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President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced Wednesday that the United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in more than half a century. The historic deal will include the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana and comes with a prisoner exchange. Live from Cuba, we go to Havana for reaction from Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "Finally after 55 years, an element of sanity and effectiveness and modernization has arrived to the insane U.S. policy that U.S. presidents have been pursuing towards Cuba or all these years," Kornbluh says. He is the co-author of the book, "Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama announced Wednesday the United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in more than half a century. The historic move will include the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana. It was reportedly facilitated by Pope Francis and the Vatican, who helped begin secret negotiations last year.
The softened relations come with a prisoner exchange. Cuba has released Alan Gross, a subcontractor for USAID—that’s the U.S. Agency for International Development. He was arrested in 2009, sentenced to 15 years for smuggling illegal technology into the country for opposition groups. Also released was a Cuban who had provided information about Cuban spy operations in the United States. Obama did not identify the prisoner by name, but Newsweek reports he’s Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a former Cuban intelligence officer who who worked secretly for the CIA until he was arrested on espionage charges in 1995. Meanwhile, the United States freed the remaining members of the Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino. The men were arrested in the United States in 1998 and convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. But Cuban intelligence officers say they were not spying on the United States, but rather trying to monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups responsible for attacks inside Cuba. President Obama outlined the exchange as the prisoners were already returning home.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Over many months, my administration has held discussions with the Cuban government about Alan’s case and other aspects of our relationship. His Holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuba’s President Raúl Castro, urging us to resolve Alan’s case and to address Cuba’s interest in the release of three Cuban agents who have been jailed in the United States for over 15 years.
Today, Alan returned home, reunited with his family at long last. Alan was released by the Cuban government on humanitarian grounds. Separately, in exchange for the three Cuban agents, Cuba today released one of the most important intelligence agents that the United States has ever had in Cuba, and who has been imprisoned for nearly two decades. This man, whose sacrifice has been known to only a few, provided America with the information that allowed us to arrest the network of Cuban agents that included the men transferred to Cuba today, as well as other spies in the United States. This man is now safely on our shores.
AMY GOODMAN: The deal between the United States and Cuba is a major diplomatic victory for Cuba’s President Raúl Castro, who has offered to engage in direct conversations with Obama, quote, "as equals" since he came to power in 2006 after taking over from his brother, Fidel Castro. President Castro announced the changes in his own midday address to the nation.
PRESIDENT RAÚL CASTRO: [translated] As a result of a dialogue at the highest level, which included a phone conversation I had yesterday with President Obama, we have been able to make headway in a solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations. As Fidel promised on June 2001, when he said, "They shall return," Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio have arrived today to our homeland. The enormous joy of their families and all of our people, who have relentlessly fought for this goal, is shared by hundreds of solidarity committees and groups, governments, parliaments, organizations, institutions and personalities who, for the last 16 years, have made tireless efforts demanding their release. We convey our deepest gratitude and commitment to all of them. President Obama’s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgment of our people.
AMY GOODMAN: News of the U.S. deal follows news that USAID tried to infiltrate Cuba’s hip-hop community in a botched plot to foment anti-government unrest. As part of the program, the agency hired Creative Associates International, a firm that also played a key role in the "Cuban Twitter" program, a fake social media program launched in another bid to undermine the Cuban government. In the hip-hop case, Creative Associates was directed to recruit young rap artists looking to make "social change." The program ended up endangering some of the artists and their careers. On Monday, the head of USAID said he will step down in February. Rajiv Shah gave no public reason for leaving and, in a statement, said he had mixed emotions that the United States is restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba as outlined by President Obama on Wednesday.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’m now taking steps to place the interests of the people of both countries at the heart of our policy. First, I’ve instructed Secretary Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations that have been severed since January of 1961. Going forward, the United States will re-establish an embassy in Havana, and high-ranking officials will visit Cuba. Where we can advance shared interests, we will, on issues like health, migration, counterterrorism, drug trafficking and disaster response. ...
Second, I’ve instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. This review will be guided by the facts and the law. ...
Third, we are taking steps to increase travel, commerce and the flow of information to and from Cuba. This is fundamentally about freedom and openness, and also expresses my belief in the power of people-to-people engagement. With the changes I’m announcing today, it will be easier for Americans to travel to Cuba, and Americans will be able to use American credit and debit cards on the island. ...
I believe that American businesses should not be put at a disadvantage, and that increased commerce is good for Americans and for Cubans. So we will facilitate authorized transactions between the United States and Cuba. U.S. financial institutions will be allowed to open accounts at Cuban financial institutions. And it will be easier for U.S. exporters to sell goods in Cuba.
