Saturday, January 09, 2016

Obama to anti-US thugs: “You’ve got a friend”

(My new Babalu post)

 2016 is off to a remarkable start vis-a-vis U.S. foreign policy.
In less than a week, Iran and Saudi Arabia are threatening to go to war, Afghanistan has come alive after being quiet for a while, and North Korea exploded whatever they exploded.
Let’s add Cuba to the list.
Senator Rubio is asking the State Department for an explanation, as reported by The Miami Herald:
“The fact that the administration, including you, have apparently tried to withhold this information from the congressional debate and public discussion over U.S.-Cuba policy is disgraceful,” Rubio wrote to Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Jacobson starred in the Cuba negotiations, and Rubio has been blamed for stalling her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico.“While your bureau is not the primary entity within the State Department handling these issues, you oversee U.S. policy toward Cuba and interactions with Cuban officials,” Rubio wrote. “Thus, the fact that members of Congress are reading about Cuba’s possession of a U.S. missile in the newspaper rather than from you or other State Department officials is astounding and inexcusable.”
The Obama adminisration withehld information from Congress about the Iran nuclear deal, or the famous “side deals” negotiated around the legislature.
Now it appears that they did not come clean with Congress over the Cuba deal.
Again, it’s a great time to be an anti-US thug out there.   They have a friend in President Obama.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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Why didn’t the Obama administration demand that Cuba return the missile?



2016 is off to a remarkable start vis-a-vis U.S. foreign policy. In less than a week, Iran and Saudi Arabia are threatening to go to war, Afghanistan has come alive after being quiet for a while, and North Korea exploded whatever they exploded. Let’s add Cuba to the list.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, a “missile” has been found in Cuba:
“For more than a year, amid a historic thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, American authorities have tried to get the Cuban government to return the missile, said people familiar with the matter.
This particular missile didn’t contain explosives, but U.S. officials worry that Cuba could share the sensors and targeting technology inside it with nations like China, North Korea or Russia, these people said.
Well, so what happened? To be fair, we don’t know for sure but there are some interesting angles to this story.
First, it appears from the article, and timeline of 2014, that we were talking with the Cuban government about reestablishing relations at the time that they were holding this missile. Why didn’t we end all discussions until the missile was returned? Why not? I remind you that the Obama State Department was also working to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist nations.
Second, and this is scary, did Cuba try to sell it to North Korea or trade it with Russia or China? After all, didn’t some Russian ships show up in Cuba recently?
We don’t know for sure but I think that the Obama administration dropped the ball. They should have insisted on the return of the missile prior to any normalization.
Stay tuned because there is more coming from this story.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: A missile in Cuba  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Raul to Obama: “The dog ate the missile”



According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, a “missile” has been found in Cuba:
“For more than a year, amid a historic thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, American authorities have tried to get the Cuban government to return the missile, said people familiar with the matter.
At the same time, federal investigators have been tracing the paper trail of the wayward Hellfire to determine if its arrival in Cuba was the work of criminals or spies, or the result of a series of blunders, these people said.
Hellfires are air-to-ground missiles, often fired from helicopters.
They were first designed as antitank weapons decades ago, but have been modernized to become an important part of the U.S. government’s antiterrorism arsenal, often fired from Predator drones to carry out lethal attacks on targets in countries including Yemen and Pakistan, said people familiar with the technology.
This particular missile didn’t contain explosives, but U.S. officials worry that Cuba could share the sensors and targeting technology inside it with nations like China, North Korea or Russia, these people said.
Officials don’t suspect Cuba is likely to try to take apart the missile on its own and try to develop similar weapons technology, these people said. It is unclear whether a U.S. adversary has ever obtained such knowledge of a Hellfire.”
Well, so what happened? To be fair, we don’t know but there are some interesting possibilities:
First, the Cuban government didn’t know a thing and the whole darn affair was just a simple error.   This is the Cuban version of “el perro se comio el cohete”!
Second, the Cuban government knew that they had the missile but the US negotiators did not insist on its return prior to any normalization. According to the story, the US discussed it with Cuba but nothing was resolved.
Third, and this is scary,  Cuba was trying to sell it to North Korea or trade it with Russia or China. After all, didn’t some Russian ships show up in Cuba recently?
We don’t know for sure but I think that the Obama administration dropped the ball. They should have insisted on the return of the missile prior to any moralization.
Stay tuned because there is more coming from this story.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: A missile in Cuba  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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A US missile found in Cuba and other US-Cuba stories



Tags: DFW sports, NFL playoffs, Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavericks To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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