For Cuba Experts, Castro Presents Opportunity for Change (New York Times blog/The Lede)

...While some experts saw change already afoot, others on a conference call convened today by the New America Foundation were fiercely critical of Washington’s refusal to end its economic embargo of Cuba, including strict travel restrictions.

“Our policy from Cuba is a relic from the Cold War,” Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, who was on the call, told reporters. “And quite frankly, it’s an embarrassment.” Others described the policy as “stupid,” the product of an “enormous Cold War hangover” retained by an administration saddled with a “tin ear” for Cuba policy.

Mr. McGovern announced on the call that more than 100 members of Congress had signed a letter urging the administration to “thoroughly review” its Cuba policy. Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas applauded that step, but then said of the letter-signers, “They should act more boldly.”

Lawrence S. Wilkerson, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell who has become a strong critic of President Bush, said, “It’s probably going to take a new president.” (In the United States, that is.) more