In Age Of Terror, Why Is Obama Rushing to Open Daily Flights With Cuba?

In Age Of Terror, Why Is Obama Rushing to Open Daily Flights With Cuba?
Mike Gonzalez, CONTRIBUTOR

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
As the horrific attack in Nice made clear again Thursday night, America
is in the midst of a global war against terrorists who seek to exploit
whatever weak spots there are. Why, then, is the Obama administration in
an unseemly rush to open daily flights with a communist dictatorship
that shares intelligence and weapons with our enemies and has no
apparent passenger screening capabilities?

In other words, why has the Obama Administration given eight U.S.
airlines approval to operate daily flights to Cuba?

Some in Congress have noticed and have taken steps to stop what looks
like another mad dash to hang another ball on President Obama’s legacy
tree. Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) introduced this week a bill that would
pretty much halt the flights until Havana agrees to a number of security
guarantees—concessions which Raul Castro will be reluctant to make.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has also been vocal on the issue and may soon
introduce a Senate version.

The House bill asks that the Transportation Security Administration
submit to Congress details about the type of equipment Cuba uses at its
screening checkpoints, an assessment of the ability of known terrorists
to access Cuba as a gateway and information on how Cuba vets its airport
employees, who are all government workers.

Cuba’s communist government last month wouldn’t even let a bipartisan
delegation of the House Homeland Security Committee visit the island
nation, where they had expected to inspect the security of Cuban airports.

And a few days later Raul Castro’s government announced that it had
given the contract for creating the country’s new air traffic control
system to Russia’s largest manufacturer of electronic devices. The
contract between Russia’s Azimut and Cuba’s military-owned importer
Aviaimport, which has an extensive history of deals with Russia, calls
for the transfer of technology, information and research in civil
aeronautics.

Azimut is a holding of Ruselectronics, which is part of Rostec, a
state-owned tech/defense company whose general director is appointed by
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Rostec also supplies Kalashnikovs and
other military/defense equipment.

Source: In Age Of Terror, Why Is Obama Rushing to Open Daily Flights
With Cuba? – Forbes –
www.forbes.com/sites/mikegonzalez3/2016/07/15/in-age-of-terror-why-is-obama-rushing-to-open-daily-flights-with-cuba/#6377c2454c41