Posted on 05/06/2002 11:05:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said Monday it believes Cuba "has at least a limited offensive biological warfare" program and may be transferring its expertise to other countries hostile to the United States.
"We are concerned that such technology could support biological warfare programs in those states," said Undersecretary of State John Bolton.
Bolton did not identify these nations but noted that Cuban President Fidel Castro visited Iraq, Syria and Libya last year, all of which, like Cuba, are on the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism. Bolton said all are attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton, the State Department's top nonproliferation official, called on Cuba to cease transfers of biological weapons technology to "rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention."
His remarks were prepared for delivery to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group.
Bolton said that despite Cuba's membership on the terrorism list, that nation's threat to American security has been underplayed.
"For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union," Bolton said.
"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," he said.
He noted 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.
Bolton said the Clinton administration may have overlooked Cuba as a potential threat because of the influence of what he called the country's aggressive intelligence operations in the United States. He said this 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," he said.
Montes was arrested last fall and pleaded guilty to espionage on March 19.
Cuban spy in U.S. for debriefings*** But an FBI official who has handled Cuban spy cases warned that Brito may also be a double-agent sent by Havana to misinform. ''Cuba has one of the most aggressive intelligence operations in the world, and until we know more he will probably be treated as a potential double agent,'' the official said. A State Department spokesman said he could not confirm Brito's presence in the United States. The usual CIA procedure is to keep foreign defectors under wraps while they are debriefed in isolation.***
The Bush administration is set to give Cuba a blunt warning today: end your biological weapons program or else. U.S. Government Warns Cuba on Bio Weapons Program*** NewsMax has received an advance copy of a major address by John Bolton, undersecretary of State for Arms Control, who will speak Monday afternoon before the Heritage Foundation. Bolton, for the first time, will identify three more rogue nations that pose significant danger to U.S. security and continue to develop weapons of mass destruction. The three nations named - Libya, Syria and Cuba - Bolton says will pose the most significant threat to the U.S. after the "axis of evil" nations - Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- as identified by President Bush. But the U.S. may be wagging its finger most boldly at Cuba.***
Cuba forced to sell biotechnology to Iran***De la Fuente fears that's exactly what Iran intends to do. ``No one,'' he wrote in the journal article, ``believes that Iran is interested in these technologies for the purpose of protecting all the children in the Middle East from hepatitis, or treating their people with cheap streptokinase when they suffer sudden cardiac arrest . . . ``The sale to Iran of the production technology for three of the CIGB's most significant accomplishments . . . is profoundly disturbing to many of us who gave so much time and effort to the development of an economically viable but essentially altruistic biotechnology in our country.'' His revelation comes at the same time the FBI is investigating the possibility that man-made anthrax bacteria was used to poison employees at a South Florida publishing company, and as experts nervously debate the possibility of biochemical assaults in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.***
..."although, to be honest, their 'technology' is barely able to keep a Chevy Biscayne tuned." Don't give me a hard time, okay, guys?" Bolton pleaded to reporters, in off-the-record comments to reporters after the press conference. The White House tells State to keep the fear drums beating, and today it's my turn on the bongos."
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