Passions were running high at today's House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting over travel to Cuba -- but perhaps none more so than Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who tussled with retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

McCaffrey raised the Miami Republican's hackles with his testimony that Cuba represents no risk to national security and the travel ban should be scrapped since it hurts longtime U.S. interests.

But during questioning, he took exception to Ros-Lehtinen, whom he said appeared to question his national security credentials and called him "Mr. McCaffrey,'' rather than "General.''

"To refute the argument that I had offered to the committee, she seemed to be implying my lack of commitment to U.S. national security, which is a silly thing for her to do,'' McCaffrey told reporters after the hearing. "She stated a very carefully chosen way to denigrate my military credentials, which she is not authorized to do.''

Ros-Lehtinen -- who often notes she has family members in the service -- said she disagreed with McCaffrey's stance on Cuba, but "did not mean in any way to not respect his service by calling him Mr. and not General.''

She said she had written down the questions she wanted to pose to McCaffrey and that "General'' appears in her handwritten notes

New Florida Sen. George LeMieux's first foray into foreign relations has drawn brickbats from former high-ranking State Department officials who say his effort to block the Obama administration's new ambassador to Brazil is damaging U.S. relations with Latin America.

"This continuing, prolonged vacancy sends an unintended signal that the United States does not consider Brazil an important relationship,'' the nine former assistant secretaries of state wrote in a letter to LeMieux, urging him to lift his opposition to nominee Tom Shannon.

Shannon had triggered the ire of South Florida Cuban Americans who believed he wasn't tough enough on the Castro regime during his tenure as a former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs under President George W. Bush.

Senate staffers suggested Wednesday that LeMieux -- who was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist to fill the seat vacated by Mel Martinez -- could be trying to burnish his Cuba credentials to help Crist, who faces a Cuban-American opponent in the Republican primary for the Senate seat.

LeMieux said it was his responsibility as Florida's senator to vet the nominee, noting that he had heard concerns about Shannon's record from constituents and fellow members of Congress.

"I feel like I have a role and a responsibility far greater than other senators do in terms of anything that deals with Latin America, and I take that job seriously,'' said LeMieux, who will be a "special guest" at a DC fundraiser Friday for Crist. "This is about the entire hemisphere. This is about Venezuela, El Salvador, Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil and Cuba and the role that Mr. Shannon played . . . and the role he will play. We are burning the midnight oil here to make sure I'm doing the best job I can for 18 million Floridians, and that's my motivation.''

Bloomberg News reports the extended hold could cost Boeing Inc. up to $7.5 billion.

Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake -- who has long led efforts to lift the embargo against Cuba -- recently spent a week on a deserted island in the Pacific, practicing his survival skills.

That prompted the blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, to posit that the anti-embargo lawmaker was practicing for life on Cuba, where it notes that Cuban dictator Raul Castro has "announced widespread shortages, including that of toilet paper, for the Cuban people."

President Barack Obama signed a one-year extension of the law used to impose the trade embargo on Cuba, disappointing those who favored allowing the law to expire as a friendly nod to Havana while reassuring others who oppose easing the sanctions.

The extension of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA) was largely symbolic. While it was used by President John F. Kennedy as the legal basis for slapping the embargo on Havana, another law would have kept those sanctions in place even if Obama had not signed the extension.

Several groups that favor improved U.S. relations with Havana had urged Obama to allow TWTEA to expire as scheduled on Monday as a signal to the Cuban government that his administration was truly interested in rapprochement.

More here.

News reports say that former Cuban president Fidel Castro is expressing sympathy for President Barack Obama, quoting Castro as writing that "the racist right" will do everything it can to defeat Obama.

"In an unusually conciliatory column in the state-run media," Reuters wrote, "Castro said Obama had inherited many problems from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and was trying to resolve them. But the 'powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way.'

"Obama does not want to change the U.S. political and economic system, but 'in spite of that, the extreme right hates him for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country,' Castro wrote."

Mel Martinez told friends and supporters in an e-mail today that he's resigning from the Senate as soon as a replacement can be appointed. (He had already said he wouldn't seek a second term in 2010)

"My priorities have always been my faith, my family and my country and at this stage in my life, and after nearly twelve years of public service in Florida and Washington, it’s time I return to Florida and my family," he said in the e-mail.

In an extraordinary turn of events, Gov. Charlie Crist, the leading Republican to replace Martinez in the U.S. Senate, will have the power to appoint someone to fill the remainder of Martinez's term. Sources say Crist is unlikely to appoint himself -- but is expected to make an announcement before the end of the August recess when the Senate returns to Washington. Some names already surfacing: former Sen. Connie Mack, former Gov. Bob Martinez, and former Secretary of State Jim Smith.

