Bush plan targets Cuban nickel

[CHIMO]

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration vowed Monday to crack down on nickel exports from Cuba, at least half of which are accounted for by Canada's Sherritt International Corp., alleging that the money from the sales is being “diverted to maintain the regime's repressive security apparatus.”

But Sherritt's chairman, Ian Delaney, immediately labelled the proposed actions as “nothing new” and said that the continuing U.S. embargo on the Communist nation is simply “nonsense.”

With an eye on Florida's vote-rich Cuban-American community, President George W. Bush said Monday he would go ahead with recommendations of a special government-appointed group known as the Commission for Assistance for a Free Cuba. The commission called for a range of policies aimed at strangling the regime of President Fidel Castro, including the expenditure of $80-million (U.S.) to assist political opposition and make it more difficult to provide humanitarian aid and remittances to Cubans.

The report specifically calls for a crackdown on nickel exports, which it says now account for “nearly half of the regime's current foreign income.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060710.r-cuba11/BNStory/Business/home

[WindRavenX]

1. you know, maybe it's just me...

...but isn't China a HELL of a lot worse than fucking Cuba?

Jesus, they're obsessed with Fidel.

[Judi Lynn]

4. The little prince/pResident's dad was involved in the Bay of Pigs

thing, and has been deeply involved with Cuban "exiles," including the terrorists for decades. His grandfather, _{Preston Bush} was invested in Cuba before the revolution. His brother, _Jeb, appointed the grandson, Rauol Cantero, of the vicious, Mafia connected idiot dictator Fulgencio Batista as one of the Florida Supreme Court Justices.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Bush is pandering to the Miami Cubans when he attacks Cuba

just as he panders to the Christian Jihadists when he attacks abortion and gay rights.

They are still following the old GOP playbook.

[Bjornsdotter]

6. Yeah but...

China's :scared:....Cuba not so :scared:

Cheers

[Gman]

7. If anything, they're smart to be "obsessed" with Fidel

because that means rock solid GOP votes. They ain't dumb. It ain't Fidel, it's the votes.

[Mika]

15. No it doesn't mean rock solid GOP votes.

The Dems pander to the exile extremists as much as do the repukes.


CANF founder and Clinton fundraiser Jorge Mas Canosa & Bill Clinton

Neither party really wants to eliminate Castro - he is a fund raising cash cow among the extremist exile factions. These factions get much of their money from the many various US taxpayer funded "Cuba transition" foundations and projects all over S Florida and Washington. This money is laundered and redirected to any candidates, Rs and Ds, who espouse and fund their various foundations for the "cause' (which isn't to get rid of Castro, instead, it is to suck money from the US taxpayer teat).

charts from opensecrets.org




Getting rid of Castro is the last thing they want.

Focusing solely on Castro as all things Cuba, instead of looking the current body politic of Cuba NOW, is just what these factions want Americans to do.

All of the mewling of 'Castro this and Castro that' is just playing to their tune.

Recognizing that Cuba has a developed representative democracy is the last thing that the Cubaphobes and exploiters of the US taxpayers want. Ending Castro, or ending the unrelenting focus on Castro, would mean an end to the "justification" of millions of our tax dollars being directed at their money scheme masquerading as a "free Cuba" cause.

Keeping Americans ignorant about Cuba is all important to maintaining the status quo (read: ripping off the US taxpayers). That is why restricting exchanges and travel to and from Cuba is part of their agenda - and Bushco has just racheted up the restrictions on academic exchanges even more.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Cuba is essentially defenseless. So guess who they bully?

[Javaman]

21. Hell, we trade with Viet Nam! And still they piss and moan about Cuba! nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. Very interesting assignment Bush has given his administration,

according to this article, since it's almost impossible to trace nickel.

Also from the article:

Mr. Delaney, Sherritt's chairman, said the proposed crackdown was the “same nonsense that's been touted for years.

“There's always been more heat than light in this discussion,” Mr. Delaney continued, arguing that the idea that Cubans are hiding assets abroad is a “ludicrous joke.”

“We're dealing with a country that really has the moral high ground,” he continued.
(snip)

Thanks a lot. This is great!

[geomon666]

3. Nice.

"The commission called for a range of policies aimed at strangling the regime of President Fidel Castro, including the expenditure of $80-million (U.S.) to assist political opposition and make it more difficult to provide humanitarian aid and remittances to Cubans."

Why don't you just say you want to spend money to kill Cubans?

[Sadie5]

8. Fidel is always one step ahead

of this bunch of bungling idiots. They want to keep the 80 mil for themselves and turn everyone against the Cubans. No other country buys their crap anymore.

[Mika]

16. Fidel Castro Fidel Castro Fidel Castro Fidel Castro Fidel Castro

There is so much more to Cuba, and Cuba's poltitcal system, than Fidel Castro.


By focusing solely on Fidel Castro you are dancing to their tune.

[anotherdrew]

10. oh noes! a "repressive security apparatus"

lets embargo china too !

[ShockediSay]

11. "regime's repressive security apparatus?"

how many Muslim political groups do you think are active with warrantless wiretapping and eavesdropping in these United States?

how many dissident political groups are targeted as threats to security by Bush, Cheney and Rove?

how many opposition votes suppressed by these guys?

POT KETTLE BLACK CALLING!

[EFerrari]

14. Pot really obviously justifying every choice they

inflict on nation.

[killbotfactory]

12. If Cubans agreed to make cheap shit for us at slave wages

Somehow I'd think we would drop the embargo.

[PurityOfEssence]

13. By what presumed right do we strangle a sovereign nation?

What do they think they're going to do, sanction any country that won't help us settle their old grudge? Are we just going to threaten everyone who annoys us? Seriously, these guys are obsessive in their vendettas. Saddam DID try to kill Junior's dad after all...

