Left I on the News

"This yearly exercise at the UN obscures the fact that the United States is a leading source of food and humanitarian relief to Cuba. In 2008, the United States exported $717 million in agricultural products, medical devices, medicine, wood, and humanitarian items to Cuba."

- Ian Kelly, State Department press spokesperson

Mr. Kelly is apparently laboring under the misconception that items sold to Cuba, all paid for in advance in cash by Cuba, constitute "humanitarian aid." Or, more likely, he'd like to mislead the American people (and uninformed American reporters) about the nature of U.S. "aid" to Cuba.

On second thought, he's just an idiot. As indicated by this exchange:

QUESTION: Speaking of the UN, the General Assembly had its annual vote today on the Cuba embargo. You got two people to join you, two countries. Can you remind – (a) remind of what those two countries are, and (b) tell us what you think of the vote?

MR. KELLY: I think one was Palau, Matt. Who was the other one?

QUESTION: I don’t know. I think it – it’s usually, generally, the Solomon Islands.

QUESTION: I thought it was Micronesia.

QUESTION: Or Micronesia.

Well, it's also possible he knew very well that it was Israel, but didn't want to help publicly expose Israel as the U.S. lackey it is.

Update: By the way, maybe the transcript just doesn't reflect what happened, but was there really not a single reporter in the room capable (and willing) of shouting out, "It's Israel, you moron!"?