Navy halts commercial flights to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UPI/Miami Herald

Navy halts commercial flights to Cuba
Published: March. 18, 2013 at 1:27 PM

MIAMI, March 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has ordered a commercial flight service to cease flights to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing a long overlooked regulation.

Capt. John Nettleton ordered the Florida flier IBC Travel to quit service to the naval base by April 5, although the Navy had given them until May 1 to comply with its directive, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
Commercial flights from one small service or another have made the trips to and from Guantanamo since the 1980s, the newspaper said.

~snip~
"Of late, the Defense Department has been trying to restrict lawyers' access to imprisoned clients who do not have pending cases, it has been violating the attorney-client privilege, and now it is eliminating the only non-military route to Guantanamo," said attorney Ramzi Kassem, who visits the base frequently to visit with clients.regularly to meet detainees.

"Having no other options doesn't just harm the prisoners and their lawyers. It also hurts workers, service members and their loved ones," Kassem said.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/03/18/Navy-halts-commercial-flights-to-Cuba/UPI-26211363627631/#ixzz2NurvExrP

[RILib]

1. maybe we should have a contest

what's the stupidest thing the U.S. has done lately.

[magellan]

2. Not stupid

Sinister and corrupt. And we don't know the half of it.

[TwilightGardener]

3. My sense is that something will happen soon in regard to Gitmo--good or bad, I don't know.

The hunger strike, the State Dept. closing its office and giving up...none of it looks good. I don't know why they are suddenly controlling flight access, pulling out an old regulation ignored for three decades as an excuse--very hard to read into this. The whole thing is just a continuing black eye on Obama, Congress and the US.

[dipsydoodle]

4. The lawyers

will need to catch a plane to Holquin and then rent car to drive the rest of the way.

[Mika]

5. And have to get an OFAC permit and an entry visa too, now.

Pathetic.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Yes pathetic.

Issue needs taking up with another body.

[Mika]

7. Cuba just needs to take Guantanamo back.

Pay off the remainder of the lease w/US seized Cuban payments.

[dipsydoodle]

8. I was told when I was there first time

that Castro had gone all those years not cashing the cheques and then somebody cashed one which was taken as tacit acceptance of lease renewal. Hopefully the idiot who did that got his just deserves.

[happyslug]

10. Not the problem, the treaties do NOT permit Cuba to terminate the lease

See below for the actual text, thus whether someone cashed one or not is unimportant, the treaty prohibits Cuba from terminating the base.

[happyslug]

9. The problem is the treaty sets NO end date

The exact text is as follows:

The Republic of Cuba hereby leases to the United States, for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations, the following described areas of land and water situated in the Island of Cuba:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba002.asp

Notice the only time limit is the need for a coaling OR Naval Station.

The lease was reaffirmed in 1934:

Until the two contracting parties agree to the modification or abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the lease to the United States of America of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba on February 16, 1903, and by the President of the United States of America on the 23d day of the same month and year, the stipulations of that agreement with regard to the naval station of Guantanamo shall continue in effect. The supplementary agreement in regard to naval or coaling stations signed between the two Governments on July 2, 1903, also shall continue in effect in the same form and on the same conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantanamo. So long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of Guantanamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to have the territorial area that it now has, with the limits that it has on the date of the signature of the present Treaty.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba001.asp

These are the treaties that covers Guantanamo, notice to terminate the lease both the US AND Cuba has to agree, Cuba can NOT terminate the treaty by itself.