Byron Dorgan: “let me just say that the case with respect to this country's dealing with Cuba is a case study in failure. I will not…”

“let me just say that the case with respect to this country's dealing with Cuba is a case study in failure. I will not debate that at the moment, but it is absolutely absurd. We plead that the way to move China and Vietnam in a more constructive direction, both Communist counties, is through trade and travel and engagement. We take exactly the opposite position with respect to Cuba. This policy is the best friend Fidel Castro ever had, and that is why he is still in office. Aside from all of that, this amendment does not deal with the whole Cuba trade policy. It deals with the issue of Fat Albert, and, yes, the new airplane they want to buy. They say they are going to get a new little airplane, fly it off the coast of Florida, and we will get some television signals into Cuba. The fact is, they have already wasted $189 million. Apparently, now after 10 years, or however many years it is, there is a new approach. I don't believe it will work. Let me read something from the Chicago Tribune Foreign Correspondent, October 2004. He went right to the heart of this. Do the Cubans see these signals with Commando Solo or Fat Albert, the balloon? He says: In interviews on the island, speaking of Cuba, it is difficult to find anyone who says they have ever seen TV Marti, although one Havana resident said she picked up some of the audio portion of a Saturday evening broadcast. That viewer said: There was no picture but I could hear it and the static was very loud.…”