All eyes are on Carter, but what are Castro's intentions? - "..bring America to it's knees"*** Former President Jimmy Carter goes back in time today. In Cuba he will see more than vintage American cars, circa 1950s, smoking up the streets with their patchwork "remodeled" diesel engines. He'll do more than choke on the fumes from the oil refinery near Havana's harbor, the sulfuric acid stinging his eyes whenever the wind turns toward the city. He will be shown all of the Cuban revolution's socialist "triumphs" amid the ruins of communism. He will surely be pained by the contradictions. He'll visit an agricultural cooperative and tour a medical school and the Los Cocos AIDS sanatorium, where Cubans with AIDS are "quarantined" for life. Talk about progressive health care.
Carter even plans a tour of Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a high-tech facility that produces vaccines for other countries. The Bush administration created a stir last week by accusing Cuba of sharing its dual-use biotech capability with "rouge" states that are looking to create plagues for biological warfare. That charge should put into perspective Castro's own warning to the United States during his swing through the Middle East last May. "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees," Castro said at the University of Tehran. "The U.S. regime is very weak and we are witnessing this weakness from close-up."***