State Department: Cuba Poisoning Pets Of US Diplomats

The Hill:

As President Obama and members of Congress push to strengthen relations with Cuba, the State Department released a report on Friday that details Cuban efforts to weaken the morale of U.S. diplomats on the island by poisoning their family pets.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[RRK70]

Very odd article. Strange how a 2007 document is "released" days after a Congressional delegation returns.
This USINT group also strikes me as rather odd.
-what VISA's do they approve in a country that we have a stringent travel ban against?
-we have a 50 year embargo on this country and USINT is complaining about receiving goods in a timely fashion?
-'the mission has continued to develop a plan for reacting to a hurricane, health epidemic, or other potential natural disasters" - since when did the Bush Admin ever concern itself with hurricane/emergency response to AMERICANS, let alone Cubans?!!?
-allegations of poisoning pets when it is public knowledge we have tried to poison and/or assassinate their leader dozens of times.
-sounds like someone isn't happy with their job posting overseas.

[PenelopeS]

I'm in Europe. Europeans and Canadians vacation in Cuba a lot - it is less expensive than vacationing in other Caribbean countries and Cuba gets plenty of foreign currency thanks to all the European tourists.

However, one frequent complaint (check out Trip Advisor reviews) is about the food: food poisoning is unfortunately quite common, hygiene standards are somewhat lacking - maybe the diplomats' pets succumbed to that rather than to intentional poisoning.

[coco51]

Americans have been going to Cuba since before the revolution and haven't stopped. They gain entry via several caribbean countries without use of a visa and they use their American dollars which is of course a boon to the economy helping maintain that socialist medicine they practice so well, food lines not withstanding.

I really don't wanna hear the anti-socialism crew here on huffpo unless you can address the starvation and substandard living millions of Americans (white ones no less - think Appalacia and southern states) endure in "the richest country in the world"

[cbeenthere]

In Mexico, North Americans steal their dogs. Mondo Cane

[vesaversa1]

WTF the Cubans are now poisoning our pets ,The right wing nuts have really feel off the turnip truck with this ridiculous charge .LOL

[DocSyracuse]

He probably has.

[DocSyracuse]

I have no gripe with the people of Cuba, but why are folks on this board so infatuated with Castro? I've never understood this. His dictatorship has a hor rible human rights record, and yet his regime is held up by liberals as a success story. I honestly don't get it. Is it because he's a socialist? Seriously.

[noleftturns]

specifically ask the ones with the trendy red che tshirts.

[AG64]

Castro would have never lasted this long if he didn't have the US to blame for everything he hasn't been able to accomplish. The US government has never cared about the Cuban people, only about the strategic position of Cuba. But that doesn't make for good copy, so conservatives have always cried crocodile tears about liberty and freedom when trolling for votes in Dade County. It's simple - divide and conquer, "you're with us or you're against us," so that nobody can deal honestly with the real failings on both sides.

[BruceHNV]

Communist - not socialist. Read a little.

Example of someone, anyone, infatuated with Castro, please?

[jdw1981]

Just normalize relations with Cuba already. They are no threat to anyone.

[jmc42]

Why those sneaky Cubans! Imagine them actually using a play out of the British play book as
was done to the people on the Chagos Archipelago! Of course, the people on the islands were then summarily put on ships and dropped off in Mauritania with the British refusing to allow the islanders
back onto their own land.

The issue was settled in the British court in favor of the indigenous people but as the US uses the
main island for n air base and sorties over [ name your favorite country here] the ability to implement
the court order is in question.

Oh, the final irony is that the British gave the islands to the United States in return for a better price on a nuclear submarine.

All of the above is easily found with "John Pilger", "Chagos" as search terms.

[Oldbuck]

Wonder where they got this ideal about posioning someone could it be because the CIA tried to posion Castro at least it was dogs. This has got to be a joke who came of with. This was always driven by money in South Florida.

[NYC123]

We (US) have had a trade and travel embargo against this tiny country Cuba for 50 years. The only country in the world Americans can not travel to. We've bullied this proud country but not to submission. We could not bully a country like Russia or China, no little Cuba! Now we want to continue the same embargos, cause, we allege Cuba, and probably Castro and his brother Raul personally, poisoned American diplomats dogs. Sometimes I think we are out of our minds!!

[noleftturns]

"The only country in the world Americans can not travel to"

no true

the hollywood liberal socialist elitists go there all the time

[totaldisbelief]

as opposed to the conservative fascist elitists?

[v eyepete]

As a child my dog was found dead in the back yard. He barked a lot. It was said that he was poisoned and perhaps one of the neighbors got fed up, or the dog just found some plant or something it ate killed him. Did they have it on video that a representative of the Cuban government poisoned the dog, or perhaps a disgruntled employ working on his own did it. This is more a story for Rush L. to rant about. I am surprised to see it here. Tisk tisk-

[newshawk14]

I'll grant there might be some Cuban wacko involved in this, but it strikes me as extremely
unlikely that the Cuban government would be invloved, I strongly suspect that this story is
from the US Cuban right wing nut fringe.

[S1m0n]

They're probably just jealous because George Bush had more political prisoners in Cuba than the Cubans do.

[marbiol]

let PETA worry about this--we need to get ur $$$ and people into Cuba--asap

[winkin]

Journalism as we knew it is definitely in the tank.

The OIG report is dated July 2007 and is 64 pages long.
Jordy Yager cherry picked a couple of items, including the dog story.

For now you can find a summary of the report on state. gov
http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/100327.pdf (p.61)
Inspection of U.S. Interests Section Havana, Cuba (ISP-I-07-27A)
See the last paragraph:
"Restrictions imposed on Cuban diplomats in Washington and New York, and
outreach activities in Cuba that provoked Cuban government ire, triggered
retaliatory measures that complicate USINT’s ability to carry out some of its core
functions.­"

Have some pets been poisoned? I wouldn't doubt it. Is it relevant? No.
I hope the full report will be online soon so we can read the other 63 pages.

[S1m0n]

I was expecting a dateline of April 1.

[newyorkid]

US diplomats have no reason to complain. T_orturing people around the world is much worse.

[OrganOfThought]

They are lucky to even be let into the country. We are still blockading them right? Admittedly, it is a pathetic blockade, but it is still there.

When we drop the shenanigans, I'm guessing they will consider doing the same. After all, we are doing the same thing but to their entire nation.

[DocSyracuse]

And Castro's well-documented torture and murder of his own countrymen? How does that sit with you?

[qdog112]

"Castro's well-documented torture and murder of his own countrymen?"

Seems like I heard that one before. I think it was about the guy in Iraq - Saddam. His own people ...
What about the millions of our own people who were lynched and murdered in our own brand of apartheid? Who put an embargo on the US? Does it make him worse because you claim he tortured his own people, while we torture our own and others?

I think you know how it sits with me - the question is how does it sit with you? Well documented my A$$.

[MideastDove]

Please provide all that well-documented stuff.

[DocSyracuse]

I have no gripe with the people of Cuba, but why are folks on this board so infatuated with Castro? I've never understood this. His dictatorship has a hor rible human rights record, and yet his regime is held up by liberals as a success story. I honestly don't get it. Is it because he's a socialist? Seriously.

[RRK70]

About as well as it does in Vietnam, China, Russia, Columbia, Argentina, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, etc., etc., etc.

Actually the outcry from the republicant's when Bush claimed the right to do so to US citizens was rather lacking as well.