I believe in the free flow of information. Unfortunately, our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe. So I’ve authorized increased telecommunications connections between the United States and Cuba. Businesses will be able to sell goods that enable Cubans to communicate with the United States and other countries.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, today we spend the hour looking at this new chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations. Here in New York, we’re joined by attorney Martin Garbus, member of the Cuban Five legal team, and Michael Ratner, who’s president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has written several books on Cuba, Who Killed Che?: How the CIA Got Away with Murder, and also is the co-editor of Che Guevara and the FBI: The U.S. Political Police Dossier on the Latin American Revolutionary. Joining us from Washington, D.C., is Robert Muse, an attorney, an expert in U.S. laws relating to Cuba. He was in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday when the deal was announced. His recent piece published in Americas Quarterly is "U.S. Presidential Action on Cuba: The New Normalization?" And in Havana, we go to Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, co-author of the book Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Let’s begin in Havana with Peter Kornbluh. Your response to this historic announcement by President Obama in Washington, D.C., and President Raúl Castro in Havana, Cuba, where you are right now, Peter?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, I have a one-word response, Amy: finally. Finally, after 55 years, an element of sanity and effectiveness and modernization have arrived to the insane U.S. policy that U.S. presidents have been pursuing towards Cuba for all these years, all these decades.
As you can see from looking at me, the sun is coming up here over Havana Bay. And, you know, I really have a sense, and I think the Cubans that I’ve talked to here in the street have a sense, of a new day, a new dawn, a new beginning, as President Obama himself has said, in U.S.-Cuban relations. And, you know, there really is a sense of excitement here about the future. My taxi driver, who just brought me down to the studio to be with you, said that the taxi chauffeurs are already talking about when they’re going to be able to get a Ford van for taxis, so they can carry more people around. So, you know, expectations are high that a change of relations with the United States is going to lead to development here. He says, "You know, we’ve had a lot of politics, but you can’t eat politics." And then, Cubans are looking at the economy and hoping that really a change in relations with the United States portends a much better development future for Cuba’s economy and for the future of this country.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. That was Peter Kornbluh. Today he is in Havana, Cuba. This is Democracy Now! on this historic day after the announcement that for the first time in over 50 years the U.S. and Cuba will begin normalizing relations. Stay with us.
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As a new chapter in U.S.-Cuban relations begins, we host a roundtable discussion about the prisoners released as part of the new deal. Cuba freed USAID contractor Alan Gross and a former Cuban intelligence officer who who worked secretly for the CIA, and the United States released the remaining members of the Cuban Five: Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino. We speak with attorney Martin Garbus of the Cuban Five legal team and broadcast an excerpt from our 2013 interview with the first freed member of the Cuban Five, René González, who describes why he came to the United States to investigate militant Cuban exile groups. We also discuss the significance of the new relationship between the two countries. "Our government has been trying to destroy the Cuban Revolution since day one … and essentially this is an admission that it didn’t succeed," says guest Michael Ratner, co-author of "Who Killed Che?: How the CIA Got Away with Murder." We are also joined by Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, who met twice with Gross while he was detained.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, on this historic day after the announcement of both President Obama as well as President Raúl Castro on the beginning of normalizations of relations between the United States and Cuba. But not everyone was happy. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida blasted President Obama’s new Cuba policy, calling it a, quote, "concession to a tyranny." Rubio is Cuban-American. This is part of what he said.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: The White House has conceded everything and gained little. They gained no commitment on the part of the Cuban regime to freedom of press or freedom of speech or elections. No binding commitment was made to truly open up the Internet. No commitment was made to allowing the establishment of political parties or to even begin the semblance of a transition to democracy. And in exchange for all of these concessions, the only thing the Cuban government agreed to do is free 53 political prisoners, who could wind up in jail tomorrow morning if they once again take up the cause of freedom. ...
These changes will lead to legitimacy for a government that shamelessly, continuously abuses human rights, but it will not lead to assistance for those whose rights are being abused. It is just another concession to a tyranny by the Obama administration, rather than a defense of every universal and inalienable right that our country was founded on and stands for.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Florida Senator—that was Florida Senator Rubio.
We are joined right now by a roundtable of people. In Havana, Peter Kornbluh is with us, head of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive. In Washington, D.C., Robert Muse is with us, who is a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer, an expert relating to U.S. laws with Cuba. Michael Ratner, the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights. And we’re joined by Martin Garbus, who is part of the Cuban Five legal team. Time magazine calls him one of the best trial lawyers in the United States, while the National Law Journal has named him one of the country’s top 10 litigators. Your response to what has taken place this week?
MARTIN GARBUS: I mean, it’s extraordinary. It’s marvelous. I saw Gerardo about three weeks ago in jail.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, Gerardo is one of the three remaining Cuban Five.
MARTIN GARBUS: Gerardo Hernández, who had a double life sentence. And it’s hard to believe he ever would have gotten out under the American legal system. He was unjustly convicted, as you mentioned before. And it’s just extraordinary to—I was looking at a guy over the last many years who—an extraordinary human being who was languishing in a jail, sometimes under solitary confinement. And the idea that he’s now out, will be able to build a family with he and his wife, is just wonderful.
AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kornbluh, what was it like when the three remaining jailed members of the Cuban Five arrived in Havana?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, it certainly was a big moment for quite a few Cubans. Raúl Castro, in his presentation on television yesterday at noon, really led with the story that the counterterrorism heroes, as they’re called here in Cuba, were coming home, that Cuba had released a Cuban CIA asset in return and also an American citizen, Alan Gross. And that was essentially his beginning. The normalization of relations with the United States kind of came second, and I wouldn’t say it was secondary, but certainly was burying the lede, if you will.
And for Cubans, of course, there’s been this campaign here in Cuba, also in the United States and around the world, a solidarity campaign, which Martin has been such a part of, to free these last remaining agents. And just like any other country that I think has people abroad in prison who have represented the government, these men have been away from their families for 16 years. The television last night was filled with images of them reuniting with their families, meeting with Raúl Castro, going to see their old friends. So, it certainly was an important event for Cuba. Certainly, it was. A lot of images on the television, a lot of discussion in the press.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go to one of the—the first of the Cuban Five who were released, René González, who I interviewed when he returned to Cuba, Martin Garbus, if you could talk about these five men, convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in the United States, and yet they said they were here, yes, spying, but spying on violent anti-Cuba groups?
MARTIN GARBUS: They were here working with the United States government to try and stop the right-wing groups in Florida from continuing to invade Cuba, through the—sending arms down to Cuba, from flying over the island, and from actually killing people on the island. There was an explosion at a hotel, and many people were killed. So they were working with the cooperation of the American government.
Let me just say one thing before I get into that. There’s a lawyer whose name hasn’t been mentioned—Lenny Weinglass—who you know very well. And before me, Lenny worked for 10 years on the Cuban Five case, one of the great American lawyers. And whatever the result here is, he certainly is owed something for it, at least an acknowledgment.
AMY GOODMAN: He died a few years ago.
MARTIN GARBUS: He died a few years ago. Wonderful lawyer.
And then, after Elián González in Florida, and at the same time as you had the Bush-Gore vote in Florida, it became necessary to find someone to blame for some killings which occurred in 1996. My client was ultimately arrested and then convicted. He was arrested three-and-a-half years, for allegedly the killings, after the incident occurred, although the American government had all this information for some three-and-a-half years prior to that. And then, ultimately, he’s charged. And the first time there’s a conviction, the appellate court reverses the conviction, because the jury was unfairly composed of people hostile to the Cuban government. And—excuse me.
AMY GOODMAN: You said that they worked with the U.S. government. Explain.
MARTIN GARBUS: They worked with the U.S. government. They were turning information over to the U.S. government of terrorist activities done by the right wing. And that information was being spread, and there was in fact meetings in Havana between the American government and representatives of the Wasp group who were exchanging information.
AMY GOODMAN: And President Obama said in his address, about the release of these three men, that the release—well, he didn’t name Trujillo, the Cuban agent working for the CIA who was held by Cuba for something like 20 years—
MARTIN GARBUS: Right, right.
AMY GOODMAN: —who was just released yesterday, but he said that that spy for the U.S. had helped give them information that led to the imprisonment of the Cuban Five.
MARTIN GARBUS: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn for a moment to René González, to this Democracy Now! exclusive. He was the first of the men to be freed, the Cuban Five, in October 2011, returned to Cuba last year. He joined us on Democracy Now! from Havana, Cuba. And I began by asking him why he did come to the United States to investigate militant Cuban exile groups.
RENÉ GONZÁLEZ: Well, for my generation Cubans, it was part of our development or common experience to have seen people coming from Miami raiding our shores, shooting at hotels, killing people here in Cuba, blowing up airplanes. So, we were really familiar with the terrorist activities that the Cuban people had been suffering for almost four years back then. So it wasn’t hard for me to accept the mission of going there and monitor the activities of some of those people, who had been trained by the CIA in the '60s. Some of them had participated in Bay of Pigs. Some of them had gone then—after that, had gone to South America as part of the Operation Condor. And if you look at the history of those people, you can see their link to the worst actions of the U.S. government, be they Iran-contras—even the Kennedy assassination plot was linked to them. So, it wasn't hard for me to accept the mission and to go there to protect the Cuban people’s lives, and that’s what I did.
AMY GOODMAN: That was René González. He has been now living back in Cuba for a few years, one of the Cuban Five. Now all five are back in Cuba. Less is well known in this country, or certainly in the last 24 hours there’s almost no real discussion of who these men are, much more attention paid to Alan Gross, who was the USAID subcontractor who went down to Cuba and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He served five of those years and was released yesterday. Martin Garbus?
MARTIN GARBUS: Robert Gross was a—
AMY GOODMAN: Alan Gross.
MARTIN GARBUS: Pardon me. Alan Gross was a USAID employee. He was sent down with satellite equipment, consistently. He made about six trips down there, sometimes using other people to send equipment. And the equipment was used to break—to allow people on the island to directly communicate with the United States so that the Cuban security networks or the Cuban Internet lines would not pick it up. So it was the setting up of a spy operation within Cuba.
