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President Bush Warns of Cuban PerilTHE
AFFILIATED PRESS
Flanked
by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez,
the president indicated his intention to bring forward plans "for
the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and free trade comes
to the island." President
Bush announced his intention to submit legislation to Congress entitled
the Tobacco Patriot and Assistance Act of 2003, which would offer
a combination of production and education training subsidies, tax
breaks and military threats to revive the production of cigars within
the continental 48 contiguous States of America. The president said this legislation would allow small American producers of "Laurencio Double Corona, La Eminencia Premier, President, Torpedo, Wilshire Maduro and Churchill cigars to compete against the influx of illegal Cuban imports by encouraging expanded production and the training and employment of dozens of new domestic, American cigar rollers."
Bush
also said the United States would step up enforcement of existing
restrictions against the communist government, such as banning tourism
by Americans, and cracking down on what he called the trafficking
of women and children in Cuba, who are widely believed to act as
smugglers, known as "tobacco mules" within the trade.
The United States also will launch a public outreach campaign to
identify and create safe routes to legal entry for skilled Cuban
cigar rollers who try to flee their homeland, the president said.
"We'll
increase the number of new Cuban immigrants we welcome every year,"
Bush added. "We are free to do so, and we will for the good
of those who seek freedom fags." The latter is a reference
to the growing patriotic designation for all tobacco products grown
in the United States. "I
will not stand-by while the worlds worst cigar-producing regime
continues to addict the world's freest people." the President
emphasized as he thumped the lectern. "America and its coalition
allies will not rest while the safety of the American people and
the world is threatened by the Fidel Castro tobaccoist regime." The president predicted dire consequences if Congress did not act upon his recommendations. "The dire threat to the American way of life posed by the Cuban regime is a constant and pervasive threat." "The American people know the peril that confronts the imbibers of Cuban tobacco products, and I will not allow this country and our people to be threatened by any hint of temptation." Several
of Mr. Bush's most ardent supporters, in particular Wilhelm Krystal,
Franklin Gaffer and television personality Bill O'Malley have publicly
criticized "those countries that allow the sale of Cuban tobacco
products," singling out for emphasis Canada and France, who
are known opponents of the Bush administrations tobacco policies. Representatives from Congress, the Miami community of exiled tobacco rollers in that vote-rich swing state crucial in the 2004 presidential election, and other anti-Castro, pro-tobacco groups were briefed in advance of Friday's official announcement. Secretary of State Powell has been trying to enlist other countries in the administrations efforts to curb Cuban cigar smuggling, most recently in a June speech in Chile to an assembly of Organization of American States foreign ministers. Asked
for comment, the head of Cuba's diplomatic mission here, Dagoberto
Rodriguez, said Thursday that Bush should "stop acting like
a lawless cowboy, start listening to the voices of the nations of
the world, take a smoke and relax a little." In
speeches in Miami and Washington last year, Mr. Bush said the 40-year-old
U.S. embargo against Cuba will remain in force until the island
ceases its attempts to undermine American cigar production and cracks
down on the smuggling of cigars and cigar rollers. In
the questions that followed the press opportunity, the President
pointedly criticized the tobacco trade media, which he characterized
as the "tobacco leaf rags," for "creating out of
thin air the ridiculous notion that Cuban cigars are superior to
American-made cigars." In
remarks later that day, leading Democratic presidential hopeful
Howard Dean remarked that this "smacked of another payoff to
the Bush administrations big tobacco backers." Congressmen
Richard Gephardt criticized the proposed legislation as "potentially
a miserable failure" while arguing that the level of subsidies
did not go far enough. Well-known cigar smoker Rush Limbaugh was
unavailable for comment. Copyright © 2003 The Affiliated Press
October 13, 2003
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In
a White House Rose Garden ceremony Friday, President George W. Bush
announced the formation of a special policy group that would recommend
ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the threat posed by the
regime of Fidel Castro.
Mr.
Bush cited 9/11 as an example of the foreign dangers that threaten
Americans, dangers Mr. Bush believes are presented by the current
policies of the Cuban government. Encouraging Americans to support
his latest initiative, the president recalled the words of Todd
Beamer, a passenger on United Flight 93, telling the assembled audience
"lets roll."
