November 19, 2009 - Retired General Barry McCaffrey appears as a witness before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. He is questioned by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Florida [FL-18].

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen begins by indicating that she would be quoting from Gen. McCaffrey's statements from an April hearing at the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs. After first deriding Gen. McCaffrey's mention that he met Mr. Castro with a sarcastic "woo" cheer, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen poses several questions aimed to cast doubt on Gen. McCaffrey's professional assessment that Cuba does not pose a serious threat to U.S. national security. At the April hearing, Gen. McCaffery argued strongly that Cuba and the U.S. should be cooperating in matters to combat drug and human trafficking, and terrorist threats. He even mentioned peacebuilding efforts that would consider the training of Cuban officers in order to carry out these cooperative efforts.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen misquotes Gen. McCaffrey from the April hearing where he asserts that the Cuban government is not directly involved in drug-trafficking and drugs that wash up on the shores of the island. She reads a quote that goes:

"... but it was clear to me that they [drugs] were not on a government basis, but part of an international conspiracy to threaten the regime and to threaten their sense of communist morality."

This is what Gen. McCaffrey really said:

"... but it was clear to me that they were not on a governmental basis and part of an international conspiracy. It'd threaten the regime, it'd threaten their sense of communist morality."

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's inaccurate quote makes Gen. McCaffrey appear to make a defensive argument. But instead he is making an assessment based on his professional review of the intelligence (mentioned in the April hearing), followed by a description based on his several meetings with Cuban officials.

Aside from the several attempts to disparage Gen. McCaffrey's professional expertise, and the reported disrespect by addressing him as "sir" instead of "general," Rep. Ros-Lehtinen displays a complete lack of respect towards an invited committee witness with repeated interruptions, and making mockery of his title. (less info)