AFP. 4 January 2002. Cuba won't object to plans for al-Qaeda detainees to go to US base.
HAVANA -- Cuba will not object to US plans to send al-Qaeda detainees to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an influential US senator said Friday after meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro. "Had it been an adverse reaction (from Castro), we would have heard it loud and clear at the minimum; there are no objections," said Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who along with his Republican colleague Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island met for six hours with Castro late Thursday. Acknowledging "they could have made life difficult in Guantanamo," the spot on Cuba's southeast coast where the United States maintains a naval base against Havana's will, Specter told a press conference that in fact Castro "expressed interest in being cooperative" in the fight against terrorism in general. "I believe there are areas where Cuba could be of great assistance on the war on terrorism," Specter said. "Cuba has vast intelligence sources which could be of great aid." As of Thursday, Cuba had not yet taken an official position on US plans to use its Guantanamo Bay naval base as a site to hold prisoners from the war in Afghanistan, according to a government statement released last Sunday. Specter is a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which writes draft legislation allocating federal funds for defense efforts. Chafee, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has led an effort to enact legislation -- the Bridges to the Cuban People Act -- that would loosen the US four-decade-old economic embargo on Cuba. The two influential Republican lawmakers, invited by the Cuban national assembly, met with Cuban dissidents after touching down in Havana at midday Wednesday. They are the highest-ranking US lawmakers to visit Cuba since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and subsequent US military operations against the Taliban militia and al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan. Their visit was described as private in nature. Specter said that in their talks with Castro, the only communist leader in the Americas, the two senators "talked extensively on the issues of human rights and the democratic process in Cuba, (and) urged him in rather blunt and undiplomatic terms to hold elections." "When you engage him (Castro) he is not without a response, he is not without many responses," he added. The Pennsylvania senator added that Cuba's statement on Guantanamo, which said Havana "does not have the information necessary and has therefore not taken any position. Even though it is national Cuban territory, (Guantanamo) is the site of a US military installation," directly reflected Castro's personal view. With regard to US sanctions on Cuba, Specter said "the embargo is evolving in the US Congress. I want to see a fresh evolution." Last Sunday's Cuban statement alluded to the ongoing dispute between Washington and Havana over the Guantanamo installation -- a standoff is "which has existed for many years and which has yet to be resolved." Cuba considers the 49 square-kilometer (20 square-mile) base to be its sovereign territory. Just 850 kilometers (550 miles) from Miami, the US base at Guantanamo is home to some 500 US troops. The base provides logistical support for US ships and aircraft that conduct counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean. US President Theodore Roosevelt signed a lease in perpetuity with Cuba on February 23, 1903 to lease the military post at Guantanamo Bay for which Washington pays annual rent of 4,085 dollars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
