Fidel Castro to Congressional Black Caucus members: 'How can we help President Obama?'

How's this for hope and change: U.S. officials flying to Cuba, not to interrogate prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but to meet with the Castro brothers in order to ease the 50-year tensions between the two nations.

The aging, ailing, cigar-smoking icon Fidel Castro had three members of Congress visit with him today in Havana, which resulted in the bearded one asking, "How can we help President Obama?"  In an effort to improve the relationship between Cuba and the U.S., Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) were the first U.S. officials to meet with the 82-year-old former dictator since his intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Greg Adams of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana confirmed that the three members of the Congressional Black Caucus met with Castro, who handed the communist torch to his brother Raul in early 2007. Cuban state television is expected to release more details of the meeting tonight, Adams said.

Six members of the caucus met with Raul Castro on Monday for more than four hours. That meeting was also a first, as he had not yet met with any U.S. officials since he became the Cuban in charge.

"I'm convinced Raul Castro wants a normal relationship with the United States," Lee said after the meeting with the 77-year-old, the Associated Press reported. "He's serious."

"I think that what really surprised me, but also endeared me to him, was his keen sense of humor, his sense of history and his basic human qualities," Rush said. "I intend to do everything that I can when we get back to the States to make sure that normalization with our relationship with Cuba is given proper consideration both within the House of Representatives and the neighborhoods of America."

According to Lee's official website, the other members of the delegation were Reps. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), Michael M. Honda (D-San Jose) and Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach). 

-- Tony Pierce

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Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) speaks during a news conference in Havana today. Cuban President Raul Castro met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus for more than four hours, his first face-to-face discussions with U.S. leaders since he became Cuba's leader last year. Back, from left to right, Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II, Barbara Lee and Marcia L. Fudge. (AP Photo / Javier Galeano)

Comments

[zach wilson]

I know it's naive to hope for total peace in our time, but everything that brings us a little closer puts a smile on my face. Plus I want access to some really great cigars.

[Bryan Shaddick]

Bravo! It is about time!

[Sweet Rose]

Can we have this Congressional triumvirate that is playing palsy-walsy with Castro tried for treason? Or at least, have them impeached?

According Humberto Fontova (a native Cuban and author of "Fidel, Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant") this is an evil man that our congress is snuggling up with.

In his book, Humberto says that Castro wanted Nikita Khrushchev to bomb the US in the 1960s. Bomb, as in those big, bright nuclear weapons. Swell guy, that Castro.

Under Castro's regime, more of the population ended up behind bars than under Hitler's regime. And Castro happily put 17,000 of his fellow Cubans in front of firing squads.

Humberto also says that Castro had "his people" visit American POWs in North Vietnam so that he could torture the soldiers to death.

Castro should be given no quarter. He is evil incarnate. And anyone who is a friend of Castro is an enemy of the US, including this black caucus. Theirs is a treasonous act.

[Will Becker]

Does having Castro want to help us make us feel safer?What kind of fools are we?

[dan]

"I think that what really surprised me, but also endeared me to him, was his keen sense of humor, his sense of history and his basic human qualities," Rush said.

Is Bobby Rush insane? Let's completely forget everything he is and stands for and has done. I had a great meeting with him and he was just so darn funny! He's a teddy bear! Damn! I can't say this suprises me. This has always been the case with Democrats who chose to overlook the dark side of our "benevolent dictators." Awww, he was so cuddly! Can't we all just get along? We arrogant Americans? Let this be a lesson to all those Republicans that voted for Obama because they were embarassed with George Bush's past eight years.

[Larry]

It is no surprise that such a liberal arm of the Democratic party - Congressional Black Caucus - would be unanimous in advocating reinstatement of officlal relations with a communist country and not even think about communicating with Cuban dissidents on any level whether in Cuba or even any type of forum with Cubans residing in the U.S. Why would people who I know have attended college readily believe with immense naivete the carefully orchestrated session sitting with die hard communist officials for a few hours who have obviously put their best foot forward. They seem not to have taken much effort to impress, convinc and/or bamboozle such a partial group such as the Democatic party's Congressional Black Caucus. No surprise at all.

