Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “Mr. Chairman, by hearing the other side on this issue, we would seem to believe that they were talking with Costa Rica…”

“Mr. Chairman, by hearing the other side on this issue, we would seem to believe that they were talking with Costa Rica or Panama or some other country where there is a functioning democracy where there is no state sponsorship of terrorism. The reality is that Fidel Castro is the only world leader who has ever called for a nuclear first strike against the United States. He is the only world leader who has ever called for a first strike against the United States, but they may say he is a kindly old grandfather now. He is a good guy, so let us reward him. That is what the Rangel amendment is seeking to do. But wait a minute, 2 days ago in Greece, the head terrorist that was arrested there, Alexandros Yiotopoulos, for bombing numerous people in Greece and throughout that part of the world, where was he trained? He was trained by Fidel Castro's Cuba. And the Jewish community center bombed in Argentina in 1994 by the Iranians, where did they assemble? They assembled in Cuba, flew to Paraguay, crossed the border with fake passports, and fled back to Cuba after the attack. The bombers hid in Cuba for several months after the attack, and still have impugnity. And the kindly old grandfather goes further. In 2001, the IRA terrorists arrested in Colombia for training the FARC terrorists there in sophisticated urban bomb warfare, where were they based? In Cuba.”