"Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state
sponsor of terrorism. It should have happened a long time ago. It should
have happened years ago. In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North
Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism,
including assassinations on foreign soil." - President Donald Trump, November 20, 2017
North Korea should have never been taken off the list of state terror sponsors. Boneheaded political calculations are a bipartisan affair. In October of 2008, the Bush Administration took North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism
in the hopes that it would “salvage a fragile nuclear deal” with the
totalitarian regime. The Reagan Administration designated North Korea a terror sponsor in 1988 after it was implicated in the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner, in which more than 100 died.
Nine years after taking Kim Jong Un’s regime off the list of terror sponsors, North Korea has tested nuclear weapons and is now threatening to attack the United States with its new nukes.
The lessons from the Bush Administration’s cozying up to North Korea should have given any reasonable person second thoughts about pursuing a similar path with Cuba. Unfortunately, that was not the case and on May 29, 2015 the Obama Administration took Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
On February 13, 2015 Vice News reported that in 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been warned that the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah was setting up an operational base in Cuba to carry out attacks in Latin America that might also involve attacks on American diplomatic posts or banks there was revealed in an e-mail from September 9, 2011 that stated the following:
Furthermore, a new and disturbing pattern of attacks on 24 U.S. diplomats and their dependents based in Havana, Cuba raises great concerns. Appeasing North Korea in 2008 worsened its behavior. It appears that appeasing Cuba has also worsened its behavior against Cubans and the national interests of the United States.
Taking North Korea off the list of state sponsors was a mistake, but it is now being remedied by the Administration. Taking Cuba off the list was also mistake, the question arises: "Will Cuba be next?"
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| North Korea is a state sponsor of terror |
Nine years after taking Kim Jong Un’s regime off the list of terror sponsors, North Korea has tested nuclear weapons and is now threatening to attack the United States with its new nukes.
The lessons from the Bush Administration’s cozying up to North Korea should have given any reasonable person second thoughts about pursuing a similar path with Cuba. Unfortunately, that was not the case and on May 29, 2015 the Obama Administration took Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
On February 13, 2015 Vice News reported that in 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been warned that the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah was setting up an operational base in Cuba to carry out attacks in Latin America that might also involve attacks on American diplomatic posts or banks there was revealed in an e-mail from September 9, 2011 that stated the following:
The Hezbollah office in Cuba is being established under direct orders from the current General Secretary Hasan Nasrallah, who replaced Musawi in 1992. According to the information available to this source, in preparation for establishment of the base, Nasrallah, working from inside of Lebanon, carried out secret negotiations with representatives of the Cuban Government, particularly the Cuban Intelligence Service (General Intelligence Directorate — DGI), agreeing to , maintain a very low profile inside of Cuba. Nasrallah also promised to take measures to avoid any trail of evidence that could lead back to Cuba in the event of a Hezbollah attack in Latin America.Ronald Reagan placed Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1982 because of the dictatorship's involvement in Cocaine trafficking and arms smuggling to communist guerrilla groups in Colombia. Today the Castro regime is engaged in narcotics trafficking in Venezuela, has been caught trying to smuggle heavy weapons in violation of international sanctions to North Korea, and providing refuge for cop killers convicted of homicide who fled the United States.
Furthermore, a new and disturbing pattern of attacks on 24 U.S. diplomats and their dependents based in Havana, Cuba raises great concerns. Appeasing North Korea in 2008 worsened its behavior. It appears that appeasing Cuba has also worsened its behavior against Cubans and the national interests of the United States.
Taking North Korea off the list of state sponsors was a mistake, but it is now being remedied by the Administration. Taking Cuba off the list was also mistake, the question arises: "Will Cuba be next?"
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