[Cjhsa]

How much more proof do you need that the Obamabunch is really a bunch of commies hiding behind a cloak of socialism?

[J House]

Please, Mr. Castro, give us your tired, your poor and all of your criminals convicted of violent crimes, yearning to be free.
Get ready for the 2nd Mariel boatlift, as Castro dumps his undesirables on another gullible President.

[Carlos Hernandez]

Is the Congressional Black Caucus naive?
How about coming down to Miami and sit down with cubam families so they can here the horror stories of what the Castro brothers did to them?
How about all the property that Castro took over for no reason? Is he ready to give it back to the rightfull owners?
How about the thousand of people he killed?
How about the dissidents on the island?

[snoris]

Let's see.....

Barbara Lee worked on former Black Panther Bobby Seals' mayoral candidacy in the 1970s...

Bobby Rush went AWOL from the Army in the 1960s and co-founded Illinois' Black Panthers...

...and they're simply enthralled with a dictator who kept his people impoverished and under an iron thumb for decades..

What's wrong here?

[Kathy]

"Endeared" you to him??? Mr. Rush!! Anyone remember that he's forced his people to live in poverty for decades and robbed them of years of basic nicities of life, like soap, toothpaste?? Are they serious? Clearly the Caucus has WAY too much time on their hands.

[Tony]

This is sickening. The man is a communist dictator. What have we become?

[Democrat Torturers]

These despicable Democrats, who worship Castro, the "Bearded One" who tortures, murders and oppresses are the same ones who love Castro but hate our troops and claim that our troops torture, murder and oppress.

Democrats are friggin Kommunist Traitors pure and simple. Except maybe a handful of Blue Dogs left.

[Frank]

Congratulations to these members of Congress for finally injecting some sanity into a completely crazy situation. Relations with Cuba should be normalized post-haste, so we can put this ridiculous and worthless embargo behind us.

[MAB]

I'm sure comforted by the fact that Bobby Lee Rush, the former Defense Minister and Warlord of the Chicago Black Panther Party is in Cuba trying normalize relations with the communists! Welcome to the United Socialist States of America!

[David Perez]

Sorry, but thats not hope and change most people were looking for. Americans dont want to go to Cuba. Castro's years of dictating and starving his people has left the island with nothing to offer. Buildings are delapidated, cars are old clunkers, technology is from the stone ages, nobody has money to build, everyone works very little and gets the same pay as everyone else and people are dieing from lack of food and shelter. Its not the modern, prestigious upbeat island it once was. Communism has ruined it completely. Any family that I have left there is probably dead anyways. If I want to enjoy the beach I will go to the keys. Mr. Obama, please focus your attention on something else that people really care about.

[Brady]

Yes and let's help Castro, mega-abuser of human rights. Sounds like we've elected a real Benedict Arnold for President. Castro is no friend of humanity, and these congressmen are too naive to realize it.

[Dave Cantrell]

So all it takes for these guys to accept and justify mass murder and totalitarian dictatorship is a sense of humour?

Wow, our government leaders are pathetic.

[Dick Tuck]

He was a murdering dictator who shot 100's a day in an
infamous sports stadium in Havana - to the point where even US liberals became "uncomfortable". These MORONS are calling him WHAT?

[Jay Tee]

So what about the hundreds of political prisoners Castro put away? Do we just let them rot?

[teebubba]

Isn't that special. Everyone seems to have forgotten that the bros Castro and their buddy Che murdered hundreds of their fellow men who helped them seize power in 1959 who didn't happen to be commmunists with firing squads.

[Garland]

Sooner or later, Castro was bound to find a commie president that he likes.

[Robert NYC]

Traitors. Grandstanders. Traitors.

[Aericano]

Finally, humility, sincerity, graciousness, and humanity towards our fellow man, triumps!!!!! Obama! Obama! Obama!

[Kimber]

This article neglects one thing - several members of congress and businessmen have gone to Cuba and met with officials, including Castro, since we started opening the doors to business there in 2002. These house members are not the first to go, and it pains me for the people - both Republican and Democrat, state and federal - who have worked long and hard, and spent time getting to know the Cuban people, to get no notice, while a short weekend visit that probably did not even get a hint of the real Cuba - the good and the bad - gets a ton of attention just because the Latin American Conference is coming up. My point is, these people should not get kudos for being the first down there when there are so many who laid the groundwork down before them for the last 7 years.

