OUR FIRST BILLBOARD IS UP! In Miami, Florida at the busy intersection of Bird Rd. and 37th Ave. the first billboard of our new campaign has gone up. Next stop: Washington, D.C.
OUR FIRST BILLBOARD IS UP! In Miami, Florida at the busy intersection of Bird Rd. and 37th Ave. the first billboard of our new campaign has gone up. Next stop: Washington, D.C.
I'm glad we have one of him in the U.S. waving his finger and quoting him praising terrorism. Way to go!!
Cuban "diplomats" and Puerto Rican Terrorists
Source: The Miami Herald
Published: November 2, 1999 Author: Juan O. Tamayo
Posted on 04/19/2000 10:47:32 PDT by Prodigal Daughter
Cuban linked to terrorists may get diplomatic visa
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- A Cuban diplomat linked to Puerto Rican terrorists will receive a U.S. visa to work in Washington once Cuba agrees to let in two State Department officials assigned to Havana, U.S. officials say. The FBI initially filed a formal veto to Fernando Garcia Bielsa's assignment to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, but later reviewed its decision and withdrew the objection, the officials added. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called Garcia Bielsa ''a notorious Cuban intelligence operative'' and hinted at Clinton administration pressures on the FBI to reverse itself.
The State Department ''now has no legitimate reason to deny [Garcia Bielsa] a visa, but they're waiting for reciprocity for the people waiting to go to Havana,'' said one congressional source knowledgeable about the controversy.
The State Department and the Cuban Foreign Ministry maintain there's no official link between the Garcia Bielsa case and the delays on Cuban visas requested by two State Department officials assigned to Havana.
REPORTED MEETINGS
U.S. officials said the FBI has intelligence reports showing Garcia Bielsa met often in Cuba in the 1970s with two radical Puerto Rican pro-independence groups, the Macheteros and Armed Forces of National Liberation, known as FALN. A wave of FALN and Machetero terror bombings around the United States in the early 1970s killed six people and wounded more than 60. Police suspect the Macheteros of four bombings that injured one person in Puerto Rico last year.
Garcia Bielsa was a top official of the Americas Department of the Cuban Communist Party in the 1970s, then tasked by President Fidel Castro with training and arming leftist guerrilla groups around Latin America. The FBI based its objection of Garcia Bielsa on his 1970s meetings with the Puerto Rican radicals. Under U.S. procedures the veto would have forced the State Department to deny him a visa.
Queried by the State Department, the FBI later reviewed its evidence and procedures and decided that meetings alone were not enough to deny the Cuban a visa, congressional officials said.
FBI spokesmen declined to explain either decision. The Cuban Interests Section in Washington said only that Garcia Bielsa is still awaiting a State Department reply to his visa request.
LETTER TO ALBRIGHT
Helms, in an angry letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Sept. 21, hinted that Garcia Bielsa had done far more than meet with the Puerto Rican radicals but offered no details. A conservative Washington magazine, Insight, three days later quoted a U.S. intelligence official as saying that Garcia Bielsa ''personally oversaw the funding and direction of the Macheteros.
Cuba has long been on the State Department's list of nations linked to international terrorism, along with others such as Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea.
The 1998 list notes that while there was ''no evidence'' Cuba sponsored any attacks in the previous year, ''it continues to provide sanctuary to terrorists from several different . . . organizations.''
Among the some 90 U.S. fugitives alleged to be living in Cuba are several Machetero and FALN members and former Black Panther member Joanne Chesimard. Washington and Havana have no extradition agreement.
Note: The Puerto Rican terrorists involved in those crimes were pardoned by Clinto/Hillary to pander to the Puerto Rican vote in New York at the prodding of Castro’s long time apologist, Congressman Jose Serrano.
For more information please open www.cubanet.org/Cnews/y99/sep99/27e9.htm A Visa for Castro’s Terrorism Chief in Washington? By J. Michael Waller, Insight on the News Online, Sep 24/99
INSIGHT magazine | October 12. 2001 | Paul Crespo
In the rush to pursue terrorists in far-flung places such as Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf region, let’s not overlook another terrorist on our doorstep — Cuba’s Fidel Castro, a dictator with a bankrupt economy, a long history of ties to terror groups, hatred for the United States and a bio-warfare capability.
