• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 09 / 10 / 2010

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Human rights organization Amnesty International criticized President Barack Obama over his recent extension of the Trading With the Enemy Act for another year.

“President Obama has failed to take a long overdue step toward dismantling a policy that is both ineffective and detrimental,” Amnesty said in a public statement issued on Wednesday, adding that he has the power to reverse the decision at any time.

Cuba is the only country for which sanctions based on the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act are still in place. If TWEA was dismantled, the body of specific Cuba sanctions laws would lose its legal foundation, some observers argue.

In a letter on Aug. 12, as it did in the year before, the London-based organization urged the president not to use his executive power this time and let the TWEA expire. In its annual reports, Amnesty International has consistently condemned the U.S. embargo.

In the statement, the organization put the spotlight back on the Congress, urging legislators to vote for pending bills that would lift the travel ban.

“The U.S. Congress has the ultimate authority to repeal this misguided embargo that has a devastating impact on the lives of everyday Cubans and curtails the freedom of U.S. citizens to travel to the island and do business with and in Cuba,” the statement said.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2010/09/09/amnesty-criticizes-obama-for-maintaining...