Bloomberg: Boeing's Saudi smart-bomb sale draws concern of U.S. lawmakers Boeing's Saudi smart-bomb sale draws concern of U.S. lawmakers Bloomberg News Published: 11/20/2007 7:02 AM

The proposed sale of Boeing Co. satellite-guided smart-bomb kits to Saudi Arabia is drawing bipartisan opposition in Congress that could block the transaction, according to correspondence released today.

A Nov. 15 letter from 188 lawmakers to President George W. Bush asked for ``solid assurances'' that the weapons, intended for defense against Iran, won't be used against Israel. Its signers include the ranking Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and defense appropriations subcommittee.

``Without such assurances, we will oppose the sale,'' said the letter, orchestrated by Republican Representative Mark Kirk of Illinois and Democrat Christopher Carney of Pennsylvania. The letter didn't say whether the promise can be in writing or must include technical changes such as making the bomb less accurate.

The concerns signal a political fight over plans to sell Persian Gulf allies up to $20 billion in arms as a way to counter any Iranian threat in the region.

The letter includes 47 lawmakers who signed a similar letter in August that had 114 signatories opposing any weapons sales to the Saudi government.

``The numbers of signatures are so large they would be wise to heed our counsel very directly,'' Kirk said today in a telephone interview.

State Department spokesman Jay Greer said the agency had no immediate comment on the letter.

Among the names on the Nov. 15 letter are Ileana Ros- Lehtinen of Florida, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs panel; C.W. ``Bill'' Young, the ranking Republican on the House defense panel; and the Select Intelligence Committee's top Republican, Representative Peter Hoekstra. The Foreign Affairs Committee's No. 2 Democrat, Representative Howard Berman of California, also signed.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which the U.S. has sold to Israel and the United Arab Emirates, allow bombs to be converted into precision-guided weapons that can hit within 20 feet (6 meters) of the target.

``If it falls into the wrong hands, JDAM technology could significantly harm U.S. forces in the region and undercut Israel's qualitative military edge,'' said the letter. ``Saudi Arabia remains in a formal state of war with Israel,'' the letter said.

The State Department last week began an informal 20-day consultation process with congressional leaders on the Saudi smart-bomb portion of the package, Kirk's office said in a press release. This phase will be followed by a formal 30-day notification period that includes documentation outlining the sale.

A potential JDAM sale to Saudi Arabia raises ``highly reasonable concerns,'' said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in Washington.

Those include the possibility of a rogue Saudi pilot using JDAM-equipped bombs to attack a ``high-profile target'' in Israel, the emergence of a radical Islamic Saudi government unfriendly to Israel or the theft of kits by al-Qaeda terrorists, Katzman said.

The letter said any JDAM sale to Saudi Arabia ``must come with guarantees backed by strict conditions notified to Congress followed by regular reporting, tight oversight and intense consultations with our ally Israel.''

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Weekly Standard: The Other Refugees The Other Refugees Daily Standard By Jillian Bandes

A NEW DISCOVERY in the archives at the United Nations has drastically altered the historical narrative of the exile of Jews from Arab countries.

Conventional wisdom had long held that the exile was the result of isolated incidents of anti-Semitism. But the newly discovered document reveals that it was, in fact, the result of concerted efforts by Arab countries, amounting to what is essentially a standard multinational policy of discrimination.

The document was released by the human rights group Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JFJ) at a conference this past weekend, and includes the following:

" . . . every Jew whose activities reveal that he is an active Zionist will be considered as a political prisoner and will be interned in places specifically designated for that purpose . . . his financial resources . . . will be frozen."

No one at the Arab League was available to speak on record about the document despite repeated calls to the organization over a four-day period. But an unnamed source there claimed that any document explaining such repression is "pretty questionable," given that there is no record of it in Arab League files.

The source said that, due to the lack of computers, there had not been any record-keeping that long ago.

University of Miami professor Henry Green, an attendee at the JFJ conference, said "the historical record regarding the United Nations partition vote and the ongoing issue of refugees includes archival information that is accessible to anyone," and that he would invite the Arab League "to join me and review the records so we can bring the historical documents to bear."

JFJ President Stan Urman said that the law outlines "a step by step chronology pointing to collusion by the Arab League" to work against Israel during the time of its inception. Urman and over 50 scholars from 10 countries met at the conference, which Green said "acknowledged and addressed the plight and pain of Jews from Arab and Islamic Lands that have been displaced because of state-sanctioned policies of repression."

The document comes at the center of a controversial historical and international debate. Almost sixty years ago, between 850,000 and 1 million Jews were exiled from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and elsewhere in the region, while around 726,000 Palestinian refugees were displaced at roughly the same time. Jewish advocates point to 126 U.N. resolutions that have been passed on behalf of Palestinian refugees, and note that zero have been passed on behalf of their Jewish counterparts.

JFJ spokeswoman Shira Dicker believes this to be the result of Israel's inaction on the issue, resulting from discrimination against Israel's Sephardic Jews--who made up the vast majority of those exiled from Arab countries--and an unwillingness to revisit the past.

"There were guilts, there were mess-ups. Some lands commanded more cachet than others," said Dicker. She expressed the common view that Ashkenazi Jews coming from European locations received preferential treatment to the Sephardim coming from Arab lands. As a result, the issue of exile was low on Israel's agenda. Furthermore, the refugee victims felt as if their stories were less tragic than those of the Holocaust survivors, who were taking up residence in Israel during the same period. And as time went on, Jewish refugees from Arab lands found it difficult to bring attention to their cause as victims because of their success in re-rooting themselves.

Conference attendees interested in seeing that change were infuriated when an Israeli official offered that the government would "address the issue when the time is right."

A State Department official was similarly noncommittal, saying that there are no plans to address the issue of Jewish refugees at the upcoming Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Maryland between U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian representatives among others.

Looking for allies, the victims are turning to Congress. Spearheaded by Reps. Tom Lantos and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, H. Res. 185 and S. Res. 85, address the issue of Jewish refugees by mandating that any Middle East peace agreement would address the plight of "all refugees in the Middle East"--not just Jews, but Christians and Muslims as well. The proposed legislation would also require that Jewish and other refugees be mentioned when resolutions are made about Palestinian refugees--a point likely to stir anger among Palestinian advocacy groups. However, debate won't begin on the resolution before the Annapolis talks.