In 1959 Castro expressed his passionate belief that he was destined to lead an anti-American crusade. “I am going to launch another much longer and bigger war against them. I realize now that this is going to be my true destiny,” he wrote.
Castro’s myriad of agents operating in the United States include a military-spy ring known as the “Wasp” network, recently uncovered in Miami. That group had a dramatic addition on Sept. 22 with the arrest in Washington of a senior U.S. intelligence officer — the Cuba analyst for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. She is the highest-ranking officer ever accused of spying for Castro and had considerable input into recent Defense Department reports minimizing the Cuba threat.
Some argue that the aging Castro now is more interested in the tourism trade than the terror business, but this is a dangerous delusion; he is interested in both. Castro may be less active, but Cuba still is one of seven nations (along with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea and Sudan) on the State Department’s list of terrorist states. This status is well deserved. In 2000, the State Department reported, “Cuba continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists and U.S. fugitives.” Afghan nationals detained in the Cayman Islands in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks reportedly transited through Cuba; two others detained in Panama for their possible financial connection to Osama bin Laden’s terror network reportedly were en route to Cuba.
Castro never has wavered in his ideological rampage against the United States, even as he has wooed Western investors. Recently he has been organizing a new “anti-Western alliance” of rogue states (including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela). In 2001 Castro visited Libya six times. As recently as May 2001 Castro toured Syria, Libya and Iran to garner support for this effort. On May 10 in Tehran, Castro stated, “Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees.”
The intelligence threat posed by Castro is real. He reportedly supplied intelligence on U.S. military activities to Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War — information gained through Cuba’s Soviet-built, Russian-financed signals-intelligence facility in Lourdes capable of eavesdropping on phone calls in Washington and from spies in the United States. The Russians pay him more than $200 million a year in much-needed hard currency for access to his intelligence. We can only speculate how much bin Laden and Iraq may be paying.
The Chinese also have built an electronic-espionage complex in Bejucal, Cuba, operating under the cover of “Radio China.” The Federal Communications Commission has stated that the Chinese are capable of interfering with U.S. communications and air-traffic control. On May 13, the Chinese reportedly sent a message to New York air-traffic control falsely identifying themselves as a U.S. military transport plane — a chilling foretaste of things to come.
More worrisome is Castro’s potential chemical- and biological-weapons development and proliferation. He long has been suspected of hiding a chemical/biological-weapons program within his sophisticated, Soviet-created “biotechnology” industry.
In May 1998, secretary of defense William Cohen testified before Congress that Cuba possessed advanced biotechnology and was capable of mass-producing agents for biological warfare. High-level Cuban defectors, as well as Col. Ken Alibek, former deputy chief of the former Soviet Union’s biological-warfare program, support that assessment. Castro also may be exporting this capability to his rogue friends. In 2000, Cuban officials inaugurated a new “biotech-research” plant near Tehran.
Castro’s continued anti-American fervor, close intelligence links to rogue states and terrorists, and bio-warfare capability make him a dangerous neighbor.
What should the United States do? First we should clearly tell China and Russia that we no longer will allow Cuba to be used as an intelligence-collection or subversion site against the United States and demand they withdraw their advisers and technicians immediately. At minimum we also should demand that Castro shut down these facilities and allow for independent inspection and verification.
We also should demand to inspect all suspected chemical/biological-research (weapons) sites on the island. Finally, we should redouble and refocus our intelligence efforts to verify and confirm the details of Cuban complicity with terrorist groups, and we should tell Castro in no uncertain terms that we will not tolerate Cuba being used as a haven for international terrorists. Castro is a player in this global terrorist network and should be treated as such.
Paul Crespo, a former Marine Corps combat-arms and intelligence officer, served as a naval attaché in the Balkans, Persian Gulf and Latin America. He is a counterterrorism consultant and a member of the Council on Emerging National Security Affairs in Washington.