying_to_defeat_cuba_travel_bill162_xml>

Drip, drip, drip....

<clips>

WASHINGTON — A group of nine commodity groups is asking Congress to continue permitting unrestricted travel to Cuba.

"For over 40 years, the U.S. government has attempted to foster democratic progress and reform in Cuba by cutting off virtually all commercial contact between the United States and Cuba and severely restricting people-to-people contact, including travel to Cuba. These restrictions have not been successful, and important foreign policy and commercial interests of the United States have suffered," the letter states.

... Because the House and Senate versions of the bill must now be reconciled in conference, the recent letter was sent to chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House committees on appropriations and the House and Senate subcommittees on transportation and treasury, all potential conferees.

Signing the letter are representatives with the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, the Corn Refiners Association, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Milk Producers' Federation, the National Oilseed Processor Association, the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the USA Rice Federation.

The commodity groups believe U.S. agricultural exports would benefit from expanded travel to Cuba. To back up their argument, they cite a Texas A&M study which predicts that the U.S. agriculture community could benefit from $250 million in new business opportunities and almost 7,000 new jobs with unrestricted travel to Cuba.


http://deltafarmpress.com/ar/farming_travel_cuba_vital/index.htm

who gained Paul Wellstone's place in the Senate after his totally unexpected death.

Norm Coleman, while having originally condemned the travel ban and the embargo, took a trip to Cuba, and mid-trip made the announcement that, although he had gone there, ostensibly to look into ways to foster more trade between Minnesotans and Cuba, had decided we shouldn't have anything to do with Cuba. He did this for _Bush, obviously.

This letter has been sent to Coleman by a Cuban-African-American who lived there a long time before coming here. Dr. Alberto Jones is well respected here, and someone who can't be fooled about Cuba!

October 27, 2003
Senator Norm Coleman
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC., 20510

Honorable Senator Coleman,

With deep regret I read an article in the Miami Herald on 10/20/03, in which you said "I won’t visit Cuba again until Castro sets it free", after your brief visit to that island and meetings with so called Dissidents, which we know are mostly on the payroll of our government.

If the complex and turbulent history of Cuba is to be understood in order to make an educated assessment of it, I am sure, you would probably need more than a seven day visit or the pre-trip information you may have received from Cuban Americans in Congress. Five hundred years of history cannot be personalized and compacted into one person, Fidel Castro.

At age 65, I remember too well what democracy, freedom of speech and free enterprise meant for millions of people like myself in Cuba. My birth place, Banes, which was owned and governed by the United Fruit Company and the father and grandfather of US Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, was our Cuban Bantustan or Soweto, where we (Blacks and poor Whites) were forced to live in huts without electricity, running water, schools, healthcare or jobs. Morbidity and mortality through preventive diseases was the norm that touched the lives of everyone, most of whom lost a family member before age 5. Our community, which was clearly divided in three sections and allowed Blacks to work only in jobs cutting cane, picking up trash, cooking, cleaning and caring for the children of others and created a separate religious order with a distinct dress code for Black females, looks more like the Cuba you should refuse to visit.

Many in Congress have traveled to South Africa to see what Apartheid was all about. We did not have to do so; we were born, lived and many died in one of our own!

You are fully entitled to your views and conclusions. Agreeing or disagreeing with today’s Cuba is also your prerrogative. What is unaceptable to most Blacks in Cuba and probably around the world, is to allow anyone to attempt to ignore, dilute or deny that educationally, culturally, socially and in many other fields of knowledge, Blacks in Cuba have advanced more in the past 40 years than in the previous 500.

Still, much more differentiated support is needed for Blacks in Cuba for them to achieve the social levels of other racial groups that benefited directly from the fruits of the system you defend. I encourage you and others, to admit to past wrongs, help us to level the playing field, so that, many more Cubans may be able to continue help their brothers and sisters in Africa, the Caribbean and other places around the world.

No attempts ought to be made by anyone to disguise, cover-up or ignore mistakes or shortcomings of the Cuban government. Historians will gather and analysize this convulsive era. The only prerrequisite should be an honest and fair judgement on the part of all of us.

Sincerely,

Alberto N. Jones DVM

LOL So glad that was pointed out to us :-) That's such a great photo I'll post it here as well.

Dr. Jones writes quite a lot of very good pieces. I remember a response in the SF Chronicle a few years back rebutting the Gusano lie that Cubans were slaves. It was equally as good as this letter. I believe he also has a column at one of the online sites, I think it's on the Afro-Cuba Net site. Thanks for posting.

Great letter: "...Five hundred years of history cannot be personalized and compacted into one person, Fidel Castro."

At age 65, I remember too well what democracy, freedom of speech and free enterprise meant for millions of people like myself in Cuba. My birth place, Banes, which was owned and governed by the United Fruit Company and the father and grandfather of US Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, was our Cuban Bantustan or Soweto, where we (Blacks and poor Whites) were forced to live in huts without electricity, running water, schools, healthcare or jobs. Morbidity and mortality through preventive diseases was the norm that touched the lives of everyone, most of whom lost a family member before age 5. Our community, which was clearly divided in three sections and allowed Blacks to work only in jobs cutting cane, picking up trash, cooking, cleaning and caring for the children of others and created a separate religious order with a distinct dress code for Black females, looks more like the Cuba you should refuse to visit.

who has been there, and lived through it, and isn't afraid to speak out to Americans.

We, in school, were never educated on the subject of life in the islands south of our country, or in Latin America. People won't know until they stir themselves to start reading and asking questions. They are unaware of how much they don't know, and assume that life for others in the hemisphere is simply like the life they grew up with, as EASY, and believe the Republican filth that poverty is a symptom of laziness, and stupidity. Speaking of stupidity!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cuba Policy Will Change Even If President Doesn't

The Palm Beach Post - October 29, 2003


For reasons ranging from jobs to sanity, the House and Senate have swung the wrecking ball at four decades of failed policy toward Cuba. President Bush has said he will stand in the path of the ball, but if he does it will be for the worst reason - personal politics.

Last week, the Senate voted 59-38 to end, in essence, the ban on travel to Cuba. The legislation would prohibit the government from spending any money to enforce the law that prohibits visits except by family members, journalists and certain private organizations, and even they must obtain permission. It also is illegal for Americans to visit Cuba through a third country, primarily Mexico.

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. (snip/...)

http://www.hispaniconline.com/pol&opi/article.html?
SMContentIndex=6&SMContentSet=0


I absolutely love that photo. Couldn't be more appropriate!