[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. Accuses Cuba of Germ Weapons Program***WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, yet to find evidence to back its charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, issued a new accusation on Thursday that Cuba had a "limited" biological arms program. Cuba has previously denied the accusation, repeated on Thursday by Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Cuba. Noriega was responding to a question from Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, who asked why Washington continued to enforce a four-decade sanctions regime against Havana. ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A Man Who Won't Quit: Talking, again, with René Montes de Oca***I talked to René - as I have come to know him - again two mornings ago. He had been released from prison in July. But then, on Wednesday of last week, he had been arrested again. He was detained for just a couple of days, until shortly before we spoke together.

As before, we spoke through a translator, a supporter of the Cuban cause here in the United States. I asked René whether he thought our conversation was being monitored by the regime. He said that it surely was, but that this was to be expected, and we should just forge on.

He recounted what he had been doing since his release from prison on July 5. He, of course, had gone right back to his opposition activities. They all do. It's an amazing thing about these Cuban dissidents: The second they get out of jail, they go right back to what they were doing before, knowing they will be rearrested and imprisoned. René has been in and out of jail all of his life.

I asked him, "What motivates you to take the risk of being imprisoned once more?" He answered, "I've lived in a prison for 40 years." (René was born in 1963.) He did not mean it glibly; his words were self-evidently sincere and honest. He cannot keep still while his country is under this brutal fist.

He had spent the two and a half months since his release shoring up the Human Rights party, and he seemed especially pleased about a committee of mothers who do what they can to aid political prisoners. He further noted that, every Wednesday night from 7:30 to 8, he and many other Cubans hold "la vela," a type of ceremony at which they light a candle and pray for the prisoners. This Wednesday-night "vela" has been going on across Cuba - and among their supporters in the United States - for about two years.

René very much irked the authorities when he denounced the visit of Brazilian president Lula da Silva to the island. "Lula," as he is known throughout the world, is a great friend and supporter of Castro. As I mentioned in a column of mine the other day, Lula said about Castro - in 2001 - "In spite of the fact that your face already is marked with wrinkles, Fidel, your soul remains clean because you never betrayed the interests of your people. . . . Thank you, Fidel, thank you because you continue to exist." Da Silva also smeared Armando Valladares - the great Cuban dissident and memoirist - as a "picareta," which is Portuguese for "liar" or "fraud."***