No US Aid to Cuba
July 22, 2005

IRVINE, CA--Some say President Bush's $50,000 aid offer to hurricane-ravaged Cuba is an insultingly trivial amount. Dr. Andrew Bernstein, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, says offering any aid to Castro is aiding and abetting terrorism.

"Not a penny of aid should be granted to Castro's regime under any circumstances," Bernstein says, "because he is a bloody-handed dictator who oppresses his own people and is a sworn enemy of the United States. Castro's forces have executed thousands of individuals who oppose his regime, forced tens of thousands of political prisoners into slave labor, and murdered countless victims for the 'crime' of attempting to defect.

"Both logic and history show," said Dr. Bernstein, "that dictators use aid for natural-disasters, whether public or private, for their own nefarious purposes."

Bernstein points to Castro's past and current crimes. "De-classified Soviet documents, as well as Nikita Khruschev's own memoirs, reveal that Castro implored the Soviets to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against America during the Cuban missile crisis. Currently, Castro provides moral and material support to the Iranian mullahs in their holy war against America. He has declared that, 'War against the United States is my true destiny.'

"Rather than aid Castro's war against us, President Bush should seek to end it. He should morally denounce Castro and his regime, encourage and aid defectors, support dissidents, and pressure other free nations to do the same. Our goal should be a free Cuba and the removal of the 'terrorist next door.'"

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Dr. Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Bernstein or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrand.org

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