He was supported, because he was Jewish, by Jewish groups. He originally claimed that he was down there working on behalf of Jewish groups to spread information to other Jewish groups in Miami. He ultimately admitted that that wasn’t true. He ultimately sued the American government for sending him down there without warning him specifically about what was going to happen to him. So there’s very little question any longer that he was sent down by the government. He said he was sent down by the government; the government admitted it. And in America, he’s portrayed as something other than that, but that portrayal is wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kornbluh, you met with Alan Gross in prison in Cuba, is that right?
PETER KORNBLUH: Yes, I met with Alan Gross twice over a one-year period for a total of seven hours. He was in a military hospital, a wing of a military hospital that had been converted to a prison. We talked a lot about what he was doing, what he was feeling. He became very angry at his own government for abandoning him here for all these years. It is clear, for the last year, through back channel means, the Obama White House has been negotiating to get him out. My sense of talking to him was that his mental state was so fragile that he might actually go on a hunger strike and die, attempt some type of suicide escape plan and be hurt or killed, or attack a guard.
And all of that would have—anything that happened to him here in a Cuban military prison would have certainly compromised any possibility of the Obama administration moving forward, as it did yesterday, on completely changing—reversing course 180 percent the history of U.S.-Cuban relations, burying the perpetual antagonism of the past and moving forward to a normal relation in the future. So, getting Alan Gross out through this prisoner exchange was extremely important. It really was the first step. And what we saw yesterday is the Obama White House deciding to do an entire package all at the same time, not doing one step at a time to change U.S.-Cuban relations, but getting Alan Gross out, returning the Cuban spies to Cuba, and then essentially ending, to the degree that the president can, the hostility and the aggression in U.S. policy towards Cuba.
AMY GOODMAN: Upon returning home from five years of imprisonment in Cuba, USAID subcontractor Alan Gross addressed reporters in Washington, D.C.
ALAN GROSS: What a blessing it is to be a citizen of this country. And thank you, President Obama, for everything that you have done today and leading up to today. ... But ultimately—ultimately, the decision to arrange—to arrange for and secure my release was made in the Oval Office. To President Obama and the NSC staff, thank you.
In my last letter to President Obama, I wrote that despite my five-year tenure in captivity, I would not want to trade places with him, and I certainly wouldn’t want to trade places with him on this glorious day. Five years of isolation notwithstanding, I did not need daily briefings to be cognizant of what are undoubtedly incredible challenges facing our nation and the global community.
I also feel compelled to share with you my utmost respect for and fondness of the people of Cuba. In no way are they responsible for the ordeal to which my family and I have been subjected. To me, Cubanos—or at least most of them—are incredibly kind, generous and talented. It pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments’ mutually belligerent policies. Five-and-a-half decades of history show us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment. Two wrongs never make a right. I truly hope that we can now get beyond these mutually belligerent policies. And I was very happy to hear what the president had to say today.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Alan Gross speaking in his lawyers’ offices yesterday in Washington, D.C. We’re also joined by Michael Ratner, the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who co-authored two books on Cuba, one, Who Killed Che?: How the CIA Got Away with Murder, and, as well, another book on the FBI and Che Guevara. Michael, actually, technically, it wasn’t a prisoner exchange between Alan Gross and the three remaining members of the Cuban Five. Cuba released Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds?
MICHAEL RATNER: Right. And in Raúl’s speech, he was very clear on that. He said, "Under our legal system, what we have done is decide to release Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds." He was not part of the exchange. The exchange was, as Marty has pointed out, for the three Cuban Five members remaining in prison, for freeing this man named Trujillo, who you mentioned, who was the agent that the Cubans had jailed, as well as perhaps what we understand is 53 other, what the U.S. refers to as, political prisoners in Cuba. So, that was the exchange. But Alan Gross was let out on humanitarian grounds. As a broader picture, I mean, you know, when I heard the news first about the Cuban Five, I was just—I almost wept, because that, to me, was the most personal story of outrage.
AMY GOODMAN: They had been held for 15 years, more than.
MICHAEL RATNER: And on a complete—you know, on a case that was not worth anything, as Marty can tell you, as Lenny could have told us before. So I read that, and I found that extraordinary. But I think it should be understood—as Peter said, "finally," for this, after some 50 years—but in fact it’s a great victory for the Cuban people and for the Cuban government, because this government, our government, has been trying to destroy the Cuban Revolution since day one, since before day one, and essentially this is an admission that it didn’t succeed. Yes, it hurt it. Yes, it made it economically difficult. Yes, it changed it in terms of being an example for the rest of the world, perhaps. But it was unable to destroy it. And in the end, they had to cry uncle, the United States. They tried everything. They tried blowing up airplanes. They tried bombing cafés. And they tried economic—
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s actually go back. It was—it started under President Eisenhower in the last few weeks of his administration, the overall embargo against Cuba, that was then just intensified by President Kennedy. This has gone through 10 presidents.
