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peter welch
Stop the Sadistic Trump Administration Policies Choking Cuba
Instead of threatening the island further, the president must ask Congress to end the embargo that began in 1960 so that the economic reconstruction of the country can begin.
Mar 20, 2026
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House, “I think I can do anything I want with it” referring to Cuba. His remarks are reminiscent of his recorded Access Hollywood statement to host Billy Bush, “When you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab them by the *****.” No, Mr. President, you have no right to despoil Cuba as you please.
Cuba is being choked by this administration’s sadistic policies. The best we can do for the 10 million people living there is not to rape the island but rather end the embargo—and reset the opening of relations that had been the hallmark of progress during the Obama administration.
I led educational tours to Cuba before Trump destroyed rapprochement, increased sanctions, and suffocated the blossoming of enterprises tied to tourism and small business entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, the Biden administration chose to follow Trump rather than returning to Barack Obama’s approach aimed at improving relations between the two countries and supporting the emerging free market economy.
There is growing popular sentiment in Canada, Mexico, Spain, and other countries that are providing humanitarian aid to Cuba for their governments to show their independence from Trump’s chaos by breaking the blockade and dispatching lifesaving fuel. It is time to end the embargo of Cuba.
Decades of US policies aimed at destabilizing Cuba hurt ordinary citizens and set back progress within Cuba.
Vermont’s Sen. Peter Welch has been a leading voice of reason with respect to Cuba. He is clearly concerned about the terrible price ordinary people are paying as a result of the blockade of fuel supplies. I urge readers to listen to Sen. Welsh’s recent speech.
Senator Welch has proposed a forthright plan to end the suffering of the Cuban people:
First, Trump should end restrictions on the rights of Americans to travel to Cuba. Welch says, “The American and Cuban people should freely interact with one another.”
Second, the president should maximize support to Cuba’s private sector, particularly small businesses.
Third, Cuba must be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. As Sen. Welch pointed out, “No other country agrees that it applies.”
Fourth, the president must ask Congress to end the embargo that began in 1960 so that the economic reconstruction of the country can begin.
Sen. Welch does not mince words about the need for political reforms in Cuba, beginning with the release of political prisoners and the right to speak freely about the society and government. But he also makes it clear that decades of US policies aimed at destabilizing Cuba hurt ordinary citizens and set back progress within Cuba and in the development of healthy relations between the US and Cuba.
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Lawyers for Jailed Palestine Defender Mohsen Mahdawi Demand His Release
One attorney said that the former Columbia University organizer "sits in a jail cell because of his lawful speech," while another reminded supporters that Mahdawi "has not been charged with any crime."
Apr 23, 2025
Attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student organizer at Columbia University and permanent U.S. resident caught up in the Trump administration's crusade against Palestine defenders, argued in federal court Wednesday that their client was illegally arrested and detained for his constitutionally protected speech and should be immediately freed.
In what Mahdawi's legal team hailed as a "victory," U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford extended a temporary restraining order issued last week by Judge William Sessions III to prevent federal officials from transferring Mahdawi from Vermont, where he is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. Crawford also scheduled a new hearing for Mahdawi on April 30.
Addressing the nearly 100 letters submitted in support of Mahdawi, Crawford said that "no one has ever provided anything like that before," adding, "These were quite striking in geographic and philosophical breadth, including many members of the Jewish community."
Mahdawi, who is 34 years old and has been a green-card holder for a decade, was arrested on April 14 by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during an appointment for his citizenship test in Colchester, Vermont. He was steps away from naturalization; instead, federal agents attempted to force Mahdawi onto a plane bound for Louisiana, where other Palestine defenders are being held pending deportation proceedings.
Mahdawi's lawyers are seeking his immediate release.
"We ask this court to suspend this unlawful retaliation and slow the grave threat to free speech posed by his continued detainment by releasing Mr. Mahdawi on bail," his legal team said in a filing.
Luna Droubi, an attorney on the team, said after the hearing that "Mohsen Mahdawi sits in a jail cell because of his lawful speech."
"What the government provided thus far only establishes that the only basis they have to currently detaining him in the manner they did is his lawful speech," Droubi added. "We intend on being back in one week's time to free Mohsen."
"What the government provided thus far only establishes that the only basis they have to currently detaining him in the manner they did is his lawful speech."
Like the numerous other pro-Palestine activists arrested—critics say kidnapped—and detained by the Trump administration, the government concedes that Mahdawi committed no crime. However, under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the secretary of state can expel noncitizens whose presence in the United States is deemed detrimental to foreign policy interests.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that Mahdawi should be deported because letting him remain in the country "would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest."
Trump administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio have cited President Donald Trump's executive order ostensibly aimed at combating antisemitism and his edict authorizing the deportation of noncitizen students and others who took part in protests against Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza as justification for Mahdawi's arrest and detention.
