Cuba allowed into Classic

[mellisas]

and any profits made ...go to the victims of Hurricane Katrina....how's them apples:rolleyes4 ...


Baseball Notebook: Cuba allowed into Classic
U.S. concerns resolved

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- Cuba will be allowed to play in the World Baseball Classic after all.

The Bush administration issued a license Friday allowing the Cubans to participate in the 16-team tournament.

Baseball's first application was denied in mid-December by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, but the commissioner's office and the players' association reapplied after Cuba said it would donate any profits it receives to

"The president wanted to see it resolved in a positive way," White House spokesman Scott McClellan wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Our concerns were centered on making sure that no money was going to the Castro regime and that the World Baseball Classic would not be misused by the regime for spying. We believe the concerns have been addressed."

U.S. laws aimed at punishing Fidel Castro's communist government prohibit certain commercial transactions with Cuba, generally attempting to deny money.

"Working closely with World Baseball Classic Inc. and the State Department, we were able to reach a licensable agreement that upholds both the legal scope and the spirit of the sanctions," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said.

MORE AT

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/256505_basebok21.html

[saborami]

ah...the godfather wins again ..at LEAST Cuba is playing.

[hjb]

Hooray!!

Baseball's first application was denied in mid-December by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, but the commissioner's office and the players' association reapplied after Cuba said it would donate any profits it receives to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Wonder what the US team will do if they win. Give the money to the Cuban victims of Dennis and Wilma? How low can you go, how arrogant can you be. Sucking money out of a poor nation. It stinks, it really does.

[asere]

Cuba ain't so poor...Castro ain't so poor...it's just the people to whom Castro sticks it all in the name of the embargo who get hosed...pretty much by those of us who are under this misconception and give Castro and his brutality life, existence and a place in the world. We buy into that story hook, line and sinker, and while the embargo is a cold situation for the Cubans, the real reason for their situation is the State and its leader. And as long as there's an embargo, he has a place to point a finger to and somewhere else to foist the blame. The money is insignificant for both the US and Cuba...the point, right or wrong, is, and the strategy, right or wrong, is, that Cuba ought not be enriched.

Castro cannot succeed or survive without the embargo - it makes him seem legitimate and righteous. And we, from those of us who post here, all the way to the Administration, over and over and over again play into Castro's hand.

As far as the winning prize is concerned...Cuba already rejected aid. Non issue, although precisely the red-herring Castro wants us to believe is significant.

[saborami]

Hooray!!


Wonder what the US team will do if they win. Give the money to the Cuban victims of Dennis and Wilma? How low can you go, how arrogant can you be. Sucking money out of a poor nation. It stinks, it really does.

agreed.