Cuba forced to sell biotechnology to Iran

Miami Herald ^ | October 10, 2001 | BY NANCY SAN MARTIN nsanmartin@herald.com

[Cincinatus' Wife]

WASHINGTON -- A deteriorating economy has forced Cuba to place its once prestigious biotechnology into the hands of nations that could be using science intended to save lives as a means to destroy it, according to a Cuban scientist now living in the United States.

The biotechnology used to manufacture three lifesaving medical products -- and which could be used to produce biochemical weapons -- has been sold to Iran, one of seven nations on the State Department's list of states that sponsor terrorism, the scientist said, calling the sale ``profoundly disturbing.''

José de la Fuente, the former director of research and development at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana, made the disclosure in this month's issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

SOLD TO IRAN

De la Fuente said that between 1995 and 1998, Cuba sold Iran the production technology for a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine; an interferon used for the treatment of some viral diseases and various types of cancer, and streptokinase, used to treat heart attacks and other thrombolytic disorders.

But de la Fuente and other scientists say the same technology could also be used to produce lethal agents to use as biochemical weapons -- like anthrax bacteria or smallpox virus. Many steps in the fermentation process that produces vaccines and other medicines are similar to the one used to manufacture biochemical weapons.

``Many technologies that are used to make medications are the same technologies that could be used for harmful intent,'' said Amy Smithson, a chemical and biological weapons expert at Henry Stimson Center in Washington. ``The fermenters are the same.''

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.

Evidence in the Sept. 11 investigation has led investigators to crop dusters and unlawfully obtained licenses to drive trucks hauling hazardous material.

De la Fuente, who fled Cuba by boat in 1999, said that although he has no reason to think that Cuba's sale of the technology to Iran was malicious, the outcome could be.

``This technology could be used for the purpose of producing bioweapons and other toxins that could be used in bioterrorist attacks,'' said de la Fuente, now a faculty member at Oklahoma State University.

REASON: MONEY

The reason for the sale, he said, was simple: money, Cuba's ``desperate need for hard currency.''

``I cannot in any way confirm the use of this technology for anything other than [vaccines]. But the possibility exists,'' he said. ``My worry is not that Cuba actually sold the technology, but what can be done once they [Iran] have the technology.''

Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington dismissed de la Fuente's assertion, claiming that having been the target of chemical warfare, Cuba abhors such tactics. Over the years, Cuba has blamed illnesses, deaths and damage to agricultural crops to chemical attacks launched by enemies in Miami.

``If any country has suffered from biological warfare, it is Cuba,'' said Luis Fernández, a spokesman.

Fernández acknowledged that Cuba has sold pharmaceutical products to a number of countries, but he said he could not confirm if Iran has purchased Cuban-developed biotechnology used to make medications to combat illnesses such as hepatitis B.

But he denied roundly that any Cuban product could be used for biological warfare. ``Cuba has never produced anything that is harmful, nor will it ever, nor does it need to,'' Fernández said. ``People are looking for ghosts that don't exist.''

De la Fuente said the issue is not whether Cuba is making biological weapons -- there is no credible evidence of that -- but that the biotechnology with such a capability exists and is on the market.

Smithson noted that Cuba ``has never appeared on any public list of countries with the capability to make biological weapons.''

But she agreed with de la Fuente's assertion that technology used to make medications are the same technologies that could be used for harmful intent.

``That's the global truth,'' she said.

CLOSE LINKS

The close relationship between Cuba and Iran became evident in May when President Fidel Castro went on a tour to the Middle East and Asia that included visits to Iran, Syria, Algeria and Malaysia. At the time, Castro said: ``Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees.''

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Castro has been vocal in condemning terrorist acts, though he has opposed military retaliation.

Meanwhile, a national campaign is under way to remove Cuba from the State Department's list of terrorist nations. The campaign, which started with 16 signatures from policy groups stretching from Miami to San Francisco, continues to gain support, said Anya Landau of the Center for International Policy in Washington.

UM PAPER

Castro's links to terrorism are also the source for a recently published paper at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

Among Castro's contributions, according to the UM report: support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Basque separatist movement from Spain known as ETA, the Irish Republican Army and several 1960s- and 1970s-era American radical groups accused of killing police officers and bombing public buildings.

``Cuba's geographical location, Castro's continuous connections with these groups and states and the harboring of terrorists in Havana creates a dynamic that requires vigilance and alertness,'' writes Jaime Suchlicki, director of the institute.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., during a recent visit with The Herald's editorial board, said Cuba ``clearly has the capability of producing chemical and biological ingredients that could become weapons of mass destruction.''

