Leadership looks like on cuba policy. And u. S. Government sources now say north korea is responsible for the attack on sony studios and for the threatened attack moviegoers across america. Nbc news has learned that government sources say there will be a response and, quote, the u. S. Cannot let this go unanswered. Breaking news tonight on this ongoing electronic attack on Sony Pictures. They believe the individuals were acting on orders from the north koreans free agents. People who i ma be sympathetic to the north korean regime. Whos sympathetic to that nut job operation up there. Someone decided to pull the release of the film. They got exactly what they want. It makes me think kim jong un suddenly has veto powers of what goes in american theatres. All of this is entirely unprecedented. A lot of history seemed to fall down at once. The United States of america is changing its relationship with the people of cuba. Normalize relations for the First Time Since 1961. The biggest shift in u. S. Cuban relations in more than 50 years. Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right. Any nuclear missile, launched from cuba as an attack by the soviet union on the United States. I will move promptly on the pending helmsburton cuban legislation. It is a slap in the face to a tyrant. The legislation passed in 1966 does write the embargo which makes it not just a president ial action to reverse it. This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie. We have to try something new after more than 50 years. Tonight, the white house issued this statement ability the cyberattack on sony studios. The u. S. Government has offered Sony Pictures entertainment support and assistance in response to the attack. The fbi has the lead for the investigation. The United States is investigating attribution and will provide an update at the appropriate time. The u. S. Government is working tirelessly to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice. And we are considering a range of options in weighing a potential response. U. S. Officials tell nbc news that they believe the north korean government is indeed responsible for the attack on sony. Government Officials Say the Obama Administration is figuring out what its response will be. But says that the attack will not go unanswered. This as Sony Pictures decided today to pull its movie the interview a comedy about a plot to assassinate north korean dictator kim jong un. Several movie theatres decided not to show the film. Something calling themselves guardians of peace has taken credit for the attack on sony, and issued this warning about showing the movie. Quote, the world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of september 2001. We recommend you keep yourself distant from the places at that time. If your house is nearby, you better leave. In a statement tonight, sony said, Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customer, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails and sensitive and proprietary material and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale. All apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. In response to the attack on sony picture, new regency announced tonight that that company will stop development of a film starring steve carrel that was supposed to be set in north korea. Joining us from atlantic magazine Corey Bennett a cybersecurity reporter. Cory, when we get into the issue of whats going on here in terms of this attack, the nsa is actually the government operation thats arming in this kind of case. One of their jobs is to protect American Companies and protect us and American Companies from a Foreign Invasion of this kind into one of these companies. And thats whos going to be deeply involved in getting at what happened here with the fbi doing the formal working of the investigation in case theres going to be any criminal prosecutions in the end. Isnt that basically the way they team up . Absolutely. Weve also gotten the department of Homeland Security involved in this case. Particularly after the threats which you mentioned. Dhs got drawn in and has said theres no credible evidence that should be noted, theres no credible evidence currently of violent plots against movie theatres. But youre right about the nsa. That speaks to a larger point, we havent defined y et in the u. S. What constitutes a cyberattack and what constitutes an act of cyber warfare. Whats a cybercriminal versus a cyberterrorist. And as a result, we have not necessarily defined what the roles of each agency are in an instance like this. It is an unprecedented situation, and we have not set out congress has not set out i was talking to house intel chair mike rogers about this. We dont have rules in congress or in agencies that are very clear about how to respond in these situations. And thats probably why we see the white house currently weighing its options. Because this is unprecedented territory. Steve clemens, i started looking around for a working definition of act of war today. And the more you look at it, the more you discover through history an act of war is whatever the person claiming to have been a victim of an act of war is. My question here is in terms of what about the threat of what would be an act of war against the United States, the threat to bomb movie theatres, american movie patrons. That is certainly a threat of an act of war if issued by another state. North korea has frequently threatened the United States and its allies with fiery storms of, you know, Nuclear Radiation and kinds of things in the past. What makes this different is that north korean agents, according to the u. S. Government forces, have attacked a major firm here on the United States. This is a major successful cyber attack on that, and they have gone further with what is a very clear attack in the system and now threatened the physical harm of Many Americans here. And i think its very intimidating and i find it very close to an act of war, because they have now created and achieved a mass of act of censorship in the United States. I think sony is making a mistake in my view. But with that