Gina Wills, a public affairs specialist in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the Department of State, said that the United States has never addressed the issue of Jewish refugees or commanded attention to their restitution. In fact, it has refused to recognize the claims of Jews fleeing Iraq, despite recognizing the claims of Arab refugees against Israel.

The issue "has been expunged on the pages of history," said JFJ's Shira Dicker. "This is it, 60 years after the fact."

Jillian Bandes is a staff writer at Roll Call.

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Washington Post: U.S. Officials: Timing Is Key for Musharraf U.S. Officials: Timing Is Key for Musharraf Rice Calls on Pakistan's Leader to Restore Constitutional Rule as Soon as Possible

By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 11, 2007; 3:43 PM

The Bush administration is betting that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf can survive the crisis in Pakistan if he moves decisively to lift emergency rule and hold elections over the next two months, despite new U.S. intelligence concerns about the dangers of long-term instability or, worse, a political vacuum, U.S. officials said. Timing is the key, they added.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today called on Musharraf to restore constitutional rule "as soon as possible." The administration is considering sending a senior official to Islamabad this week to tell the Pakistani leader that he must urgently rescind restrictions on the media, civil society and opposition politicians, which could discredit any January elections -- and endanger both Pakistan's stability and his political future, the sources said.

But the United States is also hedging its bets, with the U.S. Embassy reaching out to civil society leaders, military officials, community leaders and political parties to build options -- just in case, U.S. officials said.

"We don't want to be seen to be looking, but we want to make sure we talk to a wide array of people," said one official, who requested anonymity because of the crisis.

Over the past week, the administration's position has begun to evolve from a commitment to stand by Musharraf to an emphasis on the will of the Pakistani people, and of unnamed "others."

"We encourage moderate political forces in Pakistan to work together. Now if that means President Musharraf and former prime minister [Benazir] Bhutto or others, then that is a decision for those people to make. It's a decision for the Pakistani people to make," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

On ABC's "This Week" today, Rice shifted the focus from Musharraf. "This is not a personal matter about President Musharraf. This is about the Pakistani people, and the United States has been dedicated to helping the Pakistani people come to a more democratic path," she said.

America's top diplomat also emphasized long-term U.S. goals rather than loyalty to the top U.S. ally in counterterrorism efforts since the 9/11 attacks.

"We're standing with democratic principles in Pakistan when we say there have to be free and fair elections. We're standing with principles of moderation when we try to work to bring moderate forces together," Rice said. "If the suggestion is that we somehow now abandon a course that could lead back to a path of democracy for Pakistan, I think that would be a mistake."

U.S. policymakers are now focused on the two-month window, through the elections Musharraf promised by Jan. 9, for the Pakistani leader to restore the rule of law. The key will be moves by Musharraf to start a "steady progression" of steps to signal a return to constitutional rule, said the U.S. official. "He must demonstrate light at the end of the tunnel."

Yet a nervousness permeates U.S. policy after only one week of crisis, which has increasingly diverted attention from regional counterterrorism to Pakistan's internal politics. After the police siege of Bhutto's home and the arrest of thousands of lawyers Friday, U.S. officials worried about whether Musharraf can last until elections play out. "We don't know what this is going to look like next week -- never mind three months from now," said another administration official, who requested anonymity because of the crisis.

In policy deliberations, intelligence analysis, and even a congressional hearing last week, an array of government officials have mentioned comparisons between the growing instability in Pakistan and the turmoil that preceded Iran's 1979 overthrow of the shah.

While there are many differences between the two crises and countries, and no officials foresee an Islamic upheaval in Pakistan, several officials have talked about the same consequences.

"Iran has come up on more than one occasion -- the idea that if it doesn't go well, we can expect an extended period of time where popular opinion trends very negatively against the United States and makes it difficult for future governments to work with us on counterterrorism objectives," said the first senior U.S. official.

Iran was a repeated theme of questioning at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week. "Some have said that the U.S. has over-relied on a leader who has made efforts to modernize, but who has a shrinking base of support," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).

U.S. allies in Europe and Asia are even more pessimistic, with some officials suggesting the United States has put its head in the sand on Pakistan.

"This could go south very, very quickly. It's one of the worst international crises we have had -- and I include Iraq in that statement," said a European diplomat. "The United States is more tolerant of Musharraf. To the Americans, he's not perfect, but he's the only Musharraf they have."

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News Post India: Diwali is celebrated with gusto in US Diwali is celebrated with gusto in US

By Arun Kumar

Washington, Nov 11 (IANS): More than two million Indian Americans celebrated Diwali across the United States with the festivities reaching the White House and the US Congress recognising the importance of a "strong and vibrant immigrant community."

Across the country, Indian Americans came together to celebrate Diwali just as they do in India . Lamps were lit around houses, prayers offered at homes and in temples. Families came together, exchanged gifts, gave traditional sweets to friends and associates, and generally had a good time.

Diwali melas were held wherever there is a concentration of Indian Americans: from California to New York , New Jersey , Texas and Georgia . Vendors sold typical Diwali gifts of ethnic clothing, jewellery, Hindi music CDs and DVDs of Bollywood films. Hindi singers and folk artists performed; bhangra was danced.

Some 150 eminent Indian American community leaders from all over the US attended the White House celebrations Nov 7 in the "Indian Treaty Room" - where once treaties with the American Indians (Red Indians) were stored - for the fifth year in a row.

President George W. Bush himself was not there, but US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has just returned from India , and the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, Washington 's point man on the India-US nuclear deal, were on hand to greet them.

They appreciated the India American leaders' contribution in getting the nuclear deal approved in principle by the US Congress last year and hoped they would help in reaching out to opposing Indian leaders on the importance of the deal and its significance to the US-India relationship.

The White House celebrations came days after the US House of Representatives approved a resolution recognising the significance of Diwali by an overwhelming 358-0 vote Oct 29, with 204 Democrats and 154 Republicans supporting it.

