Cuban spy hid Castros Biological War developments
"Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its
knees," says the Cuban Dictator.
In addition to Libya and Syria, there is a threat coming from another BWC signatory, and
one that lies just 90 miles from the U.S. mainland--namely, Cuba. This totalitarian state
has long been a violator of human rights.
The State Department said last year in its Annual Report on Human Rights Practices that
the Government continued to violate systematically the fundamental civil and political
rights of its citizens. Citizens do not have the right to change their government
peacefully. Prisoners died in jail due to lack of medical care. Members of the security
forces and prison officials continued to beat and otherwise abuse detainees and prisoners.
The Government denied its citizens the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and
association.
Havana has long provided safe haven for terrorists, earning it a place on the State
Department's list of terrorist-sponsoring states.
The country is known to be harboring terrorists from Colombia, Spain, and fugitives from
the United States. We know that Cuba is collaborating with other state sponsors of terror.
Castro has repeatedly denounced the U.S. war on terrorism. He continues to view terror as
a legitimate tactic to further revolutionary objectives. Last year, Castro visited Iran,
Syria, and Libya--all designees on the same list of terrorist-sponsoring states. At Tehran
University, these were his words:"Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each
other, can bring America to its knees. The U.S. regime is very weak, and we are
witnessing this weakness from close up."
But Cuba's threat to our security often has been underplayed. An official U.S. government
report in 1998 concluded that Cuba did not represent a significant military threat to the
United States or the region. It went only so far as to say that "Cuba has a limited
capacity to engage in some military and intelligence activities which could pose a danger
to U.S. citizens under some circumstances."
However, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen tried to add some balance to this report
by expressing in the preface his serious concerns about Cuba's intelligence activities
against the United States and its human rights practices. Most notably, he said, "I
remain concerned about Cuba's potential to develop and produce biological agents, given
its biotechnology infrastructure...."
Why was the 1998 report on Cuba so unbalanced? Why did it underplay the threat Cuba posed
to the United States? A major reason is Cuba's aggressive intelligence operations
against the United States, which included recruiting the Defense Intelligence Agency's
senior Cuba analyst, Ana Belen Montes, to spy for Cuba.
Montes not only had a hand in drafting the 1998 Cuba report, but also passed some of our
most sensitive information about Cuba back to Havana. Montes was arrested last fall and
pleaded guilty to espionage on March 19.
For four decades, Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical
industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union. This industry is one of the most
advanced in Latin America and leads in the production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines that
are sold worldwide. Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the
activities conducted in these biomedical facilities.
Here is what we now know: The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited
offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use
biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support
BW programs in those states. We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with
rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons
Convention.
U.S. aims new attack at Libya, Syria, Cuba
The United States accused three more states -- Libya, Syria and Cuba -- of pursuing
weapons of mass destruction and warned it would take action to ensure they do not supply
terrorists with such arms.
In a speech entitled "Beyond the Axis of Evil," Undersecretary of State John
Bolton said that in addition to Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- which President George W.
Bush several months ago branded the "axis of evil" -- "there are other
rogue states intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, particularly biological
weapons."
After the Sept. 11 hijacked aircraft attacks on the United States, "America is
determined to prevent the next wave of terror, Bolton, who oversees international security
policy, told the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"States that sponsor terror and pursue WMD (weapons of mass destruction) must
stop," he said. "States that renounce terror and abandon WMD can become part of
our effort. But those that do not can expect to become our targets."
Bolton said Washington would direct "firm international condemnation toward states
that shelter, and in some cases directly sponsor, terrorists within their borders"
and would take action "against proliferators, middlemen and weapons brokers by
exposing them, sanctioning their behavior and working with other countries to prosecute
them or otherwise bring a halt to their activities."
He said there was "no doubt that Libya continues its long-standing pursuit of nuclear
weapons," as well as chemical weapons, biological weapons and ballistic missile
capability. In addition, "We are concerned about Syrian advances in its indigenous CW
(chemical weapons) infrastructure (and believe Syria is) pursuing development of
biological weapons and is able to produce at least small amounts of biological warfare
agents," Bolton said.
Bolton, arguing that "Cuba's threat to our security has been underplayed," said
the U.S. believes the communist government there "has at least a limited offensive
biological warfare research and development effort (and has) provided dual-use technology
to other rogue states."
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