Castros Cuba: A Continuing Sponsor of Terrorism

Castro's Cuba:

Continuing Sponsor of Terrorism

A Response to the Center for International Policy

by Ambassador Dennis K. Hays

Executive Vice President,

Cuban American National Foundation

Reposting permitted with attribution to the Cuban American National Foundation

Web posted at: http://www.canf.org/Issues/cubaterrorcipreply.htm

In the midst of the nation's suffering at the hands of international

terrorism, the Washington-based Center for International Policy (CIP) has

released a document arguing that Fidel Castro's Cuba does not deserve to be

designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department.1

In a paper entitled Cuba Policy Should be Reviewed in New International

Context, the CIP attempts to justify, excuse, or explain away the Castro

regime's decades-long and ongoing support for a multitude of anti-democratic

groups that engage in violent actions. Unfortunately for the CIP, Cuba's

training, financing, directing, and harboring of terrorists and criminals is

a matter of public record. Some specific cases in point follow:

1. The CIP contends that Cuba is not harboring Basque terrorists, known by

the acronym ETA, because they are in Cuba "as a result of an agreement

between the Spanish and Cuban governments."

This is misleading. It refers to a deal seventeen years ago between

then-Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and a number of African and Latin

American nations to accept a total of forty-five ETA members who had agreed

to leave the organization.2 Today, only eight of the numerous ETA members in

Cuba are covered by this or similar agreements.3 Spanish intelligence

sources have stated that in the 1990s up to fifteen members of ETA sought by

authorities for multiple killings in Spain were known to have found refuge

and support in Cuba.4 By 2001, this number is thought to have grown to

twenty.5

In a raid on ETA hideouts in Northern France, French intelligence seized

documents that detailed Cuba's links to ETA spanning years. Spain's Ministry

of the Interior has

confirmed the contents of the documents.6 The papers provided, among other

intelligence, details of an ETA delegation visit with Cuban Ministry of the

Interior and Communist Party leaders in 1992. Cuban officials were reported

to have referred to their relationship with ETA as "fraternal, constant and

strategic-stronger than ever."7

The evidence in police hands also pointed to the involvement of senior Cuban

intelligence agents and Communist Party members in assisting six members of

ETA in an escape from the Dominican Republic, where they were due for

extradition hearings to Spain. Two of them are said to have made it to Cuba.

Cuban-ETA cooperation, moreover, goes more than one way. In April 1993, it

was learned that the Castro regime had asked the ETA to provide it

information on European border controls and European Union passports.8

ETA operatives are known to live comfortably in Cuba, where they enjoy

special privileges not available to the Cuban population. Furthermore, a

crackdown by Spanish intelligence on ETA's international financial operations

revealed an "ETA conglomerate" in Cuba.9 This is particularly significant

because such an entity would require the highest authorization from the

Castro regime. Funds generated by ETA business operations are used to support

further terrorist activities.10

Finally, in a strong manifestation of Cuban solidarity with the ETA, Fidel

Castro infuriated the Spanish government by refusing to sign a resolution

denouncing ETA terrorism at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panama.11

2. The CIP argues that Cuba should not be condemned for having "contacts"

with Colombian guerrillas because "the United States has also had contacts

with those groups."

Whereas the United States seeks to strengthen the democratically elected

government of Colombia, Cuba has actively worked to undermine it. An example

of the type of "contact" Cuba maintains with Colombian guerrilla groups was

exposed with the August 2001 arrest of three Irish Republican Army (IRA)

operatives in Colombia. Security forces there were reported to have unearthed

"an international terrorist web" directly implicating Cuba.12 The IRA team's

leader, Dubliner Niall Connolly, has been the Sinn Fein's "representative" in

Cuba since 1996, and is believed to have worked for the Cubans for at least

10 years. While on the island, he reportedly spent four years at special

military camps, training in sophisticated weaponry and commando tactics.14

Intelligence experts in Colombia said Cuba arranged for the IRA men to enter

Colombia to train rural-based guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of

Colombia (FARC) in rebel-held territory. They reported that the training, led

by 20 military instructors, was directed by the Cuban Intelligence

Directorate;15 its mission was to help rebels assemble high-powered

explosives (a "napalm-like device"16 ) and anti-aircraft missiles. The IRA

role also included providing the guerrillas training in developing electrical

and remote detonation circuits for car bombs; they also schooled the rebels

in mixing high-powered synthetic explosives to extend the range of gas

cylinder mortars. FARC is said to be seeking to develop urban terrorist

capabilities and to extend the 400-metre range of its home-made artillery

because of superior defenses at Colombian military compounds built with

American aid.

