CONGRESSIONALTESTIMONY

U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC

SEPTEMBER 19, 2000

Hearing requested by Rep. Charles Rangel, N.Y.,

the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee

Anthony F. Kirkpatrick, MD, PhD

 

Chairman, House Ways and Means Panel:

The understanding that we were given previously by his office as to the time of his flight back to Florida was apparently incorrect, and that he has to leave earlier. So to accommodate his testimony I’ve moved Dr. Kirkpatrick up to be the last witness on this panel. I understand doctor that you’ve given similar testimony to the...submitted similar testimony to the Ways and Means Committee two years ago?

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

That’s right. A submission not a witness.

 

Chairman:

Correct, right, right. You may proceed.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

Mr. Chairman, I assume you have a copy of my pre-hearing statement?

 

Chairman:

Yes we do.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

My name is Anthony Kirkpatrick. I’m a physician at the University of South Florida. I could not live with myself if I was to go on without pointing out some false and misleading statements by previous witnesses. Some witnesses are relying on what I would call empirical ignorance.

 

Bluff number one (1) comes from our U.S. Congressional Representative from Miami. He stated that the United States facilitates donations in food and medicine to Cuba. If you’d like to see how onerous it is to donate medicines to Cuba, talk to Global Links, which transports all the medicines for the Pan-American Health Organization in the United States. They will tell you how they have to put shipments on trucks to Canada  and at the Canadian border they may be stopped, asked to unload trucks, at costs thousands of dollars to them. And then once they get to a port in Canada they have to wait for a ship, which according to the embargo will forgo the six month rule to take the cargo down to Cuba. So it shouldn’t surprise you that many medicines in particular expire before the shipment is made.

 

Bluff number two (2) comes again from our U.S. Congressional Representative from Miami. He said, “According to the Department of Commerce, nearly 3 billion in humanitarian assistance went to Cuba from the U.S. between 1992 and1997." The operative word here is “went”. 

 

Look, the U.S. Commerce Department has no idea how much actual humanitarian assistance went to Cuba. They only license the goods. In fact, donors deliberately over-estimate the value, the amounts that they will ship so that they will have the greatest flexibility in shipping donated medicines and various humanitarian supplies to Cuba.

Bluff number three (3) comes from our Congresswoman from Miami. She stated that of the 3 aircraft that flew into Cuban airspace, that there was no violation of law, of International Law. Well, let me tell you something, Dr. Dan Greenwald, who is a plastic surgeon, and I, were just granted the first license to fly medicines using our private aircraft into Cuba, so I know something about the laws involved. One of those aircraft, the leader of that group, from the Brother’s to the Rescue actually did violate the Cuban airspace and...even though they were warned not to. And I will tell you this sir that if I, as a pilot, was to fly into their airspace, I would think that would be reckless with my life and anybody else that I led into that airspace at that time.

 

Now, let me turn to the public health sector issue and to my testimony here today. My research on the sanctions on the health sector of Cuba have appeared in virtually every major medical journal in the world.

 

On February 3rd 1995, I was asked to provide testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. I provided testimony demonstrating....and video... and affidavits demonstrating that specific medical products were being blocked from getting to children in pediatric hospitals in Cuba. The net result of that hearing was that the Commissioners, the Organization of American States, concluded that the United States embargo was making medicines and medical supplies virtually unattainable in Cuba; that including food and medicines in the sanctions was against International Law and they wrote a letter to the United States Government asking  to take steps immediately to lift those sanctions against Cuba.

 

Five years later, today, the Clinton Administration continues to state a falsehood that the embargo, through the embargo, we are not denying food and medicine to the Cuban people. As recently as January 18, year 2000, our Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, wrote an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which is the most widely read medical specialty journal in the world, saying, and it’s a quote, “In Cuba, food and medicine have always been exempt from sanctions." Yet Cuba’s health system, operated by the Cuban Government, is absolutely banned by the U.S. embargo from purchasing basic food stuffs and is severely restricted from purchasing medicines and medical equipment from U.S. companies worldwide.”

It doesn’t end there with these falsehoods. The State Department put out a "Fact Sheet" which is still promulgated on the Internet. Lets take a quick look at some of these falsehoods.

 

Falsehood number one (1):

The State Department would like us to believe that Cuba spends very little on healthcare. Here’s its assertion, quote,

“According to the Pan-American Health Organization the Cuban Government currently devotes a smaller percentage of its budget to healthcare than such countries as Jamaica, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.”

 

I sent that quote to the Pan-American Health Organization. Not only did they deny, not only did they reject it, they said, ”We come to the opposite conclusion.” Cuba spends more on healthcare than any, any country in this hemisphere, except for the possibility of Canada when you look at it the way the Pan-American Health Organization says it should be looked at.