said, i understand the emotion of this, but i think that what north korea has done, i think is intimidating and scary and has to be treated as an assault, not just on sony, but on america itself. You know, 24 hours ago from this chair, i said that the sony story had changed from a story of theft to a story of terror. And i noticed online on twitter, there were an awful lot of comments suggesting i was exaggerating this situation. And cory bennett, when you get into what these threats actually are and ive heard some people today continuing to take kind of lightly the idea that they might blow up movie thea e theatres one thing worth noting is, every single threat that has been issued against sony has been carried out specifically as threatened since this started. Thats very true, lawrence. And i think its also worth noting that the technology that sony used excuse me, that north korea used in this attack is by no means the most advanced technology that they have. It is not the most advanced of their cyber capabilities. Maybe a year ago this would have been very advanced for north korea, but they been heavily investing, particularly in education, Computer Science educati education. They been potentially working with the iranians, potentially exchanging malware with the iranians to advance their capabilities. As one cyber expert said who i was talking to earlier this week, the scary thing about this attack on sony is how simple it is. And the fact that we know north korea can do much better. And so, as you said, these threats are to be taken seriously. Theyve followed through in this case and we do know they could do more if they wanted to. I talked to nsa sources over the years who talked about what theyre doing in defense of this kind of thing. Every time theyve already concentrated on the fastball industry. Their b financial industry. Their big worry was someone was going to get inside the financial industry, trips and wires and possibly freeze the World Economy through certain maneuvers that they could conduct. I never heard them talking about Something Like this where, what it would basically become is a public blackmailing of a company like this, or a public blackmailing in any form of this kind. This seems to me to be something that has not been anticipated. I think thats absolutely right. Today, i hosted a program with the president s counterterrorism and Homeland Security adviser, lisa monaco and george bushs adviser in the same capacity. We discussed this. And sony doesly outside lie ou where you thought the attack would come. To some degree, sony is complicit in this because they themselves didnt institute and put in place the kind of firewalls and protections that were sophisticated to anticipate, not necessarily north korea, but were entering an age where this kind of mischief, this kind of penetration for any variety of purposes is becoming something that were seeing across the board. And so any firm today that reese outside the Financial Sector that we havent been focused on that doesnt engage in a much more sophisticated creation of protections is in a way complicit. You cant just blame the u. S. Government for not protecting. The private sector has a responsibility here as well. This is sounding a little bit like 9 11 to me when people were say, you know, why werent the cockpit doors already secured and stronger and heavier and all of these airlines, and it took that first time event, unexpected event that made everyone, including all the companies saying oh, yeah, weve got to do it. Im sure cory bennett, every company of any size in America Today is having emergency i. T. Meetings of how do we defend ourselves against this. Whats interesting is that the attack we saw on sony was the first largescale successful destructive attack. It wasnt just that hackers were going in to steal information. They were going to wipe files from sonys system. Now this has happened before. We saw earlier this week sheldon edelsons casino empire had a similar attack from iran earlier this year. But this one has really woen companies up to this threat of a destructive attack. And everyone ive talked to in the Security Industry virtually guarantees me that there will be copycat attacks. Now that someone has kicked down the door, others will follow. Thank very much for joining me tonight. Coming up, more on the attack on sony. And next, president obamas change in our cuba policy. A change that the pope helped negotiate. And in the rewrite tonight, why no one, not one person supporting the cuba embargo ever even attempts to be consistent in Foreign Policy. Health can change in a minute. So cvs health is changing healthcare. Making it more accessible and affordable, with over 900 locations for walkin medical care. And more on the way. Minuteclinic. Another innovation from cvs health. Because health is everything. The opponents of establishing diplomatic relations of cuba speak for only 20 of americans according to recent polling. 43 are in favor of what the president announced today. The rest are undecided. The president s leadership will certainly change some minds. Coming up, the historical significance of president obamas momentous announcement. He found it cleans everything. Whefrom stove tops. D writing a book about his magic eraser. To scuffed shoes, and more. And when ran out of pages, he made a website instead. Share your tips at mycleanbook. Com the mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ho, ho, ho, ho] lease the 2015 ml 350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. You think it smells fine, but your guests smell this. M. Febreze air effects works instantly to eliminate odors youve gone noseblind to. Smells like a field of awesome in here. So you and your guests can breathe happy. Today, america is changing its relationship with the people of cuba. In the most significant changes in our policy in more than 50 years, we will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our sfwress and instead begin to normalize relations. 