Bush to crack down on cuba now?

[WhoCares 0]

Wouldn't it allow Russia to create a parking lot south of Canada, when the USA invades Cuba? I thought there were related contracts after the Cuba crisis.

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WhoCares @ April 17 2003,09:15)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Wouldn't it allow Russia to create a parking lot south of Canada, when the USA invades Cuba? I thought there were related contracts after the Cuba crisis.<span id='postcolor'>

Those contracts were made with the USSR. There was quite a bit of love lost between Russia and Cuba after the USSR broke up

[WhoCares 0]

But does this change the validity of these contracts?

[foxer 0]

Why haven't we tried to pay off castro to step down ? I mean something like a billion dollars or something.Wouldn't it be easier then playing a stupid little game.Heck why didn't we do it to saddam ?

[PitViper 0]

In case you guys weren't aware, Castro has been busy moving against pro-democracy political dissidents in his country. Also, he ordered the death penalty for those few individuals who tried to steal that boat and flee to the US.

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (foxer @ April 17 2003,14:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Why haven't we tried to pay off castro to step down ? I mean something like a billion dollars or something.Wouldn't it be easier then playing a stupid little game.Heck why didn't we do it to saddam ?<span id='postcolor'>

Heh. Yeah right. Do you think that Bush would given a couple billion dollars dismantle the US government and abolish the US constitution?

Castro & Co are already wealthy beyond imagination they're not interested in money.

You can't solve everything in the world with money.

[Jinef 2]

Come on that's nonsense. And from the country where the majority of Abba came from.

[foxer 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (denoir @ April 17 2003,14:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (foxer @ April 17 2003,14:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Why haven't we tried to pay off castro to step down ? I mean something like a billion dollars or something.Wouldn't it be easier then playing a stupid little game.Heck why didn't we do it to saddam ?<span id='postcolor'>

Heh. Yeah right. Do you think that Bush would given a couple billion dollars dismantle the US government and abolish the US constitution?

Castro & Co are already wealthy beyond imagination they're not interested in money.

You can't solve everything in the world with money.<span id='postcolor'>

You're probably right.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (PitViper @ April 17 2003,14:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">In case you guys weren't aware, Castro has been busy moving against pro-democracy political dissidents in his country.  Also, he ordered the death penalty for those few individuals who tried to steal that boat and flee to the US.<span id='postcolor'>

Who cares? We maintain (strong) ties to other countries who do the same if not worse things to their dissidents. What makes Cuba so special, that we can embargo their country, while we grant MFN trading status to China (who jailed and tortured several hundred people for their religion just recently).

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (PitViper @ April 17 2003,14:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">In case you guys weren't aware, Castro has been busy moving against pro-democracy political dissidents in his country.  Also, he ordered the death penalty for those few individuals who tried to steal that boat and flee to the US.<span id='postcolor'>

If you bothered to read the thread you would see all that has been mentioned. So? No one's saying Castro is a good guy. Just that the US stance is affecting ordinary Cubans much more than it is those on the high levels of the communist party. As for the 3 that were executed, you're making it sound as if they just stole a boat - nonsense, they held the crew and passengers of a ferry hostage at gunpoint. This opened up the case for charging them with terrorism, which after all, seems to be the flavour of the year. I'm not defending the sentence, but those 3 had no right to do what they did. And let me point this out again from the article Akira posted:

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">At the same time, the president is expected to issue a stern warning to the Havana government that the United States will not tolerate another exodus of rafters, the officials said. Several times during Mr. Castro's 44-year tenure, most notably in 1980 and 1994, he has relieved internal tensions by allowing mass migrations to Florida.

<snip>

In addition, Havana last week executed three men who commandeered a ferry and sought to reach the United States, the third such hijacking attempt in a month.

<span id='postcolor'>

Yep, sure sounds like Castro wants an exodus. Maybe he should consider harsher punishments for those that try to escape  

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WhoCares @ April 17 2003,13:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">But does this change the validity of these contracts?<span id='postcolor'>

Sure it does, the US signed a contract with a country that no longer exists.

[Mister 5 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tovarish @ April 17 2003,18:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WhoCares @ April 17 2003,13:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">But does this change the validity of these contracts?<span id='postcolor'>

Sure it does, the US signed a contract with a country that no longer exists.<span id='postcolor'>

Hmm... but wasn't Bush criticised for stomping over the ABM treaty which, if I'm not mistaken, was made with the USSR?

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister 5 @ April 17 2003,21:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tovarish @ April 17 2003,18:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WhoCares @ April 17 2003,13:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">But does this change the validity of these contracts?<span id='postcolor'>

Sure it does, the US signed a contract with a country that no longer exists.<span id='postcolor'>

Hmm... but wasn't Bush criticised for stomping over the ABM treaty which, if I'm not mistaken, was made with the USSR?<span id='postcolor'>

Good point. In either case, I doubt that Russia would do anything except strong verbal protests if the US takes military action. There is no compelling reason for them to get into a shooting war with the US over Cuba. What I'm trying to get at is that times have changed and there's little weight behind the contract signed at the end of the missile crisis, although it would undermine US credibility if they do attack.

[Jinef 2]

And since when has that stopped the prat in the house of the white?

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Jinef @ April 18 2003,05:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">And since when has that stopped the prat in the house of the white?<span id='postcolor'>

I would hope they don't want to give the impression to the world that they're going to be specializing in "regime change" after Iraq...but who knows. One thing I'm fairly sure of is the sanctions won't be getting better any time soon. by the way, this is interesting:

CNN jumps the gun

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">NEW YORK - CNN blamed human error Thursday for exposing obituary mock-ups that its Web site's designers had prepared for Ronald Reagan (news), Bob Hope (news) and other prominent figures.

<span id='postcolor'>

You can see all the obituaries at http://thesmokinggun.com/

[Assault (CAN) 1]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I remember one involved a birthday cake lol <span id='postcolor'>

Is that the one where an armed assasin jumps out of the cake instead of the stripper?

Well, Canada will still trade with Cuba no matter what, I'm sure other countries do to. Hey, since the world is so high on anti-Americanism, maybe Canada should re-build it's army and invade Cuba instead. I'm sure the Cubans are well acquainted with Canadian tourists and they all know how polite we are. So maybe we will be more welcome?

[Tovarish 0]

Incidentally, I've been asked not to contact my family members in Cuba through e-mail for the time being (I have the e-mail adress of my grandparent's family doctor) because of the crackdown, as a precaution so as not to cause problems for the doctor due to using his internet access to communicate with someone outside the country for non work-related purposes.

Guess I'd better send my grandmother a mother's day card tomorrow if I want it to get there in time.

[PitViper 0]

http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/segment.jhtml?wfId=1242961

[PitViper 0]

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6449

[Tovarish 0]

At first glance it may appear that Castro is shooting himself in the foot but at this point I believe he's one of the last people who wants to see the embargo lifted. As long as the embargo is in place, he can convince a majority of Cubans that the US is their enemy, and maintain himself in power.