Democrats may see opportunity in an early exit: they're likely to suggest parallels with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was widely assailed for resigning early. And they may use Martinez's retirement to suggest tension between Hispanics and the GOP. The first Cuban-American senator, Martinez was among only 9 Republican senators who voted for Sonia Sotomayor, and he sparred with party leaders over immigration reform. His election as chair of the Republican National Committee drew protests from the base and he left the post after a short stint.

His statement after the jump.

Congressional negotiators agreed last night not to ban the release of photos of terrorist detainees, after President Barack Obama wrote a five-paragraph letter promising to fight to prevent disclosure.

Many House Democrats wanted the right to release the photos. Senate Republicans and Democrats had voted unanimously to keep them secret.

In his letter, Obama wrote the appropriations commttee chairmen that while he opposed a legislative ban, he could “assure you that I will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy available to me to ensure the DoD (Defense Department) detainee photographs are not released.

“Should a legislative solution prove necessary,” he wrote, “I am committed to working with the Congress to enact legislation that achieves the objectives we share.”

He said, though, he would oppose a legislative ban at the moment so that the bill could move through Congress. Passage of the ban, he said, “would unnecessarily complicate the essential objective of supporting the troops and would accomplish no substantive purpose.” Read the letter.

Another controversy was also resolved with a compromise: for four months, Congress is unlikely to block Obama from ordering detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp into the United States for trial.

By then, Congress hopes Obama will come up with a plan for closing the detention facility.

The crux of the bill is $79.9 billion for the Pentagon to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another $10.4 billion would go to the State Department and other “international affairs and stabilization” efforts in Pakistan.

And $7.7 billion would go to helping ease the flu pandemic, while another $1 billion would be used for the “cash for clunkers” program that will allow consumers to trade in old gas guzzling vehicles for more fuel efficient ones.

Cuba, along with Iran, Sudan and Syria, is named in the State Department's annual list of state sponsors of terrorism - but with the Obama administration showing signs of wanting to improve relations with Havana, the language on the island nation's purported ties to terrorists appears a little less bellicose than it has in the past.

Critics of U.S.-Cuba policy would like to see Cuba removed from the list entirely.

Full language from this year's report and last:

THIS YEAR'S REPORT

"Although Cuba no longer actively supports armed struggle in Latin America and other parts of the world, the Cuban government continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists. Members of ETA, the FARC, and the ELN remained in Cuba during 2008, some having arrived in Cuba in connection with peace negotiations with the governments of Spain and Colombia. Cuban authorities continued to publicly defend the FARC. However, on July 6, 2008, former Cuban President Fidel Castro called on the FARC to release the hostages they were holding without preconditions. He has also condemned the FARC's mistreatment of captives and of their abduction of civilian politicians who had no role in the armed conflict.

"The United States has no evidence of terrorist-related money laundering or terrorist financing activities in Cuba, although Cuba has one of the world's most secretive and non-transparent national banking systems. Cuba has no financial intelligence unit. Cuba's Law 93 Against Acts of Terrorism provides the government authority to track, block, or seize terrorist assets.

"The Cuban government continued to permit some U.S. fugitives including members of U.S. militant groups such as the Boricua Popular, or Macheteros, and the Black Liberation Army to live legally in Cuba. In keeping with its public declaration, the government has not provided safe haven to any new U.S. fugitives wanted for terrorism since 2006."

LAST YEAR'S REPORT

"The Government of Cuba remained opposed to U.S. counterterrorism policy, and actively and publicly condemned many associated U.S. policies and actions. To U.S. knowledge, the Cuban government did not attempt to track, block, or seize terrorist assets, although the authority to do so is contained in Cuba's Law 93 Against Acts of Terrorism, as well as Instruction 19 of the Superintendent of the Cuban Central Bank. No new counterterrorism laws were enacted, nor were any executive orders or regulations issued in this regard. The Government of Cuba provided safe haven to members of ETA, the FARC, and the ELN. It maintained close relationships with other state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran and Syria.

"The Cuban government continued to permit more than 70 U.S. fugitives to live legally in Cuba and refused almost all U.S. requests for their return. These U.S. fugitives include convicted murderers (two of them killed police officers) as well as numerous hijackers, most of whom entered Cuba in the 1970s. The government returned one American citizen fugitive when that person sailed his boat into Cuban waters and it was determined that he was wanted on fraud charges in the state of Utah. The Cuban government stated in 2006 that it would no longer provide safe haven to new U.S. fugitives entering Cuba.

"The Cuban government did not extradite suspected terrorists during the year."