2id, president obama called the leader from cuba from the oval office. They released an agreement on a prisoner swap which included alan gross, the 65yearold American Foreign aide worker imprisoned since 2009, in exchange for three cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States since 1998. Alan gross flew home this morning accompanied by senators pat leahy and jeff flake and ben holla holland. And at noon today, president obama announced the historic shift in cuban policy. Ive instructed secretary kerry to immediately begin discussions with cuba to reestablish diplomatic relations which have been severed since january of 1961. Going forward, the United States will reestablish an embassy in havana. And highranking officials will visit cuba. The president listed some of the ways in which american travelers and businesses will be affected. It will be easier for americans to travel to cuba. And americans will be able to use american credit and debit cards on the island. Were significantly increasing the amount of money that can be sent to cuba and removing limits on remim tanss that support humanitarian projects, the cuban people and the emerging cuban private sector. U. S. Fanl institutions will be allowed to open accounts at cuban financial institutions. And it will be easier for u. S. Exporters to sell goods in cuba. Joining me now the executive director of cuba now. The former executive director of the miamidade democratic party, steven prost, an expert on export control law, economic sanctions and International Trade policy and from havana, a professor at American University and the coauthor of the book back channel to cuba the Hidden History of negotiations between washington and havana. Steven prost, first of all, to you, the technical aspects of todays announcement. When will these things happen. Ive actually been planning a return trip to cuba. When can i use my credit card there . Well, lawrence, the changes that were announced today are currently not in effect and will not take effect until the administration actually issues regulations or amends existing regulations to implement these provisions that the president has announced today. And steven, those regulations is sometimes take quite a while, months and sometimes even years in certain situations because they frequently solicit public comment. Is it going to be that kind of process that they go through . In this situation, the president of the executive branch has fairly Broad Authority to conduct the Foreign Affairs of the United States and to establish regulations that implements Foreign Policy. So in this situation, its not unusual to see the government actually go ahead and issue final regulations, or interim final rules and allow the public to comment after those regular sligs laigss have been issued. So, you know, the president really has some discretion here to decide how to do this. But i think given how dramatic the announcement was today, i think that youll start to see some regulatory changes here fairly quickly. Your reaction to this announcement today . Its historic. The steps that the president has taken are in the right zreks direction. Theyre well within his authority, and are going to do more to help empower a cuban people than years of blanket sanctions have been able to achieve. Youre talking about what the president could actually do to move forward. The president has been to some extent restricted by legislation that was only the the embargo was only codified in law in the 1990s when bill clip ton made the horrible mistake of signing helmsburton into law. It had never been law before. It was within the president s power to kind of dismantle it. But it seems today what the president has found is every way outside of helmsburton that he can make a change. Well, i think the president has gone about as far as he can go in this package of changes under his own executive authority. And there are still some areas where congress is going to have to act if were going to have a fully and completely normal relationship. Tourist travel is still prohibited. The complete lifting of the embargo will require changes in the helmsburton act, but the president has been very bold in using his executive authority to really move very far down the road. And most importantly, hes really changed the whole frame work of relations. This is, i think, historic indeed. Very much in the model of nixon going to china to change fundamental u. S. Policy. And william, there in havana tonight, what is the reaction that youve been picking up in cuba today . I think the reaction is joy and relief and anticipation. Joy and relief that this 50 years of hostility may finally be coming to an end. And the anticipation that restoration of normal relations, especially normal economic relations will begin to increase the standards of ordinary living people. Some of the things that will have to happen apparently include possibly appropriations for an embassy in havana along with Senate Confirmation of an ambassador. The president said today were going to have our first cuban bass ambassador of the 21st century. Those will be the obvious spots down the road where well hear from the opponents of this in the senate certainly. Thats correct. There are a number of areas where theres congressional approval where acquired. Congress has power of the purse and can exert some pressure there. But i think that the fact is that the authority for the president to make the changes that he made today is actually built into the legislative framework that congress itself set out. And so when you look at the statutory provisions and the regulatory provisions that implement the sanctions against cuba, those provisions actually themselves establish or give the president the discretion to make exceptions to the prohibitions that are built into the sanctions. And interestingly, the general accountability office, the gao, congress own Investigative Authority has looked that the twice over the last 20 years. And both times, they agreed clearly that the president does have the authority to do what he did today. Soo i think that the president s action today is legally on very farm ground. Remains to be seen exactly how far is a legal matter they will go and implementing regulations that