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, who sponsored the resolution, said it not only marks "the international, religious and historical importance of the festival of Diwali", but also "recognises the importance of Indian Americans - a strong and vibrant immigrant community."

Representative John Tanner of Tennessee said, "By celebrating Diwali, we also are celebrating this diversity, a shared value that has brought the United States and India closer together throughout the years."

"This celebration presents all of us with the opportunity to reflect on the many ways in which people, history and traditions of India , and elsewhere in South Asia, have contributed to the rich cultural mosaic that is the United States of America ," said Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

In Washington , a 15-year-old annual Diwali mela last Sunday drew about 7,000 people despite chilly weather. Sponsored by the Association of United Hindu & Jain Temples (UHJT), it offered food, music and shopping and ended with a large fireworks display.

Another local organisation called BAPS focusing on social service celebrated Diwali over five days with an all vegetarian served to public for free Saturday night. BAPS, which has built a $19 million temple in Atlanta , boasts of 57 centres in North America , up from 18 nine years ago.

Diwali found mainstream appeal in Houston with the Houston Chronicle noting how businesses are catching on to the popular festival and marketing to the area's growing Indian population.

In recent years, Hallmark has launched Diwali greeting cards, porcelain figurine maker Lladrohas launched a line of Hindu deities and Wells Fargo and Citibank are running special promotions. Some companies are also using the time to build goodwill with clients and employees with celebrations and season's greetings, the paper said.

In New York , Diwali was for the second year declared an official "parking holiday" - when one can park on both sides of a road instead of only one like on normal working days. The decision was seen by New York Daily News religion columnist, Ari Goldman as a sign that "Hindus 'Arrive' in the City."

International Herald Tribune: A loyalist turns into Bush's toughest critic on the right A loyalist turns into Bush's toughest critic on the right

By Steven Lee Myers Thursday, November 8, 2007

WASHINGTON: The White House's effort to challenge Iran's nuclear ambition has been hobbled by "four and a half years of failed diplomacy." Its policy regarding North Korea is a dangerous fraud. It is pursuing an improbable Palestinian-Israeli peace at the expense of an unbending stance on proliferation in the Middle East.

And that from a longtime Bush loyalist: John Bolton, the conservative lawyer who until less than a year ago served as Bush's proudly unwavering representative at the United Nations.

Bolton has since emerged as the administration's most outspoken critic from the right, rebuking his former boss in interviews, in op-ed articles and now in a new book. For a man who rushed to Florida in 2000 to join the Bush campaign's legal fight during the disputed recount, the disappointment sounds personal.

"I didn't spend 31 days in Florida," he said, "to end up where we are now."

Bolton's criticisms echo a growing unease among some conservatives that a weakened White House chastened by the war in Iraq is abandoning core principles in pursuit of a more moderate policy of negotiations.

"You see this at the end of every administration," said Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republic of Michigan, who criticized the administration's talks with North Korea to dismantle its nuclear-weapons program.

With Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, another staunch conservative, he recently wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal calling on the administration to disclose information about the Israeli airstrike in September against what was reported to be a nuclear facility in Syria being equipped by the North Koreans.

"I'm going to watch very carefully with they do in North Korea," Hoekstra said in an interview by Telephone. "I'm going to watch what they do with the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Syrians."

Bush's turn to a more pragmatic policy coincided with the departure of some of the administration's most hawkish officials and the ascendancy of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. Now, some of the debates that once happened behind the administration's closed doors are taking place in public.

"I thought the policy had been moving in the wrong direction for quite some time," Bolton said of his decision to step aside when his controversial recess appointment expired with the last Congress at the end of last December. The White House discussed keeping him on, though it was clear the Senate would never confirm him as ambassador.

"Not only was it moving in the wrong direction, it was going to continue in the wrong direction no matter what I did," he went on, speaking in an interview at the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative research organization he has returned to. "So in the cost benefit calculus of being in the government, I just felt that on policy terms I could do more outside the government than within."

When Bolton stepped aside at the end of 2006, Bush called his departure a disappointment, and for an administration sensitive about criticism, it has turned out to be one.

When Bolton's name came up in a recent conversation, an administration official recalled, the president curtly responded, "Interesting guy," and changed the topic.

Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, would only say, "He has a huge amount of respect for John Bolton."

On the foreign-policy crisis of the day, the state of emergency in Pakistan, Bolton argued that Bush was being naïve to call on Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharaff, to hold elections, which he said would risk instability - perhaps even an Islamic government armed with a nuclear arsenal.

"While Pervez Musharraf might not be a Jeffersonian democrat, he is the best bet to secure the nuclear arsenal," he said.

Bolton's book, "Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad" (Threshold Editions), is no kiss-and-tell screed against Bush and his team, though he recounts with relish his conflicts with colleagues and rivals at the United Nations and in the State Department.

He describes disputes that pitted his conservative faction against the "High Minded," those who, in his view, have seized control of not only the media, Congress, the State Department and the United Nations, but now also the White House.

"They picked up some allies among Bush's political appointees, distracted a few, and seduced others," Bolton writes about Bush's decision to negotiate with North Korea.

"They whispered to the press against the infidels in the new administration who advocated a harder line. They even watched a few of their own go over the side, but they always persisted. And in the Seventh Year, Bush and his team rested.

"The bureaucracy's persistence prevailed so overwhelmingly that Bush himself did not even realize it."

Bolton, who served first as the State Department's chief arms control official, argues that the administration has abandoned the unilateralist strategy it followed at the beginning when it bolted from the Kyoto Protocol, "unsigned" the agreement that created the International Criminal Court and abrogated the Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

He says that only a fundamental change in government, not negotiations, will divert Iran and North Korea from the nuclear path.

"They are not going to give up their nuclear weapons voluntarily," Bolton said in the interview. "They might be forced to give up their nuclear weapons, but that is not the policy that we're pursuing. So the consequence of the policy is that it won't achieve the stated objective, and it will have the effect of legitimizing and reinforcing two fundamentally illegitimate regimes."

