HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- From: " Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 04:12:54 +0800 Subject: [CubaNews] Torricelli anti-Cuba amendment defeated Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] An element not reported in the "free" media of the United States of America...
==================================== December 22, 2001 - Torricelli's anti-Cuba amendment thrown
out
BY GABRIEL MOLINA THE amendment presented by Senators Robert Torricelli and Bob Smith aimed at thwarting a bill to modify U.S. trade policy on
Cuba has been defeated in the Senate.
The amendment would have required, before any transaction with Cuba could take place, that the U.S. president certify that Cuba
does not support terrorism and that fugitives from U.S. justice
currently living on the island be returned to that
country.
Since December 10, the Senate has been debating a bill to allow the financing of food and medicine sales to Cuba.
Crafty New Jersey Democrat Torricelli is known for his contacts with Cuban-American right wing Miami-based extremists. He has been
on their payroll ever since he introduced a law to strengthen the
blockade on Cuba, at the very moment the Soviet Union was disbanded.
New Jersey-born Smith is a Republican senator for New Hampshire. During the Viet Nam war he served in the Navy at the Gulf of
Tonkin.
A member of the Armed Forces Committee, according to the Senate's
website he supports large military budgets and the costly missile
defense system known as Star Wars. Open Secrets, the website
sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics,
reveals that in his last electoral campaign, Smith collected almost
$1.8 million USD; he spent just over half a million and kept more
than $1.3 million USD.
Last year, a change in the legislation on trade with Cuba, allowing the sale of U.S. agricultural and medical products to the island,
was approved by Congress and signed by President Bush. Nevertheless,
Cuban-American legislators, allied with other right-wing
extremists,
succeeded adding on an amendment prohibiting any type of public or private funding for such sales. Both the Cuban authorities and representatives of U.S. farmers, who advocated such sales, agree that the measure prohibiting
financing made it practically impossible to implement the new
trade policy.
The possibility of ending the financial restrictions on food and medicine sales to Cuba is contained in a proposal by
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, president of Senate Agriculture
Committee. The proposal attempts to introduce a measure
modifying
the text of the NethercuttAmendment to the
Agricultural
Appropriations Act, Public Law 106-387, which prohibits the
U.S. government and private companies fromfinancing sales of the above mentioned
products.
The Agriculture Committee has already voted in favor of this financing,but the bill's next hurdle is full Senate approval.
Analysts consider that the vote on Torricelli's amendment
indicates that most senators are in favor of changing trade
policy toward Cuba. Afterwards, the bill passes to the
conference committee to unify the Senate and House
versions.
This year, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan tried to include asimilar amendment in the 2002 Agricultural Appropriations Act,
butafter the September 11 tragedies it was decided not to debate
this, in order to facilitate approval of the budget by
omitting
controversial themes. If the bill passes in both houses, the
president would have to sign it in order for it to become law,
and there are indications that the Bush administration may
oppose the bill.
========================== Walter Lippmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.walterlippmann.com ========================== To subscribe toCubaNews, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
