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Excerpt from an article written by Albor Ruiz, published in Ny Local

Obama gets a black mark for 'black list' after promising to improve relations with Latin America
Ny Local

Sunday, January 10th 2010
It wasn't that long ago - barely a year - that a new, sane policy toward Cuba seemed possible after half a century of failure, absurdity and gratuitous cruelty.
Those were the days when candidate Barack Obama promised a "new partnership" with Latin America and a "recasting" of relations with the island.
"We've been engaged in a failed policy with Cuba for the last 50 years," the young, inspiring Illinois senator told a Miami crowd during his campaign for the White House.
Oh, but how things have changed in one year!
Now, because the State Department had designated Cuba as a "state sponsor of terror" in 1982, Cuban travelers will be subjected to extra security checks, along with those from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Notice that Cuba's inclusion on the "black list" goes back 28 years, making even stronger the creepy sensation that U.S.-Cuba relations are preternaturally frozen in time.
"Obama's continuing to keep Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terror is a mistake," said Sarah Stephens, director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.
"First, Cuba is not a security threat to the U.S. This is the view of many highly decorated U.S. military officers and experts on terrorism. Second, putting Cuba on this list gives the appearance of politicizing our effort to protect airline security rather than being focused on real threats. Third, Cuba's presence on the terror list is about domestic politics; we know that. And last, it is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money."
"Cuba is a designated state sponsor of terrorism, and we think it's a well-earned designation, given their longstanding support for radical groups in the region," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said last week, referring to Colombian guerrillas. The State Department also mentions on its Web site that Cuba hosts several militants from the Basque separatist group ETA.
What Crowley didn't say is that the ETA militants live in Cuba as the result of an agreement with Spain, and that the Colombian government has asked Cuba to be a mediator in its negotiations with the insurgents.
He also failed to mention that although some people coming from Cuba have tried to smuggle in cigars and rum, not a single one has been found with anything that could be even remotely used in a terrorist attack.
Crowley also forgot to say that the U.S. has given refuge to the likes of Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who was imprisoned in Venezuela (and escaped) for blowing up a Cubana flight in 1976, killing 73 people.
Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), in a letter last Thursday to President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Secretary of State Clinton, demanded Cuba be removed from the "black list." McGovern called the department's reasons "shopworn arguments that run contrary to fact."
"U.S. attention, resources and energy [should be] focused on where threats genuinely reside, rather than squandered where there is no documented threat," the letter said. "The U.S. has many longstanding political and diplomatic problems with Cuba, but none of them relate to terrorism. In fact, engaging, collaborating and enlisting Cuba in the fight against international terrorism would be to the advantage of U.S. national security.

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