[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 63 (Friday, May 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5035-S5037]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  CUBA

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, yesterday President Bush announced he is 
going to devote more money, more resources, and more personnel to 
enforcing restrictions on travel to the country of Cuba.
  Let me describe the absurdity of what is happening with respect to 
the use of resources by this administration in dealing with the country 
of Cuba. First let me say that Fidel Castro is a dictator. No one here 
has time for Fidel Castro. That includes myself. The Cuban people 
deserve to be free. But it is interesting to me that at a time when we 
are confronted with the threat of terrorism in this country, we see the 
administration obsessed with Cuba, using resources that ought to be 
used in order to combat terrorism being used instead to enforce a ban 
against U.S. citizens from traveling in Cuba. It is an outrage. This 
administration ought to be embarrassed about it.
  Let me describe what I mean. There is an agency called OFAC--the 
Office of Foreign Asset Control--in the Treasury Department. Their job 
is to track terrorists and to track the money that goes to finance 
terrorism. That is their job, and they have people working full time to 
try to pull the cover off this web of money that moves back and forth 
to finance terrorists.
  What are they doing at OFAC these days? I have a report from the 
Department of the Treasury. That report is in response to questions 
from myself and from other Members of Congress. It says that OFAC has 
two people investigating Osama bin Laden's wealth--that is, tracking 
money Osama bin Laden would use to further his efforts to commit acts 
of terrorism against this country and the rest of the world. Two 
people.
  Do you know how many people they have tracking Americans who travel 
to Cuba? There are twenty-one people tracking Americans who travel to 
Cuba. Track them down, see if you can slap a big fine on them. They 
have 21 people working on that, and they have 2 people working on 
trying to find Osama bin Laden's money and shut down the ways he 
finances his acts of terrorism. It is unbelievable. They ought to be 
profoundly embarrassed down at the administration and the Treasury 
Department.
  Let me give some examples. This is a picture of a woman named Joni 
Scott. Joan Scott is someone who came to visit me. Joni Scott went to 
Cuba 4 years ago to distribute free Bibles to the Cuban people. Guess 
what. In recent months these 21 sleuths down at

[[Page S5036]]