change the regulations. It is my assessment and i would be interested in yours, that president obama is the first president who has shown leadership on cuban policy in the castro era. The first one in 50 years. Certainly sense the confrontation that jfk had to get through with the Nuclear Weapons being located there. Leaving that aside, because there was a very real confirmati confirmation. Once you move forward from there, every president when faced with any kind of question about cuba policy always, it seemed to me, took the politically easy route. Thats what we saw the last time it came to the president s desk, or the only time the embargo tame to the president s desk. Bill clinton should have vetoed it. He didnt have the political courage to do that. This president seems to be operating in a different political atmosphere, though. Even though hes showing the most leadership on it, he also has the most public support to show that leadership, doesnt he . Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, by and large, the American People and the cubanamerican community has lost faith in our 50yearold embargo and a policy of isolation. I think what president obama has done, he has sane very bold steps and n completely shifting the tos can of this policy from one, being the previous focus, which is basically trying to punish the regime and trying to micromanage a transition from the United States to a policy thats much more focused on the people. And helping to empower them. And increasing the flow of contacts and resources from American Civil Society to the cuban people so that they may be in a better position to demand greater changes from their own government. Before we go, i just want to mention that Hillary Clinton issued a statement fully supporting the president s choice. And jeb bush issued a statement saying that the president has just rewarded those dictators. What is the likelihood, if there is another president bush that what president obama has done today would be reversed by executive order. Well, if the conservative republican president like jeb bush becomes our next president he certainly has the power to reverse a lot of these changes, but i think that will be politically difficult. Its legally possible, but i think it will be politically difficult, because i think were going to see theres enormous relief and support across, not only the United States for this change in policy, but also across latin america and with our allies around the world. William leo grand, thank you for joining us on this historic day from havana. Also Steven Propst and ric herrera. Thank you for joining us. Coming up next, how is hollywood reacting to the attack on sony now . And why marco rubio doesnt know what he should know about cuba. Thats in the rewrite. The sta. And the windblown watery eyes. Thats why puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin. So you can always put your best face forward. A face in need deserves puffs indeed. And try puffs softpack today. When electricity is generated heres awith natural gasu instead of todays most used source, how much are co2 emissions reduced . Up to 30 . 45 . 60 . The answer is. Up to 60 less. And thats a big reason why the u. S. Is a world leader in reducing co2 emissions. Take the energy quiz round 2. Energy lives here. I will take beauty into where it belongs Olay Regenerist renews to reveal new skin in only five days. Without drastic measures. Stunningly youthful. Awardwinning skin. From the worlds 1. Olay. Your best beautiful. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast business and get the fastest wifi with the most coverage. Comcast business. Built for business. You two are going to be alone in a room with kim and the cia would love it if you could take him out. Hmm . Take him out. For coffee . Dinner. No, take him out. You want us to kill the leader of north korea . Yes. Thats probably as much of the sony comedy the interview that you will ever see. What does the attack on sony and sonys decision not to release the movie mean for artisting freedom of expression for america . Aaron sorkin said tonight today the u. S. Succumbed to an unprecedented attack on our most cherished bedrock principle of free speech by a group of north korean terrorists to stop a movie. The wishes were fulfilled in part by easily distracted members of the American Press who chose gossip and reporting over a story of immeasure consequences for a public, a story that was developing right in front of their eyes. Joining me now is lowell peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of america east. What is your reaction to all of the news of the day, including the studios final decision of we are going to pull this movie . We think its unfortunate. The Writers Guild of america as you know represents screenwriter, tv writer, news writers, comedy writers. Our view is writers and other filmmakers and Creative Professionals need to be able to address controversial issues without being intimidated. Unfortunately thats exactly what happened. Our heart goes out to the Writers Guild members who wrote this film, dan sterling and of course, both seth and evan. They poured themselves into it, tried to get an audience, tried to make people laugh, i guess to try to engage in some issues and now its gong to be in a closet some place. Its bad for creators, its bad for the public. People need to hear this stuff. Yeah, but what is there to do about this. Thisst a very serious threat to moviegoers. I can tell you, im not brave about this. As i was listening to that threat yesterday, my plan was to buy ten tickets to the movie online on opening day and not go to the theatre. Because i took the threat seriously, but i wanted to support that movie. I think thats great. I think the movie needs to be seen by audiences. If the christmas opening day is too hot or too risky, Public Safety authorities noo ed to handle that. Its not an excuse to shut down free expression. Get it out there some other way. Sony is saying now, i mean, some people are saying who dont quite understand this. Some people are saying publicly, well, why dont they just release it