The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: Chris_ on January 30, 2009, 11:45:00 AM
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Castro Throws First Punch at Obama, Demands Return of Gitmo
HAVANA — Fidel Castro on Thursday threw his first punch at President Obama after several weeks of praise for the new leader, demanding the U.S. return Guantanamo Bay military base to Cuba and criticizing the U.S. defense of Israel.
Castro's latest essay, published on an official Web site, came one week after he called Obama "intelligent and noble" and said he would cut back on his writings to prevent interfering with Cuban government decisions.
The missive Thursday raised new questions about what role he maintains in policy-making, especially coming while his brother, President Raul Castro, was in Moscow on an official visit.
The ailing 82-year-old former president wrote that if the U.S. doesn't give the U.S. base at Guantanamo back to Cuba, it will be a violation of international law and an abuse of American power against a small country.
The U.S. president must "respect this norm without any condition," Castro wrote.
Obama has ordered the prison for terror suspects on the U.S. base to be closed within a year, but Cuba also demands the return of the 45-square-mile territory the base occupies in the island's east. Raul Castro and other government officials have called for the return of the base, but with less critical words and tone.
So, Big Ohhhh, whatcha gonna do now? :popcorn:
MORE (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,485589,00.html)
You just know that George Bush is sitting in his living room laughing his azz off.
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The State Department’s acting Cuba desk chief, John Regan, said Havana had not made an issue of the base, which under the agreement is leased in perpetuity unless both sides agree to end the arrangement.
“To my knowledge, the Cubans have never officially asked for it back,†Regan said.
Nor have they raised any objection to the detention mission at the monthly fence-line meeting of U.S. and Cuban military officials, the forum at which they were advised of the new role for the base at a January 2002 meeting, Regan said.
Neither officials in Havana nor Cuban diplomats in Washington responded to numerous telephone and e-mail requests to express their views on Guantanamo. But American business, political and cultural figures with regular contact with Cuban leaders say they have the impression that Castro’s government wants the U.S. military off the island but that the issue isn’t a priority now.
Sarah Stephens, head of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, said she’d never heard Cuban officials mention Guantanamo during any of her 30-plus trips to Havana with congressional and other delegations.
“I always just assumed it was something they know they can’t control,†she said of the lease deal, noting that the annual rent checks hadn’t been cashed since the first year Castro was in power.
Castro hadn’t yet aligned his government with the Soviet Union when, in the summer of 1959, he cashed the U.S. Treasury check for that year’s base rental. U.S. officials have cited that action in defending their continued use of the base, contending that it signaled his acceptance of the 1903 agreement.
http://www.coha.org/2007/04/guantanamo-echoes-us-gunboat-past/
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Wow, ramifications for things you hastily say? Damn, who'da thunk it?
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Of course the leftist are going to give Gitmo back to the Cubans, a la Carter's Panama Canal. They can't allow the evil Americans to build a ****ing Empire, can they?
:banghead:
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Of course the leftist are going to give Gitmo back to the Cubans, a la Carter's Panama Canal. They can't allow the evil Americans to build a ******* Empire, can they?
:banghead:
That's what I thought. Obama won't see this as an issue, he'll just give it back.
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That's what I thought. Obama won't see this as an issue, he'll just give it back.
Hell, barry will see it a saving the taxpayers money, which he can then spend on public healthcare issues :i.e., condoms for kids.
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The State Department’s acting Cuba desk chief, John Regan, said Havana had not made an issue of the base, which under the agreement is leased in perpetuity unless both sides agree to end the arrangement.
“To my knowledge, the Cubans have never officially asked for it back,†Regan said.
Nor have they raised any objection to the detention mission at the monthly fence-line meeting of U.S. and Cuban military officials, the forum at which they were advised of the new role for the base at a January 2002 meeting, Regan said.
Neither officials in Havana nor Cuban diplomats in Washington responded to numerous telephone and e-mail requests to express their views on Guantanamo. But American business, political and cultural figures with regular contact with Cuban leaders say they have the impression that Castro’s government wants the U.S. military off the island but that the issue isn’t a priority now.
Sarah Stephens, head of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, said she’d never heard Cuban officials mention Guantanamo during any of her 30-plus trips to Havana with congressional and other delegations.
“I always just assumed it was something they know they can’t control,†she said of the lease deal, noting that the annual rent checks hadn’t been cashed since the first year Castro was in power.
Castro hadn’t yet aligned his government with the Soviet Union when, in the summer of 1959, he cashed the U.S. Treasury check for that year’s base rental. U.S. officials have cited that action in defending their continued use of the base, contending that it signaled his acceptance of the 1903 agreement.
http://www.coha.org/2007/04/guantanamo-echoes-us-gunboat-past/
I am surprised we still have Gitmo despite the trade embargo. Well, it was there because Cuba was one of America's trade partners because of sugar in the 19th and early 20th century. Cuba used to be a big economic powerhouse until Bautista and Castro came along. Castro really ruined Cuba.
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Castro really ruined Cuba.
Left-wingers usually do ruin the countries they run.
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Considering how cozy the Cubans have been with the Russians lately, I suspect the Russians would like to "borrow" that military base for "peaceful exercises" in the area. :whatever:
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singing :kumbaya: simply isn't a viable foreign policy.
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Considering how cozy the Cubans have been with the Russians lately, I suspect the Russians would like to "borrow" that military base for "peaceful exercises" in the area. :whatever:
We might give them the base back someday, The treaty doesn't say in what shape it has to be returned in.
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We might give them the base back someday, The treaty doesn't say in what shape it has to be returned in.
"glow in the dark" would work just fine. :uhsure:
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We might give them the base back someday, The treaty doesn't say in what shape it has to be returned in.
If Castro ever learns to say "GIT-MO" in ghetto slang, the Marines can start packing their seabags.
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You just know that George Bush is sitting in his living room laughing his azz off.
I had this very thought several times over the past 10 days or so.
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It really wouldn't suprise me to see him give it back. Maybe he will beat Carter out for the worst President ever.