He said North Korea's apparent assistance to Syria in the construction of what analysts and officials said was a nuclear reactor showed that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, was already violating its pledge in February to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

In the case of Iran, he said: "I think this is very difficult question that has to be very carefully thought out. The choice is not between the world as it is today and the use of force. The choice is between the use of force and Iran with nuclear weapons."

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House takes up Peru free trade agreement
 By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
 WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday took up a free trade agreement with Peru, the first under new Democratic standards that elevate labor rights and the environment to a more central role in trade pacts.

 The agreement would eliminate duties immediately on some 80 percent of U.S. industrial exports and two-thirds of farm exports to the South American country.

 Equally important, supporters said, it could boost U.S. standing and influence in an area where governments hostile to U.S. interests, led by Venezuela, have gained prominence.

 "The decision to support legislation expanding our commercial relations signals the importance that Peru holds for U.S. economic and security interests," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

 The House was scheduled to vote on the bill implementing the agreement late Tuesday. The Senate vote on the pact, signed between the U.S. and Peruvian governments in April 2006, was expected later this month.

 Democrats generally have resisted free trade deals they blame for job losses and trade deficits, and their rise to power in January was seemingly a blow to the Bush administration's aggressive free trade agenda. But the situation changed in May when the administration agreed to Democratic demands that labor rights and the environment be core elements of any future agreements.

 Still, many Democrats, including some freshmen with ties to organized labor or from districts that have seen jobs disappear overseas, remained skeptical.

 With every trade agreement "we end up outsourcing more wealth and more middle class jobs," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a 13-term Democrat from Ohio. If labor rights are protected, "why are no trade unions in our country or Peru supporting the agreement?" she said.

 Opponents noted that, on the day of the House vote, the Peruvian government had decreed a miners' strike illegal and threatened to fire miners who do not return to work in three days.

 "Workers everywhere want globalization policies that will benefit all and not just the wealthiest few," Teamsters President James Hoffa said in a letter to House members. "Unfortunately, the Peru FTA (free trade agreement) and the other pending FTAs do not meet this standard."

 The agreement requires the parties to abide by International Labor Organization standards. The pact also commits the parties to enforce their own environmental standards, participate in international environmental accords, and not weaken or reduce environmental laws to attract trade or investment.

 Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, said that despite the gesture toward labor and environmental rights, Democrats have yet to address problems with foreign investor privileges, incentives for U.S. companies to move offshore or issues of food import safety. She said a surge in American agriculture exports to Peru could also displace tens of thousands of poor Peruvian farmers, forcing them into drug production, paramilitary groups or flight to the United States.

 The White House has been a strong supporter of the agreement, saying in a statement that approval would "send a clear signal to our neighbors, and the world, that we are willing to support those who share our values of economic freedom and democracy."

 Currently, through a regional trade agreement with Andean nations, Peru already can export most of its products to the United States duty-free. The deal will more immediately affect U.S. sales, removing tariffs, opening opportunities for U.S. investors and service industries and protecting intellectual property rights.

 In 2006, Peru sold $5.9 billion worth of goods to the United States, while buying $2.9 billion in U.S. exports.

 The agreement, if approved by the Senate, would be the first to clear Congress since a bilateral deal with Oman was accepted in September 2006. The United States in recent years also has concluded deals with Bahrain, Morocco and Australia, as well as putting in force the Central America Free Trade Agreement.

 Congressional action is pending on deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, but votes are unlikely to occur this year.

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Charleston Post and Courier Editorial: Fitting tribute to imprisoned hero Fitting tribute to imprisoned hero Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Nobody could be more deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom than Oscar Elias Biscet, the Cuban doctor who has been imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship for over a decade and is currently serving a 25-year sentence for the "crime" of defending human rights. President Bush recognized Dr. Biscet's heroism at a ceremony at the White House Monday when he bestowed the nation's highest civil honor on the Cuban dissident.

Appropriately, one of the seven other recipients was Harper Lee, author of the classic novel about the nobility of the human conscience, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Dr. Biscet is an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" whose real-life story is as inspiring as that of the hero of Ms. Lee's book. President Bush drew a parallel with the Cuban dissident when he presented the medal to Ms. Lee. "We learn that courage can be a solitary business," he said "As the lawyer Atticus Finch tells his daughter, 'Before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.' "

Dr. Biscet, of course, was not at the ceremony. He is in the infamous Combinado del Este prison in solitary confinement under appalling conditions. But, as the president said, "When tyrannies fall, it's often the prisoners and exiles who are called forth to lead their people.'' Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who nominated him for the medal, believes he will become a symbol of freedom, like Poland's Lech Walesa, the Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel and South Africa's Nelson Mandela.

Dr. Biscet's own role models are Martin Luther King, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. He came into prominence — and was sent rapidly into jail — when he denounced the Castro-Communist regime's policy of enforced abortions. He was barred from practicing medicine and his family was persecuted. But he went on to found the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, an organization based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and organized peaceful protests against the Castro dictatorship that landed him in jail dozens of times.

Dr. Biscet's stepson Yan Valdes Morejon, exiled in Miami, accepted the medal on behalf of his father. "It is not easy to be the child of a prisoner of conscience," he said, recalling that he took inspiration from his stepfather's words, "that we all have an obligation to stand up for our freedom." He added, "In his letters from prison, he has remained resolute and unapologetic — repeating that freedom is worth the sacrifice. I live in the United States now, and I appreciate its liberties every day. But, like my father, I yearn to live in a free Cuba."

Today, as President Bush said, "Cuba is a tropical gulag." Gulags cannot stand indefinitely against prisoners of conscience who are also heroes of freedom.

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AP: AF GEN Interpol Iran; Interpol votes against Iran in Argentina terror case AF GEN Interpol Iran; Interpol votes against Iran in Argentina terror case

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press Writer

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) - Interpol voted to put five Iranians and a Lebanese terror suspect on its most-wanted list Wednesday in connection with a 1994 bombing in Argentina.

The decision, at an annual Interpol general assembly in Morocco, added another layer of tension to Iran's already strained relations with the West.

Iranian delegates to the meeting had said that the police agency risked becoming a political tool of Israel and the United States.

Asked after the vote whether Tehran would now hand over the suspects, Iranian delegate Alireza Deihin responded: "Of course not."