MICHAEL RATNER: Yes, intensified by President Kennedy, but our listeners should not forget—and many of them were not alive when it happened, unlike Marty and myself—the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, when the U.S. actually tried to overthrow the government of Cuba by landing on the beach in what we call in English the Bay of Pigs. And they failed. And thousands of people were taken prisoners by the Cubans. And after that is when things got very, very—I mean, they were serious then, but at that point, then the embargo was imposed, starting through 1962, with full force. But military actions, terrorism, that just continued up until, as we pointed out, even with Alan Gross and AID still going in there to undermine the government, both physically, like that, as well as economically, which—that we’ve seen now with the embargo. So, this is really a major, major victory.
Now, the other points I think that are important in Obama’s speech and, of course, Raúl’s speech, as well—Raúl, as you said, started with the Cuban Five, which shows how important that case was. But in Obama’s talk, he talks about diplomatic relations, which we’ll see, and then he talks about the embargo and starting to loosen up some aspects of the embargo, giving us a little wider travel, but of course not opening travel fully, which he could do immediately. He could allow you and I to just get on a plane tomorrow as tourists, Amy, and go to Cuba. He didn’t do that. He could do a lot more on the embargo. In fact, with licensing, he can probably undercut the embargo completely, almost completely. But he said in that speech, "Well, I have to work with Congress to do it." In fact, he doesn’t. So, in fact, he has still a lot to calibrate with regard to Cuba to continue to put pressure on Cuba through ways, or not ways, of lifting the embargo.
And, you know, you ask yourself, why did this happen now? That’s one of the questions I think I’d like to hear other people talk about, because I’m not sure. I mean, part of it, of course, is the change in Latin America, and he referred to that. You have progressive, left-of-center and even leftist governments in many countries in Latin America, and Cuba is no longer isolated the way it was in the early '60s, when you had military dictatorships. And maybe to get along in that region, they had to do that. What he also said is, "Well, our policy doesn't work. It didn’t work." And, of course, what he claims the policy was, was to bring democracy to Cuba. In fact, it was to destroy the Communist revolution in Cuba, so it couldn’t be an example. So now, perhaps, he’s buying into the idea if we flood more money into Cuba, maybe we’ll be able to subvert the fundamental values of the revolution.
AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned blowing up an airliner. I want to go to that, to the late Saul Landau’s film, Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up, about U.S. support for violent anti-Castro militants. This excerpt details in part how Cuban exiles like Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch teamed up in 1976 to bomb a Cuban airliner—something that they deny now. This is that moment that the Cubana Airlines, with 73 passengers on board, is hit.
CUBANA AIRLINES PILOT: Cubana 455.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Cubana 455, [inaudible].
CUBANA AIRLINES PILOT: We have had explosion. We are descending immediately. We have a fire on board.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Cubana 455, are you returning to the field?
CUBANA AIRLINES PILOT: This is Cubana 455. We are requesting immediately, immediately landing. Close the door! Close the door!
FLIGHT RECORDER: The time is 17:27.
CUBANA AIRLINES PILOT: It’s getting worse! Crash landing into the sea!
CBS EVENING NEWS: This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
WALTER CRONKITE: Good evening. Nine days ago, a Cuban passenger jet en route from Barbados to Havana crashed into the sea following an onboard explosion. Seventy-three persons, 57 of them Cuban, were killed.
AMY GOODMAN: That was an excerpt of the film, Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up. We’re going to go to break, then come back to this discussion on this day after the historic announcement of the beginning of normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States. Stay with us.
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We look at the details of the new normalized relations between the United States and Cuba, which include an easing of restrictions on banking, investment and travel, and discuss whether President Obama can lift the embargo on Cuba without congressional approval. We speak with Robert Muse, an expert on U.S. laws relating to Cuba and attorney based in Washington, D.C. His recent article published in Americas Quarterly is "U.S. Presidential Action on Cuba: The New Normalization?" We also speak with Michael Ratner about what will happen to the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Joining the discussion live from Havana is Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, as we continue our roundtable discussion. Martin Garbus with us here, he’s on the Cuban Five legal team; Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights; and in Havana, Cuba, we’re joined by Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives. And we are joined in Washington, D.C., by Robert Muse, who actually just came up from Havana yesterday, a lawyer based in D.C. who’s an expert in U.S. laws relating to Cuba. His recent piece published in the Americas Quarterly, "U.S. Presidential Action on Cuba: The New Normalization?"
So, tell us about hearing this news, Robert Muse.
ROBERT MUSE: I’m sorry, I’m having a little trouble hearing you. Could you repeat—
AMY GOODMAN: Oh, tell us about hearing the news—where were you?—about the announcement of the normalization.
ROBERT MUSE: I was having breakfast with Peter Kornbluh in the Hotel Nacional. And we were told that Alan Gross had been—
AMY GOODMAN: In Havana, Cuba.
ROBERT MUSE: That’s right, in Havana. And we learned, through—somebody came in with it, had picked up a news release that Alan Gross was being released. And then, we got—we had early access to the fact sheet coming out of the White House on what actually was going to be done.
And I want to compliment the Obama administration on going much larger and further than any of us expected it would go. There was a hope and an expectation that the Obama administration would do some things in the new year, but I must say, thanks to his national security team, they did go further—renewing diplomatic relations, a commitment to renew Cuba’s inclusion on the terrorist list, which will conclude in six months, and I think it’s pretty much understood that Cuba will be taken off.
