US Bars Brain Trauma Experts from Global Research Conference in Cuba; Deci

[Judi Lynn]

US Bars Brain Trauma Experts from Global Research Conference in Cuba; Decision Denounced as Harmful to US Health, Political Payoff to FL
Thu Mar 11, 2:48 PM ET


WASHINGTON, March 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Four leading organizations devoted to legal travel by Americans to Cuba have written Secretary of State Powell and Treasury Secretary Snow to denounce the Bush administration's decision to bar leading U.S. experts in brain injury from attending a global conference on coma and death that is occurring now in Cuba.


"This decision to bar travel to Cuba for our scientists and others to attend this conference has no basis in law, will harm the ability of American health care providers to provide cutting edge health care to U.S. citizens, and is nothing more than a political payoff to far-right Florida voters at the expense of the national interest," said the organizations in a letter released today.


U.S. law, which restricts travel by Americans to Cuba, actually permits researchers to travel to the island under licenses granted by the Treasury Department (news - web sites) for narrow or general reasons. Nearly 100 U.S. scientists applied for permission to travel to the Fourth Annual Symposium on Coma and Death, a conference that is taking place in Havana, Cuba from March 9-12.


Brain injuries kill 50,000 Americans each year, according to the Bush administration's Centers for Disease Control.
(snip/...)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=669&ncid=669&e=10&u=/usnw/20040311/pl_usnw/us_bars_brain_trauma_experts_from_global_research_conference_in_cuba__decision_denounced_as_harmful_to_us_health__political_pay

On edit,
Adding story:

LATEST NEWS
12:29 PM EST Thursday
ATRIP: Cuba travel ban disturbing

The Association of Travel-Related Industry Professionals, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying group, has criticized what it described as the government's decision to prohibit a group of professionals from traveling to Cuba.


The group said the 70 people wanted to attend an international conference, the Symposium on Coma and Death, in Havana, March 9-12.

The group said the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control denied the group's travel license days before they were scheduled to depart.

"To prevent well-intended Americans from traveling to Cuba for legitimate and laudable scientific and academic purposes is disturbing, to say the least," said Michael Zuccato, ATRIP chairman and general manager of Cuba travel services.
(snip/...)

http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/03/08/daily32.html?jst=b_ln_hl

[mmm]

1. what can you say?

this makes no sense at all

[Mika]

2. Some comments..

.. here,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x413569


Its a f-ing outrage!

[leesa]

3. Speaking for my brain-injured brother...I'm so proud of our government

NOT!

[Pastiche423]

7. Speaking as a traumatic brain injured person

I feel the same.

[Judi Lynn]

4. More comments from another article:

(snip) This is maddening,” said Mary White of Wright State University, one of the frustrated US delegates. “The director of the coma conference, Dr. Calixto Machado, is a leader in this field. From a professional standpoint, we in the US would like to keep up with what he has to say.”
“The point for us is that this conference deals with important issues for the healthcare of people around the world, including Americans,” she said. “The issues surrounding coma and death have direct implications for organ transplantation as well as the care and treatment of people in persistent vegetative states and minimally conscious states.”

Jeremy Horne, a freelance philosopher working out of Mesa, Arizona, and another of those who hoped to be in Havana this week, wrote to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) asking that the AAAS intervene. As of March 9, the AAAS was still considering its position and Horne had not received a reply.

Guild said the last few years have seen scientists and other academics traveling to Cuba in greater numbers under the general license, particularly since 1999. But in the last year or so the restrictions have been interpreted more severely, and this is not the only conference to be affected.
(snip)

Mavis Anderson, a senior associate at the Latin America Working Group, a watchdog organization in Washington DC, described the decision as a “a blatant misinterpretation of the existing guidelines.” But she said it is in line with the Bush administration's current attitude towards Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040310/04

[Jacobin]

5. Shameless freaks

November cannot get here quick enough.

I wanna hear the Cubans in Miami HOWLING and complaining about President Kerry opening the doors to trade with Cuba. ( I know its not all of them)

[HuckleB]

6. Sheesh.

This is pitiful. I'm supposed to go to Cuba this summer, as part of a program of Spanish for health care professionals. I'm wondering if we're going to actually get to go.