The feckless foreign policy forays of our President beg for some critical understanding. His initiatives have not only left America more vulnerable than since Pearl Harbor or Sept. 11, but they have sent terrible signals to friends and encouraged provocation from our adversaries. The most recent diplomatic normalization with Cuba once again tells the world that he either doesn’t understand terrorists, or seemingly has some measure of guilt or sympathy for those who deride American interests.
President Obama has been consistent. He has demonstrated deference, apology, and weakness time and again, from appeasing Iran, changing his mind on Syria, standing down on missile defense, lowering our Army and Navy readiness force, no meaningful commitment to Ukraine, and now Cuba.
Let’s take a look at Cuba. At a House Financial Services Committee briefing on Jan. 27, 2015, the State Department’s Acting Deputy Director for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and Caribbean, Mary Brett Rogers-Spring, provided testimony regarding the President’s decision to recognize Cuba with diplomatic privileges.
In her opening statement, Ms. Rogers-Spring conveyed that the State Department was currently conducting a review of the status of Cuba as a designated “terrorist state.” Rogers-Spring could not answer the question of why this investigation was not conducted prior to President Obama’s decision to lift sanctions and provide full diplomatic status. Of note, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria are the four countries listed by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism. And just four months ago, the Administration determined that trade with Cuba was not in the best interest of America’s national security.
During further questioning, I asked Ms. Rogers-Spring to respond to the following major concerns that, by any measure, should be impediments to the privileged economic status of formal relations with the United States:
1. Cuba is the first and only country in the Western Hemisphere to have cooperated with North Korea to smuggle arms (which were intercepted) in contravention of UN Security Council prohibitions. As the Administration’s own Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, described it, the act was “a cynical, outrageous and illegal attempt by Cuba and North Korea to circumvent United Nations sanctions.”
2. Cuba is harboring Joanne Chesimard, who is designated as a “domestic terrorist” and on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List.
3. Cuba harbors Frank Terpil, a US fugitive and rogue CIA agent, who, in a BBC documentary, recounts working for Moammar Gadhafi’s political hit squads.
4. Cuba continues to harbor Revolution Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorists.
Additional basis for Cuba to remain listed as a state sponsor of terrorism include:
1. Cuba continues to permit 70 fugitives wanted by the United States to reside in Cuba, and provides them with food, housing, and medical care.
2. In addition to Cuba’s relationship with FARC terrorists, Cuba exhibits a long history of providing a safe haven and cooperating with Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA).
3. On May 12, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a determination and certification that Cuba “[is] not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts.”
Nothing has changed in regards to Cuba’s dangerous behavior toward the United States, the Western Hemisphere, or its own people, who continue to be oppressed and denied basic human rights. What has changed is that President Obama sees himself and America’s place as the leader of the Free World much differently than the nine Presidents who preceded him.
So, President Obama’s diplomacy is to elevate and honor a known terrorist-sponsoring state, while giving a snub to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to the United States, when he will bring a clear perspective regarding the greatest threat we face in Iran.
Are we back to Jack Nicholson, Mr. President? “The truth, you can’t handle the truth?”
In my meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu during trips to Israel, along with other heads of state in the Middle East, I found they don’t understand our President. The Crown Prince in the UAE said, “We should be joined with the United States and Israel to defeat the Islamic extremist terrorists.”
Mr. President, you didn’t seem to get the basic training in your youth to understand bad guys and how to pick your friends. The problem is that our national security has floundered, and we face graver and more perilous threats because of your naïve understanding of human nature and your bad judgment.
Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., is Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare and a Member of the House Committee on Financial Services.Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