The thing that most interests me is the embargo, the commercial embargo on Cuba, and how far the administration will go. It’s a little bit unclear. They talk about rule makings of both the Commerce Department and Treasury Department. But you can see the broad outline of what they’re doing, and it falls under the heading of adjusting the regulations to more effectively empower the Cuban people.
So, I think it’s worth being clear what is contemplated and what is not right now. First, investment in Cuba is still prohibited. They talk about donative remittances to Cuba. So you can give money to the small Cuban private sector to establish businesses, things of that sort, but you can’t really invest in Cuba. The U.S. commercial sector will be allowed to sell to Cuba, but in what appear to be quite limited ways right now—agricultural equipment, goods to the small Cuban private sector. That doesn’t seem to contemplate equipment or infrastructure development so much as perhaps items that could be sold by the emerging Cuban private sector. Building materials can be sold to Cubans for use in private construction. So, a lot of this is going to depend on how the rules are written, but it’s certainly encouraging what the president has done so far.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk—respond to Michael Ratner? Michael, you said you feel that the embargo could be lifted not by an act of Congress, but by the president himself?
MICHAEL RATNER: Well, I was saying that I’d be interested in hearing Peter’s view, but, yes, he can issue regulations, as Peter is talking about—
AMY GOODMAN: Robert Muse.
MICHAEL RATNER: —licenses, etc., that would allow a lot more goods, etc., and services, investments in Cuba, without actually getting Congress to move on the embargo. He’s only gone a certain distance on that so far. He could go a lot farther. And some examples, I gave you. For example, he could open up travel completely. He could do a number of other things by regulation and licensing. And so, Peter, who’s an expert on this—
AMY GOODMAN: Bob.
MICHAEL RATNER: I’d be interested in—Bob, I’m sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: Bob Muse.
MARTIN GARBUS: It’s hard to—
AMY GOODMAN: Your response to that, Bob?
ROBERT MUSE: Well, Michael is correct that something missing is reciprocity in trade. Since 2000, the U.S.'s farmers have been able to sell agricultural commodities to Cuba. That's broadly defined. It includes everything from chewing gum to wine, can be sold to Cuba. But Cuba can’t sell anything to the United States yet. They have allowed U.S. travelers to Cuba to bring back $400 worth of Cuban goods as accompanied baggage. So they have to travel to Cuba, and they bring it back with them. And they can bring up to $100 worth of tobacco and alcohol—rum, of course, is what they’ll be bringing. But I would like to see the administration move very quickly to some reciprocity in agricultural sales. Cuba produces sugar. It has a number of agricultural potential for exports to the U.S.
I endorse completely what Michael said, that the president’s ability to lift the embargo through licensing and rule making is essentially unfettered. The Helms-Burton Act—and it would require a longer discussion—comes into it at the very end, but the principal role of Congress is going to be to tidy up all the loose ends of permanent trade status for Cuba, investment protection agreements and so on.
Something I would like to alert your viewers to is there’s going to be some pushback coming. We do have a Republican Congress now. I would expect to see a number of amendments inserted into appropriations bills that will try to limit presidential discretion in this area. And typically they’ll attach it to must-pass legislation, to put President Obama in a very difficult predicament. If he vetoes something he really wants, because it has some objectionable provision relating to Cuba, that’s the dilemma they would like to put the president in. And I think it’s going to require great vigilance to try to—from various sectors, including the U.S. business community, to try to prevent that happening.
AMY GOODMAN: Bob Muse, aren’t Republicans divided, though? I mean, there are the very vocal ones, like the Florida senator, Marco Rubio, who says he’s going to stand in the way of nominations, confirming nominations, etc. But you have, for example, politicians in places like Alabama that really want business, agricultural trade with Cuba, and the Chamber of Commerce, you know, the corporations that have felt that they are prevented from going to Cuba, like corporations from other countries around the world, you know, have a leg up on them.
ROBERT MUSE: It’s a good point. I think we should be clear that the pro-embargo elements in Congress has become much more bipartisan than it was, say, 10 or 15 years ago. Half the Black Congressional Caucus, which is uniformly Democrat, now vote in favor of the Obama—sorry, of the embargo. That’s been a product of very carefully targeted PAC contributions over time. So, there’ no—I say that we can expect this because the Congress is now Republican-controlled. That doesn’t mean a lot of Democrats don’t support the embargo. It just means that senior Democrats, like Pat Leahy, Dick Durbin, who traditionally took out these objectionable amendments in conference, legislative conference, won’t be empowered to do that anymore. But it’s a misapprehension to think that Democrats in Congress are uniformly in favor of lifting the embargo on Cuba.
AMY GOODMAN: It is interesting to also talk about the U.S. relationship with another part of Cuba. The U.S. has put, you know, Cuba on the U.S. terrorist list. But what about the U.S. property that’s actually Cuban property—Guantánamo? Michael, as we begin to wrap up this discussion, what happens with Guantánamo?
