Cuba

Guantanamo: The Bigger Picture

Ron Tang — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:50:00 -0400

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 for the "most dangerous, best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth" (former Defense Secretary Donald… more

Life at Guantánamo Bay

Communications — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
03/12/2008 - 12:30pm

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 hosted a panel discussion featuring Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison and Tom Wilner, attorney for Guantánamo Detainees. New America's Schwartz senior fellow and CNN terrorist analyst Peter Bergen moderated the session.

Andy Worthington began the discussion with a straightforward account of the life conditions for Guantánamo detainees chronicled in his deeply researched book. Deprived of the safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, and for the most part, sold to the Americans by their allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the detainees have struggled for five years to have their stories heard by the international community. Worthington analyzed in detail the circumstances of their capture, the coercive interrogations techniques and unsubstantiated allegations used to justify their detention. His book makes the case that while some of the arrests were warranted, the majority of the 773 captured men and boys detained were either Taliban foot soldiers, humanitarian aid workers, economic migrants or religious teachers who were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tom Wilner discussed in depth the legal ramifications and the impact of the Guantánamo Bay legal black hole. According to him there is no justifiable reason to deny these men legal rights. The military has clear rules about how to decide whether someone is an enemy combatant or not but there was no sifting process on the ground. Habeas corpus was never applied to the detainees because of Guantánamo no man's land status. He described deeply flawed "Kafka-esque tribunals" in which the prisoners were not allowed legal representation and were prevented from seeing the classified information against them, which often consisted of allegations based on hearsay and torture. 8 of the 12 Kuwaitis he represents were released without explanations of apologies as is always the case.

-Aminatou Sow, Staff Assistant

Steve Clemons and Lawrence Wilkerson in Financial Times | 'A Family Business'

Communications — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:15:00 -0500

New America in the News:

'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 by John F. Kennedy. ...

“I don’t believe this administration, with its tin ear, is going to be productive in any way,” says Col Lawrence Wilkerson, formerly Colin Powell’s chief of staff at the State department, speaking about Mr Castro’s resignation. “But I do believe this might spark the two Democratic [presidential] candidates and perhaps the Republican candidate to begin a policy review,” he adds, saying that such a move could lead to the end of restrictions on visiting the country and an easing of the embargo.

Steven Clemons, a foreign policy expert at the Washington-based New America Foundation, says loosening trade and travel restrictions with Cuba would be the most effective and low-cost means for the next US president to signal a new way of engaging with the world. He expects little resistance to a policy change among the broader US population as fear of communism fades. “The contradiction between trading with China and Vietnam on the one hand and maintaining the embargo with Cuba on the other is becoming more difficult to sustain,” he says. ...

“People are having to choose between returning for their mother’s funeral or their father’s funeral because, if both die within three years of each other, they cannot attend both,” says Mr Clemons.

Steve Clemons in Dallas Morning News | 'Joshua Kurlantzick: It's Time to End the Cuban Embargo'

Communications — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:27:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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 happy – and leaving the rest of us less safe.

Steven Clemons in San Francisco Chronicle | 'Castro, primaries - food, fuel for blogosphere'

Communications — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:21:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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 the real question may be, "Which of the presidential candidates is prepared to finally break U.S.-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon they have been frozen in and initiate a new course that benefits American interests?"

"Of all the low cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different U.S. style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list."

"One interesting U.S. presidential race tidbit involves Fidel Castro - who is now quite dismissive of and sparring with John McCain over McCain's accusations that Cuban agents engaged in torture in Vietnam. However, before this spat, Castro said that the 'unbeatable' U.S. presidential ticket would have both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on it."

Steve Clemons on American AM Talk Radio | 'U.S.-Cuba Foreign Policy'

Communications — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:08:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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.

Patrick Doherty in Toronto Star | 'A broker's role for Canada'

Communications — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:28:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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 severely restricted. ...

Castro's Exit is a Giant Opportunity

Ron Tang — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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 occurred to justify a rethink, then the Clinton team would do a "full policy review." This is significant.

The end of… more

Steve Clemons in Slate | 'No Country for Old Dictators'

Communications — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:35:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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 the economic embargo will provide new encounters, new impressions, and the kind of people-to-people diplomacy that George W. Bush, John Bolton, Richard Cheney, and Jesse Helms run scared of."

Patrick Doherty on Nightly Business Report | 'New Hope For Havana Investors'

Communications — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:16:00 -0500

New America in the News:

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