Raul Castro to Sean Penn: he'd meet Obama at Gitmo

[Judi Lynn]

Raul Castro to Sean Penn: he'd meet Obama at Gitmo
Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago

HAVANA – Cuban President Raul Castro said in an interview released Wednesday that he would like to meet President-elect Barack Obama on "neutral ground" — and he suggested the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

The Cuban leader's offer came in a rare interview in Havana with actor-director Sean Penn, who wrote about it for the Dec. 15 edition of The Nation magazine. The article was released on the magazine's Web site Wednesday.

Penn asked if Castro would meet with Obama in Washington. The Cuban president said he "would have to think about it," but that it would not be fair for either leader to go to the other's territory. Instead he suggested the base at Guantanamo.

"We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift ... we could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay," Castro said.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_castro_penn

[Judi Lynn]

1. He revealed a secret in the article we've never heard:

"Despite the fact that we hold different positions as to the most efficient way to eradicate terrorism, the difference between Cuba and the United States lies in the method and not in the need to put an end to the scourge," the government said then, four months after the September 11 attacks on America.

Military officers from both countries meet periodically to discuss mutual matters. Castro told Penn that 157 such meetings have been held since they began in 1994, on the third Friday of every month, and that they are recorded and alternate between the U.S. base and Cuban-held territory.

Castro said the meetings now include a U.S. State Department representative, but "the State Department tends to be less reasonable than the Pentagon." Still, he said, "no one raises their voice because ... I don't take part. Because I talk loud. It is the only place in the world where these two militaries meet in peace."

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. The State Department less reasonable than the Pentagon? Those

functionaries seem to crop up everywhere.... Nazi Germany, School of the Americas, State Department, etc, etc. How closely must
the State Department have worked with the CIA in the Chile of Allende and Pinochet? El Salvador, Gutemala, etc?

[Billy Burnett]

2. Full article by Sean Penn (The Nation link with a video)

Conversations With Chavez and Castro
by SEAN PENN
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/penn/single

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Wow! Iraq hawk and general purpose "nut" Hitchens, must be an incredible optimist.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Excellent. Setting this aside to examine later this evening. Thank you for posting this. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. Cuban leader willing to talk to Obama at neutral venue

Cuban leader willing to talk to Obama at neutral venue
By David Usborne in New York
Friday November 28 2008

RAUL CASTRO, the Cuban leader, has told the actor Sean Penn that he would be willing to meet Barack Obama, the president-elect, after he assumes power in the United States, although he added the encounter should take place in a "neutral location", for instance Guantanamo Bay.

"We must meet and begin to solve our problems," President Castro said during a highly unusual interview given to Mr Penn in Havana a few weeks before Mr Obama was elected. His article will be published in the December 15 issue of 'The Nation' magazine.

The purpose of such a summit, Fidel Castro's younger brother added, would be primarily to end the trade restrictions that the US has imposed on the Caribbean island since its Marxist revolution, which will be marked by 50th anniversary celebrations in January.

Penn, whose new film about Harvey Milk, the gay rights pioneer and city supervisor in San Francisco opened in the US this week, travelled in October to Venezuela and Cuba.

Critics of American policy towards Cuba have taken heart from the election of Mr Obama, who said during his campaign that he would lift the new restrictions imposed by George Bush on exchanges with Cuba.

He promised to allow Cuban-Americans to visit the island as often as they liked and to send as much money as they wished to their families there.

More:
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/americas/cuban-leader-willing-to-talk-to-obama-at-neutral-venue-1556240.html