"These are baseless accusations, fabricated accusations, political accusations," he said. "Justice has been overruled by political considerations."

The 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, killed 85 people. Argentine prosecutors have alleged that Iranian officials orchestrated the bombing and entrusted the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry it out.

In March, Interpol's executive committee had already backed Argentina's request for international wanted notices, which the agency calls "red notices," to be issued for the six. But Iran objected, which sent the issue to the general assembly vote.

Several delegates, including Iranians, said the result -- which Interpol did not provide after the closed-door vote -- was 78-14, with 26 abstentions.

"We have achieved something that we have been hoping for for a long time," said Alberto Nisman, the chief Argentine prosecutor in the case.

No one has been convicted in Argentina in connection with the blast, in which a van stuffed with explosives leveled the seven-story Jewish center and shook Argentina's 200,000-strong Jewish community.

In Buenos Aires, victims' relatives lauded the decision but voiced skepticism that Iran will surrender the suspects.

"Iran has never voluntarily cooperated in the case and they aren't going to come of their own will and deliver any of their citizens," said Adriana Resfield, whose sister was killed in the blast. "We will keep insisting, because pressure is very important. It's very important that Argentina not let up in demanding them for trial."

Although Interpol is a police organization, the vote on whether to issue wanted notices for the six had become embroiled in Iran's broader tensions with the West, which stem in part from suspicions that Tehran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Iranian delegates had accused Israel and the United States of using the vote for political ends, claiming the two nations were essentially looking to discredit Iranian officials.

The six people targeted with Interpol wanted notices are former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahian; Mohsen Rabbani, former cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires; former diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari; Mohsen Rezaei, former leader of the elite Revolutionary Guards; Ahmad Vahidi, a general in the Revolutionary Guards; and Hezbollah militant Imad Moughnieh, one of the world's most sought-after terror suspects.

Interpol's red notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite the suspects, but they do put the men on the agency's equivalent of a most-wanted list.

"The final resolution of this case will occur when the subjects responsible for committing mass murder are convicted in court," said Thomas Fuentes, assistant director of the FBI office of international operations, who is also a member of Interpol's executive committee. "I hope the decision today ... is one step further in that process."

Nisman said the wanted notices would be put in place immediately.

The Argentine prosecutor rejected Iranian claims that the vote was political, saying: "this is a police matter."

"We don't have anything against the government of Iran or the people of Iran," he said.

Israeli and U.S. envoys kept a low profile during the meeting, concerned about not giving the impression of a politicized vote.

"It is the right decision," said Israeli delegate Anat Granit, a head of special operations for the Israeli police. "We are very happy, but this is all I want to say."

In the United States, Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, said the issuing of wanted notices "brings these alleged murderers one step closer to justice."

"It is essential that Argentina receives the full cooperation of all nations to help snare these suspects so justice can be meted out in court, something that these cowards denied their victims," she said.

In Marrakech, Iranian delegates had lobbied counterparts, mainly from African and Asian countries, by handing out dossiers written in several languages and explaining their case.

Among their arguments were that Argentina's investigation was flawed, if not corrupt; some witnesses cited in that investigation were themselves wanted by Interpol; Iran quickly condemned the bombings and a bilateral resolution would be better.

Mohammad Ali Pakshir, a legal adviser in Iran's delegation, claimed before the vote that the United States and Israel "want Interpol to issue the red notices to be able to tell the world 'Look, they are terrorists.'"

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SF Chronicle: Lawmakers blast Yahoo executives for helping China jail dissident Lawmakers blast Yahoo executives for helping China jail dissident

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau Tuesday, November 6, 2007

(11-06) 17:04 PST Washington - --

Jerry Yang, Yahoo Inc.'s CEO, and the company's top lawyer were lambasted Tuesday as moral "pygmies" by a top House Bay Area Democrat for the firm's role in helping China identify and jail a journalist in 2004.

Lawmakers of both parties accused the Sunnyvale Internet giant of prioritizing its profits in a booming China market over human rights by turning over secret data that enabled Chinese officials to track down and punish dissidents.

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, said at the end of the three-hour hearing.

Yang defended his company's efforts to operate in a country with severe free speech restrictions, but was criticized by lawmakers who were furious that Yahoo didn't resist China's efforts to censor its citizens.

"I've invested my professional life in this company and I believe in the Internet and its incredible power," said Yang, who co-founded Yahoo while a Stanford University graduate student and became the company's CEO in June.

"I also know that governments around the world have imprisoned people for simply speaking their minds online. That runs counter to all my personal and professional beliefs."

The hearing began with Yang, who immigrated from Taiwan at age 10, entering the hearing room and bowing and apologizing to the mother of journalist Shi Tao and the wife of Internet writer Wang Xiaoning, who both received 10-year sentences after being identified with the help of information from Yahoo.

The act wasn't enough for Lantos. He called on Yang and Yahoo chief counsel Michael Callahan to turn and face the dissidents' families, seated in the front row, and plead for forgiveness.

"I would urge you to beg the forgiveness of the mother whose son is languishing behind bars thanks to Yahoo's actions," Lantos said. Shi's mother's had tears in her eyes as the two executives complied.

House lawmakers called the hearing after discovering new details about Yahoo's handling of Shi's case, which cast doubt on the company's earlier explanations of what happened.

Shi, a 37-year-old reporter for a business journal in the Hunan province, got in trouble for a single act: On April 20, 2004, the Chinese government ordered the country's news media not to write about the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. Shi, using his Yahoo e-mail account, forwarded the order to a pro-democracy group.

When they Chinese government found out, they ordered the Hong Kong office of Yahoo China to hand over records that would identify the sender. The company complied. In November 2004, Shi's home was raided, his computer was confiscated and his family was told not to talk about the case. In March 2005 he was given a 10-year sentence.

In February 2006, the then-Republican controlled House held a seven-hour hearing in which executives from Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Yahoo were grilled about their compliance with censorship laws in China and elsewhere. At the time, Callahan testified that when Yahoo turned over information about Shi to Chinese authorities "we had no information about the nature of the investigation."

