Is Removing Cuba from the âTerrorist Listâ Awkward for President Biden?

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By Arnold August – Jan 19, 2021
FAREED ZAKARIA GPSÂ CNN
Zakaria acts as the informal Democratic Party CNN âspokesperson,â especially on international issues. The following may possibly provide us with an idea of what Biden is thinking.  Â
Aired January 17, 2021Â
Guest:
CNN Global Affairs Analyst and New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser.
From the full extract of the official CNN Transcript dealing mainly with Cuba:Â
ZAKARIA: Secretary Pompeo spent the better part of the week making big pronouncements and bigger moves on the world stage. He said that al-Qaeda’s new home base is in Iran. He labeled Cuba a state sponsor of terror and the Houthis in Yemen a foreign terrorist organization.
GLASSER: And so you have it as an example, I think, of how the U.S. has, sort of, abdicated leadership in the region. And, you know, there’s real costs to this. He’s also seeking to impose political costs, of course, on the incoming Biden administration if they seek to reverse this, if they reverse the Cuba designation, that they are somehow going to be in league with terrorists. You can just imagine, you know, the campaign commercials thatâthat Mike Pompeo is cutting in his mind.
RELATED CONTENT: Trump vs Democracy, Pompeo vs Cuba
ZAKARIA: Right. Soâand if you look at the Cuba and the Iran ones, they seem both entirely of thatâof that nature. You know, he’s designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terror. You know, it falls on the Biden administration to awkwardly have to, you know, undo that designation.
But both of them areâwould be very awkward, politically, to undo, right?
GLASSER: Well, that’s exactly it, or they think that they will.Â
ZAKARIA: Unfortunately, SusanâI’m so sorry, but I’ve got toâI’ve got to let you go. We willâwe will come back to this and to you because it’s always a pleasure.
GLASSER: Thank you, Fareed.â
Both Zakaria and Glasser go on to predict that, should Biden try to undo these designations, Pompeo and Trump will have a perfect excuse to attack the new administration. Yet, if they were at all honest, both would argue against this excuse rather than allowing it to hang in the air as a reasonable alibi for the State Departmentâs parting shot.
RELATED CONTENT: The Trump Administrationâs Parting Outrage Against Cuba
Compare this CNN transcript to the statement by eight US Senators. Furthermore, why did CNN not cite this?Â
âKlobuchar, Leahy, and Colleagues Demand Answers from The State Department About Move to Designate Cuba a State Sponsor of Terrorism
WASHINGTON â On Friday January 8, 2021, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Tina Smith (D-MN) sent a letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo expressing concern over reports that the Trump Administration would designate Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism without formal consultation and review by Congress. The Senators also asked the State Department to commit to conducting a formal review before designating any nation a state sponsor of terrorism or removing any such designation. Without consulting Congress, today the State Department announced its intent to redesignate Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.âÂ
We note that Pompeo placed Cuba on the list without a formal review by the Congress. However, if Pompeo could do this so easily, then Biden, far from feeling âawkward,â could remove Cuba from the list on January 20.
Featured image: RaĂșl Castro raises Obama’s fainted arm during his visit to Cuba in 2016 in an awkward moment avoiding to shake hands with the US president – Photo by AFP.
AA/OT/OH
Arnold August is a Canadian journalist and lecturer, the author of Democracy in Cuba and the 1997â98 Elections, Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion and CubaâU.S. Relations: Obama and Beyond. As a journalist, he collaborates with many websites in Latin America, Europe, North America and the Middle East. He is a contributor to Orinoco Tribune. His website:Â www.arnoldaugust.com