The Baltimore Sun

 WASHINGTON -- Ry Cooder, the musician who was once fined by the U.S.
 government for traveling to Cuba without permission to collaborate with the
 acclaimed musicians known as the Buena Vista Social Club, is back in Cuba
 recording music.

 And this time, thanks to last-minute intervention from top Clinton administration
 officials, he's legal.

 Cooder, who with his Cuban colleagues won a Grammy award in 1998, received
 U.S. permission to make new recordings in Cuba after then-Secretary of State
 Madeleine Albright and Samuel Berger, the Clinton administration's national
 security advisor, weighed in on his behalf in the last days of the administration,
 U.S. officials say.

 Cooder, who encountered trouble last year in obtaining a license from the
 Treasury Department for a new trip to Cuba, in September gave $10,000 to Hillary
 Rodham Clinton's senatorial campaign. On Jan. 17, three days before President
 Clinton left office, he was granted the license.

 Spokesmen for Sen. Clinton and former administration officials said there was no
 connection between Cooder's campaign contributions and the Treasury
 Department's approval of a new Cooder trip.

 ``She was not involved in this matter,'' said Karen Dunn, a spokeswoman for Sen.
 Clinton.

 Cooder's California-based lawyer also denied a link, saying the musician
 supported Hillary Clinton generally as a candidate and expected no personal gain
 from the contribution.

 ``Ry's made donations to a number of politicians and done it over a number of
 years,'' said the lawyer, Candice Hanson. ``Hillary Clinton -- I bet she doesn't
 know who Ry Cooder is. As far as I know, she doesn't have anything to do with
 this.''

 Cooder has contributed to the campaigns of California's Democratic senators
 Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

 More than a year ago, the Treasury Department fined Cooder $25,000 for failing to
 obtain a license for his first recording trip to Cuba in 1996, which resulted in the
 Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club album.

 In August, the government said it would approve Cooder's application so long as
 he earned no money from any new Cuban projects, according to Hanson and a
 congressional official.

 Cooder rejected that offer. He reapplied for a travel permit Nov. 7.