 

Falsehood number two (2):

The State department wants us to believe that medicines are routinely licensed for shipment to Cuba, that’s their language, “routinely”.  Quote,

“The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 permits the export of medicines, medical supplies and equipment to Cuba by American companies and their subsidiaries. Thirty-one (31) licenses for the commercial sales of medicines and medical equipment and related supplies to Cuba have been issued.”

The fact, the reality is that only eight (8) have been issued, that’s a big difference between thirty -one (31). Those other licenses were for donations either to Cuba or to other countries, or they were sales engaged in before the Cuban Democracy Act even went into effect.

 

Falsehood number three (3):

The State Department wants us to believe that the U.S. does not attack the health of innocent civilians, including children. Their quote is,

“The U.S. embargo does not (and not is emphasized) deny medicines and medical supplies to Cuba.”

 

There were two (2) studies done, one of them that I published in November 1996, in The Lancet. The other by the American Association for World Health in 1997, which clearly show, as I pointed out earlier, that the embargo specifically blocks certain medicines. In fact, 50% of the most important indispensable drugs in the world are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and therefore subject to the onerous requirements of the embargo.

 

How does the State Department respond to scientific studies? What do they do? They point out that some Cuban doctors came to the United States and anonymously stated that it’s the Castro regime, it’s not the embargo. I think the State Department loses all credibility when they use anonymous quotes to refute scientific data.

 

Now, I want to make it very clear that I don’t think that these are mistakes by the State Department. I don’t think that they represent confusion or ignorance. What they reflect is an ingrained policy of covering up the truth.  How do I know this? Well let me just outline for you some very fundamental verifiable facts.

 

On multiple occasions by multiple sources the State Department was confronted with their falsehoods. First, in the November..... the research that I published in The Lancet, November 1996, the State Department was informed of their falsehoods. The American Association for World Health, in March 1977, the same thing. Again, when the State Department refused to correct their error, I sent two certified letters to Secretary Albright,  again refused to correct their error in their Fact Sheets. The Los Angeles Times even approached the State Department. They told the Los Angeles Times that they would correct the errors, they never have. Congressman Esteban Torres wrote an urgent letter to Madeline Albright. Again, what they gave them back was more falsehoods. I’d be glad to share that information with the Commission.

 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee, again, more falsehoods before that committee. The Congressional Research Service actually investigated my research and came to the conclusion that my data was correct and the State Department was false and the State Department was informed of it. Have they corrected the record? No. And even most recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the editor sent these falsehoods to Secretary of State Madeline Albright and again she refused even to respond.

I see the red light here. [Signal from the Commission Chairman that time is up]

 

What I would like to leave you with is this. There is a track record here. There is a track record that shows dishonesty and I hope that if the State Department or the congress persons from Miami, if they provide information, I hope it would be carefully, carefully scrutinized. Thank you.

 

Chairman:

Thank you doctor. Because of your time constraints I thought I would turn to the members of the panel to see whether anyone has any question of you and if not then I would let you try and make your flight. Does any commissioner have any question of Dr. Kirkpatrick? Seeing that none do...uh...Mr. Hays?

 

Dennis K. Hays:

I can’t speak for the State Department  more recently, but from ‘93 to ‘95 I was the director for Cuban affairs at the State Department. And I can state that it was our intent then and I believe it’s the State Department’s intent now to facilitate the lawful exports of medicines in all forms. The examples that were given, I’m not exactly familiar with all of these, but I suspect that they are groups who deliberately choose to violate the law to avoid the embargo, rather than working together cooperatively and legally in a way to more efficiently export medicines to Cuba. And so the problems that result from this are all self inflicted.

 

I do want to say, however, that the idea that somehow the Brothers to the Rescue invited them being shot down and murdered, three American citizens, an American permanent resident murdered in cold blood is somehow acceptable to be particularly outrageous and I hope the professor is ashamed of himself if that’s what he implied. Thank you.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

No, I’m not.......

 

Unknown Speaker:

I like to add something to that. I would ask that the members of the commission to actually go to the Cuba Site which is www.cubanacan.cu in which they actually advertise the health tourism to which I refer previously, and they describe how they have state...you know...very good doctors, and very good hospitals and very good medical facilities which are available toward tourists, but yet are denied to native population.

 

Chairman:

Thank you both. Dr. Kirkpatrick, you’re excused.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

Yeah, I just want to respond briefly here.

 

Chairman:

Look.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

You’re the Chairman.

 

Chairman:

When you say briefly, I’ll give you one additional minute and that’s it. We’ve done everything to accommodate you, sir.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

Yes, I understand.

 

Chairman:

You have one minute!

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick:

Um, it’s not really quite clear what Mr. Hays is coming at here, but one thing I will tell you is that the embargo is enforced. As an example, the largest pharmaceutical company here in the United States, Merck, was prosecuted admittedly, for not even selling medicine, for inadvertent technical violations of the embargo.So the embargo is a huge deterrent as it stands right now. And, thank you for giving me that minute.

 

Chairman:

Thank you sir. You’re excused.