MICHAEL RATNER: Well, Guantánamo is there on what we call a bilateral lease, that it’s a lease between the United States and Cuba. It’s like $4,000 or 4000 pounds of gold or something, dollars in gold. Fidel doesn’t cash the checks, or now Raúl doesn’t, or the government doesn’t. And it takes both parties to break the lease. There should be a demand—there always has been—to return Guantánamo to Cuba. It’s part of the sovereign territory of Cuba. It’s also, of course, as we speak, a political and legal outrage—still over 139 people there, 70-some cleared for release, and it was essentially run as a torture chamber. It had a black site at Guantánamo. And so now you’re seeing this opening with Cuba, and yet you’re seeing the United States using this as essentially an offshore detention, interrogation and, at one time, torture facility. So, the demand should be here is to obviously close Guantánamo, for starters, and secondly, to ultimately return Guantánamo to Cuba.
AMY GOODMAN: Talking about global relations, the U.S. relations with Latin America, Peter Kornbluh, Raúl Castro is set to participate for the first time, the Cuban president, in next year’s Summit of the Americas in Panama. As we wrap up right now, let’s wrap up in Havana, Cuba, where you are, Peter, about the significance of this moment.
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, I think we’ve got to give a lot of credit to the Latin American nations—Panama, which is hosting the next Summit of the Americas in April, big countries like Brazil and Mexico and Argentina, who have been pushing the Obama administration for years now to normalize relations with Cuba. The Latin American countries basically said to the Obama administration, "We are going to boycott the next summit unless Cuba is included. You are going to be isolated, not Cuba." And so, Raúl Castro has been invited. He has accepted. As part of the package of changes of policy that President Obama announced yesterday, he said, "I am going to the summit." He said, "I’m going to bring some dissidence and voices of democracy with me, but," he says, "I am going." And so, for the first time, you have an opportunity, in 55 years, for the president of the United States and for the president of Cuba to sit around a table, discuss multilateral and bilateral relations.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Peter—Peter, we just have 20 seconds—
PETER KORNBLUH: Currently, yesterday’s announcement by both Cuba and the United—
AMY GOODMAN: —but I want to ask about the significance of the pope weighing in on this agreement.
PETER KORNBLUH: The pope was a secret intermediary, an interlocutor. In our book, Back Channel to Cuba, Bill LeoGrande and I write about all the intermediaries and interlocutors over these years. And clearly, back-channel diplomacy led to where we are today. But now we’re in a situation, a new era. It’s going to be open diplomacy, overt diplomacy and normal communications between Cuba and the United States, hopefully from now on.
AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kornbluh, I want to thank you for joining us from Havana, from the National Security Archives; Martin Garbus, on the Cuban Five legal team; Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. And thank you to Robert Muse, joining us from Washington, D.C.
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Obama Announces Historic Restoration of Diplomatic Ties with Cuba
President Obama has announced the United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in more than half a century. In a historic address Wednesday, Obama announced the shift would include the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana.
President Obama: "First, I’ve instructed Secretary Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations that have been severed since January of 1961. Going forward, the United States will re-establish an embassy in Havana, and high-ranking officials will visit Cuba. Where we can advance shared interests, we will, on issues like health, migration, counterterrorism, drug trafficking and disaster response."
Cuban Five, U.S. Contractor Alan Gross Released From Prison
The softening of U.S.-Cuba relations also came with the release of prisoners in both the United States and Cuba. Cuba released Alan Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on humanitarian grounds. Gross was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for smuggling in illegal technology for opposition groups. Cuba also released a top spy identified by Newsweek as Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a former cryptographer at Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence who worked secretly for the CIA. In exchange for Trujillo’s release, the United States has freed the three remaining members of the Cuban Five — a group of Cuban intelligence officers arrested in the United States in 1998 and convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They say they were not spying on the United States, but trying to monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups responsible for attacks inside Cuba. We will host a roundtable on Cuba after headlines.
Ebola Death Toll Nears 7,000; Report Faults WHO Response
The official death toll from an Ebola outbreak in West Africa is climbing toward 7,000 as a new report faults the international community for its slow response. A report by a British parliamentary committee said the World Health Organization and countries around the world failed to heed clear warnings about the disease’s spread. In Sierra Leone, meanwhile, an 11th doctor has died of Ebola, as the country has launched house-to-house searches to root out cases in the capital of Freetown.
New York State to Ban Fracking over Health Concerns
New York State is banning the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking, citing potential risks to public health. Fracking involves blasting sand, water and toxic chemicals deep into shale rock to release oil and gas, a process which can poison water supplies and pollute the air. Environmentalists have waged a fierce campaign to pressure the administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to render permanent a 2009 moratorium on the practice. Following a two-year study, acting health commissioner Howard Zucker said fracking was too risky.
