Cuba

The U.S. base at Guantanamo has been called many things. The "gulag of our time" (Amnesty International General Secretary Irene Khan, May 2005). "The key strategic intelligence platform in the war on terror" (Charles Stimson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, January 2007). The "legal equivalent of outer space" (unnamed Administration official). The right place for "the worst of a very bad lot" (Vice President Dick Cheney, January 2002) and… more

During the last six years, the U.S. Administration has held nearly 800 alleged terror suspects without trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. 500 of these men have now been released, but their stories - and the stories of those who remain - are largely unknown. Fragments have emerged in books and interviews, and in declassified accounts from the detainees' lawyers, but until now there has been no comprehensive overview of all their cases. On March 12 the New America Foundation… more

'A Family Business' (Finanical Times Analysis Online)

To the generation of Cuban exiles that has spent almost half a century dreaming of the day Fidel Castro left power, last week came as a cruel disappointment.

While the legendary revolutionary leader finally stepped down as head of state, the communist government he set up maintains its grip on a calm and stable Cuba. With no sign of a fundamental policy shift in Havana, Washington is also continuing the economic embargo introduced… more

Joshua Kurlantzick: It's Time to End the Cuban Embargo (Dallas Morning News opinion piece)

...John McCain has indicated he would continue the current policy. And as Washington policy analyst Steve Clemons notes, Mike Huckabee, who backed greater engagement with Cuba when he was governor of Arkansas, now says he wants to put still more pressure on Havana.

So, even as Cuba and the world changes, the candidates seem stuck in the past, keeping a shrinking number of Cuban-American voters… more

Castro, primaries - food, fuel for blogosphere (San Francisco Chronicle)

It came as a shock that, after 50 years in power, Castro has conceded he is no longer physically up to the job of running Cuba and is transferring the reins of power (well almost) to his brother, Raul. What this all means was taken up at links.sfgate.com/ZCNE by Steven C. Clemons. He says that what is lost amid all the reporting of the moment is that… more

U.S.-Cuba Foreign Policy (American AM Talk Radio/WWPR)

"Our embargo does withhold certain amounts of economic activity, but its very clear that Cuba has aligned itself globally that it can circumvent us and that means we are simply in an ineffective situation where we are no longer relevant," said Steve Clemons in an interview with Henry Raines. Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.

Listen to the audio from Clemon's interview here and please visit http://americanam.podomatic.com.… more

A broker's role for Canada (Toronto Star)

...Patrick Doherty, the director of the Washington-based U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative [New America Foundation], said any such effort by Ottawa and like-minded allies could be "catalytic'' for any change coming with a new president.

The Bush administration made it clear it would be making no changes in its policy. For five decades, the U.S. has restricted trade, travel and commerce with Cuba. Family visits and cash remittances from Americans to the island's residents are… more

OK, which candidate is prepared to break U.S.-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon and initiate a new course?

Barack Obama has sketched out the initial steps of a changed direction already, and Hillary Clinton in response said she saw no reason to change from the Bush administration's course until a triggering event appeared.

When Fidel Castro hinted in December he would step down, I asked the Clinton campaign whether it would change course, and was told if something significant… more

No Country for Old Dictators (Slate.com)

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note, proving that all politics are local, weighs the effects of Castro's actions on the U.S. presidential election. He likes Obama because he promises to end our Cuba policy: "Of all the low cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different US style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list. Opening family travel—and frankly all travel—between Cuba and the US, and ending… more

Fidel Castro's Resignation Gives American Inventors New Hope For Havana (Nightly Business Report/PBS)

Patrick Doherty, New America Foundation: "Fidel Castro has the ability to blame the United States for anything that goes wrong in Cuba but because of our embargo and because of that, we've been able to preserve one of the few remaining communist states by creating ourselves as a scapegoat." more