the Treasury Department who are supposed to be tracking money going to 
terrorists, tracked down this poor woman who was distributing free 
Bibles in Cuba and slapped her with a big fine. Shame on her for 
distributing free Bibles to the Cuban people. Has it come to the point 
where some American who travels to Cuba to distribute free Bibles is 
somehow considered someone acting outside the interests of our country? 
Someone who undermines this country's interest? Someone who is worse 
than a terrorist? Is that what they are saying in the administration? 
They tracked her down and they slapped a big fine on Joni Scott.
  But she is not the only one. This is Joan Slote. They fined Joan 
Slote 10,000 bucks. She is a bicyclist in her midseventies. She rides 
in the Senior Olympics; she rides bicycles all over the world. What a 
wonderful woman. I have met her. She went with a Canadian bicycle group 
to Cuba just to bicycle in Cuba. They tracked her down and fined her 
$10,000, and then they tried to attach her Social Security checks while 
the dispute was going on. When they finally settled for something less 
than $10,000 and she sent them a check and they did not realize she had 
sent the check and paid the bill, so they then tried to attach her 
Social Security payments. Tracking a little old lady riding bicycles? 
That is what they are doing down at the Treasury Department because 
riding a bicycle in Cuba somehow undermines American interests. Are 
they nuts? Are they just crazy? I don't understand this at all.
  If it is not Joni Scott or Joan Slote, what about these folks who 
participate in the international event for disabled athletes. We 
stopped them from going. They lost a lot of money because they had 
tickets purchased to go to the international games in Havana, but those 
ferocious folks down at Treasury who are supposed to be tracking assets 
that support terrorism, they stopped these disabled athletes from going 
to Cuba. That would have undermined American interests, I guess.
  Or the man from the State of Washington whose father died and was 
cremated. He previously had been a minister at a church in Cuba. His 
last wish was to have his ashes buried on the church grounds where he 
ministered, so his son dutifully complied. His son took his father's 
ashes to Cuba to bury them on the church grounds. Guess what. He got a 
fine from the U.S. Government because we have folks down at the 
Treasury Department tracking these people.
  Now, the Bush administration obviously is concerned about votes in 
Florida. This is not about sound public policy; it is about politics in 
Florida. They have actually trained 500 people in the Office of 
Homeland Security to try to track people getting on and off flights to 
and from Cuba so if an American tourist went to Cuba to travel, they 
could find them and slap them with a fine.
  They trained 500 people who are supposed to be doing work in the 
Office of Homeland Security. Let me show you what they did with this 
big, enhanced inspection with all these folks at the airports. They are 
going to grab them. They are going to nail them. We have not nailed 
Osama bin Laden. He is living in a cave someplace. He is probably not 
quaking in his cave, knowing there are only two people looking after 
his finances in the Department of Treasury and there are 21 of them 
chasing little old ladies who ride bikes in Cuba.
  But let me show you what they found with this big, enhanced 
inspection at the airports. At a time we are dealing with terrorism, we 
have this big crackdown on American tourists. This chart shows what 
OFAC found. Boy, we nabbed them. Cuban cigars--officers of the Office 
of Homeland Security worked overtime to find Cuban cigars coming in on 
the person of an American tourist who went to Cuba. That is going to 
safeguard our country, if we just get rid of those Cuban cigars.
  Then, of the 45,400 travelers who were inspected, 215 were suspected 
of attempting to vacation in Cuba. I don't know, I never heard of that 
charge: suspected of taking a vacation.
  Homeland Security inspectors found 283 alcohol and tobacco 
violations. Well, were those major seizures? No. The Homeland Security 
spokeswoman says no. Each violation included a small amount of rum or 
cigars that were found on people who had been in Cuba.
  There were 42 narcotics seizures. Oh, man, that ratchets up the 
importance--42 narcotics seizures. Is it heroin or crack? No. No, it is 
not that. It involves prescription drugs people had on their person. 
They were taking medications for high cholesterol or perhaps a runny 
nose. So they nabbed them.
  And then one hazardous material violation was discovered. Oh, man, 
that sounds ominous. These Homeland Security investigators found 
somebody coming back from Cuba, coming into this country, an American 
citizen who had the temerity to vacation in Cuba who came back with a 
hazardous material on them. So they had a hazardous material violation. 
Now, that sounds like terrorism. But no, apparently the hazardous 
material was a carbon dioxide canister used to put fizz in seltzer 
water.
  Presumably discoveries like these make it OK that we have 500 people 
tracking American tourists traveling in Cuba and two people tracking 
Osama bin Laden's finances.
  We have 21 people down at OFAC going over their books. They wear 
their suspenders and green eyeshades, wearing their knuckles white, so 
they can track down a little old lady riding a bicycle, or so they can 
track down a wonderful young woman distributing free Bibles in Cuba. 
Shame on these people. Shame on these people who decide that trying to 
track American citizens who are on vacation is a more important and a 
more urgent priority than tracking Osama bin Laden's financial network.
  Now, I am a Norwegian Lutheran, and I don't use that language very 
easily. But I tell you what, I get angry when I see what is happening.
  My colleague from Montana is in the Chamber. He was one of those who 
got this report. I asked the question of Secretary Snow: How many 
people are you using down at the Department of Treasury to track 
American tourists who travel to Cuba? Well, he did not know.
  I said: Give me the answer. They apparently did the same thing in the 
Finance Committee. They got the answer. Twenty-one people are tracking 
American tourists going to Cuba, and two people are tracking Osama bin 
Laden's finances. What on Earth are they thinking of? Is there not one 
person down there with one ounce of common sense? I do not understand 
it at all.
  Here is a chart: There are 100 times more enforcement cases on Cuba 
than there are on terror issues.
  And I mention Joni Scott. Let me just finish by again mentioning Joni 
Scott. Joni Scott is with a religious group. This wonderful young 
woman, a good-hearted woman, who cares deeply about her faith in God 
and wants to share it with others, she went, 4 years ago, to Cuba to 
distribute free Bibles. It was an enriching experience, she said. And 
was she surprised, not too long ago, to get something in the mail from 
the U.S. Treasury Department because they have these sleuths down here, 
not working on things that matter, not working on tracking Osama bin 
Laden and other terrorist networks, no; they are working on this young 
woman who is distributing free Bibles. I do not understand it.

  I say this, that when we have an opportunity, this year, to affect 
the financing of the Department of Treasury, I--and I hope others who 
will join me--will say to them that is not the way you are going to use 
the taxpayers' money. You have an obligation not to be soft on 
terrorism. You have an obligation not to be soft-headed. You have an 
obligation to use the funding we are providing to track terrorists, to 
crack the network of financing that Osama bin Laden and others use to 
commit acts of murder against American people, and against Spanish, and 
other people around the world, where people have been victimized by 
these acts of terror.
  So always, it seems to me, it is a case of choosing, making choices. 
What do you want to use the money for? What is more important? What is 
more urgent? What should we be doing? The administration's choice 
yesterday to put even more people into tracking down American tourists 
to Cuba is unbelievable. It is unbelievable to see an administration 
make such, not only an embarrassing choice, but a choice that is 
fundamentally so soft on terrorism, so soft

[[Page S5037]]

on combating terrorism, and so hard-headed in trying to track American 
tourists down and slap them with a fine.
  This notion of trying to slap Fidel Castro around by injuring the 
rights of the American people ought to stop. It does not hurt Fidel 
Castro that we have told the American people you cannot travel in Cuba. 
You can travel in Communist China. You can travel in Communist Vietnam. 
But you cannot travel in Communist Cuba. If we spend all this money on 
TV and Radio Marti in order to put voices in Cuba over television and 
radio, to give them another voice other than Fidel Castro, what sense 
does it make to say to the American people that traveling to Cuba so 
that Cubans hear other voices is somehow not worthy, but putting up an 
expensive radio and television station so the Cubans hear other voices 
is worthy?
  The Europeans, the Canadians, and others, have used much more common 
sense than we have on this issue. And the President, rather than making 
things better, is making it much worse. I have no trust for Fidel 
Castro. I want him removed. I think the Cuban people ought to be free 
to choose their own government. But neither do I have any sympathy for 
a public policy that is so devoid of common sense, and it is getting 
worse every day, and was made worse yesterday by this President's 
announcement.

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