Cuba To Be Removed From Terrorism List

The Obama administration yesterday announced that Cuba will be removed from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Via the New York Times:

The decision to remove Cuba from the list is a crucial step in Mr. Obama’s effort to turn the page on a Cold War-era dispute. It followed a much-anticipated meeting between Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas meeting in Panama over the weekend, the first such formal session between the leaders of the two countries in more than a half-century. For more than 30 years, Cuba has been on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation shared only by Iran, Sudan and Syria. Cuba’s place on the list has long snarled its access to financial markets and, more recently, emerged as a sticking point in negotiations to reopen embassies that have officially been closed for five decades. Mr. Obama ordered a review of Cuba’s status in December, when he and Mr. Castro announced that their two nations had agreed to move toward normal relations.

As recently as two years ago the United States believed that Cuba harbored terrorists from Spain’s Basque separatist movement and from Colombia’s FARC guerrilla group. The Tea People, as always, are furious about the change in Cuba’s status.