[Danny331911]

Here in the USA where at least 50% of our people are scared to death that we have elected a “MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE” as President who is acting LEFT of SOCIALIST and now we have a COMMUNIST DICTATOR who has for the last 50 years attacked and opposed the USA at every opportunity say, “HOW CAN WE HELP OBAMA".

Even a "L"ib couldn't make this stuff up and they're pretty good at making stuff up. LMAO!

[Booky]

Fidel Castro and Raul Castro have killed thousands of people, separated families, seized private property, contributed to the squandering of many lives, and exported revolutionary turmoil around the world. None of these people — including Obama— could enjoy the comforts, privileges, and luxuries that they now do here in the U.S. Fidel even eliminates those who stand with him. What do people think happened to Che Guevara (another murderer— whom people ignorantly hail as a t-shirt worthy hero) and Camilo Cienfuegos? Anyone who wants a little taste of what Fidel has done might watch the movie "The Lost City" with Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, and Bill Murray.

[Libertarian_Thinker]

Quote - "Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) were the first U.S. officials to meet with the 82-year-old former dictator since his intestinal surgery in July 2006" - End Quote

… What a joke the article seems to portray Castro as a jovial old man, when in reality he is a murderous thug.

And for the three stooges visiting from the CBC. It seems that they need to study up on their history a bit. Perhaps they should ask their leftist hero about all of the blacks he had murdered and imprisoned during his rein.

These three - Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) - are not exactly the brightest bulbs but hey after all they are members of Congress, what can we expect.

[shearwater]

When I was a university student, Cuba was recently declared off limits by our State Department and the left wing group of students were arranging illegal trips via Canada to get there for spring break, Christmas, etc. Although time has passed, I doubt that Cuba has reformed its ideology of communism or enslavement of people who do not agree to its socialist/communist agenda. Certainly, Raul Castro has not sworn off that path and they continue to collaborate with Hugo Chavez and others who are enemies of the United States.

[StopTheRantingRhetoric]

YES! Finally I may be able to get my hands on Cuban Cigars like Rush does!!

[David]

Should any one really be surprised by a bunch of Democrats speaking highly of Raul and Fidel? Fidel layed the blueprint for the government they want and Obama is doing his best to take all the nationalization steps necessary (banks, cars,..... energy?)

Obama has privatized the profits and socialized the losses. This is worse than socialism.

[Nico]

Fidel, you can help not only Obama but all of us, you cna
have your comrade! Seeing that you're one foot in the grave (and counting), he would make a marvelous successor. What do you say, do we have a deal?

[Farmer Bob]

It's unfortunate that half the US electorate did not see in Barack Obama what Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro see in him -- a fellow Red.

[Bill]

Thank goodness the black congressional caucus will finally be able to get this horrific and pressing foreign policy problem settled. I have been losing sleep at night worrying about what Cuba will do to us if we don't bow to their wants and needs. I was worried the Obama might have to send another 20,000 troops to Cuba, but now that pressing world problem is settled.

Way to go Obama! You've more than met my expectations.

[elton taupin]

Every nation that forgets God shall be turned into hell. The inmates are running the asylum.

[ricardo maxwell]

Birds of a feather. I can hardly wait for the bread and toilet paper lines.

[kathy]

WHAT??? We are now shoulder to shoulder with a CRUEL DICTATOR??

I don't care what party you are from- this should scare

the #@&* our of all of us!!

Take names of these people who love Castro and VOTE THEM OUT!!

Stop having allegiance tto your party- devote your allegiance to the survival of the USA!!

[Raul Picart]

I wonder if they asked about how Oscar Elias Biscet and all the other political prisoners are doing...

[Romanesq]

It's so heartwarming that the Congressman felt endeared to Raul. I'm sure that is cold comfort to the political prisoners languishing in Cuba's gulag.

How easily they are fooled. Raul's objective will be the same as his brother: how to maintain their despotic control.

And we have those who would aid them in Congress. Well that's endearing.

