HUMANITARIANISM IS AS GOOD A PRETEXT AS ANY:

Cuba seeks to buy US materials for Ike recovery (ANITA SNOW, 9/11/08, Associated Press)

Cuba has turned down U.S. storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said Thursday.

"Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "Simply that it lets us buy."