Snow Here Means Blizzard in Mexico

A Capitol staffer noticed that the Senate was in session at 10 am Friday and it was flying an upside down U.S. flag -- the universal symbol of distress.

The Mexico City meeting between U.S. oil executives and Cuban government officials about drilling for oil off Cuba's coast apparently came to a quick halt Feb. 3 when the Sheraton hotel folks ordered the 16 Cuban officials to check out.

Seems the Treasury Department, which enforces the U.S. embargo against Cuba, contacted Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., the parent company, and said the meeting would violate U.S. laws against trading with the commie regime.

The Mexican government, naturally enough, went ballistic, saying it would investigate and act against the hotel. Politicians on all sides denounced the Yanqui arrogance. A Treasury spokesman said that, as a subsidiary of a U.S. company, the hotel in Mexico cannot provide a service to Cuba or Cuban nationals.

Yesterday, Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) -- now there's a duo -- joined by a couple of dozen others, wrote Treasury Secretary John W. Snow for an explanation of what they said was "an overreaching application of U.S. law that could have significant worldwide implications."

Is Treasury "setting a new standard that no American-owned hotel or other commercial enterprise can ever provide services to a Cuban national?" they asked. If someone owned a London restaurant, would Cubans or others be barred from eating there?

And despite Treasury's claim the move was normal procedure, the letter noted, "12 Cuban musicians staying at the same hotel were not asked to leave." Well, maybe Snow likes salsa?

Flake and Berman dismissed a request from Starwood attorney Ignacio E. "Iggy" Sanchez not to send the letter. Sanchez said Starwood lawyers objected to the timing. Given that the Mexican government is investigating the incident for violations of Mexican law, the letter "may be used against us."

It didn't go unnoticed that Sanchez is on the board of the hard-line Cuban Liberty Council, which broke off from the bitterly anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation for being too soft.

So now he's representing a hotel that's been victimized by the anti-Castro U.S. sanctions? Lawyers might not see a contradiction, with duty owing first to the client. Or, maybe this is his way, as the television commercial goes, of "sticking it to the man."

Up the Pole and No One Saluted

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The Senate flag, which flies atop its building when the chamber is in session, was raised around 10 a.m. Friday. But there was one problem: It was upside down. That's the universal distress symbol.

Congressional aide Donna Taylor , who works in the Rayburn House Office Building, snapped a photo and promptly called the Senate sergeant-at-arms to alert him to the situation.

Within minutes, the flag was lowered and raised correctly. "I'm afraid the doorkeeper who raised the flag this morning now knows the meaning of distress," Senate sergeant-at-arms spokeswoman Becky Daugherty said.

Actually, folks in the House think that the Senate is in distress whenever it's in session.

16? Would You Believe Zero?

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In November, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice unveiled an ambitious plan to establish 16 provisional reconstruction teams, or PRTs, each to be staffed by at least four Foreign Service officers, throughout Iraq, including in some seriously dangerous places.

The Pentagon, not wanting to stretch forces even further to protect the equivalent of 16 mini-Green Zones and provide escort when the teams travel, was said to be a bit lukewarm to the plan.

But Rice summoned the Foreign Service, which has sent hundreds of officers to Iraq in the past three years, to sign up for this new venture.

Alas, to paraphrase the Bard, she can summon them, but the returns indicate they aren't showing up. Word is that a tally a couple of months later indicated hardly anyone qualified for the jobs had bid for them -- even though garden spots such as Baquba, Al Anbar and Tikrit were available.

The department remains hopeful that enough volunteers, including extended tour people, FSOs, and civil servants, will fill the bill.