Barack Obama gets Fidel Castro's support - Senator Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials took a further blow on Tuesday after his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination won the backing of Fidel Castro.Telegraph - May 28, 2008Senator Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials took a further blow on Tuesday after his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination won the backing of Fidel Castro. The former Cuban president gave a qualified endorsement to Mr Obama whom he described as "the most-advanced candidate" in the race for the White House. The unwelcome support of the ailing revolutionary icon is likely to give Senator John McCain further opportunity to question Mr Obama's foreign policy credentials. The Republican nominee has consistently tried to exploit the support offered for Mr Obama by Hamas, which is listed by the US state department as a terrorist organisation. But writing in his regular column in the state-run Granma newspaper, Mr Castro noted that Mr Obama had not dared to call for a reversal of the decades-old US embargo on Cuba. "Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," the 81-year-old former president wrote, referring to remarks Mr Obama made to the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami last week. The Illinois senator said he would maintain nearly all trade sanctions against Cuba as leverage to push for democratic change, but also vowed to ease restrictions on US-based exiles travelling to Cuba and sending money to relatives. However he repeated that he was willing to meet Raul Castro, who in February succeeded his elder brother to become the nation's first new leader in 49 years. His chief strategist meanwhile forecast that Mr Obama would cross the finishing line in his marathon with Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democrats' nomination next week, when South Dakota and Montana are the final states to vote. David Axelrod told the New York Daily News: "We're very close now. When the primaries end, I think, we'll be where we need to be ... We'll be at the number we need to claim the nomination." By the campaign's calculations, Mr Obama only needs a further 49 delegates to achieve the simply majority of 2,026 needed to win. However, the party's rules committee meets on Saturday and would raise the victory threshold if it agreed to include some or all of the delegates from Michigan and Florida, who have so far been discounted as a penalty for the states' decision to hold early primaries. Mrs Clinton is pressing for all their delegates to be counted, after winning uncontested primaries in both states. Their inclusion would however only reduce her deficit to about 90 delegates, who will vote at a convention in August. David Blair, Diplomatic Editor, writes: America's next president will send a new message on human rights by closing the Guantanamo detention centre and condemning torture, Amnesty International' s secretary-general predicted yesterday. After comparing Guantanamo to the Soviet gulags and making the "war on terrorism" a focus of Amnesty's campaigns, Irene Khan said that she was "optimistic" about America's next administration. Amnesty's annual report, released today, singles out America for special attention. The superpower's human rights abuses are given more space than those committed by North Korea, Sudan, China or Saudi Arabia.
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