Howard Zucker: "The potential risks are too great. In fact, they are not even fully known. Relying upon the limited data that is presently available to answer the public health risks would be negligent on my part. I have identified significant public health risks in the current data. And until the public health red flags are answered by valid evidence through longitudinal long-term studies, prospective analysis, patient surveys with large population pools showing that the risk for impact on public health are avoidable or sufficiently low, I cannot support high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York."
New York will be the first state with major gas deposits to ban fracking. The move will protect reserves in New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, a massive underground rock formation which stretches across multiple states including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
Vermont Gov. Shumlin Backs Down on Single-Payer Healthcare
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has backed down on his promise to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. Shumlin first won election in 2010 with a pledge to make Vermont the first state in the country with a single-payer system. But on Wednesday, Shumlin said the tax hikes needed to fund the system had proven too high.
Gov. Peter Shumlin: "I’m not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important healthcare reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single-payer when it’s not the right time for Vermont. This is the greatest disappointment of my political life so far, that we couldn’t advance this ball as quickly as we had wished. But we shall persevere, we shall get it right, we shall push on."
Arizona: Final House Race Seals Largest GOP Majority in Over 80 Years
In Arizona, the final undecided congressional race from this year’s midterm elections has been called in favor of a Republican candidate. Retired Air Force Colonel Martha McSally has defeated Democratic incumbent Ron Barber. His defeat gives Republicans their 247th House seat in the new Congress, their largest majority in more than 80 years.
Sony Pictures Spikes North Korea Comedy After Threats, Hack
Sony Pictures has canceled the release of a film about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following threats against theaters and a hack of corporate data which officials say was ordered by the North Korean government. Theater companies had canceled showings of the $44 million comedy "The Interview," starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Sony says it has no further plans to release the film.
Colombia: FARC Rebels Announce Unilateral Ceasefire
In Colombia, FARC rebels have announced a unilateral ceasefire following a round of talks with the government. The rebels say they will end hostilities unless the army attacks them first. FARC representative Iván Márquez said he hopes the truce will become permanent.
Iván Márquez: "Since we believe that we have initiated a definitive path toward the peace along with a constituent process, we have resolved to declare a unilateral ceasefire and end to hostilities for an indefinite time, which should transform into an armistice."
Talks between the Colombian government and the FARC aimed at resolving the 50-year conflict resumed earlier this month in Cuba.
New York Lawyers Hold Die-in over Killings of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley
In New York City, protesters gathered Wednesday to mark five months since the death of Eric Garner. Garner died after police placed him in a banned chokehold and pinned him to the ground while he repeatedly said, "I can’t breathe." A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner’s death. Demonstrators are also calling for justice in the case of slain African American Akai Gurley, who died in November after an officer allegedly fired his gun by accident in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn housing project. The officer, Peter Liang, then texted his union rep as Gurley lay dying. On Wednesday, a group of attorneys staged a die-in at a Brooklyn jail. This is attorney Lisa Edwards and, before her, Deborah Wright.
Deborah Wright, president, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys UAW Local 2325: "We represent clients every single day, and we want them to know that not only are we upset, obviously, as what has been happening with Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and now also we’re waiting, obviously, what’s going to happen with Akai Gurley and that grand jury decision. We also want to make sure that out clients who are here today and in the other boroughs know that we care about them."
Lisa Edwards: "We work within the system, but the system is broken. So we’re here to say it’s time for the system to be fixed. We need a special prosecutor. We need open grand jury minutes. And that’s what we need to get justice."
Rikers Jail Officer Convicted for Death of Prisoner Who Ate Soap Ball
A former corrections captain at New York’s Rikers Island jail complex has been convicted of violating the civil rights of a mentally ill prisoner who ate a packet of toxic detergent and was left to die in his cell. In 2012, Jason Echevarria pleaded for help for hours as the detergent burned his insides. Captain Terrence Pendergrass repeatedly ignored reports of the prisoner’s illness, at one point telling a subordinate he shouldn’t be bothered unless "there was a dead body." Echevarria was found dead the next morning. Pendergrass could face up to 10 years in prison following his conviction.
FBI Probes Possible Lynching of North Carolina Teen
The FBI has launched an investigation into the death of an African-American teenager who was found hanging from a swing set in North Carolina. In August, 17-year-old Lennon Lacy was found dead in a majority-white trailer park in the tiny town of Bladenboro. He had been in a relationship with an older white woman. Local authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide. But his family and the local NAACP have raised the possibility he may have been lynched. They say local police rushed to judgment and overlooked basic questions, like why Lacy was wearing someone else’s shoes.
South Carolina: 14-Year-Old Black Boy Exonerated 70 Years After Execution
In South Carolina, a 14-year-old African-American teen wrongfully convicted of murdering two white girls has had his name cleared 70 years after he was executed for the crime. In 1944, George Stinney became the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. He weighed less than 100 pounds and had to sit on a phonebook to fit into the electric chair at his execution. Stinney was charged, tried, convicted and executed within 83 days by a jury of 12 white men after his white lawyer failed to call any witnesses in his defense. His family has long said he was forced into confessing. On Wednesday, a judge threw out his conviction, calling the case an "unfortunate episode in our history."
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