online. They dont understand that that would then be sony would then get hacked and more attacks for that. Netflix will never run this thing because then the people who went after sony will go after netflix. Amazon will never touch this. They wont sell a dvd or put it online ever. They expect to get the same kind of attack that sony got. So it is likely that we will never, ever see this movie. I hope that youre mistaken on that. But you might be exactly right. The threats are apparently credible. Theyre certainly as long as this north korean regime in s in place. So the next, whatever that is, 20 years, that whatever that is. Well, you never know. People make threats and dont necessarily have the capability to act them out. Im not suggesting we be brazen and just egg ignore the threats and pretend theyre nonexistent. But we need to separate the safety issue from letting people express themselves and watching a movie. I hear we need to take precautions. Netflix and amazon have to, the theatre openers do. But at some point, we as a nation have to say, audiences have to say lets hear controversial issues. We can handle it. My sense of sonys position right now is they wont even give us a dvd that we could show at the Writers Guild theatre in l. A. Just us, they wont even give us that, because the attackers would blame them for giving us that dvd. Well, they magt. Might. For a private showing. Im interested in seeing how far we can stand up. Im not interested in risking our lives or members lives about. But sometimes i think threats are easy to make and hard to carry out. I think we need to address it as a Public Safety, shoe. You know, its not just no matter which outlet screens this movie. What about the next movie that some dictator doesnt like . The list can go on and on. At some point, as a nation, we have to say, let us see controversial movies. Should the industry have reacted quicker to this . It seems to me prior to last night, the industry did not have a unified reaction. I agree with you. They should have frankly, the threat to freedom of expression to the ability to make a living making these movies and engaging audiences was present from the very beginning. And we really sort of missed the ball on it by not focusing on it until the very end when the movie was pulled. We should have mobilized earlier and spoken out earlier. Pethanks for speaking with u tonight. Coming up, marco rubio thinks the United States should do business with china no matter how cruel chinas government is, but never with cuba. And later, how the pope created president obamas back channel to cuba. Get to the terminal across town. Are all the green lights you . No. Its called grid iq. The 4 51 is leaving at 4 51. They cut the power. Itll fix itself. Powers back on. Quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. Thrillingly predictable. Wellllll. 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Many americans who have prescriptions fail to stay on them. Thats why we created programs which encourage people to take their medications regularly. So join us as we raise a glass to everyone who remembered today. Bottoms up, america. See you tomorrow. Same time. Another innovation from cvs health. Because health is everything. Let me explain to you who the Chinese Government is. The Chinese Government provides their people no access to the internet. The Chinese Government will hold citizens prisoner without any right to recourse. The Chinese Government coerces and tortures people until they get confessions from them. But marco rubio believes he should have full diplomatic and trade relations with china, a government he just said is even nastier than the castro brothers regime in cuba where marco rubio believes we should maintain an embargo until the cuban government does everything marco rubio says we should do. And its worth noting that there is no government in the world that does everything marco rubio says it should do, including the government of the United States of america and the government of the state of florida, which he represents in the United States senate. Everyone in the embargo forever crowd including marco rubio knows theres absolutely no Foreign Policy consistency to their position. They know that Foreign Policy consistency would require them to demand an embargo on china and several other country, including middle eastearn countries that have much worse human rights records than cuba ever will. But they know that demanding an embargo on saudi arabia, because it refuses to allow women the same rites as men and refuses to allow anyone the right to vote for their head of state because, you know, its a nutty dictatorship run by a nutty king, would butt marco rubio in direct conflict with the American Oil Industry and thats not a place where marco rubio will ever dare to go. And another place marco rubio will ever dare to go is due bah. He has gone to the American Military base at guantanamo bay, but he has never walked down the street in cuba. Never been in the country. And so he literally does not know what he is talking about when he talks about cuba. Remember how you talked about a foreign country, say, italy or france or china before you went there. And remember how much more you knew about those places or any foreign country after youd actually been there . With cuba, that difference is more dramatic than with most countries because we have so Little Information about real life in cuba. I knew a lot about the history of cubanamerican relations before i went to cuba, but in a certain sense, i knew nothing about cuba. I approve of every socalled junket that members of congress and their staffs go on to foreign countries, because it is better for them to have some experience inside the countries theyre thinking about in their Foreign Policy discussions. But marco rubio doesnt approve of any of his colleagues actually visiting cuba, seeing the reality of cuba themselves. This is what marco rubio said about congressional trips to cuba. Cuba is not a zoo where you paid an admissions ticket and go in and you get to watch People Living in cages to see how they are suffering. Cuba is