Summers: End of Cuban Embargo 'Way Down Road'

Resolution passes for 19th year in a row

(NEWSER) - The United Nations has, for the 19th year in a row, passed a resolution to drop its longstanding economic embargo against Cuba. The resolution, once again, passed by an overwhelming majority, with 187 nations voting in favor of it and only the US and Israel voting against it, CNN reports. The Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia abstained. More»

It's hypocritical...plus, Americans want to go there

(NEWSER) - As President Obama slowly works on the Cuba travel restrictions, Delia Lloyd offers up 10 reasons the long-standing trade embargo should be overturned entirely. Via Politics Daily :

• It’ll make money: Americans will surely help Cuba’s tourism industry, and the US agricultural sector would benefit from fewer restrictions on exporting to Cuba.
• It’s hypocritical: If we’re putting economic pressure on Cuba in order to protest its human rights violations, why not do the same thing to similarly repressive regimes like China?

Will remove Bush's restrictions on cultural, academic trips

(NEWSER) - President Obama intends to peel back restrictions on travel to Cuba enacted under George W. Bush, allowing academic, religious, and cultural groups to more freely venture to and from the communist island. Obama already lifted the restrictions for Americans with relatives on the island in 2009, but is now returning in full to the broader “people to people” policy that existed under Bill Clinton, the New York Times reports. More»

New book reveals Juanita Castro's involvement with US intelligence

(NEWSER) - The sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro worked with the CIA in the 1960s, while the agency was planning to assassinate Fidel and overthrow the revolutionary government. In a new book, Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, reveals that she hid opponents of her brothers' regime in her home and that their mother frequently interceded with Raúl to help political prisoners. "The CIA wanted to talk with me," Castro says. "I was left half-shocked, but in any case I told them yes." More»

Disclosure of CIA methods will help the enemy, decrease national security, former directors warn

(NEWSER) - Seven former CIA directors—appointees of both political parties—are calling on the Obama administration to call off the Justice Department’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation practices, the Hill reports. The probe, ordered by AG Eric Holder, will reveal too much about the CIA’s methods in an environment where "success often depends on surprise and deception and on creating uncertainty in the mind of an enemy,” the directors wrote. Such disclosure would foster "an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy." More»