Gingrich: Clinton going soft on Cuba

             TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, during a courtesy call
             on the Florida Legislature, accused the Clinton administration Wednesday of
             easing pressures on Cuban President Fidel Castro to move toward democracy --
             ``either by design or incompetence.''

             Speaking before a joint session, the Georgia Republican decried the vote Tuesday
             by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva that removed Cuba from the list
             of nations facing U.N. human rights monitoring.

             Gingrich implied that the vote marked a failure by the Clinton administration to
             convince other nations that Cuba continues to pose a threat comparable to Iraq's.

             ``We have as much evidence about biological and chemical warfare with Fidel
             Castro as we have with [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein,'' Gingrich said. ``We
             have as much evidence of the danger from terrorism from Fidel as we have from
             Saddam.''