No freedom to travel for Beyonce, US Republicans say

Beyonce

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Republicans up in arms about artists’ Cuba trip

Tuesday 09 April 2013

Two Cuban-American Representatives wrote to the US Treasury Department today to moan about entertainers Beyonce and Jay-Z‘s trip to Cuba.

Their trip infuriated Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart who demanded to know whether the couple’s visit to the socialist island had been licensed.

“The restrictions on tourism are commonsense measures meant to prevent US dollars from supporting a murderous regime that opposes US security interests at every turn and which ruthlessly suppresses the most basic liberties of speech, assembly and belief,” they claimed.

Beyonce (pictured) and Jay-Z celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary in Havana last week.

US citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba for tourism, though they can obtain licences for academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange trips.

The licences were reinstated under the Obama administration and are supposedly designed to help promote civil society.

Meanwhile, it has become clear that Beyonce and Jay-Z going to Cuba was indeed licensed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States government.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is mainly known as an apologist for the Scientology cult. Talking about “murderous” and “ruthless suppression” …

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR GUILTY OF CORRUPTION “A federal jury on Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption — sending an emphatic message that they believed the couple sold the office once occupied by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson to a free-spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in sweetheart loans.” McDonnell’s attorneys are vowing to appeal. Sentencing for the couple will take place January 6, and while “decades in prison and fines in the millions” are possible, many experts think it’s unlikely the couple will serve long terms. [WaPo]