ds Cuba's Castros a major victory, but Congress can still stop it

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By Mike Gonzalez

Published December 17, 2014

FoxNews.com

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Obama: US is changing its relationship with people of Cuba

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Establishing ties with Cuba has been on President Obama’s bucket list for some time. Health care -- done. Amnesty for illegal immigrants -- done. Cuba -- next. This last one also has the added bonus point that it puts him right with the international left, which lionizes Castro.

And the president will go on picking off the next items on the bucket list for the next two years of his term unless Congress decides to stop him. Should they work up the gumption, lawmakers will find they can do many things to stand up for the prerogatives of the legislative branch.

Obviously, the release of the 65-year-old American hostage Alan Gross should be welcome. His “crime” was to bring computers to Jews on the island. For the last five years, he has been a victim of Cuba’s state terrorism, just as 11 million Cubans have been held hostage by their government for the past five decades.

Not only does President Obama’s action fail to advance freedom in Cuba, it throws a lifeline to Cuba’s dictators.

Exchanging three hardened Cuban spies for Gross, however, establishes an insulting moral and legal equivalency. The spies actions led to the death of an American in the 1990s, and they were duly convicted. Their release in exchange for Gross creates an incentive for rogue regimes and individual actors to kidnap Americans all over the world.