he Bush administration has accused Cuba of producing small quantities of germs that can be used in biological warfare and says Libya and Syria are also violating international treaties by making unconventional weapons.Posted on 05/06/2002 11:13:58 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
he Bush administration has accused Cuba of producing small quantities of germs that can be used in biological warfare and says Libya and Syria are also violating international treaties by making unconventional weapons.
In a speech yesterday at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, John R. Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control, publicly alluded to conclusions that American intelligence agencies have reached in recent months after protracted internal debate.
"The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort," Mr. Bolton said, taking aim at the Communist government of Fidel Castro. Cuba, he added, has also "provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."
While the Clinton administration expressed concern in 1998 about Cuba's potential to develop and produce biological agents, this is the first time that an American official has accused Cuba of developing germs for warfare.
Luis Fernández, a spokesman for the Cuban interests section in Washington, denied Mr. Bolton's assertions. "What he said is a big lie and a big slander," Mr. Fernández said.
He accused the Bush administration of trying to extend the concern over international terrorism to Cuba to justify hard-line policies at a time when American farm groups, who view Cuba as a natural market, and their allies advocate loosening the four-decade American trade embargo. He added that Mr. Bolton had produced no evidence to substantiate his allegations.
Mr. Bolton's office would not elaborate on the charges. But other administration officials say the United States now believes that Cuba has been experimenting with anthrax, as well as a small number of other deadly pathogens that they declined to identify.
Ken Alibek, the most senior scientist who defected from the Soviet Union's biological weapons program, told a Congressional committee last October that he believed that Cuba was capable of making genetically modified germ weapons that might be able to defeat American vaccines and antibiotics.
He said the Cuban military was conducting genetic research at "several centers," one of them close to Havana.
Officials say intelligence analysts have long focused on Cuba partly because its huge investment in biotechnology has produced what is regarded as Latin America's most sophisticated biomedical capabilities.
According to a report on Cuba and germ weapons posted on the Web site of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, Mr. Castro intensified concern among American officials about Cuba's germ-related activities in February 1997. He compared the United States to a dragon and Cuba to a lamb, warning that the dragon would find its meal poisoned if it tried to eat the lamb.
Cuba, in fact, is one of the few developing nations to play a significant role in drug and biotechnology activities. The Web posting calls Cuba's effort "unmatched elsewhere in the developing world."
Cuban biotechnological research is far advanced in genetic engineering. That has enabled Cuba to make new vaccines for its comprehensive immunization program, which is widely admired by scientists and physicians. Cuba also makes drugs like recombinant streptokinase, the "clot buster" for heart attack victims. In 1995 Cuba sold $125 million worth of these products, primarily to other developing countries, especially to former Soviet states.
In a breakthrough for Cuba in late 1999, SmithKline Beecham, the British-American health care group, announced an agreement to test and market a new Cuban meningitis vaccine, first in Europe and eventually in the United States.
Mr. Bolton's office declined to specify what Cuban cooperative effort with another country concerned the United States most. But José de la Fuente, the former director of research at Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, wrote in the journal Nature Biotechnology late last year that he was "profoundly disturbed" about Cuban sales of dual-use technology to Iran.
"No one believes that Iran is interested in these technologies for the purpose of protecting all the children in the Middle East from hepatitis," he wrote.
Mr. Bolton said in his speech that last year, Mr. Castro visited Iran, Syria and Libya, all of which Washington has designated as sponsors of terrorism. He noted that at Tehran University, Mr. Castro had said that Iran and Cuba, together, could "bring America to its knees."
Though Mr. Bolton's speech focused on Cuba, there were also expressions of concern about Libya and Syria. Mr. Bolton said that although the Libyan germ program was in an earlier stage of development than Cuba's, Libya, too, "may be capable of producing small quantities of biological agent."
He also accused Syria of flouting treaties banning chemical and biological weapons. He said Syria had a "stockpile of the nerve agent sarin" and was "engaged in research and development of the more toxic and persistent nerve agent VX."
Cuba, Libya and Syria have all signed the 1972 treaty banning biological weapons, though Syria has still not ratified it. The treaty is widely regarded as a worthy international agreement, though is is not considered to have adequate provisions for verifying compliance.
Mr. Bolton's speech is part of an American diplomatic offensive against countries that the administration believes pose a serious threat to national security because of their pursuit of certain types of unconventional weapons.
In a speech last November in Geneva discussing the administration's decision to abandon a proposed agreement for strengthening verification of the biological weapons treaty, Mr. Bolton said the administration would begin "naming names" of countries that were violating its international commitments.
While Cuban diplomats denounced his speech, other critics of Cuba were quick to welcome Mr. Bolton's verbal assault. Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican from south Florida, said Mr. Bolton's remarks "begin to put into the proper perspective the debate about Cuba, a terrorist state with biological weapons 90 miles from the shores of the United States."
I remember reading a thread about a week or so back thathat some US foundations were funding studies by the Cuban government on the migratory patterns of some birds.
Now, for the first time in the history of the US, we have West Nile Virus.
Does anyone remember what thread that was?
"I wonder if Jummy Carter is still going to visit Cuba this month?"
He's going to visit relatives.
The only thing that would get Carter to cancel his trip: Castro renouncing communism and declaring himself a friend of the United States.
If you're an enemy of the U.S., Carter's your friend.
If the West Nile outbreak had started in Florida and gone North, instead of starting in New York, it would have made for quite a theory.
Now it'll just make a good Tom Clancy novel!
Rather; "Sorry, this is NOT a story for CBS.
It is simply not on our frequency, Kenneth."
....But only ONE, LOL.
There were also rumors that some animals may have escaped from a small Island off the Eastern Coast of the U.S. That Island is alleged to have very high security because it is used for biological weapons research. (Sounds kinda like 'Jurasic Park,' huh?)
MSNBC is running a variation of this story as its top 'breaking news' report:
Well said!
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