Eugene Robinson: A Designation Cuba Doesn’t Deserve

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



A Designation Cuba Doesn’t Deserve

Posted on Jan 5, 2010
By Eugene Robinson


Under new rules prompted by the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack, airline passengers coming to the United States from 14 nations will undergo extra screening: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For our first quiz of the new decade, which country doesn’t fit with the others?

The obvious answer is Cuba, which presents a threat of terrorism that can be measured at precisely zero. Cuba is not a failed state where swaths of territory lie beyond government control; rather, it is one of the most tightly locked-down societies in the world, a place where the idea of private citizens getting their hands on plastic explosives, or terrorist weapons of any kind, is simply laughable.

There is no history of radical Islam in Cuba. In fact, there is hardly any history of Islam at all. With its long-standing paranoia about internal security and its elaborate network of government spies and snitches, the island nation would have to be among the last places on earth where al-Qaida would try to establish a cell, let alone plan and launch an attack. Yet Cuba is on the list because the State Department still considers it—along with Iran, Sudan and Syria—to be a state sponsor of terrorism.

Really? Despite the fact that the U.S. interests section in Havana was one of the few American diplomatic posts in the world to remain open for normal business, with no apparent increased security, in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks?

The Obama administration has made many admirable moves to bring U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment with objective reality. But progress toward a fact-based relationship with Cuba has been tentative and halting, at best. Obvious steps that could only serve U.S. interests—and, in the process, almost surely make Cuba a more open society—remain untaken. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_designation_cuba_doesnt_deserve_20100104/

[madrchsod]

1. has`t fidel been in power longer than barack has been alive?

has`t fidel been in power longer than any world leader?

what has changed?

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Some American states deserve to be on the list more than Cuba.

Adding Cuba to this list is exactly as Eugene describes it - laughable!

[atreides1]

3. Kansas

The home of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Fred Phelps production!

[IndianaGreen]

4. When it comes to Cuba, it is the US that has been the sponsor of terrorism

and it is the US that gives aid and comfort to terrorists fleeing prosecution.

When it comes to terrorist training camps, no place can match our assassination/torture school at Fort Benning, SOA/WHINSEC).

[BlueMTexpat]

5. +1!