Obama administration ignores ‘fugitive issue’

Obama administration ignores 'fugitive issue'
BY FRANK CALZON FRANK.CALZON@CUBACENTER.ORG
04/26/2015 3:00 PM 04/26/2015 7:00 PM

President Obama's actions to remove Cuba from the State Department's
list of terrorist states is stripping the United States of its leverage
to achieve economic and political reform in Cuba.

Cuba's removal from the list has been the Castro brothers' No. 1 goal,
facilitating Cuba's access to international financial institutions and
trade credits. To remove the designation is to ignore their engagement
with terrorist organizations and their provision of safe haven to
convicted felons and fugitive terrorists.

During the Obama administration, the same State Department that just
recommended to the president to remove Cuba from the list had conducted
five annual reviews concluding that Havana's ties to international
terrorism were still relevant. The U.S. Congress might want to ask
Secretary of State John Kerry what has changed since April 2014 when the
the department made its last such determination.

Kerry's supporting memorandum to Congress takes note of the "fugitive
issue" but proposes no solution, and parts of it read as if they were
written by a pro-Cuban government advocate. It is silent about Cuba's
aggressive history and makes no mention of the convictions of the Cuban
spies who fed information to Raúl Castro, then defense minister and now
president of Cuba, that led to the Cuban air force MiG attack on two
civilian American planes flying over international waters in the Florida
Straits, killing four men.

It also makes no mention of the evidence federal prosecutors presented
during the spies' trial based on American intercepts of Havana's
instructions requesting suitable places for landing of Cuban personnel
and weapons in South Florida. And it leaves out Fidel Castro's
not-so-veiled 1976 threat: "The fact that the Cuban Revolution has never
used terrorism does not mean that we will not do so. That's a warning."

Within the last six months, Colombia's navy has intercepted the Chinese
freighter, Da Dan Xia near the Port of Cartagena. It was carrying "100
tons of gunpowder, almost 3 million detonators and some 3,000 cannon
shells" bound for Barranquilla but then on to Havana. The Kerry memo
pointedly states, "The government of Cuba has been particularly helpful
in facilitating the peace negotiations between the Colombian government
and the FARC and, in addition, the ELN." So, where were those munitions
to be unloaded?

On this issue, as on everything else, some will blame the embargo for
Cuba's weapons trade with China and North Korea. But Cuba can buy
weapons in Europe and elsewhere, and the real question is: Why go
through all the trouble of smuggling weapons under foodstuffs and
risking discovery and international condemnation? There is also some
confusion about the impact of removing Cuba from the list on Havana's
access to international banking institutions. Removing Cuba from the
list has the propaganda value for the regime and ethical considerations
for Obama.

It is currently impossible for the Congress to reverse Obama's decision.
However, what Havana really wants is to gain full access (loans) to
international financial institutions. But such access will remain barred
by the a 1996 U.S. law. While the president has primacy in foreign
affairs, it is too early to say that Congress will not reassert its
legitimate role on foreign policy in regard to the president's Cuba policy.

Also swept under the State Department's carpet, were:

▪ The Spanish government's request to Cuba to return several Basque
terrorists of the ETA terrorist movement currently being given "safe
harbor" in Cuba.

▪ Cuba's protection of Joanne Chesimard, a member of the Black
Liberation Army, convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper. She
escaped from prison and made her way to Cuba, where Fidel Castro
described her as an American "revolutionary" and gave her asylum. The
FBI lists her as one of its "10 most wanted" terrorists.

The most important duty of an American president is to protect American
lives. Could anyone doubt that the his decision on this issue was
celebrated by ISIS, ETA, al Qaida and terrorists plotting to kill
Americans around the world?

FRANK CALZON IS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR A FREE CUBA.

Source: Obama administration ignores 'fugitive issue' | Miami Herald
Miami Herald - http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article19424574.html