NewsMax.com
Friday, April 27, 2001

"He's done some good things for his people," Powell said Thursday of the communist tyrant who has crushed human rights on his island prison for four decades.

"He is no longer the threat he was," Powell said in response to grilling at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing by Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., who attacked America's policy on Havana.

Powell seemed to be giving his opinion rather than signaling a change in U.S. policy.

In 1961, with hopes fading that Castro was a republican reformer, the United States ended relations with Havana and has condemned it yearly as a sponsor of terrorism.

"That policy makes no sense. It is a country that has not done any harm to us," Serrano claimed - despite the terrorism sponsored by Castro. "Why China and why not Cuba?"

Under Castro, Cuba exports doctors, not revolution, Serrano said, according to the Associated Press.

Powell said Castro was stuck in the past. "He hasn't changed his views in any way." In China, Russia and Vietnam, "you can see leaders who the world is changing."

Don't Offend China

Powell, known as the most liberal member of President Bush's foreign-policy team, also took a mild view of China despite its recent hostile acts toward America. "We are not looking for an enemy. We don't need an enemy," he said.

"We are trying to get back on a more stable relations with China." He did allow, "We will meet any danger which comes our way."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

China/Taiwan

Bush Administration

Castro / Cuba

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