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State Dept Has No Idea if Cuba Kept Deal, Doesn’t Care
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On January 8, 2015 @ 11:26 am In The Point | 12 Comments
The prisoner releases were never anything more than lipstick on a pig. Releasing Cuban political prisoners in a country where dissent is a crime never amounted to anything either. If Obama had cared about Cuban political prisoners, he never would have bailed out the Castro regime. But then again if he cared about Cuban political prisoners, he wouldn’t be a leftist radical.
State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki repeatedly refused to answer questions this afternoon about the 53 political detainees Cuba promised to release as part of a deal with President Obama to normalize relations with the United States.
When asked about a lack of transparency in the prisoner exchange process, Psaki said, “Well, we know who’s on there. And the Cuban government knows who’s on there.”
After Psaki stated that she had no updates to provide, a befuddled Matt Lee asked, “Hold on — hold on a second. Can we — I mean, is it — what’s happening? Are they out? Are they not out? … Where are they?”
Psaki responded, “I don’t have any more updates to provide for you, Matt.”
Lee, frustrated, followed up, “So the Cubans don’t actually have to do anything?”
Psaki answered, “Matt, no. This is something they’ve agreed to. I would point you to them for any updates on the number of people or the people have been released.”
Psaki obviously does not care, still redirecting questions about political prisoners to the dictatorship holding them prisoner is a new low even for this administration.
Cuba meanwhile is uninterested in releasing them.
The Cuban government is resisting the release of several of the 53 people the U.S. government has said were to be freed as part of a thaw in relations, linking them to acts of violence, a congressional aide told Reuters.
“We’ve been told that the Cuban government has agreed to release all but several of the political prisoners on the list,” the aide said.
Soft power. Very, very soft.
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