not a field trip. I dont that i can that stuff lightly. Of course, people in cuba dont actually live in cages, but marco rubio doesnt actually know that. He does approve field trips to china, including one his deputy chief of staff went on last summer, paid for entirely by the Chinese Government. You know, the government that marco rubio was just describing that he says tortures people. Heres how marco rubio defended that trip through his spokesman, of course, because this is not the kind of thing marco rubio wants to be quite quoted on directly. So marco rubios spokesman said china is the most populous nation on earth, has the worlds second largest economy, has a significant Nuclear Weapons arsenal and is increasingly an economic competitor of the United States. While he abhors many of the Chinese Governments actions, as a member of the senates Foreign Relations and intelligence committee, he cannot ignore their growing geopolitical importance, also as the Ranking Member of the senates asia subcommitt subcommittee, he cannot ignore the largest nation in asia and recognizes that staff travel approved by the u. S. Government and Senate Ethics is sometimes necessary in helping advance our advocacy on a host of Foreign Policy issues. So for marco rubio, size really matters. Thats it. Thats the only reason marco rubio is in favor of full diplomatic and trade relations with china and not for cuba. China is a big country. And cuba isnt. Theres absolutely no Foreign Policy consistency in that. Just a size fetish. Senator rubio had no problem voting to confirm president obamas ambassador to china, but hes now vowing to do everything in his power to prevent the senate from confirming whoever president obama will nominate to be the first 21st century ambassador to cuba. Which is the larnlest nation in the caribbean, but just not large enough for marco rubio. Hey matt, whats up . Im just looking over the company bills. Is that what we pay for internet . Yup. Dsl is about 90 bucks a month. Thats funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. Wow thats fast. Personally, i prefer a slow internet. There is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. Dont listen to the naysayer. 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Thats what i like to call, the meta effect. 4in1 multihealth metamucil now clinically proven to help you feel less hungry between meals. Experience the meta effect with our new multihealth wellness line. I love my Meta Health Bars. Because when nutritious tastes this delicious, i dont miss the other stuff. New Meta Health Bars help promote heart health. Experience the meta effect with our new multihealth wellness line. I want to thank pope francis who shows us pursuing the world as it should be rather than simply settling for the world as it is. Translator recognize the support of the vatican. And especially proep francis for the improvement for the relationship between cuba and the United States. President obama and raul castro thanked pope francis for his role in brokering a deal between the u. S. And cuba today. Pope francis first discussed relation when the two met at the vatican in march of this year and followed that up with written letters with both men. The solely see received delegations from the two countries in the vatican last october and provided offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters. The holy see will continue to ensure that support for initiatives which both nations will undercake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the well willing of their respective citizens. Joining me now is a senior fellow for latin america studies at the council on Foreign Relations. Its quite striking to see the pope playing a role on anything involving cuba. There was once a time where that was unimaginable. A. Pope john paul went to cuba. It was an historic visit. He at the time made a plea for cuba to open to the world and for the world to open to cuba. That didnt go very far. There was an interim benedict visit to cuba actually just a few years ago, but pope francisco, he is from argentina. He is a latin american. He is a personal and long standing friend of the archbishop of havana. The two of them had spoken about this issue well before president obamas meeting in march. And so theres some feeling and ethos in latin america that this is the pope who might be able to really be helpful to both countries. Our first guest wrote a book about back channels to cuba over the last 50 years. This is a whole new chapter. Weve used canada and other ways of communicating, but the vatican hasnt been that high on peoples list of where they would expect to see this happen. Well, thats true, although i have to go back again and say that as cuba has changed slowly over the last 20 years, internally in cuba, its been the Catholic Church that has built separate pace from the state and government but has worked with the goth to create that space. And thats been done also with the support of the vatican. So it does seem unlikely in a country like the United States that is not as predominantly latin as other countries. My e perspective as an historian is actually that this is entirely consistent. In fact, i can remember, lawrence, when Elian Gonzalez was stuck here in the United States, there was discussion with the catholic bishops conference and an effort with that entity and the spanish government. Like wise when cuba released about 70 Political Prisoners in 2009, the pope was involved. The vatican was involved, the europeans were involved. So in the cuban context, it might be unusual, but its not the first time. Its just the first time that a pope has gotten the two governments to recognize that they have an interest in moving something forward and giving the kind of trust that each government gave it. That for sure is unique. And the president today really gave the pope credit. He said that he really provided moral authority as well as this opportunity to put people together. Absolutely. And again, i would stress that the fact that this is a latin american pope is very significant. 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