US bars Cuba from UN conference

[Judi Lynn]

US bars Cuba from UN conference
Web posted at: 9/13/2005 2:52:21
Source ::: Reuters
UNITED NATIONS: Cuba complained to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday that the US had barred its national assembly speaker from attending a meeting of parliamentarians at UN headquarters in New York.

Washington denied a visa request from Ricardo Alarcon of Cuba to attend last week’s second World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, a meeting sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

While the United States. as host country for the United Nations, is obliged to give visas to foreign officials for official UN business, a US official said the conference of parliamentarians was not a UN affair even though it used UN facilities.

Cuban Ambassador Orlando Requeijo Gual wrote Annan: “The permanent mission of Cuba to the United Nations wishes to protest strongly at the arbitrary decision and to state that it disagrees completely with the pretexts given.”

The Cuban delegation was also denied visas to attend the first World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, held in New York in 2000, Requeijo Gual said.
(snip/...)

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=September2005&file=World_News2005091325221.xml



Ricardo Alarcon, previous
member of Cuba's U.N. delegation
before _Bush became universal emperor.

[Maple]

1. Another good reason

to move the UN out of the US

[jmatthan]

5. Visit the site Move The UN

http://movetheun.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-using-its-position-to-kill-us.html

for latest info about moving the UN from the US.

[Seabiscuit]

18. Move it to Geneva.

[K-W]

21. Move it to Havana

and let Cuba decide when US officials get to come and go :P

[Seabiscuit]

23. I like that much better!

:P

[Seabiscuit]

27. You, know, if it keeps getting worse here, I may move my ass to Geneva.

... where I'd welcome the U.N. with open arms.

[aquart]

2. Petty. Small. Tacky.

Just so...playground.

[silverweb]

3. Didn't we just go through this recently?

The U.S. refused a visa to someone for a UN function, then backed down and issued it anyway. It was nothing but stupid, meaningless bullying.

The United Nations property is considered international territory. Alarcon should just helicopter in without landing on U.S. soil and then thumb his nose at Bolton et al. He doesn't need our permission to attend.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Good memory, silverweb.

It was the new President of Iran:

US may deny visa for Iran leader's UN address
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: August 5 2005 06:10 | Last updated: August 5 2005 08:40

The Bush administration is considering taking the unprecedented step of preventing a visting head of state from addressing the United Nations in New York by denying a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran's new elected conservative president.

Officials said a decision rested on investigations into whether Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was involved in the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis and the killing of an Iranian-Kurdish dissident leader in Vienna in 1989. Iran denies his involvement in either event.
(snip)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f1dc9ce6-055e-11da-97da-00000e2511c8.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel quite certain _Bush has also jerked Hugo Chavez around with the possibility he would keep him from attending the U.N., also.

[silverweb]

9. There you go.

Thanks for the memory refresher!

I'm pretty sure Chavez or someone else from Venezuela was jerked around, too, but I can't remember the particulars.

Little georgie is such a petty, vindictive bastard, isn't he?

PS - How do you do that subscript thing with B*'s name? It's wonderful! :D

[Judi Lynn]

10. It was all the "rage" at the old CNN Campaign 2000 message board

Lots of determined posters drove themselves to subscript _"Bush." That was before the lights went out when he "won," and things got so awful CNN finally did away with their message boards altogether. They didn't like all the angry anti-_Bush posts they were getting.

Before the word, inside ]] brackets, put "sub" On the other side of the word(s) inside brackets, put "/sub" using these ]][[ instead of these 

[silverweb]

19. Heehee...

I love it!

_{George Bush} is nothing but a petty, vindictive bully!

Little _georgie needs to be shown for the vile turd that he is!

The entire _Bush administration is corrupt to the bone and needs to be booted off the planet.

Oooooh, I like this subscript thingy!

:D

[Judi Lynn]

24. By "George," you've got it!

Now you can pay _Bush the proper respect any time you like.

[silverweb]

26. You betcha!

:D

[ladylibertee]

4. Didn't we also turn town their help for the Katrina Relief.....

Effort? does anyone know anything about that? I heard it somewhere.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Sad but true, Bush did, like a spoiled brat.

