``I think that the suffering of those families is terrible, and my heart goes out to them. They have, in fact, in an unprecedented way [been] allotted damages . . . as far as the lawsuit is concerned, the administration filed a statement of interest in January in order to advise the court about important national interests that are involved would be affected if that $187 million payment was made . . ..

``It's a very complicated issue. But the bottom line here is: If you believe what we are saying about the importance of people-to-people contact and if this company's profits were garnished and Castro cut off all telephone links, which is what's threatened between here and Cuba, then you would be in effect cutting off the possibility of thousands of Cubans and Cuban Americans from being in touch with each other.

``And so while we certainly understand the pain and suffering of the families, I think that it is one of those things where we've had to balance the larger national interest against theirs [the families]. It should in no way diminish the feelings of pain that we have for them and our sympathy for them, and the fact that we can never make up to them -- through any amount of money -- the loss of their dear ones.''