HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 24. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States are organizing an international meeting for December 1 in which participants will demand that Cuba be taken out of the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

According to the website www.cubadebate.cu, the meeting will take place at the Zinger Room of the National Press Club, in Washington DC and will be sponsored by The Latin America Working Group and The Center for International Policy.

The call for the meeting explains that maintaining Cuba in that disgraceful list without any evidence to support such accusation is one of the most cynical aspects of the U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. government unjustly included Cuba in the State Sponsors of Terrorism List in 1982 at the request of former State Secretary Alexander Haig and the decision was officially approved by then-President Ronald Reagan.

The document adds that recent reports by the U.S. State Department acknowledge that  Cuba has maintained a clear public position against terrorism and the financing of terrorist actions.

Wayne Smith, from the Center for International Policy; Robert Muse, from the Muse and Associates legal company; and Carlos Alzugaray, a professor at the University of Havana, are some of the lecturers and guests that will take part in the conference.

In a previous event held in February 2010, Muse talked about the dangerous legal consequences derived from Washington’s decision: “Officially labeling Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism means that the U.S. government can take hold of Cuban assets to meet alleged compensation demands,” he said.

Other figures expected to take part in the conference include Sarah Stephens, from the Center for Democracy in the Americas, and Arturo Lopez Levy, an academician associated to the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. (acn)