Bachmann: Hezbollah May Be Planning Cuban Bases

(Newser) – Ready for another Cuban missile crisis? Hezbollah is working with the Cubans, and may be building missile bases and training camps on the Caribbean island, according to Michele Bachmann. "There’s reports out that Cuba has been working with Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is potentially looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran. When you’re 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don’t want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps missile sites in Cuba. This would be foolish," said the Republican presidential candidate, arguing against softening embargoes against Cuba. Bachmann appears to have been referring to an unsourced story from an Italian newspaper that has been circulating on conservative blogs, the Hill notes.

"According to the State Department’s website, there are four nations that are state sponsors of terror," she said. "Cuba is one of those nations. We would never have flights between the US and Cuba. It’s a state sponsor of terror." Cuba has been on the terror list since 1982, when Fidel Castro was accused of aiding Communist rebels in the region. In an earlier scare warning, Bachmann linked a risk of mental retardation to the HPV vaccine. She later said she was simply passing on a concern she heard from a stranger, and wasn't "attesting to its accuracy."