On Tuesday, to very little media attention, President Obama removed Cuba from our list of terrorist nations – a place it has deservedly been since 1982.
Why? Has Cuba renounced terrorism? Has it offered to turn over the domestic terrorists it shelters and protects, like escaped cop-killer joanne chesimard? Nope. Cuba has not done a thing differently nor has it promised to.
Asking again: why is Cuba off the list of terrorist nations?
Henry Gomez, writing for pjmedia.com, wonders why as well, here is a key excerpt from his excellent article on the subject:
During the 2000s, the State Department has continually renewed Cuba\’s status as a terrorist state on the basis of some unchallenged facts. The Castro brothers continue to harbor international terrorists from Spain\’s Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia\’s Marxist rebels FARC, as well as American domestic terrorists from groups like the Black Liberation Army.
Nothing has really changed on this front. It\’s estimated that 70 U.S. fugitives are being harbored by Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard (AKA “Assata Shakur”), a convicted cop killer.
Apologists for the Castro regime try to argue that Cuba does not meet the criteria of state sponsor of terrorism via technicalities. They insist that the Basque terrorists in Cuba are a matter for Spain to resolve bilaterally with Cuba, and that the FARC terrorists don\’t count because Cuba is hosting peace talks between FARC and the Colombian government, and that Chesimard doesn\’t qualify as a terrorist because she didn\’t kill a civilian, conflating a police officer with a member of uniformed armed forces in a declared war.
Needless to say, the straws they grasp at paint no more of a flattering picture of the totalitarian dictatorship they defend, which is in its sixth decade.
I hope that causes you to wonder too.
Oh, by the way, on the same day that Mr. Obama absolved Cuba of its terrorist label, Cuban-supported FARC massacred 10 Colombian soldiers. But Cuba shouldn\’t be on the State Department\’s list of terrorist supporting nations.
Slightly more than 21 months to go in this nightmare administration. I count the seconds.
