National Review Fail of the Week: Addendum

Mojitos via CopyKat.

National Review was in a hurry this afternoon to get out of the gate with an early condemnation of the diplomatic recognition of Cuba:

The State Department has listed Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism since 1982:

Cuba has long provided safe haven to members of Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  Reports continued to indicate that Cuba’s ties to ETA have become more distant, and that about eight of the two dozen ETA members in Cuba were relocated with the cooperation of the Spanish government.  Throughout 2013, the Government of Cuba supported and hosted negotiations between the FARC and the Government of Colombia aimed at brokering a peace agreement between the two.  The Government of Cuba has facilitated the travel of FARC representatives to Cuba to participate in these negotiations, in coordination with representatives of the Governments of Colombia, Venezuela, and Norway, as well as the Red Cross. There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups.

Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) noted that history in his denunciation of Obama’s decision to normalize U.S. relations with the regime.

My bold for the bits the National Review doesn't seem to have read.

That link doesn't get you to the quote (which is however authentic; it's here—maybe Rubio emailed it to them). What I like is the emphasis on how Cuba's "support" of ETA and FARC is in cooperation with Spain and Colombia respectively—uh, let's see now, which countries did ETA and FARC terrorize?

Or putting it another way, if the Spanish government recognizes Cuba and works with the Cuban government intensively on the subject of ETA, and the Colombian government does the same with respect to the FARC, is it really up to the US to worry about Cuba's support for terrorist organizations (which doesn't, once again, include any weapons or training)?

Especially when the only terrorism issue directly between the US and Cuba is the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who went freelance after a few years terrorizing Cuba as a CIA operative in the 60s, starting with the disaster of the Bay of Pigs; was convicted in Panama of bombing a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people (he denies it); admits bombing a number of Cuban hotels and nightclubs in 1997, and was jailed for the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro in Panama; and snuck into US territory as an illegal alien in 2005, and still lives here under government protection! Really, National Review, we're worried about Cubans sponsoring terrorists?