Obama the great negotiator i think he'd better reconsider the reset with the communist dictator..
Critics cry foul as Castro demands Gitmo s return WashingtonExaminer.com
The Associated Press reported late Wednesday afternoon that the Cuban president demanded that the U.S. return the base at Guantanamo, lift the half-century trade embargo and compensate the island country for damages as a pre-condition to moving forward with re-establishing diplomatic relations.
Castro reportedly told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that the U.S. and Cuba are moving forward in their talks but diplomatic re-engagement wouldn’t make sense “if these problems aren’t resolved.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill are likely to fight any attempt to hand over the base on Guantanamo Bay and the detainee prison facility to the Castro regime. Some already have accused Obama of working with the Cuban government to normalize relations at least partly to fulfill his campaign promise to close the Gitmo prison facility.
That tall order has eluded Obama throughout his two terms as president as Republicans in Congress and unrest in terrorist hot spots in the Middle East and elsewhere have thwarted his plans to transfer detainees from the prison to other countries.
As president and commander-in-chief, Obama has the power to unilaterally change the decades-long agreement with Cuba giving U.S. control over Guantanamo Bay, but the GOP-controlled Congress likely will try to use its power of the purse to prevent any efforts to hand the base back and shutter the prison.
The legally binding agreement between the U.S. and Cuba regarding Guantanamo Bay provides that “so long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of Guantanamo or the two governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to have the territorial area that it now has.”
Critics cry foul as Castro demands Gitmo s return WashingtonExaminer.com