Security experts believe this was part of a much larger Cuban-led undercover

operation. The London Mirror reported, "Even more damaging for Sinn Fein are

the stunning revelations that Connolly has run secret terrorist missions for

the Cubans in Panama, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. He gets his orders from the

Cuban ID station in the Spanish capital Madrid, where a spy centre is run

from the Cuban embassy. The European connection provides secret communication

codes, false identities and flight tickets without arousing suspicion."17

Cuba's record of sponsoring death and hardship around the world is as long as

it is bloody. By the late 1980s, Cuba had worked to build up and unify at

least 27 active terrorist and guerrilla groups in the Western Hemisphere that

totaled about 25,000 armed and trained members. At the time, the U.S.

Southern Command and the State Department estimated that a minimum of 20,000

individuals from around the world had received training in Cuba.18 These

groups-often with direct assistance from Cuba-have murdered thousands of men,

women, and children, including a number of American citizens.19

3. The CIP acknowledges that there are a number of fugitives from U.S.

justice living in Cuba, but states this is largely because "there is no

extradition treaty between the U.S. and Cuba."

This is incorrect. The United States and Cuba signed an extradition treaty in

1904,20 which was ratified by both countries in 1905. Article II of the

treaty was supplemented by an Additional Treaty of January 14, 1926, which

entered into force on June 19, 1926. This treaty is still in effect, although

it has not been invoked since 1959 because of the absence of the rule of law

and an independent judiciary under the Castro regime. Regardless, nations

have an absolute obligation to return fleeing felons, an obligation Castro

has never lived up to. According to the FBI, Cuba currently harbors

seventy-seven federal fugitives, including murderers of U.S. law enforcement

officials, hijackers, drug dealers, and swindlers.21

Some notable cases:22

Joanne Chesimard (a.k.a. Assata Shakur). Chesimard killed New Jersey State

Trooper Werner Foerster execution-style during a shootout on the New Jersey

Turnpike after she participated in a bank robbery. She was sentenced to life

in prison, but escaped in 1979. She surfaced in Cuba in the 1980s. A few

years ago, a Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesman described her as a "well-known

civil rights activist."

Charles Hill and Michael Finney. Accused of murder and airplane hijacking. In

1971, the two were driving a car filled with guns and explosives from

California to Louisiana in an operation for the militant Republic of New

Afrika-a small organization that still seeks a black separatist nation within

the United States. As they crossed New Mexico, they were stopped by

28-year-old state trooper Robert Rosenbloom; after a standoff, the trooper

was shot dead. Nineteen days later, the three fugitives scrambled aboard a

TWA plane in Albuquerque and hijacked a flight bound for Chicago. Interviewed

in Havana last year by a U.S. journalist, Hill said that when he arrived in

Cuba, he "was accepted by Fidel Castro's government as a soldier of the

people's revolution." He was aware that the U.S. government had made frequent

efforts to have him sent back.

Victor Manuel Gerena. Gerena, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List,23 belongs

to the Puerto Rico independence group FALN, also known as "Los Macheteros,"

who are responsible for numerous acts of terrorism in the United States,

including a 1975 bombing in New York that killed four and injured 63. He is

sought in connection with the armed robbery of $7 million from a security

company. The Cuban government is reported to have aided Gerena and his group

in preparing the robbery and allegedly funneled them $55,000 to carry out the

operation. Gerena and part of the stolen loot were smuggled into Cuba by

diplomats stationed at Cuba's embassy in Mexico City.24

Robert Vesco. In 1972, the wealthy financier fled the United States to avoid

numerous racketeering charges. He lived in several countries until finding

his way to Cuba in 1982. Once in Cuba, U.S. officials have indicated that

Vesco enjoyed the personal protection of Fidel Castro; under his patronage,

Vesco became the high financier of several of the region's dictators and the

island's criminal elite. For these activities, he was indicted by a U.S.

grand jury in 1984 for cocaine trafficking and, in 1989, for conspiring with

the leader of a Colombian drug ring to smuggle narcotics. In 1995, Vesco fell

out of favor with his Cuban hosts after he was accused of trying to market

behind their backs his own a new "miracle" drug against cancer and arthritis.

The U.S. government has issued repeated requests for his return to face

justice.25

4. The CIP dismisses the arrest of a senior analyst from the Defense

Intelligence Agency on espionage charges for Cuba, claiming, "It is no secret

both nations have conducted intelligence operations against each other."