The statement turned out to be false. Documents unearthed by the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation showed that Yahoo China officials had received a subpoena-like document on April 22, 2004, from the Beijing State Security Bureau that stated, "Your office is in possession of items relating to a case of suspected illegal provision of state secrets to foreign entities." China has often cracked down on dissidents by accusing them of leaking state secrets.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chaired the original hearing, said he couldn't believe that no one had told Callahan about the document before his testimony.

"How could a dozen lawyers prepare another lawyer to testify before Congress without anyone thinking to look at the document that had caused the hearing to be called?" Smith asked. "This is astonishing."

Callahan apologized to the committee, but insisted he had not tried to mislead lawmakers. He said he only found out about the "state secrets" document in October 2006 when the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner launched an investigation to see if Yahoo had violated local privacy regulations. He admitted it was a mistake not to inform Congress immediately.

"There was never an intent or a plan to conceal this information in any way," Callahan said

Lawmakers were furious that no one tried contacting Congress to correct the error, and that no one at Yahoo has been fired or demoted for their handling of the case.

"You think that sends the right message to your employees?" Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County), asked sarcastically.

Yahoo officials may have underestimated how harshly they would be rebuked by the committee, which is stacked with human rights activists and led by Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi persecution in Hungary, and ranking Republican, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, whose family fled Cuba and who is an ardent foe of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Yang and Callahan argued that it was better to try to expand the Internet in China, even if it meant agreeing to live under its repressive rules.

"We continue to believe in engagement in markets like China," Yang said. "Why? Today, despite broad limitations on sensitive political subjects, Chinese citizens know more than ever before about local public health issues, environmental causes, politics, corruption, consumer choice, job opportunities and even some foreign affairs."

But most lawmakers complained that Yahoo appeared more focused on making money in China - with more than 150 million Internet users - than boosting the freedoms of its people. Smith compared Yahoo to IBM, whose punch card technology helped the Nazis accelerate their campaign to exterminate Jews in Europe.

"There certainly is a parallel here," Smith said. "People are being tortured and mistreated today because of that complicity."

Callahan noted that Yahoo had little choice about whether to agree to Beijing's orders because Yahoo employees would have been jailed for refusing to comply.

"I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if in my personal view the local laws are overbroad," he said.

Congress is considering legislation that would ban U.S. Internet companies from providing information on its customers to repressive regimes.

In 2005, Yahoo sold its interest in Yahoo China to the Chinese Internet giant, Alibaba. But Yahoo still has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba and Yang holds one of four seats on the parent company's board. Critics say the arrangement allows Yahoo to wash its hands of responsibility when China cracks down on Internet users. Yang acknowledged he has little say in enforcement issues.

"They say, 'We don't have any control over the operations,' " said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative for Reporters Without Borders. "If the lack of control is putting more dissidents in jail, maybe it's time for them to renegotiate the contract."

Lawmakers also complained that Yahoo has done little to help the families of the jailed dissidents.

"You're one of the richest companies in the country and you don't know if you can meet the humanitarian needs of a couple of families?" asked Brad Sherman, D-Los Angeles.

Yang said company executives were pleading for their release with Chinese officials. Shi and Wang and their families have filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Yahoo. In a move that surprised human rights activists, Yang and Callahan met with the two dissidents' family members after the hearing, which could be a first step toward settling the case.

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Bradenton Herald: Florida Keys at a crossroads between locals and the rich Florida Keys at a crossroads between locals and the rich

Posted on Sat, Nov. 03, 2007 Florida Keys at a crossroads between locals and the rich

By ADRIAN SAINZ AP Business Writer

The sights and sounds at Schooner Wharf drip with Key West attitude: Sunburned tourists lounge near a marina, savoring drinks alongside locals wearing tank tops and sandals. A singer warbles, "I'd rather be here, drinking a beer, than freezing my a- off up north."

Different sounds emerge from behind the bar known as "The last little piece of Old Key West" - the sound of bulldozers working on a 32-unit luxury gated community. Pre-construction prices for spacious three-bedroom suites start at $1.87 million.

The Harbor House development will attract an upscale clientele seeking an island lifestyle. But its exclusivity clearly upsets some people here. Just read the writing scrawled on a retaining wall: "Stop the Madness." "Money Talks." "Eat the Rich."

The Florida Keys are at a crossroads, beset by shortages of high-paying jobs and affordable housing, rising property taxes and insurance, and environmental concerns. Yet the move to "upscale" the Keys is gaining steam, a sign of growth that's commonly experienced by tourism-dependent communities. Such growth is leaving many Keys residents feeling priced out or ignored.

"It seems like it's paradise, but at the same time it's an economic hardship for the residents," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who represents Monroe County. "That leads to this kind of twisted, complex relationship, sort of a marriage in therapy ... The Keys community and the tourists are always in couples therapy."

Stretching south and west from Florida's peninsula, the island chain is about 125 miles long from Key Largo to Key West, connected to the mainland by the Overseas Highway ( U.S. 1). Tourism is the economic engine, generating $1.7 billion in total sales in 2006. Visitors enjoy the warm waters surrounding the islands, which house rich fisheries and the only living barrier coral reef in the continental U.S. Dotted with trailer parks, hotels, campgrounds, marinas, retail shops and homes, the Keys attracted 2.25 million overnight visitors in 2006, according to the Monroe County Tourism Development Council. Day visitors, including Key West cruise ship passengers, add significantly to that total.

The Keys has a reputation for its tropical, laissez-faire lifestyle, where it once was possible for almost anyone - retirees and fishermen, hippies and lost souls - to move here with a little money, in search of paradise. "This place will always be a Mecca for the square pegs," said Michael McCloud, the sunglasses-wearing bar singer at Schooner Wharf. "This is the end of the road." The Keys' population and popularity increased over the years, leading to more structures getting built on limited land. "Geography is the biggest imperative in understanding who and what we are," said developer Pritam Singh, responsible for Key West projects such as Truman Annex. "It's both our attraction, that we're islands, and a curse, that we're islands." When eight hurricanes struck Florida in 2004 and 2005, Keys visitors were asked to evacuate seven times, resulting in lost profits for hoteliers, charter fishermen and dive operators. Hurricane Wilma flooded homes and streets, but business owners questioned whether evacuations were necessary for weaker storms such as Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006.

