Bachmann Warns of Hezbollah Training Camps, Weapons in Cuba

By Neil King Jr.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa–Of all the world’s woes–Greece near collapse, the Taliban’s surge in Afghanistan, jitters over the rise of China–presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann is giving it to Cuba.

She first laid into the less-than-vibrant island nation during last week’s GOP debate in Orlando, noting that Cuba remains on the State Department’s list of terrorist sponsors and condemning any push to normalize relations with the communist country.

Cuba came up again at a Bachmann campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday when a supporter asked her to amplify on her debate comments. This time, the Minnesota congresswoman cited “reports” that Hezbollah, the militant Muslim group based in Lebanon, had established training sites in Cuba and might even set up missile sites 90 miles from U.S. soil.

She was referring to a story that ran in an Italian newspaper and was quickly picked up on various blogs earlier this month.

“Hezbollah has been potentially looking at wanting a part of missile sites in Iran,” she said, citing earlier her position on the House Intelligence Committee. “So of course when you’re 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don’t want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah can have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. This would be foolish.”

Normalizing trade with Cuba, Mrs. Bachmann said, would only be rewarding the government there for such behavior. She then compared Cuba to Palestine, saying the U.S. shouldn’t normalize relations with Cuba anymore than Israel should do the same with Palestine–until both renounce terrorism.

She then drove home one of her core campaign messages: She’s the candidate “who understands problems that are going on internationally.”

Cuba was put on the terror list in 1982, when the Reagan administration accused Fidel Castro of aiding communist rebels in Africa and Latin America. The U.S. has kept Cuba on the list, in part, as bargaining chip, saying officially that Havana doesn’t support the U.S war on terrorism and has maintained friendly ties with other countries on the terror list, such as Iran.