But whether Cuban scientists are in fact facilitating such efforts, Graham said, is unknown in part because the international inspection agencies have not been given access to facilities.

``The Cubans say that's a matter of national sovereignty and that `we are not using them for any inappropriate purpose,' '' Graham said, adding: ``Nobody, at least nobody that I'm aware of in the United States, feels that we know what Cuba's doing.''

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Sick Mind of Noam Chomsky: Part II Method and Madness (David Horowitz)-[Excerpt] Take a current example like Cuba, which has not been bombed and has not suffered a war, but is poorer today than it was more than forty years ago when Castro took power. In 1959, Cuba was the second richest country in Latin America. Now it is the second poorest just before Haiti. Naturally, Chomskyites will claim that the U.S. economic boycott is responsible. (The devil made them do it.) But the whole rest of the world trades with Cuba. Cuba not only trades with all of Latin America and Europe, but receives aid from the latter. Moreover, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union gave Cuba the equivalent of three Marshall Plans in economic subsidies and assistance -- tens of billions of dollars. Cuba is a fertile island with a tropical climate. It is poor because it has followed Chomsky's examples, and not America's. It is poor because it is socialist, Marxist and Communist. It is poor because it is run by a lunatic and sadist. It is poor because in Cuba, America lost the Cold War. The poverty of Cuba is what Chomsky's vision and political commitments would create for the entire world. [End Excerpt]

Castro: the bioterrorist in our backyard, Part II

U.S. Embargo-Busters Aim to Import Cuba Rat Poison

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(Miami Herald 10-10-01) Terrorism war to force Cuba, Venezuela to sit tight awhile--In addition, the United States will avoid raising Cuba's open support for armed movements in the past, or its most recent role as a sort of Club Med for international terrorists, for fear of bringing up potentially divisive issues that could annoy some members of the U.S.-sponsored anti-terrorist coalition, others said.

But U.S. officials say the Bush administration will most likely keep Cuba on the U.S. list of ``terrorist states'' because it provides safe haven to Basque ETA terrorists, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and other insurgent groups and keeps close ties with radical Arab organizations.

(Sept 1, 2001) Washington Times-- Couple charged as spies [Excerpt] Taken into custody by FBI agents in Orlando, Fla., George Gari and his wife, Marisol, were charged as members of "La Red Avispa," or the Wasp Network, five members of whom were convicted in June of conspiring to spy on the United States for Fidel Castro's regime.

Mr. Gari, 40, and Mrs. Gari, 42, were named in a three-count indictment on charges of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without proper identification or notice to the attorney general. Facing 15 years in prison if convicted, they are being held without bail. No court date has been set.

FBI Agent Hector M. Pesquera, who heads the bureau's Miami field office, announced the arrests. In July, in the wake of the convictions of the five Cuban spies, Mr. Pesquera pledged that additional arrests would be made in what he described as a continuing inquiry. He told reporters at the time that his office had "not finished the investigation." Federal authorities said that the espionage by the Garis occurred between 1991 and 1998, and that Mrs. Gari used her U.S. Postal Service job to gain access to mail sent by and intended for Cuban Americans. [End Excerpt]

Sunday Times of London-(09-20-01) Officials Told of 'Major Assault' Plans (Some Terrorists Arrived via Cuba)

Sunday Times of London-(08-25-01) IRA woman was 'envoy' to Cuba

[Lion's Cub]

Thanks for the post.

[Waco]

This is mostly B.S. Cuba built the bio labs for only one reason. Happy to export their knowledge to terrorists. Graham along with most demoncraps lie for the commies out of habit. What crud. Money? Nope. The DNC would never let them fail!

[RWCon]

We shouldn't wind down this operation while Castro is still in the saddle.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You'd be hard pressed to identify one of these 57 U.S. Congressmen/women who has not gone on a pilgrimage to Havana.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(Reuters 10-05-01) Should Cuba Be on U.S. Terrorism Blacklist?

CASTRO AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

CNN: May 3, 2001: U.S. ousted from U.N. Human Rights Commission[Excerpt] "Washington should have seen it coming because there has been a growing resentment towards the United States and ... votes on key human-rights standards, including opposition to a treaty to abolish land mines and to the International Criminal Court and making AIDS drugs available to everyone," she said in a Reuters report.

