Posted on 06/17/2006 11:26:39 AM PDT by CHACHI
WAYNE SMITH FILES SUIT AGAINST U.S. GOV.
(EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL TO CUBA RESTRICTIONS)
His Atty. Robert L Muse is counsel for American Cos. supplying funds.
June 13, 2006
To all ECDET members:
Today we filed our suit against the Treasury Department. A link to the filed complaint and the press release can be found on the ECDET website under the heading 'What's New'
www.ECDET.org
http://capwiz.com/ciponline/utr/1/FYJPFZHYJZ/BAFAFZTFGS/763593066
Please note that henceforth, ECDET's e-mail address is ECDET@ECDET.org. Given the lawsuit in which we will now be involved, we thought it prudent to separate the Center for International Policy from ECDET.
Good luck to all of us.
From,
Wayne Smith
*************************************************************************************************
June 13, 2006
Press Release
Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET) Files Suit Against the Treasury Department Over Restrictions on Educational Travel to Cuba
On June 13, the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET), an association of over 450 professors and other educators; Dr. Wayne S. Smith of Johns Hopkins University; Dr. John Cotman of Howard University; and Jessica Kamen and Adnan Ahmad, both undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University; filed suit against the U.S. Treasury Department over restrictions on educational travel issued on June 16 of 2004, restrictions which clearly violate academic freedom as defined by the Supreme Court.
The First Amendment to the Constitution protects academic freedom, which the courts have defined as the right of educators to decide, without any interference from the federal government, which courses will be taught, how they will be taught, who will teach them, and who can take them.
The restrictions challenged in the lawsuit today also violate the Administrative Procedure Act because Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its statutory authority under the Trading with the Enemy Act by imposing restrictions which are not rationally related to that statute’s purely economic purpose of denying trade and hard currency to Cuba. The new restrictions are therefore arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with law.
Plaintiffs are demanding that the new restrictions be removed forthwith and that U.S. educational programs in Cuba resume on the same basis that existed prior to the restrictions challenged in the lawsuit.
Robert Muse, the lawyer representing ECDET, said it was regrettable that legal action has to be taken. The 2004 restrictions clearly violate well-established academic freedoms. However, earlier requests that they be modified to meet constitutional standards, or rescinded altogether, were ignored by the federal government. Hence, the aggrieved parties have no choice but to take the matter to court. Mr. Muse can be reached at MuseRL@Yahoo.com.
ECDET may be contacted at ECDET@ECDET.ORG. A copy of the complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may be viewed at the ECDET website, at www.ECDET.org.
cubaintern@ciponline.org This is the e-mail address for Wayne Smith's assistant.
WSmith@ciponline.org This is the e-mail addresses for Wayne Smith
muserl@yahoo.com
This is the e-mail for Robert L Muse, Office Max attorney, and Wayne Smith's attorney on the legal action.
Muse is the attorney for other RED, WHITE, AND BLUE AMERICAN COMPANIES that supply him with funds.
OFFICE MAX ATTORNEYS:
mattbroad@officemax.com
williambonner@officemax.com
Check out Castro’s Prensa Latina:
US Students and Professors Sue for Access to Cuba.
The story appeared first on Cuba's papers; days before it appeared on the American newspapers.
Who is the Cuban connection?
Link to Prensa Latina (Cuba/Castro's Paper):
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B2BFF3754-67AF-4851-ABDE-2BC02A74F1BC%7D&language=EN
Link to Inside Higher Ed - Longer Story:
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/26/cuba
Gotta give props to the Cuban spy service (whatever they're called) - they've got a number of profs under their thumb. And the rest of them are happy little leftest lemmings - ready to ignore the fact that Cuba is the sex tourism center of the world because of the breathtaking poverty of its people and regularly denies its own professors "academic freedom."
The Cuban spy service is the DGI (Direccion General de Inteligencia). They are pretty effective against U S targets on the island and have penetrated the Cuban communities here. They are some pretty brutal people.
Many of these agent are professional agitators that penetrate the community and act out in ways to make the Cuban-American community look bad.
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