Reply #41: Interesting comments from the Miami Herald [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

~snip~ Several senators said Bush's order directing Homeland Security and Treasury to step up searches of travelers to Cuba was a bad use of resources during the war on terrorism.

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, a member of the GOP leadership, said the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control, which targets the funding of terrorism, should not be focusing on the embargo on Cuba.

GRANDMAS TARGETED

''Ten percent of the OFAC budget is used to track down little old grandmas from the West Coast who through a Canadian travel agency chose to bike in Cuba,'' Craig said. He was one of seven Republicans on the Appropriations Committee to vote to end the ban.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the Senate ''paid very little heed to the veto threat.'' Phil Peters, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank, said the importance of Thursday's vote was that ``the president's arguments may work in Miami but not the rest of the country.''

If remaining spending bills are wrapped up into one omnibus measure later this year, Dorgan and Craig said, they expected the Senate to vote again to eliminate the ban. ~snip~

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/7091377.htm