Posted on 05/14/2002 9:33:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HAVANA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter found himself in a debate on human rights and democracy with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, after he sparked controversy at home by saying U.S. officials told him they had no evidence Cuba was involved in developing weapons of mass destruction.
Visiting a school for social workers, Carter said he would discuss "the differences in our approach to the form of governments we have" during a major speech Tuesday night, which Castro promised would be broadcast live throughout the communist island.
"In the United States, we believe that it is very important to have absolute freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," Carter told the students Monday, citing two liberties that nearly all human rights groups find lacking in Cuba.
On Monday night, Castro played host to Carter at the Latin American School of Medicine, where the Cuban leader argued that the concept of democracy was born in ancient Athens, with fewer than 20,000 citizens ruling some 50,000 non-citizens and 80,000 slaves.
Noting the vast poverty of most of the world's people, Castro compared Western-style democracies to an Athens in which a minority unjustly dominates the majority and said Cuba was striving for "a society with justice" and equal opportunity. He said his country was seeking "that dream of justice, of true liberty, of true democracy, of true human rights."
Castro used the occasion at the school - where the impoverished country gives free six-year medical educations to 6,000 poor students, most from Latin America - to begin drawing the outlines of a longer response that is sure to come. The response is to be a statement of principles that may serve for his revolutionary movement's 50th anniversary next year.
Critics say Cuba's government harasses organized opposition groups, accusing them of being hirelings of foreign governments, and has allowed no opposition parties during Castro's 43 years in power. Cuban exile groups had urged Carter - who has campaigned for democracy in other nations - to raise the issue during his visit to Cuba.
"We take pride in our freedom to criticize our own government and to change our government when we don't like it by voting in elections that are contested," said Carter, who began Monday by meeting two human rights activists who have spent time in Cuban prisons.
Early Tuesday, Carter - the first former or current American president to visit Castro's Cuba - was to visit Cuba's AIDS sanatarium and a farm cooperative, both on the outskirts of Havana. After his Tuesday night speech, Carter was scheduled to attend a baseball game of all-star teams from eastern and western Cuba. Castro also was expected to attend.
Carter also suggested Monday that the detailed briefings the Bush administration gave him before his visit to Cuba contrasted sharply with its public statements a few days later.
Last week, Undersecretary of State John Bolton said he believes Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.
"Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states," Bolton said. "We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states."
But Carter - a former president and Navy nuclear scientist who presumably has a security clearance far higher than the general public - said officials at the State Department, White House and intelligence agencies had not mentioned or raised questions about the issue when they briefed him not long before his trip.
"I asked them specifically, on more than one occasion, 'Is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on earth that could be used for terrorist purposes?'" Carter said during a visit to a major Cuban biotechnology laboratory.
"The answer from our experts on intelligence was 'no.' "
Carter said anybody with such evidence should accept Castro's offer to tour the Cuban biotechnology centers for themselves.
He also urged Cuba to "intensively concentrate" on enforcing its existing contracts, which ban other countries from converting Cuban medical technology to other uses.
But the former president praised Cuba's "generosity" in spreading treatments against or detection of hepatitis, meningitis, Alzheimer's, cancer and AIDS to some of the world's poorest nations. Cuba claims its vaccines have saved the lives of thousands of children.
"It may be that Cuba is unique in having emphasized health needs as a driving force and not just to make a profit," Carter said.
Bush administration officials said they were standing by their assertions that Cuba has at least a limited biological warfare program and has shared such biotechnology with rogue states.
Carter did not directly contradict Bolton's allegations. But he said they "were made, maybe not coincidentally, just before our visit to Cuba."
Otto Reich, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said similar information had been given at a Congressional hearing in March by Carl Ford, the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC on Monday that "we do believe that Cuba has a biological offensive research capability."
"We didn't say it actually had such weapons, but it has the capacity and capability to conduct such research and this is not a new statement, I think it's a statement that has been made previously," Powell said. "So Undersecretary Bolton's speech, which got attention on this issue again, it wasn't breaking new ground as far as the United States' position on the subject."
President Bush plans to deliver a speech on Cuba next Monday before visiting the Cuban exile community in Florida. The speech appears to have been prompted, in part, by Carter's visit to Cuba.
A little bit of communism, helps the medicine go down?
"It may be that Cuba is unique in having emphasized health needs as a driving force and not just to make a profit," Carter said.
I think everyone would be on board with that, the real question is what happens when the RESULTS are not equal. Two people start equal but one works harder or is simply more talented and as such does better. In the USA, that people is rewarded. In Cuba, they are essentially punished to keep things equal. This is what Bill & Hillary want too!!! Everyone one equal, well, they would of course be a little more equal then the rest us.
Hey! You've got to break a few eggs to make a communist omlet.
He won't have much problem finding Jimmy's. The old fool's grinning ear to ear when he's around Castro.
Jimmah Cahtah is such a fool, a "useful fool" in Lenin's classic phrase. The only good things I can say about him are: 1) he's an honest man, and 2) He's no Bill Clinton. Jimmah's just trying to build a legacy. He should stick to building houses; he knows how to do that.
Besides, Jimmah already has a legacy -- smart but overwhelmingly incompetent. That is one step ahead of the one that Billyjeff has -- smart but overwhelmingly dishonest.
Congressman Billybob
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