Other nations the United States has held up to the spotlight in the Geneva commission, such as China or Cuba, resented U.S. actions on the committee and "made their feelings well known in their speeches, " Weschler said in the Reuters report. Weschler also said the 53-member commission was turning into an "abuser solidarity" group with more and more countries with questionable human-rights records gaining election and then voting as a bloc not to single out individual nations for human rights abuses.

In the Reuters report, she cited Libya, Syria and Sudan among those given seats in the commission during the past two years.[End Excerpt]

Miami Herald (Oct 4, 2001) Dangerous anti-Americanism next door--Chávez, a left-leaning nationalist, has allied himself with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. These countries may end up having played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Orlando Sentinel (Oct 4, 2001) Open your eyes - Cuba belongs on list

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chinese President Jiang Zemin (L) waves to the press after he was met at Havana's Jose Marti Airport by Cuban leader Fidel Castro April 12, 2001. Jiang Zemina arrived to begin a three day state visit to Cuba. China yesterday released the 24 U.S. crew members of a surveillance plane which was forced to land on Chinese soil after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter.REUTERS/Andrew Winning

Cuban President Fidel Castro is accompanied by Hajj Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, as he leads more than 1.2 million Cubans in the largest anti-U.S. protest in four decades of hostilities, July 26, 2001. The march was billed by the ruling Communist Party as a protest against all U.S. "aggressions and crimes' since Castro's 1959 revolution. Khomeini is in Cuba as part of an Iranian delegation visiting on Castro's invite.(Rafael Perez/Reuters)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Michael Lind: Why the Double Standard for Castro?

[Fred25]

Castro Seeks Iran’s Help Against U.S.

Reuters

May 09, 2001 02:07 PM ET

By Ali Raiss-Tousi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro urged Iran Wednesday to help defeat the United States "as you toppled the shah" in 1979.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a staunch opponent of the United States, immediately welcomed the offer, saying the United States is "vulnerable and easy to break down."

Referring to the late Iranian monarch who was backed by the United States, Castro said earlier: "You overthrew the shah 22 years ago, but there is another shah one thousand times stronger and better armed.

"This (new) shah is imperialism, and its main stronghold is only miles away from our border," he said in a speech to students and faculty members at Tehran University.

The United States "has military bases and aircraft carriers everywhere and its nuclear warheads are aimed in every direction," Castro added. "But it can be toppled, just like your Shah was overthrown."

His long speech was interspersed with humorous remarks, which drew applause from more than 700 people packed into a lecture hall, and many more standing outside watching him on closed-circuit television.

Khamenei told Castro that Iran strongly backed Cuba's anti-U.S. stance, state television reported.

"Iran likes Cuba because it has withstood U.S. bullying. This is very precious from Islam's standpoint," the Iranian leader said. "America is very vulnerable and can be easily broken down. Iran and Cuba can work together to achieve this."

Moderate President Mohammad Khatami, whose powers are dwarfed by those of Khamenei, was present at the talks, but did not make any comments.

Castro arrived Monday for a three-day visit as part of a tour of three developing nations.

Despite major differences between the theocratic Islamic republic and communist Cuba, the two countries have one thing in common -- the enmity of the United States.

Both under U.S. economic sanctions and political pressure, Tehran and Havana advocate a campaign to thwart what they call U.S. "global domination."

Castro said Tuesday he wanted to build political ties with Iran, which he hailed as a pioneer for independence and security.

Sugar-exporting Cuba and oil-rich Iran have also expressed interest in broadening trade away from traditional exports into new products such as pharmaceuticals and industrial goods.

Castro received an honorary doctorate from an Iranian university Wednesday.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Great post Fred25.

Unbelieveable how this is glossed over or given a pass by our Congress. They think if they get into Cuba their constituents will make money (BS- no other country has, in fact their stuck with IOUs) or more likely, that by recognizing Castro, it will help prop up communism.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

their = they're

[Cincinatus' Wife]

BUMP!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CASTRO AND TERRORISM : A CHRONOLOY

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CHRONOLOY = CHRONOLOGY

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Linked from NewsMax.com: CUBA IN THE MIDDLE EAST

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[lavaroise]

Now CUba is owned by Iran, doesn't that make you feel better? Sure Cuba is not Islam ... not! AFter all ISlam relies on secular violence, what else is the will of Allah, but the will to violence, and not Allah himself after all?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

To Castro and all the "America-the-great-satan" crowd, which is filled with nutty dictators,
religious fanatics and your third world bruised ego types, we are the cause of their suffering.