Bush's freedom on the march: Bank ditches firms that trade with Cuba

[Mika]

Bank ditches firms that trade with Cuba
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/16/lloydstsbgroup.banking

Lloyds TSB has written to customers who have dealings with Cuba saying they will have take their accounts elsewhere, apparently in the wake of threats by the US government, which operates an embargo against Cuba. The US has said it will prosecute any businesses that have any dealings with Cuba and also have a branch in the US.

The Queenswood Natural Foods company, of Bridgwater, Somerset, started buying sugar from Cuba last year and has found it to be a popular line. Last month, the company received a letter from Lloyds TSB saying that the bank had "recently reviewed its approach to dealing with countries and entities that are subject to government and international sanctions across the globe in order to best protect its customers, its businesses, its people and its reputation". It was no longer prepared to authorise payments from the company to buy sugar from Cuba.

Lloyds TSB has told a tobacco importer which has been trading with the island for more than a century, dealing in the famous Habanos cigars, that it must also make alternative arrangements. Spelling out the new policy, Phil Markey, relationship director at Lloyds TSB, is apologetic. "I would like to find a way to continue to make these payments for you - the decision however is down to a full risk assessment process within Lloyds TSB," he wrote in a letter at the end of May. "I must advise you to find alternative ways of making payments to your suppliers with Cuban connections."

The Cuban embassy was critical of the bank's move, saying the Bush administration, in continuing the US's "illegal, worldwide economic warfare against Cuba", had been increasingly resorting to pressure through business and finance.

Lloyds TSB declined to answer questions on its policy over Cuba and whether it had been subjected to threats of legal action in the US. "We would not disclose details of our relationships or discussions with individual customers," said a spokesman.

The Labour MP Ian Gibson, chairman of the all-party Cuba group, condemned Lloyds TSB's action yesterday. "We will be taking action against this vindictive political campaign," he said yesterday.

I'd like to hear DU's _{GW Bush} Cuba policy supporters justify this extra territorial sanction.


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[Judi Lynn]

1. We've already learned the rest of the world protested it vigorously when they called it illegal in

international law, back in the 1990's, when the Helms-Burton was ennacted.

Underhanded, dirty, dishonest, greedy, vicious, duplicitous, dishonorable. It's exactly the way right-wingers prefer doing business.

If you give the other guy a fair chance, you can't win every time.

What a shame no powerful world organization has stepped in to correct this filthy business yet.

[roody]

2. May these businesses have long and

prosperous relationships with a better bank.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. GW Bush Policy Supporters?

<<I'd like to hear DU's GW Bush Cuba policy supporters justify this extra territorial sanction>>

Beg pardon?

Most of us DU'ers who are less-than-thrilled about the Havana regime's less-than-sterling human rights record are hardly fans of the Reich/Bush/Noriega/Diaz-Balart policy towards Cuba. Even those of us who don't go into raptures about the "prosperity" of today's Cuba or the "strength" of the Cuban economy wonder about the wisdom of a major debtor nation bullying firms of a solvent nation-state that is itself part of a powerful multi-national trading bloc, especially a major trading bloc that can make tough economic sanctions if sufficiently irritated.

These sanctions are actions typical of a lame-duck administration with delusions of grandeur whose time is running out and stands likely to be replaced either by voters fed up with its foul-ups or by voters who have successfully fooled themselves that things are going to get better under Senator John McCain.

[Mika]

4. Bush policy isn't just extra territorial sanctions.

It is also the funding of so called "dissidents" and "journalists", as well as using US diplomats to ferry terrorist connected money to some of the most prominent "dissidents" on the US payroll.

It is part of a larger unified strategy that is routinely defended here by GW Bush Cuba policy supporters.



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[Judi Lynn]

5. If the situation were reversed, and "dissidents" here were on the payroll of Al Qaeda

they'd be in Guantanamo, or renditioned to one of the covert prisons overseas, or stuck on one of the torture ships we just learned have been operating.

Against U.S. law. Wouldn't go over. No questions asked.

Apparently what's at the bottom of their moral view of the universe is that NO ONE is allowed to not be under total control of the U.S. right-wing oligarchy, anywhere on earth. There IS no exception, but loads of dodging and fabricating goes on to pretend people like _Bush are honest, and decent, and, "compassionate."

Look how far we've come since we first heard the campaign term, "compassionate conservative." Makes one want to weep, doesn't it?

http://www.csmonitor.com.nyud.net:8090/2007/0814/csmimg/AROVE_P3.jpg

Lookin' Presidential!

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Yoiks! Shades of Rummy and Dead-Eye Dick

Infantile efforts to link supporting dissent in Cuba to supporting al Qaeda sounds like the hysterical reaction of Boosh-istas like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to al Jazeera's reportage.

No wonder so many former leftist mindsets fit in so well with Team Shrub and PNAC's neo-con cable!

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Ooooooh, dissidents! Boogah! Boogah!

I do not understand the mindset that cheers efforts to restrict the flow of disagreeable ideas and information on the one hand and while claiming to favor liberty and democracy on the other. If one believes in liberty and democracy, one supports liberty and free expression, not opposes it.

I find certain DU'ers cheerleading the Havana regime's efforts to squash political dissent as contemptible as American conservativesw' leading the cheers for Francisco Franco during the 1950s.

