BARF ALERT: Clinton breaks taboo to shake Castro's hand

[KaMaKaZe]

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Clinton breaks taboo to shake Castro's hand

FROM JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK

BILL CLINTON has broken a decades-old taboo and become the first United States President to shake hands with Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary leader.
The historic gesture, sure to provoke controversy in America, took place during a fleeting encounter on Wednesday in a crowd of other leaders at the United Nations summit in New York.

UN sources say the meeting happened as about 150 presidents, princes and prime ministers ambled from a luncheon thrown by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, into the nearby Trusteeship Council for a "class photo".

"It's all the buzz," said one UN official. "As they went from lunch to the photo there was a choke point and Castro and Clinton moved gradually together and they shook hands and exchanged a few words."

A US official confirmed the meeting and said: "Castro approached him [Clinton] at the end of the lunch and they just exchanged just a sentence or two."

Mr Clinton told Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, about the encounter when the two met for a drink at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel later on Wednesday evening.

Speculation was rife that the meeting had been carefully scripted following Mr Clinton's decision to please Cuba by sending home the "boat child" Elián González, who was the subject of a bitter custody battle after being rescued from a shipwreck that killed his mother as she fled their Communist homeland.

"He wouldn't do it accidentally," said one Western official. "There may be some people who Clinton just bear-hugs anyway, but I think he would recognise Castro."

According to one version, the encounter was almost disrupted by Señor Castro's friend, President Chavez of Venezuela, who was trying to meet Mr Clinton himself.

As Señor Chavez approched, another leader kept him away. "Chavez made a lunge for Clinton just as Clinton and Castro were coming together and someone threw a bodycheck to prevent him interfering," the UN source said.

Another diplomatic source confirmed that Señor Castro took the initiative. "Clinton and Castro were watching each other through the sides of their eyes," he said. "Castro started to move toward Clinton and Clinton remained there. Chavez was about to be the next one to greet Clinton and Fidel cut across him."

The greeting, which took place out of view of reporters while the assembled leaders were not accompanied by aides or bodyguards, suggests that Mr Clinton intends a warming of relations with Cuba to be one of the legacies of his presidency.

As well as returning Elián González, the Clinton Administration has been pushing for a relaxation of the trade embargo imposed on Cuba after Señor Castro seized power in 1959.

Direct telephone links have been restored between the two countries, and the House of Representatives recently passed a measure easing restrictions on exporting food and medicine to Cuba.

The rapprochement is fraught with political dangers for Vice-President Al Gore's presidential campaign, particularly in the key state of Florida. The vociferous Cuban exile community there fears that Mr Gore will further relax sanctions if he is elected, while the Republican manifesto lays down stringent conditions on any easing of the embargo and calls for "active American support for Cuban dissidents".
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God, Guns and Guts made this country a great country!

oberkommando sez:
"We lost the first and third and now they are after the Second!(no pun intended)"

[DannyO]

Maybe Clinton was sliding him a resume. He is going to be out of work soon !!!!!

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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi

[Mikey]

I'll bet Castro is still washing his hands!!!

Mikey

[Paul B.]

What's that old saying, "Birds of a feather will flock together"? Nuff said?
Paul B.

[HukeOKC]

Doesn't Castro know where clinton's hand has been???

[TomMarker]

&lt;insert cigar joke here&gt;

[Apple a Day]

Sorry sons of beeches probably exchanged cigar jokes. There are millions of Americans of Cuban heritage (including me) frothing at the mouth over the nightmare realized of seeing an American president- even one as sorry as Slick Bill - buddying up to Fidel. Just the thought of it makes me nauseated.


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Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

[Waterdog]

Freaking COMMUNISTS!, that's all.

Waterdog

[Ed Brunner]

Don't you imagine that Fidel is bill's idol?

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed

[ordo]

What a refreshing change after kissing Castro's arse for eight years!

ordo

[Juan Hunt Greer]

And the surprise is????
crankshaft
paranoia is the correct thing when they actually are out to get You!

[ducky]

I am amazed. It is like he is trying to insure that after leaving office everyone everywhere will remember him for being a forgiving individual. I shiver at the idea that people will pay to hear him speak his thoughts. I personally would not shale his hand. I would simply tell him that I don't abide by his changing rules to fit his needs. No one should abuse power whether given to them or elacted to them, and he is the perfect example of what happens with abuse. He does make me sick, I'm posting this and leaving before I barf on my good keyboard.

[Hal]

I'll extend part of a hand to Castro. Just a middle digit. I gotsa a loooooong memory. This is the rotten SOB that aimed ICBM's at me. Shake his hand my a$$$. I'd gnaw the thing off at the root. No smileys on this, and sorry for the acid. That bearded ba$tard just doesn't seem to go away no matter how many times you flush.

[Mort]

The way that I understood it is that Castro boldly approached Clinton, and that Clinton in standard weasel style did the most noncommital thing possible. Just because you shake hands with someone doesn't mean you're in the sack with them, nor does it mean you aren't in the sack. Let's try to maintain some objectivity.

[4V50 Gary]

Why would Castro or anybody else want to shake Clinton's hand?

[C.R.Sam]

We just don't seem to get a meteor when we need one.

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev predicted confidently in a speech in Bucharest, Rumania on June 19, 1962 that: " The United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."

[denfoote]

It makes sense to ne. Klinton greeting a fraternal socialist comrade.

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Yeah, I got a permit to carry,it's called the friggin Constitution.---Ted Nugent

"Glock 26: 17 rounds of concealed carry DEATH comming your way from out of nowhere!!! THAT'S FIREPOWER, BABY!!!"