It might have been because we publicized his refusal to take aid. The other thing is: Dennis did $3 billion in damage and Hugie boy only sent $18 million in an aid boat - if that at all. The place was a shambles even before Wilma hit. I think they are at the end of the line.

One thing that was striking to me is that the State Department said it had offered DART rapid response teams in the past that castro turned down. In the past few weeks, he announced formation of his own DART-equivalent teams. Clearly he's been watching us. And some of the media have been heaping the pressure on him. And the blogsphere has been making it impossible for him to hide anything anymore.

I think we are making an impact, Val.

May God here you both, maybe he is ill and someone else is making decisions, or maybe he is just at the end of his rope....then again maybe somehow someway he will manage to turn this against the US, since we are at fault for all their ailments - specifically dying kids of dengue and a possible bird flu outbreak.

I just hope the aid gets to those who really need it

I think things are bad in fidels paradise, and it's either U.S. aid or his own bank accounts. He loves his money more than he hates us, why not let the U.S. lend a hand and pacify the workers? And watch, this is going to up the ante in the embargo debate. Just a thought.

test

Hard to believe that at this point he accepted US aid after all these years, when he can have all the money he wants from his "Hugie boy" (I like this AMMora). Embargo's lobby everybody?? Perhaps Hugie boy's new friends Burton&Helms adviced somehow. Definitely: El huevo quiere sal!

Lincoln Diaz-Balart said tonight that castro did NOT accept the US aid offer. castro "counter offered" that Cuba and the USA should form some regional disaster relief group of sorts, etc in an attempt to politicize things. Diaz-Balart said the US is not interested in joining castro in any such group but simply want to unilaterally offer this aid to the long suffering Cuban people. Apparently there was some miscommunication in thinking castro had accepted the aid offer.

OT but interesting, found this at No Pasaran:

Two hammer blows have been delivered against the myth of Salvador Allende, writes Carlos Alberto Montaner, the second of which, he says, comes from
Vasily Mitrokhin of Russia and Christopher Andrew of Britain. The former, now dead, was a patient archivist for the KGB who had the fortunate thought of taking home copies of his work. The latter is a respected British historian.

In 1992, amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mitrokhin defected to the West, carrying that valuable information and began to publish it. The second and final volume of his book contains this information about Allende: The late Chilean president was a KGB collaborationist, who received money, transmitted information and contributed to Soviet plans for the conquest of Latin America.

Allende was known as a confidential contact, someone who Moscow counted on to undermine democratic regimes and -- in accordance with the great Soviet project for world hegemony -- to eventually achieve the political defeat and destruction of the United States.

In reality, there is no contradiction between the young Allende, captivated by the fascist ideas prevalent in the 1930s, and the old Allende of the 1970s, a KGB collaborationist.

Read also about the KGB agent who became a coffee expert…

Bush has gone Democrat on Cuba! Offering assistance at a moment when despair among the Havana populace could provoke another maleconazo riot.
Bush has not enforced Titles III and IV of the Helms-Burton Act.
Radio and TV Marti are still being jammed by the Castro regime.
The Kennedy-Khrushchev secret understanding of 1962 has not been abrogated.
The Castro regime still harbors more than 70 fugitives from U.S. justice, included convicted terrorists, bank robbers, and cop killers.
The Castro regime still harbors those indicted for the shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes.
The Castro regime still harbors its government officials indicted in 1982 by a Miami Federal Grand Jury for drug trafficking.
I'm not even going to go into the long list of human rights violations by the Castro dictatorship.
Bush's response: provide assistance when the dictator needs it the most.

Castro has said on live TV that he does not consider this "accepting aid" because he didn't ask for it. He says the 3-man team is coming to give their assessment for "possible future regional cooperation"... commie code word for more propoganda promoting Cuba's supposedly model disaster preparation skills.

Since Havana and Pinar seem to be in better shape than So. Florida, what Cuba needs are resources to repair and rebuild and maybe some mobile homes too. The US will rightly never offer that. What my tia in Hollywood needs in water and ice.

Any US aid would stay outside of Castro's hands and therefore I support it. But would this mean we have to accept Castro's "help?" We should decline his offer to enlarge the issue though. No communication.

This is what Granma published in Cuba http://www.granma.cu/espanol/2005/octubre/juev27/cuba-e.html regarding the "aid" offered by the US..doesn't really say much except that it was not asked for, and somehow the "miami mafia" was at it again.