However, Mahdawi has repeatedly condemned anti-Jewish hatred, including during a 2023 interview on CBS News' "60 Minutes" in which he asserted that "the fight for freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
VTDigger reported that hundreds of people gathered outside the Burlington, Vermont courthouse Wednesday to show support for Mahdawi and demand his release. Nora Rubinstein of Middletown Springs, Vermont said she was rallying in defense of "democracy and freedom" and to help the U.S. "return to the democratic principles this country was founded on."
"It's time to end the shredding of our democracy, the shredding of our Constitution," Rubinstein added.
On Monday, Mahdawi told U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who visited him behind bars, that "I wanted to become a citizen of this country because I believe in the principles of this country."
"The most important rights [are in] the Bill of Rights, which includes free speech on the top of these rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of press, freedom of having religion or not having religion at all," he added.
As Welch visited Mahdawi, Columbia University students, faculty, and alumni once again chained themselves to a fence to protest his detention and demand the release of not only Mahdawi but also of fellow Columbia activists and permanent U.S. residents Mahmoud Khalil and Yunseo Chung, as well as other student Palestine defenders including Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri, and others.
On Tuesday, a delegation of Massachusetts Democrats—U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley—visited Khalil and Öztürk at the Louisiana ICE detention facility where they are being held. Markey accused the Trump administration of jailing the activists in Louisiana in a bid to have "the single most conservative circuit court of appeals in the United States of America" hear the case.
Mahdawi's lawyers said they believe their client will soon be free.
"We are very hopeful that he will be released," attorney Cyrus Mehta told supporters and media gathered outside the Burlington courthouse on Wednesday. "The judge wants to move quickly, and he realizes that this is a case of great importance for this country."
"What we're seeing here is unprecedented where they are so hell-bent on detaining students," Mehta added. "These are not hardened criminals. These are people who have not been charged with any crime, they have also not been charged under any of the other deportation provisions of the immigration act."
One of the attorneys read the crowd a statement from Mahdawi in which he said that "this hearing is part of the system of democracy" that "prevents a tyrant from having unchecked power."
"I am in prison," he added, "but I am not imprisoned."
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'Serious Damage Has Been Done': Dem Lawmakers Slam DOGE Nuclear Safety Purge
The legislators said the Trump administration's move "calls into further question DOGE's competence to carry out its self-assigned task."
Feb 20, 2025
Decrying the Trump administration's firing of hundreds of workers at the agency in charge of nuclear weapons safety, a bicameral group of Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Thursday asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to provide assurances that members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency cannot access classified systems or information.
"DOGE fired up to 350 staff members at the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA is entrusted with safeguarding our nation's nuclear weapons, materials, and secrets," Rep. John Garamendi (Calif.) and Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) wrote in a letter to Wright.
"Recklessly firing personnel without a strategic plan... is extraordinarily irresponsible and dangerous to U.S. national security."
"These terminations jeopardize the security of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, weaken our ability to detect and prevent threats to those weapons, and undermine our nonproliferation commitments," the letter asserts.
"Realizing the gravity of the mistake it had made, the Trump administration scrambled to rehire the fired employees," the Democrats noted. "Serious damage has been done. We urge you to immediately reassess these decisions, restore necessary expertise to the NNSA, and ensure that NNSA staffing decisions prioritize safety and security."
The letter continues:
The NNSA plays an essential role in maintaining the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. According to press reports, these firings occurred because "the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America's nuclear weapons." The reckless decision to eliminate 350 positions, without a clear national security justification, raises serious concerns about the Department of Energy's (DOE) commitment to this core mission. DOE has struggled to rehire some of these employees "because they didn't have their new contact information." This series of events calls into further question DOGE's competence to carry out its self-assigned task.
While the lawmakers "fully support efforts to reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons, responsibly reduce the nuclear stockpile, and curb unnecessary spending on nuclear defense programs that do not enhance our security," they argued in the letter that "recklessly firing personnel without a strategic plan, particularly those with expertise in nonproliferation, security, and arms control oversight, is extraordinarily irresponsible and dangerous to U.S. national security."
The legislators are asking Wright to explain the process behind the NNSA officials' firings, the DOE's strategy for ensuring effective staffing and oversight at the agency, which workers have been rehired, and what steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access to classified systems by DOGE members.
"There is a right way to reduce the size and scope of our nuclear arsenal—one that enhances global security, properly safeguards our weapons, and reduces nuclear risks," the letter concludes. "These terminations do none of that."
Thursday's letter follows one sent to Wright last week by Markey and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) seeking clarification about whether any DOGE members have access to classified information about the nation's nuclear arsenal.
It also comes as global experts warn about the risk of nuclear war. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists last month moved the Doomsday Clock "from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to catastrophe."
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