The active seasons led to higher hurricane insurance rates throughout Florida, where the bloated real estate market catapulted home prices. Skyrocketing property taxes and higher costs of gas, food, and rent has made life harder for those with low- and mid-incomes - teachers, police, firefighters, restaurant and hotel employees, and other professionals and service workers that any community requires.

The median sales price of a single-family home was $700,000 in 2006, Monroe County statistics show. That's nearly three times the median sales price of an existing home in Florida in 2006, which the Florida Association of Realtors reported was $248,300.

"There is not enough industry here, not enough opportunity for well-paying jobs, relative to what it costs to live here," said Bob Kelly, who has managed a shoe store, an art gallery and a rental property in two different stints as a Key West resident.

These factors are likely reasons for the population drop in Monroe County. According to the U.S. Census, the population in the Keys was 74,737 in 2006, down 6 percent from 79,589 in 2000. During that period, Florida's population grew 13 percent.

Patti Julien works at a clinic in Marathon, about halfway down the Keys. She and dozens of others board buses at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Florida City, the final stop on the mainland, then endure a two-hour bus ride each way because they can't afford living in the Keys. Julien gets to the Wal-Mart about midnight, taking the day's last bus from her home south of Miami. She then waits five hours because there's no early bus to Florida City, and she's scared she'll miss her ride.

"It's a real problem," said Julien, 59. "I'd move to the Keys but I'd be paying $2,000 a month down there for a comparable duplex."

Teachers are a group that face a daily financial struggle, though Monroe County leads Florida in average annual salary for teachers with a bachelor's degree at $47,687.

Schools superintendent Randy Acevedo says the district has plans to build housing for teachers and staff. Retention is a problem, with the district replacing about 100 teachers out of 600 every year, Acevedo said. Some don't leave but use other methods to manage a stressful life that belies their picturesque surroundings, like take a second job. "I can go out to dinner with the family and the waiter or waitress might be a teacher," Acevedo said.

There are many efforts to improve the quality of life for residents, including attempts in Key West, Marathon and other cities to add hundreds of new affordable housing units.

Marathon Mayor Chris Bull is joining forces with Ros-Lehtinen to secure funds for improving water quality. Storm runoff, untreated sewage and pollution threaten the economically vital reef system. In 2000, Congress authorized $100 million in water quality improvements. An Oct. 1 letter to President Bush signed by six Florida members of Congress requests $29 million of that money in the 2009 budget. "We're definitely in a critical stage of Keys development," Bull said.

The developmental stages of places like the Keys are the subject of the Tourism Area Life Cycle. Scholar Richard Butler says the theory discusses stages of growth: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation and stagnation. After stagnation, communities can decline or rejuvenate.

The Keys seem headed toward consolidation, where expensive hotels and vacation rentals replace older motels, where a Starbucks could replace a mom-and-pop coffee shop - generating some ill feelings in the process. In a 2004 survey, 73 percent of Key West respondents said development was a threat to the city's character and culture.

Locals "get the feel that you are losing control of your community. Locals begin to feel ineffective ... That's a common problem," Butler said.

Bob Bernreuter closed The Deli, a favorite for 56 years, after losing business because of the hurricanes and rising competition from other restaurants. Bernreuter estimated there are more than 400 restaurants in Key West alone - quite a lot for a population of about 25,000. Bernreuter said he did not want to raise prices to avoid alienating his regular customers who enjoyed the affordable breakfast fare and fresh seafood, and no one in his family was going to take over. "You don't have as many families coming down here anymore who would have met the price structure for the restaurant," he said.

Developers like Singh are leading the upscaling of the Keys. One project is Parrot Key, a 74-unit resort offering multiple bedroom units, with amenities such as kitchens, flat screen TVs and iPod docking stations, for $400 to $500 a night. The location is where a Hampton Inn once stood, which offered smaller rooms at one-fifth of the price, with fewer amenities.

Singh said it's critical for Key West to replace its older properties with modern, sustainable ones. Fancier vacation rentals are necessary to provide a quality experience in a competitive world tourism market and manageable profit margins despite high taxes, insurance and water treatment costs, he said.

"It's pretty clear the Keys is already on its way" toward upscaling, Singh said. Harbor House developer KeysCaribbean Resorts said it wanted to maintain the Key West-style architecture to preserve the quaint, rustic feel of the area. A previous design drew neighbors' ire, and the developers changed it. Harbor House will offer homes and vacation rentals. "A lot of people that have been here for many, many years just do not like to see any change whatsoever," said KeysCaribbean chief executive Craig Hunt. "When you look at Harbor House it looks like Old Key West. There was some pretty ramshackle buildings on that ground. It will look way better than it was."

Sitting in a restaurant near Schooner Wharf and Harbor House, longtime Key Wester John Mertz laments the current trends.

Expensive vacation rentals are pricing out tightfisted travelers, such as families. Homes that are too expensive for regular folks are bought by out-of-towners seeking a second home, but only stay in it for a few months a year. Locals are losing access to the water because the best waterfront properties end up in developers' hands. Tourist congestion creates excessive traffic and noise.

"When I first moved here it was very egalitarian," Mertz said. "Now there's more of a class distinction - the obscenely rich and their servants. It can become a horrible thing, sort of like a monopolistic Disney World controlled by just a few that don't really live here."

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The Miami Herald: Storm Noel gives Florida beaches a beat down Storm Noel gives Florida beaches a beat down BY CHARLES RABIN

Tropical Storm Noel's worst winds avoided South Florida, but the waves it created chewed up beaches from the Georgia border to Miami-Dade County, frustrating environmental managers and tourism officials who are already searching for creative ways to replenish precious sand.

The worst punishment took place on beaches from Brevard County north -- some beachfront structures in St. Johns County were in danger of being washed away -- but Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have spent millions of dollars importing and dredging sand the past decade, didn't escape unscathed.

No one is certain yet what the costs of Noel's beach damage will be, but environmentalists, waterfront landowners and tourism chiefs are all concerned.