The issue is not whether Castro publicly accepts or rejects U.S. assistance. The history of U.S.-Cuba relations has shown that while both sides are publicly posturing, they are secretly negotiating something different.
After President Kennedy made the secret Kennedy-Khrushchev understanding in Oct. 1962, two months later he lied to Cuban exiles by saying that he would return to the Brigade 2506 their flag in a free Havana.
Richard Nixon was publicly denouncing Castro while Henry Kissinger secretly negotiated with Cuba the hijack treaty of Feb. 1973.
Ronald Reagan never implemented the "Reagan Doctrine" against Castro and instead spent eight years negotiating with Cuba the return of the Mariel undesirables and the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Africa. Reagan twice publicly refused to abrogate the Kennedy-Khrushchev understanding. He also sent Secretary of State Alexander Haig to secretly negotiate with Carlos Rafael Rodriguez in Nov. 1982 and Vernon Walters went to Havana in 1983 to meet with Castro.
The main point now is, why is Bush willing to help Castro at a crucial moment?
This is the same Bush who for the last five years has abided by the Clinton policies of "wet foot/dry foot" and not fully implementing the Helms-Burton Act.

delaCova, It's my understanding that we always offer diaster aid to Cuba and that it's always turned down. How is this offer different?

Kathleen,
I indicated in the blog that Castro regime still harbors more than 70 fugitives from U.S. justice, included convicted terrorists, bank robbers, and cop killers. They are also sheltering indicted drug traffickers and the murderers who shot down two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes.
It is absurd to give assistance to rogue nations that violate international law.
As I also noted, Bush is abiding by the weak Clinton policies, including providing assistance to Castro at a crucial moment when his regime could falter due to popular discontent. U.S. policy toward Cuba continues to be ruderless.

delaCova, I know all that and agree with you. However, you didn't answer my question, which is: Hasn't the US traditionally offered disaster aid to Cuba and if so how is this offer different from those previous offers? The situation in Cuba is not new.

Kathleen,
I indicated in my response that Bush abided by the Clinton policy of offering aid to Cuba. Bush has been offering aid to Cuba since 2001.

de la Cova- You said, "The main point now is, why is Bush willing to help Castro at a crucial moment?"
My point is we have always offered Cuba disater aide and he has declined, so what is different about this offer? I'm sorry if I'm a pain in the ass, but this is the question I've been asking. I'm assuming you know more than I, so please explain why this offer is different and why castro is sort of accepting. It's just a question. If you don't want to answer, por favor!! just say so. Thanks

Kathleen,
Sorry I am not getting through to you. You are not being a pain. The U.S. has not always offered aid to Castro. No aid was offered during the Reagan presidency. This started during the Clinton years as part of U.S. policy toward Cuba. Bush continued the same policy.
You have to understand that presidents make decisions based on the recommendations of their advisers. Bush did not wake up one morning and say, let's give assistance to Castro. Some one in the State Dept. obviously recommended that he continue the old policies.
Who was the adviser? Decades have to pass before government documents are declassified and that information is revealed.
Here is another example of how Cuba policies remain in continuity. During the Carter Administration, the State Department thought that relations with Cuba could be improve if there was an exchange of visiting artists, intellectuals, musical groups, sports teams, etc.
That policy has been in place now for nearly thirty years, and neither Cuba or the U.S. has rescinded it.
The only result this policy has had is that the U.S. gloats every time Cuban visitors defect and Castro gets to send his spies over here under the guise of "intellectuals." That's how they recruited Pentagon spy Ana Belen Montes.
U.S. policy toward Cuba is very similar to what they employed against the Soviet Union and its satellites. It has not worked in Cuba to bring about democracy.
Radio and TV Marti are excellent examples of policies of continuity from one administration to the other, that have no effect.
What has been accomplished since Radio Marti started in 1985? or when TV Marti began in 1990? Cuba has been jamming both signals and the U.S. response has been to do little about it.
Another policy of continuity is traveling to Cuba, established under the Carter Administration. Both sides will reduce or limit travel back and forth, but neither the U.S. or Cuba will terminate this policy.
U.S. policy toward Cuba is a history of failed options and tepid responses. In contrast, the U.S. State Department certainly has taken a stronger stance against Grenada in 1983, Panama in 1989 and Iraq.
Why didn't the U.S. offer "humanitarian" assistance to Iraq before the war like they offer Castro? Only the policy makers can answer that. The policy of offering disaster aid to Cuba is now in place. It will continue throughout this administration and future ones, whether Democrat or Republican, every time there is a natural disaster in Cuba.

"The U.S. has not always offered aid to Castro. No aid was offered during the Reagan presidency. This started during the Clinton years as part of U.S. policy toward Cuba. Bush continued the same policy." Thank you! That is the answer to my question. One of the many articles I've read in the past few days implied that we always offer aid to Cuba and it's always turned down. I just wanted to ascertain the truth.

Kathleen,
To be more specific, read this article
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/us-cuba/us-relief.htm
It clearly states that the first time the U.S. offered humanitarian aid to Cuba was in 1998 under Clinton. Bush then offered the same assistance in Nov. 2001 and has been offering it ever since.
This continuity policy will continue in the future, no matter what party is in the White House.

delaCova, good article, thanks.