Thread: Congress seeks money for Cuban Dissidents

Congress seeks money for Cuban dissidents
'Be ready to assert your independence,' draft legislation's author says

Updated: 5:32 p.m. ET Aug 2, 2006
WASHINGTON - The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro’s illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would pay millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change.

“The message will be: The United States stands with you,” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., one of the authors, said in an interview. “Be ready to assert your independence.”

There was no sign of upheaval in Cuba Wednesday, two days after Castro stunned U.S. officials and many of his own countrymen with the news that he had temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, in order to undergo surgery.

The handover was a surprise to the White House and Congress, one senator said.

“The president’s comment was that everybody was caught by surprise, and we’ll have to wait and see” what U.S. action is necessary, said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who discussed the developments with President Bush on Tuesday. “I think all of us can say we had no idea this was coming.”

The remarks underscored the scanty reliable intelligence the U.S. has on an old Cold War foe that lies just 90 miles off the Florida shore.

Mass exodus discouraged
“It’s difficult for us to assess what the situation is,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. He cautioned Cubans against any mass exodus — and Cuban-American exiles against returning to claim property they lost in Cuba.

Another Bay of Pigs Fiasco?

Yeah, they put $80 Mil. aside for Cuba!!!! I've already written Frist and Martinez:
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Re: Cuba

Legislation sponsored by Nelson, fellow Floridian Mel Martinez, Majority Leader Bill Frist and others would authorize as much as $80 million over two years — and pay half that almost immediately — to dissidents and non-governmental organizations on the island.
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Tell me, why does the American tax payers have to pay the world to do anything?

You are sending OUR money everywhere, without our permission!

All while making us fund illegal aliens, which we want deported, and losing jobs to outsourcing, and insourcing.

Start working for American's for a change, we are so fed up with you pompous elitists!

We want OUR money to help our own, illegals deported, walls on the borders AND OUR JOBS RETURNED!