The sheer juvenility of these tinhorn dictators is breathtaking; to understand them, one has to channel a spoiled 5 year-old brat with a mean streak when he's conniving some spite-fueled act of retaliation at recess.

We're the bad guys now, and we just keep getting worse. If it wasn't so silly, it'd be demoralizing. Mercifully, even these swaggering little blowhards don't have the clout to make this one stick; they'll just look like mean, petty idiots.

[Mika]

17. But their purpose is served by this.

Cubans aren't stupid. They know what the US empire has in mind for them IF it ever succeeds in overthrowing their system of government and sovereignty. Been there, done that. This move by BushCo will just further entrench the Cuban population's support for their system of government.

That, in turn, will mean a further "justification" for even more US funding of the masquerading "free Cuba" foundations, transition projects, and opposition support funding. All of which means more US taxpayer money being laundered and looped back to the campaigns of the most vociferous anti Castro Cubaphobic politicians, both R and D.


Mission accomplished. Status quo.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Your money laundering point reminded me of American Interests Section

former head, Wayne S. Smith, and his pointing out the fact that C.A.N.F. (Cuban American National Foundation) received $390,000.00 from Congress in grants from 1983 to 1988, and turned around, and gave, through its P.A.C., an almost identical amount to Congressional candidates in exactly the same time framework.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:fvaOwV2sRQQJ:www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/98-3NRfall98/Nichols_SLAPP.html+Jorge+Mas+Canosa+%2B+anti-SLAPP&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

CANF's response was to start a series of lawsuits against Wayne S. Smith, hoping to drive him into bankruptcy, and to make an example of someone who tried to expose them. These lawsuits often work very well when they can destroy the subject financially, as they do have an intimidation effect, unfortunately.

The fact remains is, Smith is right, and they do feed back money they get from Congress in "contributions" to candidates they want to do their bidding.

[Mika]

20. Interesting that so many DUers focus on Fidel, Fidel & Fidel..

.. just dancing to (and playing) the tune of distraction.


1)US tax $$ --> 2)"Free Cuba" foundations --> 3)political campaigns --> 4)"free Cuba" funding --> loop to step 1

Move along.. nothing to see here. :eyes:

[Vidar]

19. More self-serving hpocritical posturing. & Fidel will outlast Bush.

[KansDem]

22. Say what you will about Fidel...

But he's outlasted:

Eisenhower
Kennedy
Johnson
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush, the Elected
Clinton
Bush, the Unelected

So he must have some "staying power"

As for me, I'd like to go to Cuba and listen to the music...

[Bush_MUST_Go]

23. They claim the want $80 mil for Cuba & will surely spend it elsewhere.

[Judi Lynn]

26. Here are some remarks on the destination of that $80,000,000 from

the former head of the US Interests Section in Havana, Wayne S. Smith:

Support for Dissidents and Civil Society.

The report two years ago called for support to dissidents and representatives of "civil society" as a means of confronting the government. The new report calls for more of the same, and even for the establishment of an $80 million fund to increase that support. But as in an earlier report we quoted one dissident on the island summing up the effect of that support: "The good news is that most of that money remains in Miami; the bad news is it makes our position more difficult even so."

What he meant is that much of the money is given to organizations in Miami, some of it, supposedly, to pass on to groups in Cuba, but that little in fact gets through; it stays with those in Miami. Further, when the U.S. says its objective is to bring down the Cuban government, and then says that one of its means of accomplishing that is by providing funds to Cuban dissidents, it in effect places them in the position of being the paid agents of a foreign power seeking to overthrow their own. Inevitably, that puts them in an even more difficult position and severely limits their effectiveness.

That will be no less true now than in the past. The new fund, in short, is not likely to have any greater impact than did the old one, especially as, as noted above, many of the dissidents themselves do not agree with the U.S. action plan. It should be noted, for example, that one of Cuba's leading dissidents, Oswaldo Paya, on July 1 of this year, published an opinion piece in The Washington Post emphasizing that Cubans wanted to preserve the right to free health care and education--something at odds with the recommendations in the original Commission report. Paya has also said he wants the U.S. embargo to end and for Americans to be allowed to travel to Cuba, a position that has enraged hard-line exiles in Miami.
(snip)

http://www.counterpunch.org/smith07112006.html

[David__77]

24. OK people, neither China nor Cuba should be attacked or embargoed.

I understand the desire to point out hypocrisy, but the right may just take everyone up on that and go after the whole world at once. Attacks on Cuba should be opposed because it is wrong for the U.S. to try to subvert and control developing countries.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Former US Interests Section head in Cuba, Wayne S. Smith says

of _Bush's big plans to target Cuban nickel:

Effort to Monitor Nickel Exports.

Given that nickel exports are now such an important source of revenues for the Cuban government, the Commission report calls for the creation an inter-agency Cuban Nickel Targeting Task Force to strengthen measures to control imports of nickel-bearing substances or products (i.e., "we won't buy your steel if there's any chance it contains Cuban nickel!"), and for several other measures to discourage other countries from buying Cuban nickel. Such tactics have been tried in years past with very little success. They are not likely to have any greater success now. Indeed, they are more likely to cause a strong negative reaction in the international community.
(snip)

http://www.counterpunch.org/smith07112006.html

[zreosumgame]

27. So he is trying to starve Elian(sp?)

that kid that was such a big deal in the 90's?

[Judi Lynn]

28. Some forces in this country have been trying to starve them out

since the 1800's! Here's a bright idea from the former Confederate General John C. Greenwood who later became the Undersecretary of War for the United States. He wrote this on Christmas Eve, 1897:

We must impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and its constant companion, disease, undermine the peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army.

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/bmemo.htm

On edit:

Whom would Jeeezus starve?



Elián Gonzalez, home at last!