[J. M. Espinosa]

In this 50 year old Communist Dictatorship, Castro & his Good Old boys have not only ravished Cuba & its once prosperous people, it remains clear, this dictatorship depends on the ignorance of the masses; especially the Congressional Black Caucus.

How wonderful that the Cuban regime violates daily the human rights of the Cuban people. It has created a restrictive constitution & abusive laws that create the framework of repression & totalitarian control in Cuba.

Simply great!

For 50 yrs, Cuba has developed a highly effective machinery of repression. The denial of basic civil & political rights is written into CUBAN LAW. In the name of legality, armed security forces, aided by state-controlled mass organizations, silence dissent with heavy prison terms, threats of prosecution, harassment, or exile. Cuba uses these tools to restrict severely the exercise of fundamental human rights of expression, association & assembly. Yet, the Repression of Dissidents continues.

Still more of the same: In Cuba, people can't decide where they wish to travel, work or live, how they want to spend their skimpy earnings, what they choose to read(yup, free education) or what ideas seem to them luminous or not smart. In Cuba, the government has decided everything. You are only a subject there, not an individual, because it's dangerous to dare to foresee a future different from the one predicted by the mandarins of the cult. As always, the future in Cuba looks grim & dark.

[Viejo Vizcacha]

I used to work with a Jamaican, who had gone young to Cuba looking for work before Castro; He told me that had to leave Cuba in a year because he couldn't hold it anymore; his exact words were: "it was a so fast life, that at my twenties I couldn't take it. Too 'hot'. Drug was everywhere. And the peasants, even city helpers, were 'sleeping in huts piled up like logs', it was disgusting"... his words.
How can't you feel admiration for Castro, being part of the privileged as he was in Cuba, looking down and enduring what he endured out of love to his motherland and to his siblings countrymen, improving that country with so little so much as to be for instance a dynamo of physicians to Latin America? It is the notion of Cuba having the best physical therapy of the world, for other instance. Etc. Their achievments are herculeans I’d say.

I am seeing Castro with the same jogging suit since his operation; signal that he is not thieving Cuba either.
His brother the same; nobody is showing pictures of them jet-setting.
See? That is an example of politicians. How can we not be along?

And about the cruelty of the embargo, letting children go blind because the Bushos did not WANT to send medicines to "Castro's Cuba", how low can that be?
It is incredible what my president, Barack Hussein Obama, is achieving (at least trying), in this short time. I love it.

Pray the mafia wont take Cuba back now.

How can I help you, Mr. Castro?

[Ted]

As many have pointed out, these members of congress seemed oblivious to the prisoners of conscience in Cuban jails serving long sentences for simply verbally dissenting from Communist rule. Impressed with his sense of humor and human qualities? I guess it is human to have a few chuckles while one's political opponents languish away in hidden prisons, isn't it? If you are a tyrant, that is.

[Big Jim Slade]

What exactly does the United States get out of this "deal" again? These were the same delightful folks that aimed nukes at us, dumped their criminals on us, stole American property, and have attempted to overthrow our friendly allies for two generations.

Typical Obama. His continual need for new sources of adulation outweighs any pretense of common sense. Perhaps he ought to read a history book and realize he's dealing with cold blooded killers. Character does matter.

[mark]

like minds......

[Scott Wilkinson]

I thought Chavez and Castro were already on Obama's economic advisory team?!?!

[lee]

Democrat commies sucking up to the Cuban commies.
Another prime example of selling out American freedom and principles at any cost.
Typical leftwing liberals.
Gutless!!!

[sadieww]

Let's see, how can Fidel help obama? Maybe he can help change our health care system to be just like Cubas! A delegation of morons....

[Bill]

This is disturbing. Where is the Secretary of State? Everything is backwards here.

[danny]

This is so over due it aint FUNNY. We are in 2009 and all the old suff like this needs to go away. The US needs more friends not enemeys

[Michael Schultz]

I am totlly dismayed to see our great country slowly decimated by the naive and irresponsible actions of our current administration.
Common sense and rationality will slowly turn the powers back toward what our founding fathers had invisioned.
I fear that the radical socialistic changes being thrust on us may be difficult or impossible to overturn.
Obama walks the walk but cannot talk the talk. He is totally naive and inexperienced. We will all suffer.