[Excerpt] At least three arms shipments were traced from China to the Cuban port of Mariel during the past several months, according to an article Tuesday in the Washington Times. All the arms were aboard vessels belonging to the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Co., or Cosco, U.S. intelligence officials told the newspaper.
The explosives were said to be ``military-grade'' material, the newspaper said.
U.S. officials said Tuesday that the subject of arms trafficking between China and Cuba is a worrisome one, though they stopped short of confirming the Washington Times account.
``We are very much concerned with this PLA [People's Liberation Army] cooperation and movement of military equipment in Cuba,'' said James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, when questioned during a hearing of the House International Relations subcommittee. [End Excerpt]
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. [End Excerpt]
(Oct. 7, 2001) Terrorism war to force Cuba, Venezuela to sit tight awhile [Excerpt] The Bush administration is too busy trying to chase suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Afghanistan and the Middle East to spend much time thinking about terrorist links in Latin America, many of those interviewed said.
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.
If anything, the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States will effectively kill U.S. congressional moves to ease the U.S. embargo on the Castro regime.
A recent effort by some U.S. congress members to lift a U.S. travel ban on the island is doomed, because Congress is highly unlikely to vote for a measure that could provide economic relief to a country tied to terrorism, officials say.
Recent press reports that the Bush administration held unusual contacts with Cuba as part of its efforts to gather information on the Sept. 11 attack on the United States are ``Cuban misinformation,'' one U.S. official told me.
The United States did not make a special outreach effort to Cuba, nor did it get anything from Fidel Castro's regime, he said.
As for Venezuela, the conventional wisdom in U.S. diplomatic circles is that the Bush administration will try to avoid a confrontation with the oil-rich country unless confronted with evidence of a terrorist link.
But Cuba and Venezuela will have to sit tight for the foreseeable future. The mood in Washington -- and Europe -- has changed dramatically since Sept. 11, and whatever patience there was for presidents who keep ties with violent groups around the world has evaporated.
``The margin of U.S. tolerance for countries that flirt with terrorists and terrorist regimes is much lower,'' says Bernard Aronson, a former head of the U.S. State Department's Latin American affairs office who is close to the Bush administration.
``I don't think the United States will go after Cuba and Venezuela, because we have bigger fish to fry. But the willingness to ignore flirting with violent organizations has gone down significantly, and countries that want to have friendly relations with the United States will need to take that into account.''
It may be no coincidence that Cuban strongman Castro rushed to condemn the terrorist attack, and last week signed 12 U.N. treaties aimed at fighting terrorism.
Or that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed a strong Organization of American States resolution backing the U.S. war on terrorism, and rushed to say that Venezuela will guarantee oil supplies to the U.S. market. [End Excerpt]