SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 32

LENGTH: 707 words

HEADLINE: LIFT THIS IRON CURTAIN

BODY:
By approving an amendment to lift the ban on travel to Cuba, the Senate Appropriations Committee this week followed the House Appropriations Committee in attempting to bring U.S.-Cuba relations into the 21st century. President Bush, however, is stubbornly intent on keeping them frozen in the Cold War era. He says he will veto the measure if it reaches his desk. Dubya's in need of an attitude thaw.

The Cuban government already is allowed to buy food and medicine - for cash - from U.S. companies and has purchased about $7 million worth in the last eight months. Imagine if the trade restrictions were lifted: Some sources estimate that American farmers could realize as much as $1.24 billion in annual sales to Cuba. There also would be a booming travel business, beneficial to both nations. Journalists, artists and academics can visit our Caribbean neighbor if they get State Department permission - but thousands of other Americans go there illegally in defiance of the ban. Last year, 176,000 traveled to the island through third countries. There's obviously a ready-made tourism market here.

In the House, three bipartisan amendments to an omnibus Treasury funding bill are under consideration. One, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), would lift the travel prohibition outright. Another, sponsored by Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.), would allow travel only if the U.S. can certify that Fidel Castro's government is not involved in bioterrorism. A third, sponsored by New York's Charlie Rangel, would defund the federal operation that enforces the embargo. The proposal to end the 40-year-old travel ban is riding a wave of support in both chambers, and Rangel's embargo-ending amendment also has a good shot of succeeding. A similar measure introduced last year came within 17 votes of passage.

So why is the President opposed? Family loyalty, no doubt. With little brother Jeb's reelection bid in full swing, so are the Florida gov's efforts to keep his state's anti-Castro Cuban-Americans happy. That voting bloc, and a lot of conservative Republicans, buy into the erroneous argument that detente would only revive Fidel's dictatorship. But the thing's on life support now. It's not about to get up and dance the rhumba.

Cuba will neither revive nor thrive until it turns to freedom. The U.S. can help, not by shutting out this country just 90 miles from our shores, but by fostering an exchange of goods and - equally important - an exchange of ideas. Lift the ban. Open the gates.

The time to start preparing for our post-Castro relationship with Cuba is now.

Mr. Chips goes to Albany

Upstate economic development schemes usually involve chips - the sort casinos use. But there's another kind, computer chips, that offer a surer bet. Thus, last week, Gov. Pataki and a consortium of manufacturers announced plans for a computer research and development hub at SUNY Albany. Hello, Silicon Hudson Valley.

The R&D center, to spawn the next generation of cybertechnology, will be built by International Sematech, a group of 12 top U.S. and foreign chip makers including IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments and Motorola. The $400 million plan is a coup for New York's long-suffering upstate region and for the third-term-seeking Pataki, who has been wooing the industry for nearly a year.

While the tech sector may be sluggish and the economy rocky, there appear to be no negatives in a project that will produce hundreds, and potentially thousands, of high-paying jobs. An added bonus: While New York will provide $210 million for the center, the state will give no tax breaks or loans.

The consortium's first such center, created in Austin, Tex., in the late 1980s, was a catalyst for great economic growth as related industries, and 100,000 jobs, flooded in. Pataki insists that International Sematech North, as the Albany hub will be called, will have the same "transformational effect" upstate.

It won't happen quickly. And there are no guarantees, especially in such uncertain times. But Pataki is correct when he says, "We have to invest in the future not knowing what will happen." Upstate is dotted with economically depressed communities. They desperately need a boost. This could be a big one.

LOAD-DATE: July 22, 2002