Bangor Daily News on Maine Blockade Busters

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Bangor Daily News - Saturday, April 13, 2002

10 Mainers leave for Cuba today, 
despite federal agency's "warning" [sic]

By Ruth-Ellen Cohen

Ten Mainers indicated Friday they would continue with plans to travel
to Cuba today despite pressure from a federal agency that says they
don't meet guidelines for U.S. citizens traveling to the island
nation to do research.

On Wednesday, three days before a 25-member delegation of teachers
and health workers had planned to fly out of Montreal for a weeklong
stay in eastern Cuba, a federal agency said the trip was illegal, the
participants could face prosecution and the travel agency could lose
its license.

Dr. Tom Whitney, a South Paris pediatrician who was one of the early
organizers of the trip, said Friday that although he is "worried a
lot" about the repercussions, he has decided to stick to his plans.

"I'm somewhat reluctant to go because I have no great enthusiasm for
confrontations or threats of legal action," he said. "But the rest of
the people had so much enthusiasm and were looking forward to it. So
because I was in with them from the start, I feel obliged to go out
of solidarity with the nine others who are going."

Whitney said his wife, Alison, a nurse, also had decided to go.

The edict from the Office of Foreign Assets Control seems like "prior
censorship of the free exchange of information," said Whitney, a
member of Let Cuba Live, a statewide organization that encourages
dialogue between the United States and Cuba. The group has sponsored
dozens of trips to Cuba but wasn't behind this particular visit.

Whitney said he understands why the rest of the group has chosen to
forgo the trip. "These people aren't politically motivated, they
don't want to get in trouble and I can identify with that," he said.

The doctor, who has traveled to Cuba four times before, said he
hasn't encountered any problems.

He said he had been told by a member of an ecumenical group in New
York, which sends humanitarian aid to Cuba, that the Bush
administration is determined not to alienate the anti-Cuban
constituency in Florida.

"The Florida Cubans are very important in national politics," Whitney
said. Also, Bush's brother Jeb is running for re-election as governor
of the state.

The travel agency told the would-be travelers that they hadn't fallen
under the government's guidelines defining "researchers."

But Whitney said "this looks like an elitist sort of thing."

"What I think they mean is that [we] don't have academic credentials.
But I suggest that mere humble practitioners out in the trenches have
the capacity to gather information and synthesize it and make sense
of it and disseminate it. [One doesn't] have to be a professor of
sociology."

Whitney said his wife would be doing research for a nursing journal
and that he is delving for information about how people "living in an
environment of scarcity" deal with social services including health
care and education.

He said he and the other people who originally planned to make the
trip had hoped to disseminate the information in a number of
ways,including a locally published pamphlet about political and
social issues.

Now that only 10 people are doing research, the project could be
compromised, he said.

"I hope we can come up with something interesting," he said.

The group of 10 includes Janet Caldwell, a teacher from Portland;
Tasha Jansen, a school nurse from Bristol; and Dr. Sara Stalman, a
psychiatrist from Penobscot. Whitney said he didn't have
authorization to identify other members of the group.

"Visiting Cuba gives me the opportunity to share my research interest
with other physicians focused on childhood development. Moreover, at
53 I cannot let anyone make me afraid: this last-minute decision of
the U.S. government's could make me feel intimidated if I let it.
Since I know that I am traveling within the legal research
guidelines, I must go," Stalman said in aprepared statement.
 
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nytact-04.13.02-21:34:02-6906