''They're eroding. They're taking a beating,'' said Steve Higgins, Broward County's beach erosion administrator. ``The waves are pretty big, and the duration is pretty important. If it goes on for days it eats up the beaches.''

Higgins said the upper third of Broward's beaches were the worst hit. Other areas of concern were south of Port Everglades, like John Lloyd Park and Dania Beach.

He said most of Broward is in decent shape thanks to $44.5 million the county has spent the past three years shoring up 6.8 miles of its beaches. He called the beaches ''chronically erosive'' -- a problem that stems from building on the beachfront, he said.

''We've developed almost all our beachfronts and got rid of our dunes,'' he said. ``There's no way for our beach system to act normally.''

Miami-Dade fared better. The hardest hit of its 13 miles of beaches were behind some condos on Miami Beach at 29th Street and in the Fontainebleau area near 44th Street.

Carlos Espinosa, Miami-Dade's Department of Environmental Resource Management director, said the county is using part of a $17 million fund to truck in compatible sand from Central Florida deposits to replenish the hardest hit areas.

Still, he said of Noel, ``It could have been a lot worse.''

With offshore dredging resources running low, Espinosa had been exploring buying sand that would be shipped in from the Bahamas. But that plan was put on hold when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn't back the plan until all domestic resources had run out.

Thursday, South Florida's problems eroded party lines as U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, sent a letter to the Army Corps asking for a new round of meetings and citing the effects of Noel on the state's coastline.

In Palm Beach, managers were watching a few beachfront structures in Jupiter and Singer Island that could become unsteady because of erosion, Leanne Welch of the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management told the Associated Press.

The county suffered ''significant'' beach erosion, and teams were out assessing the damage Thursday.

Daniel Bates, Palm Beach County's division director for Environmental Enhancement and Restoration, said only a single seawall along the county's 49 miles of beaches collapsed behind a condo at the south end of the county. It has since been stabilized, he said.

''The building itself became undermined, and we had to abandon some units,'' Bates said.

Noel's waves slapped hardest farther north.

Sarah Williams of the State Department of Environmental Protection said staffers are evaluating Noel's damage now. Preliminary reports, she said, show erosion up and down the coast from ``wave energy.''

Williams said St. Johns County managers have already requested emergency permits to stabilize structures and build temporary seawalls on beaches behind private residences that were already damaged from a spring storm.

''This just caused more significant impacts,'' she said.

Up to a half-dozen homes in St. Johns were in danger of being washed away, The AP reported. On Wednesday, Fernandina Beach near the Georgia border declared a local emergency, and on Thursday waves continued lapping at the foundations of several homes and at least one motel in Brevard County.

Environmental managers and tourism officials say erosion problems occur where communities have built along the coastline. Broward's Higgins said if there's no man-made structures in the way, he doesn't even call it erosion.

Still, eroding beaches are not a new phenomenon in Florida, which has experienced an unusual number of powerful storms since 2004 and has spent more than $400 million the past two years to shore up coastlines.

Tourism leaders such as Broward's Nicki Grossman and Miami-Dade's William Talbert are quick to point out the importance of keeping South Florida's beaches in shape.

''It's one of the key reasons people visit South Florida,'' Grossman said.

Talbert said polls of visitors consistently show Miami-Dade's beaches are among the top three reasons the county has so many tourists.

''If our beaches aren't up to snuff and in good condition, there is certainly a lot of competition out there,'' he said.

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U.N. General Assembly Condemns U.S. for Cuba Embargo, Again

BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 31, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/65610

UNITED NATIONS — Ignoring what America considers Cuba's "embargo on freedom," the General Assembly yesterday affirmed for the 16th consecutive year its opposition to economic measures Washington has had in force since the 1960s to isolate the Castro regime.

The debate, a throwback to the bipolar days of the Cold War, was far from even. The 192-member body was all but unified in support of "freedom of trade and navigation," and of condemnation of America's embargo on Cuba. The only opposition besides America came from Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands, while Micronesia abstained.

By its "blockade," America "attempts to subdue the Cuban people through starvation and disease," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez-Roque of Cuba said. The embargo "had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the last year," he said, and it is "bordering on madness and fanaticism." According to "conservative estimates," Mr. Perez-Roque added, America's "brutal economic war" has caused Cuba losses that add up to "no less than $222 billion." Citing Havana's own statistics, however, an American U.N. ambassador, Ronald Godard, said America has exported nearly $2 billion in agricultural, medical, and humanitarian goods to Cuba since 2002, while private American groups were authorized by Washington to provide $270 million worth of food and medicines to the communist island last year. "Cuba's problems derive not from any decision of the United States but from the embargo on freedom that the Cuban regime has imposed on its own people," Mr. Godard said. "We are one of Cuba's largest suppliers of food and one of Cuba's largest trading partners." Even America's natural U.N. allies, such as the European Union, however, joined the supporters of the resolution. The "achievements in health care and education" by the Castro regime are "undermined by its restrictions on civil, political, and economic rights," Portugal's ambassador, Joao Salgueiro, said, speaking for the European Union. Nevertheless, he added, "We express our rejection of all unilateral measures against Cuba."

Israel and small Pacific island countries, such as Palau, were left in a tiny minority. "We believe this is a bilateral matter," Palau's U.N. ambassador, Stuart Beck, said. Mr Beck is often a part of the isolated group dubbed by some as the "powerful Palau PAC," formerly known as the "mighty Micronesia bloc." This group of small countries and America was just as lonely when it voted last year against the formation of the Human Rights Council, he noted, adding, "Being in the majority is not always being right."

Since its inception, the Geneva-based council has concentrated almost exclusively on perceived Israeli violations while ignoring human rights situations in countries such as Cuba, one of its members. Yesterday's vote siding with the Cuban regime "only serves to further undermine the moral standing of the General Assembly whose silence on the regime's human rights abuses makes a mockery of the resolution," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida, said. The assembly "cast its lot with one of the most oppressive regimes in the world," she added, vowing that sanctions will remain intact until Cuba "submits to free and fair elections and the people of Cuba are free to embrace democratic values."

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