Date: 2009-06-10
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. Iwould like to thank my good friend. the gentleman from Florida . for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. First I would like to say a word about the session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States. OAS. held last week. It was an embarrassment. Fidel Castro in Cuba wants the U.S. to apologize to him for having kept the U.S. market and its millions of tourists and billions of dollars in financing from him and for having denied him full diplomatic recognition for decades. He also wants the international community to kneel before him and apologize. which is what the OAS did last week. Fidel Castro has been recruiting advocates. spies. defenders. cronies. and servants for years. The ideological and psychological fascination and dependency that Hugo. Chavez has on Fidel Castro has allowed Castro to utilize Chavezs billions of petro dollars to purchase many important defenders. It is part of the public record that a suitcase of Chavez cash heading to Mrs. Kirchner in Argentina was recently intercepted by authorities before reaching its intended destination. Castro has purchased advocates and spies through the years via the alwayspresent threat of blackmail after trips to totalitarian Cuba. where the regime tapes visitors in compromising situations. as confirmed by Interior Ministry defector Roberto Hernandez del Llano and Cuban counterintelligence defector Major Roberto Ortega. Castro also serves as a banker for illicit money possessed by those who seek to avoid detection by the antilaundering mechanisms set up by the international community. It matters not if the moneys source is political corruption or narcotrafficking. Through his masteryof the semantic of antiAmerican MarxismLeninism. he has also conned others into being his spies. No other state sponsor of terrorismno other state. in facthas had more spies arrested and convicted in the United States in the last decades as Fidel Castros dictatorship. Let us remember Ana Montes. one of the top analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency who was arrested in 2001 and subsequently convicted of espionage in Federal court and whose treason led to the deaths of many. including U.S. Special Forces Sergeant Gregory Fronius. And just last week. Walter and Gwendolyn Myers-. a longterm State Department official and his wife with access to classified documents. were arrested for spying for their beloved hero. the Cuban tyrant. Hugo Chavezs absolute dependency on Fidel Castro for every major decision. even for his phrases and gestures in international forums. is unprecedented. While the Soviet Union used to send Castro economic aid and also orders and instructions. Chavez sends Castro billions of dollars and receives orders from him. What the world witnessed. first at the April Summit of the Americas and then at last weeks meeting of the OAS. was a culmination of -years of preparation in the purchase and cultivation of advocates and defenders by Fidel Castro. Castros defenders know full well that chapter II. article 3d of the Charter of the Organization of American States requires the existence of representative democracy in all of the countries of our hemisphere and that the InterAmerican Democratic Charter of 2001 carefully spells out the collective steps to be taken when an American republics democracy is even threatened. They know that Cuba. under Castro. was the only country in our hemisphere where free elections have not been held in over 50 years and where dungeons are full of nonviolent _political prisoners who are subjected to hell on Earth each day of their lives. They know that under Castro Cuba is a personal islandestate. a ranch. a personal landholding.or homestead. a totalitarian fiefdom owned by one man with a brother who enjoys the title of head of State and carefully carries out his brothers orders. At the OAS meeting of last week. we witnessed an example of the Obama administrations diplomatic incompetence and its appeasement of the enemies of the United States. The administration went along and agreed to violate the OAS Charter and the OAS InterAmerican Democratic Charter in an action that constituted a grotesque and unmerited betrayal of the oppressed people of Cuba. The Obama administration says that the OAS resolution was a great victory because even- though paragraph 1 of the "resolved" clause unilaterally -lifted the exclusion of the Cuban military dictatorship. in paragraph 2. the dictatorship was allowed to initiate a process of dialogue to reenter the OAS in accordance with the practices. purposes. and principles of the OAS. In other words. in the first sentence. the OAS rippedup and threw in the garbage can the practices. purposes. and principles of the OAS. including its charter and the InterAmerican Democratic. Charter. And then in the next sentence. it invited the Cuban military dictatorship back in in accordance with the practices. purposes. and principles of the OAS. Some victory. I mention this in the context of the Foreign Relations Authorizatibn Act because the American taxpayer should not be paying for almost 60 percent of the putrid embarrassment which is the OAS. I recognize that on funding international organizations. the administration will get its way. just like the Bush administration would get its way whenever someone in the OAS would propose ending the exclusion of the Cuban military dictatorship and the administration would simply say. Thats a nonstarter. But here is the heart of the issue with regard to U.S.Cuba policy: The U.S. Congress must continue to condition access by the Cuban regime to the billions of dollars in U.S. tourism and massive investment in trade financing to the liberation of all political prisoners. without exceptions. the legalization of all political parties. without exceptions. labor unions and the press. and the scheduling of multiparty elections. That is critical leverage for a democratic transition to take -place in Cuba when Fidel Castro dies. for he is the ultimate source of absolute personal totalitarian power in that enslaved island. like a modern day Caligula or Nero. and that moment is approaching. We must keep in mind the effect of unilateral concessions such as last weeks shameful OAS action on Fidel Castro. How does he react to such unilateral concessions? The repression is more intense than ever. the brutality. more savage than ever. The alliance with Chavez. the Iranian dictatorship. the Syrian regime. Middle Eastern terrorists. and with the North Korean dictatorship is closer than ever. That is what must be kept in mind about unilateral concessions to the Cuban military dictatorship. Now. specifically with regard to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act.. earlier in the year Secretary Clinton testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee that she had challenged the State Department to reform and innovate and save taxpayer dollars. I found the Secretarys statement to be quite appropriate. Unfortunately. the majority has decided to ignore that challenge and instead � today has brought forth legislation that authorizes increased spending by 35 percent without increased transparency. accountability. and efficiency. This legislation will also increase U.S. taxpayer funding authorized for the United Nations by nearly onethird without requiring the United Nations to undertake necessary reforms to improve efficiency and stop blatant corruption. While failing to place accountability 4tandards in this bill. the majority decided to include provisions in the Pakistan Assistance Actwhich is also being brought to the floor with this one rulethat will micromanage U.S. policy toward Pakistan. In a letter to the Armed Services Committee. Secretary of Defense Gates and Chairman of the *Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen wrote that "the degree of conditionality and limitations on security assistance to Pakistan" in the legislation "severely constrains the flexibility necessary for the executive branch and the Department of Defense given the fluid and dynamic environment that exists in Pakistan." This rule bringing forth two pieces of legislation limits the number of amendments that the House will be allowed to debate. Out of the 85 amendments submitted to the Rules Committee. the majority decided to make 27 amendments in order. I understand that the majority has a responsibility to move legislation and manage the time on the floor. but if we look at the amendments the majority made in order. they do not fully address the scope and range of issues of concern to House Members. For example. amendments that would prohibit funds from being used by the State Department to encourage U.S. courts to dismiss claims brought against European insurance companies to recover compensation from Holocaustera insurance policies. or. for example. to relist the North Korean tyranny as a state sponsor of terrorism were prohibited from being debated. I dont understand why the majority blocks a debate on such important amendments. I dont know if theyre afraid of debate or protecting the Members from tough votes or afraid of the democratic process. or all of the above. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.