Here's a view from Wayne S. Smith, who was once the head of the American Interests Section in Havana:Bush held up Cuba help over politics

By Wayne S. Smith
Posted September 13 2005

What a shame. Not even in the face of the massive human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina could the Bush administration put aside its knee-jerk rejection of anything coming out of Cuba. Only two days after the storm hit the Gulf Coast, the Cubans quietly offered humanitarian assistance. No response.

On Sept. 1, the Cuban National Assembly expressed solidarity with the American people and on Sept. 2, Fidel Castro publicly offered to send some 1,100 doctors, with 25 tons of medicines and medical equipment, to the devastated areas. They could be dispatched on Cuban aircraft immediately, he said, and to emphasize that they were ready to travel, the next day had them gather at the School of Public Health with their backpacks on. He also increased the number to 1,586 doctors and the medicines to 37 tons. Castro stressed that there was no political motive behind his offer. The U.S. and Cuba had disagreements, yes, but they should now call "a time out" to address this catastrophe.

Had there been any difficulty in sending the doctors on Cuban aircraft, Fort Lauderdale-based Gulfstream Airways had immediately offered to fly them all up free of charge. "I couldn't think of a better way to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast than to get these excellent Cuban doctors to them as quickly as possible," said CEO Tom Cooper.

Given the desperate situation on the Gulf Coast, one might have expected a rapid response from Washington, especially as MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation With Cuba), a nonprofit association based in Atlanta, described the Cuban doctors as highly trained and noted that "Cuba's experience and expertise in disaster management is so relevant to the current crisis and its aftermath in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."
(snip/...)http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-13forum13sep13,0,1561481.story?coll=sfla-news-opinion

[DELUSIONAL]

8. Oh how special -- bushie at his finest

This idiot is a nut case -- a walking, talking text book of psychopathology (Abnormal Psy).

He will rate up there right along side crazy King George and crazy Hitler etc etc.

Some hard core conservative Republicans are disgusted with his behavior.

I say he is a mean rotten spoiled 10year old boy in an old body. He just never grew up.

And democrats in Congress have enabled him -- and they are as guilty as he is -- every democrat who keep voting for his sleazy bills.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Kinda reminds me of when Guiliani got his rocks off kicking Arafat out of

Lincoln Center when he was visiting during "U.N. Week".

[Minstrel Boy]

12. Could it be the US is denying Alarcon entry because

it wants to perpetuate the myth that Cuba is "Castro's" Cuba?

Perhaps the US is consistently denying entry to Speakers of Parliament because it wants the world to believe the Cuban state is Castro, and Castro only.

[Mika]

14. BINGO! Minstrel Boy gets the prize.

You have hit the nail on the head, MB.

In every article published in the US one only sees "Castro's Cuba" when referring to Cuba or the government of Cuba. Those who care to inform themselves learn that Cuba actually has a functioning, elected parliamentary system. The real power in Cuba resides in the National Assembly (the national parliament), and the elected president of that body is Ricardo Alarcon.


Ricardo Alarcon

[K-W]

22. I wonder how many Americans even know Cuba has an assembly.

You might be right.

[Deja Q]

13. But I thought the UN was irrelevant and full of wimps.

Why would anyone then care as to who goes to what UN meeting?

[bribri16]

15. Cuba has survived without US aid, against all odds. Maybe God

really likes Cuba. One thing is for sure, Castro's policies are more "Christian" than Bush's policies.

[Mika]

17. Cuba doesn't want/need aid. Cuba seeks TRADE & travel between USA & Cuba.

That's it. It is so damn simple.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Poor Amerika, so frightened she is about a little Caribbean island

Pathetic! What can you expect when you put an ideologue like Bolton at the UN. Why doesn't Congress impeach the sob?

As to the question, will I support the troops if they invade Cuba? The answer is a resounding NO!

[Maple]

20. Yes, Cuba's help was turned down for Katrina

"HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban doctors put on stand-by a week ago by President Fidel Castro to fly to the aid of the victims of Hurricane Katrina said on Friday they hoped the United States would put politics aside and accept their help.

So far, the word from Washington has been thanks, but no thanks. The White House snubbed Cuba's offer and said Castro would do better "freeing" his Communist-run country."


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050909/ts_nm/cuba_dc_1

on edit: fixed link

[Megahurtz]

25. Just More Bushit. n/t