Cuba Officially Removed From U.S. State Sponsor of Terrorism

[Borgholio]

Cuba Officially Removed From U.S. State Sponsor of Terrorism List

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-offici ... 1432913160

WASHINGTON—Cuba’s designation by U.S. officials as a state sponsor of terrorism was officially lifted Friday, the State Department said, clearing a hurdle to re-establishing diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana.

President Barack Obama recommended to Congress last month that Cuba be removed from the U.S. list, triggering a 45-day congressional notification period in which lawmakers could have challenged the decision. Though Mr. Obama’s Cuba policy has opponents on both sides of the aisle, lawmakers didn’t take steps to do challenge it.

President Obama has taken the first step in removing Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Removal from the list smooths over a major point of contention between the two countries.

“The rescission of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism reflects our assessment that Cuba meets the statutory criteria for rescission,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said. “While the U.S. has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba’s policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a state sponsor of terrorism designation.”

The Cubans have pointed to the terrorism designation as a barrier to going ahead with plans to re-open embassies. Countries on the list are banned from U.S. arms and exports sales as well as from U.S. economic assistance, and face a wide variety of additional financial restrictions.

Though Cuba is off the list, restrictions will remain in place because most are mandated by other congressional sanctions.

The two governments continue to negotiate over the reestablishment of embassies, and talks could be completed in coming weeks, officials have said.

A step in the right direction. I'm actually surprised Congress didn't try and block it...they had 45 days to do so. Already some of the die-hard conservatives are screaming about how Obama is soft on evil and about how Cuba will be the next staging ground for ISIS.

[K. A. Pital]

Right. Cuba. A socialist state which also has gay rights. And ISIS. That totally makes sense for the semi-literate fat purse jokers in the Congress, I am sure.

[Borgholio]

Right. Cuba. A socialist state which also has gay rights. And ISIS. That totally makes sense for the semi-literate fat purse jokers in the Congress, I am sure.

Yeah I'm beginning to wonder if those on the far right are even capable of making an intelligent argument anymore. They just grab whatever buzzwords they can and mix them together into a frothy mess. I mean look at Cuba. They're socialist. Big deal. We work with worse governments all the time. They're no longer allied with the Soviets (aren't even any Soviets around anymore anyways...), there are no more nukes on the island, and they have not been trying to launch terrorist attacks against us. And yet we have to keep them embargoed because...why?

But anyways, hopefully soon we will have normalized relations with them fully. I'd very much like to visit...I hear it's a very beautiful place.

[Joun_Lord]

You have to remember these are the same morons who will say Nazi's were Communists because they are called National Socialists. THe same people that have an pathological hatred and fear of anything that has anything to do with Communism or Socialism like its still the height of the Cold War and we are still worried about yellow bellied Red Commie Spies stealing our nuclear launch codes, corrupting the minds of our youth with rock music (which is really freaking stupid in hindsight) and plunder the virginity of our submissive Christian housewives.

Cuba to them should remain our enemy because they never changed their ways, they never rolled belly up and showed the superiority of MURICA!!!!!!, we never conquered them like we can say we did with Russia with rock music, democracy, and McDonalds (which is all working out so well right now).

There is a good reason I've long since lost respect for really any Republican.

[The Romulan Republic]

Right. Cuba. A socialist state which also has gay rights. And ISIS. That totally makes sense for the semi-literate fat purse jokers in the Congress, I am sure.

Yeah I'm beginning to wonder if those on the far right are even capable of making an intelligent argument anymore. They just grab whatever buzzwords they can and mix them together into a frothy mess. I mean look at Cuba. They're socialist. Big deal. We work with worse governments all the time. They're no longer allied with the Soviets (aren't even any Soviets around anymore anyways...), there are no more nukes on the island, and they have not been trying to launch terrorist attacks against us. And yet we have to keep them embargoed because...why?

But anyways, hopefully soon we will have normalized relations with them fully. I'd very much like to visit...I hear it's a very beautiful place.

I think some on the Right can't differentiate between different enemies. They, in the vein of stupid people everywhere, simply divide the world into us and generic evil. Like some Christian nuts (many of whom are conservatives) divide the world into "us" and "people who serve Satan". Observe how Obama has been called a Nazi, a socialist, and a Muslim by these people.

[Flagg]

This is all about (and I won't say only about, because some of the fucking Republicans in congress are so stupid they lose Jeopardy to rocks, but they are so small in proportion to the Republicans I'm talking about) the Cuban Exile voting bloc. Of course a good size, if not most (haven't seen a poll in ages) of the American born children of the hypocritical shithead Cuban Exiles that froth at the mouth when talking about Castro and demand the full embargo be kept in place and no Americans should be allowed to visit or send money to Cuba without being fined $10k (except for them, they can send a certain amount of money a year to family in Cuba through a special clause I believe which is why they are hypocritical. In fact Cuba has "dollar stores" where you can buy the same merchandise you can get at any high end electronics and appliance store with American cash only, but I'll be damned if this country is consistent! ) don't give a flying fuck about what happens in Cuba except the few I knew thought the embargo was stupid (unlike their crazy assed parents).

So it's all about keeping FL at worst a swing state and in their wildest dreams a red state with the help of the (once) reliably Republican Cuban American voting bloc.

Honestly, I despised the anti-Castro Cubans when I lived in Florida, and all the special treatment Cubans in general got from an immigration/ refugee standpoint. I don't know how familiar you guys who don't live in FL or remember that stupid Elian Gonzalez case which should have been solved in 3 days, instead of practically letting that crazy motherfucking family call the shots for so long until it was clear they would never follow through and keep moving the goalposts so it ended up being resolved by a goddamned midnight raid (though watching all of the Cuban Exiles there protesting burning and stomping on American flags yelling "fuck America!" on live TV was awesome). But if you are a Cuban refugee and manage to touch dry land before ICE grabs you, you're virtually guaranteed refugee status and eventual citizenship if you want it.
If you are a Haitian or Dominican refugee and manage to touch dry land before ICE grabs you, you will be taken down, put in a van, taken to a prison (for all intents and purposes) and sit there until your 30 second hearing when the judge orders them to send your ass back. Then you go back and sit in "prison" while your appeal goes through, and however long it takes until your ass is sent back. But you will almost certainly have your ass sent back. Unless some major changes have been made in the last 9 years, which I'll be first to admit is entirely plausible.