Hall of shame: 78 bigwigs — some of them Cuban “exiles”– write love letter to present occupant of the White House, ask for more concessions to Castrogonia

Ay!  The  colossal Christmas gift given to Raul Castro by the present occupant of the White House was apparently not colossal enough for some people.

Seventy-eight prominent politicians and leading business heavyweights have written said occupant a thank-you letter for his December 17 capitulation to the Castro regime in which they actually beg for more concessions to be granted to said dictatorship.

The letter is filled with the same vacuous hypocritical nonsense spouted by the current occupant of the White House on December 17.

A good number of these individuals are part of the fervently pro-Castro Cuba Study Group.

In essence, the signatories fall into four categories:

1. Capitalist vultures who want to profit from a lifting of the embargo and Cuban slave labor, but disguise their greed in a smokescreen of hypocritical politicobabble about human rights.

2. Politicians who tilt  to the left in varying degrees and have a soft spot for the Castro dictatorship, and  disguise their real intentions in the same smokescreen as the vultures in the first category.

3. Foreign policy “experts” who have never had to endure the misery of living as a Cuban in Castrogonia, but think highly of the Castro regime and actually claim to know what is best for Cubans.

4. Naive idealists of the sort described by Lenin as “useful idiots.”   Whether or not any of them are hypocrites of the sort listed in categories 1, 2, and 3 is difficult to discern.

Sadly, some of these individuals are prominent Cuban-Americans, mostly in category number one.  Many of these exiles and children of exiles are fabulously wealthy.  Some are billionaires.

Below is a brief portion of the letter, and the entire list of signatures.  Some of the most prominent Cuban-American vultures are highlighted in bold font.

Consider this a hall of shame.

If you think you can stomach reading the entire letter, you can find it HERE.

Open Letter to President Obama: SUPPORT FOR A NEW COURSE ON CUBA

Dear Mr. President,

We write to commend you on the historic actions you are taking to update America’s policy toward Cuba and Cuban citizens. Our new posture of engagement will advance our national interests and our values by empowering the Cuban people’s capacity to work toward a more democratic and prosperous country— conditions that are very much in the U.S. interests. Many of the signers of this letter wrote to you last year calling for exactly these types of changes. We appreciate that you not only recognized that the moment had come to act but did so boldly…

….Mr. President, we also call on you to work with Congress to update the legislative framework with regard to Cuba so that it, too, reflects 21st century realities. In the meantime, we look forward to continued progress in improving U.S.-Cuban cooperation on matters of national interest and stand ready to support this new policy of constructive engagement and U.S. outreach to the Cuban people.

Respectfully,

John Adams, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Retired); former Deputy U.S. Military Representative to NATO; former Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Army
Gustavo Arnavat, former U.S. ExecutiveDirectorattheInter American Development Bank
Joe Arriola, former Manager, City of Miami, Florida
Ricky Arriola, CEO, Inktel
Bruce Babbitt, former Governor of Arizona; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Harriet Babbitt, former U.S .Ambassador to the Organization of American States
Samuel R. Berger, Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group, National Security Advisor (1997-2000)
Tomas Bilbao,ExecutiveDirector, Cuba Study Group
Carol Browner, former EPA Administrator; former Director of White House Office of Climate Change and Energy Policy
Paul L. Cejas, former U.S. Ambassador and Chairman, PLC Investments, Inc.
Gustavo Cisneros, Chairman, Cisneros Group of Companies
Jon Cowan, President, ThirdWay
Chet Culver, former Governor of Iowa
Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere
Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont
Larry Diamond, Director, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University
Tom Downey, former U.S. Congressman
Anita Dunn, Managing Director, SKD Knickerbocker Communications
Alfonso Fanjul, FanjulGroup
Andres Fanjul, FanjulGroup
Christopher Findlater
Richard Feinberg, former Latin American Advisor to the White House; Professor, University of California, San Diego
Mike Fernandez, Chairman, MBF Healthcare Partners
The Right Reverend Leo Frade, Episcopal Bishop of Southeast Florida
Pedro A. Freyre, Partner, Akerman LLP
Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Joe Garcia, former U.S. Congressman; former Executive Director, Cuban-American National Foundation
Maria Garcia Berry, CEO, CRL Associates, Inc.
Tim Gill, Founder and Chairman, Gill Foundation
Dan Glickman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; former U.S. Congressman
Felice Gorordo, CEO, ClearPath
Lee Hamilton, former U.S. House Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
David Hernandez, Co-Founder and CEO, Liberty Power
Ricardo Herrero, Executive Director, #CubaNow
Vicki Huddleston, former U.S. Ambassador and Chief of the U.S. Interests Section, Havana
Peter J. Johnson, Associate to David Rockefeller
James R. Jones, Chairman, Manatt Jones Global Strategies
Wendy W.Luers, President, The Foundation for a Civil Society
Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III, Chairman, McLarty Associates
Sascha Meinrath, Founder, Open Technology Institute at New America
Eduardo Mestre, Senior Advisor at Evercore; Board member of Avis Budget and Comcast Corporation
Scott Miller, Board Member,Gill Foundation
Luis Miranda, former White House Director of Hispanic Media; Managing Director, MDC Strategies
Marcelino Miyares, President, MM Communications Inc.
Frank Mora, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University
Moisés Naím, Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Michael Parmly, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section, Havana
Ralph Patino, Civil Trial Attorney; Futuro Fund Board Member
Ted Piccone, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Thomas Pickering, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Bill Reinsch, President, National Foreign Trade Council
Cecile Richards
Bill Richardson, formerU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; former Governor of New Mexico
Bill Ritter, former Governor of Colorado
David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Hilary Rosen, Managing Director, SKDK nicker bocker Communications
Christopher Sabatini, former Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly; AdjunctProfessor, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs
Carlos Saladrigas, Chairman of Regis HR Group and Concordia Behavioral Health; Chairman of the Cuba Study Group; member of the board of Duke Energy Corporation and Advance AutoParts, Inc.
Ken Salazar, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior; former U.S. Senator; former Colorado Attorney General
Francisco “Frank” Sanchez, former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce
George P. Shultz, Fellow, Hoover Institution; former U.S. Secretary of State, Treasury and Labor; former Director, Office of Budget & Management; former CEO, Bechtel
Susan Segal, President and CEO ,Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Hilda L. Solis, former U.S. Secretary of Labor; former Congresswoman; member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Enrique Sosa, former President, Dow Chemical North America
Admiral James Stavridis, USN(Ret); Dean, The Fletcher School, Tufts University; SupremeAlliedCommander,NATO(2009-2013); Commander,U.S. Southern Command (2006-2009)
Sarah Stephens, Executive Director, Center for Democracy in the Americas
Alan Stoga, President, Zemi Communications, LLC; Vice Chairman, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Ted Strickland,former Governor of Ohio
Strobe Talbott, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress
Ted Trimpa, Principal and CEO, Trimpa Group
Raul Valdes-Fauli, Partner, Fox Roth child; former Mayor, City of Coral Gables, Florida
Arturo Valenzuela, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Melanne Verveer, former U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues
Bill Vidal, former Mayor of Denver, Colorado
Alexander Watson, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
James Williams, Director of Public Policy, Trimpa Group; Board Member, Project on Middle East Democracy
TimothyWirth, formerU.S.Senator;Vice-Chair, The UN Foundation