If the Havana regime is as firmly established and has as much widespread popular support as its enthusiasts claim, then the only result of protests and chatter from entities like Jose Marti radio is irritating background noise and INCREASED support for Cuba's present status quo and the present Cuban powers-that-be.

[Mika]

8. "Dissidents" receiving money from terrorists are not simply dissidents.

By your standard, Osama bin Laden, Orlando Bosch, and Luis Posada and their paid minions are simply "dissidents", and Armstrong Williams is simply a "journalist".

Plus, FYI, the Radio/TV Marti broadcasts that the US blasts at Cuba (using frequencies that overpower radio and TV channels in Cuba) are illegal and violations of treaties signed by the US.

Your post represents the typical hypocrisy of Bush policy supporters.


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[Judi Lynn]

9. That kind of meddling is not allowed in the United States. You'd have to be a moral contortionist

to claim Cuba has to accept this kind of destructive meddling while our own country absolutely prohibits it here.

By the way, I'm certain I have seen Luis Posada Carriles described as a dissident somewhere. Figures.

Also, they are doing business directly with a celebrated terrorist, Santiago Alvarez. Couldn't be more conspicuous than that, not to mention their friendly relations with the C.A.N.F. which has sponsored Luis Posada Carriles' terrorism against Cuba, as per his interview with Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter at the New York Times.

[Vogon_Glory]

10. Peaceful Dissent Is NOT The Same As Terrorism.

(Sardonic applause) Congratulations. It takes some very fancy mental gymnastics to equate people who conduct peaceful demonstrations, circulate books, magazines, and pamphlets, and who publicly espouse political viewpoints contrary to the government in power to terrorists and thugs like Osama bin Laden, Orlando Bosch, and Luis Posada. That's the sort of twisted logic often displayed on Limbaugh's EIB and Faux News when describing anti-war progressives.

A pity there isn't a competition for similar mental gymnastics at the Summer Olympics in Beijing this year. Some of the 1959 Cuban revolution's supporters would do well enough to place for silver medals, if not gold.

The only hypocrisy demonstrated here is that of a dictatorship's shameless supporters claiming that peaceful dissent is the same as terrorists setting off bombs and killing people.

As for Radio Marti's broadcasts into Cuba, I see no reason why even the Boosh regime should shut down its transmitters. Moreover, South Florida and other Gulf Coast states would do well to receive similar broadcasts from Cuba; they'd prove enlightening.

:dem:

[Mika]

11. As I've said previously ...

The Bush policy supporters posting here do support Bush policy on Cuba.

It takes some serious Bushlonian computin' to claim that small anti government groups that receive funding from known violent terrorists in Miami (as has been proven) are not associated with said wanted violent terrorists.

Seriously, can you not put 2+2 together?


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[Vogon_Glory]

14. Thus Sayeth Companero Hannity on Canal Fox Rojo--eom--

[magbana]

12. Let's get straight on "dissenters" and "protesters"

The protests are staged events that are part of the “dissident” persona and are done largely for US consumption. The US Interests Section works closely with the “dissidents, to build their profiles. The protests serve two purposes: gather US public sympathy for the “dissenters” and provide a “legitimate” cover for and distraction from the fact that the “dissenters” are receiving money from both the US government and terrorist thugs which is smuggled into Cuba by US diplomats. Since the money is not given for humanitarian reasons, much is expected of those who receive it. Most are involved in destablizing Cuba on behalf of the United States and, thereby, committing treason.

Now if you want to witness a real protest by Cubans, join us in Washington at the Cuban Interests Section when the gusanos come up from Miami and down from New Jersey for their quarterly demonstrations. Half the time, one or two of them end up shoving or pushing one of us in the counter demonstration resulting in arrests by the cops. Now that’s a protest!

[Vogon_Glory]

13. I'm Sure That The Shah's Supporters Told Similar Stories

<<The protests are staged events that are part of the “dissident” persona and are done largely for US consumption. The US Interests Section works closely with the “dissidents, to build their profiles. The protests serve two purposes: gather US public sympathy for the “dissenters” and provide a “legitimate” cover for and distraction from the fact that the “dissenters” are receiving money from both the US government and terrorist thugs which is smuggled into Cuba by US diplomats. Since the money is not given for humanitarian reasons, much is expected of those who receive it. Most are involved in destablizing Cuba on behalf of the United States and, thereby, committing treason.>>

Entertaining story. I doubt it has much to do with reality. Maybe you ought to consider writing film-scripts for Hollywood instead.

<<Now if you want to witness a real protest by Cubans, join us in Washington at the Cuban Interests Section when the gusanos come up from Miami and down from New Jersey for their quarterly demonstrations.>>

Sounds like both you and and your right-wing play-pals have equal respect for dissenting viewpoints. A pity. It doesn't look like you learned a blamed thing about liberty or freedom of speech or freedom of association while living here.

[magbana]

15. I think you are perpetually confused . . .

since the Shah was the CIA station chief in Iran, you can bet everything you accuse Cuba of doing, the Shah did in spades..

It is also obvious that I have alot more experience and information on this whole thing, so you write the fictional Hollywood script (perhaps you could start with your posts here) and I promise to attend the premiere