NewsMax.com. Friday,
April 27, 2001
Ruthless Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a harmless do-gooder? Yes, if you
believe Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"He's done some good things for his people," Powell said Thursday
of the communist tyrant who has crushed human rights on his island prison for
four decades.
"He is no longer the threat he was," Powell said in response to
grilling at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing by Rep. Jose E. Serrano,
D-N.Y., who attacked America's policy on Havana.
Powell seemed to be giving his opinion rather than signaling a change in
U.S. policy.
In 1961, with hopes fading that Castro was a republican reformer, the United
States ended relations with Havana and has condemned it yearly as a sponsor of
terrorism.
"That policy makes no sense. It is a country that has not done any harm
to us," Serrano claimed - despite the terrorism sponsored by Castro. "Why
China and why not Cuba?"
Under Castro, Cuba exports doctors, not revolution, Serrano said, according
to the Associated Press.
Powell said Castro was stuck in the past. "He hasn't changed his views
in any way." In China, Russia and Vietnam, "you can see leaders who
the world is changing."
Don't Offend China
Powell, known as the most liberal member of President Bush's foreign-policy
team, also took a mild view of China despite its recent hostile acts toward
America. "We are not looking for an enemy. We don't need an enemy.
"We are trying to get back on a more stable relations with China."
He did allow, "We will meet any danger which comes our way," he said.
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