Archive for the ‘State Department’ Category
Travel to Cuba Sparks Lawsuit Against State Department
A New York Man has filed a lawsuit against the State Department claiming Fifth Amendment protects him from giving details of his Cuba trip because it would lead to self-incrimination. According to the Wall Street Journal:
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, alleges Zachary Sanders was fined after he failed to respond to a March 2000 request by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for information on an alleged June 1998 trip to Cuba and travel while he was there.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Sanders by the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights, is seeking a declaration that OFAC’s policy is unlawful, enjoining OFAC from issuing such penalties and setting aside the fine to Sanders.
Cuban Spies? You Gotta Be Kidding
Turns out a couple in their 70’s has been charged by the Justice Dept. for spying for Cuba. According to the NYTimes:
Mr. Myers began working as a contract instructor at the State Department in 1977 and rose to the position of senior analyst with top-secret security clearance, specializing in European affairs. He retired from the department in 2007.
In the indictment, the Justice Department said that Mr. Myers examined some 200 intelligence reports that dealt with Cuba in 2006 and 2007, many of them classified or top-secret reports that were unrelated to his own duties at the State Department.
The NYTimes article says money wasn’t their motivation, it was their “bitterness toward American Imperialism”. Folks, put down the Cold War era spy novels, its over.
US-Cuban Immigration Talks to Resume
The process of normalizing relations between the US and Cuba continue to move forward. Two of the issues at hand involve immigration and mail service. According to AP:
Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries, a State Department official said Sunday.
The communist government notified the U.S. on Saturday that it had accepted an administration overture made May 22 to restart the immigration talks, suspended by President George W. Bush after the last meeting in 2003. Cuba also expressed a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and on hurricane disaster preparedness.