The DIA analyst, Ana Belen Montes, is only one of more than a dozen Cuban

spies arrested or convicted this year alone. She is believed to have caused

enormous damage to U.S. national security. According to the Washington Post,

"The FBI accelerated [her] arrest on charges of spying for Cuba because of

concerns that she would pass along classified information about the U.S.

response to the September 11 terrorist attacks."26 Government sources

stated, "Cuba has been known to share information with Libya, Iran, and

others that might be sympathetic to Osama bin Laden."27 Montes, a Cuban

agent for at least five years, was responsible for assessing Cuba's threat to

the United States and briefing senior officials. She also had access to

highly classified information about U.S. covert operations throughout Latin

America and the world, including the identities of agents and informants.

Gerardo Hernandez, another Cuban agent, was found guilty by a U.S. jury in

May 2001 of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of three U.S. citizens

and a permanent resident. Castro's intelligence network has made penetrating

U.S. military and defense establishments their highest priority. A former

high-ranking FBI official testified in October 2001 that, "We had a number of

Cuban double agents who were actually triple agents and had been working

against us. Cuba does provide a great deal of intelligence to third world

countries."28

5. Finally, the CIP tries to build the case that Castro is a potential ally

in the war on terrorism by saying, "the Cuban government immediately

condemned the terrorist attacks against the U.S., and expressed solidarity

with the American people."

The CIP quotes only selected passages from Castro's speeches. A complete

reading of his remarks would also reveal the following statements: On

September 25th, Castro referred to the building U.S. counter-offensive

against terrorism as "a bizarre holy war," and said, "I find it difficult to

make a distinction about where the fanaticism is stronger."29

He then added, "The most extremist ideologists and the most belligerent

hawks, already set in privileged power positions, have taken command of the

most powerful country in the world, whose military and technological

capabilities would seem infinite. Its capacity to destroy and kill is

enormous while its inclination towards equanimity, serenity, thoughtfulness

and restraint is minimal."30

Other regime statements have echoed that theme. On September 19th, an

official statement read, "Any honest person would be correct in asking

himself or herself if what is being sought really is justice, or a way of

utilizing that painful and unprecedented tragedy to impose methods,

prerogatives and privileges that would lead to the uncontained and

unrestricted dictatorship of the most powerful state in the world over all

peoples of the earth." 31

The statement continues: "A state that proclaims the right to kill at its

discretion in any part of the world without any due legal process, trials or

even evidence is as grave as terrorism and one of its most execrable forms.

Such a policy would constitute a barbarous and uncivilized action that would

cast aside all the legal standards and bases on which peace and cohabitation

among nations can be constructed."32

6. The CIP fails to note several other issues that have a direct bearing on

Cuba's designation as a state that sponsors terrorism. For example:

Castro's Common Cause with Other Terrorist States: In May 2001, Castro

visited Iran, Syria, and Libya-all state sponsors of terrorism. A Cuban

delegation was also sent to visit Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In Iran, Castro

exclaimed, "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America

to its knees. The U.S. regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this

weakness from close up."33

Biotechnology Capability: Jose de la Fuente, until 1999 the director of

research and development at Cuba's premier biotech institute, the Center for

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, has confirmed that Cuba has sold

advanced biotechnology to the Iranian government.34 An expert in chemical

and biological weapons notes that these "same technologies could be used for

harmful intent."35 Cuba has never allowed independent international

inspectors access to all of its biotech facilities.

Cyberwarfare: The Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Admiral

Tom Watson, told congressional investigators earlier this year, "Cuba has the

potential to use "information warfare or computer network attack-to disrupt

our access or flow of forces to the region."36 Further discussion was held

in secret session.

Finally, we cannot ignore the Castro regime's ongoing terrorism against its

own people. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch

reports that Cuba "has developed a highly effective machinery of repression.

The denial of basic civil and political rights is written into Cuban law. In

the name of legality, armed security forces, aided by state-controlled mass

organizations, silence dissent with heavy prison terms, threats of

prosecution, harassment, or exile. Cuba uses these tools to restrict severely

the exercise of fundamental human rights of expression, association, and

assembly. The conditions in Cuba's prisons are inhuman, and political

prisoners suffer additional degrading treatment and torture. In recent years,

Cuba has added new repressive laws and continued prosecuting nonviolent

dissidents while shrugging off international appeals for reform and placating

visiting dignitaries with occasional releases of political prisoners."37

Castro's Cuba has been, and remains, an unrepentant and continuing sponsor of

international terrorism. The death and sorrow caused by the Castro regime and

its agents cannot be forgotten, much less forgiven. As President George W.

Bush has said, there is no statute of limitations on terrorism. Should the

regime ever wish to begin to atone for the heartbreak and shattered lives it

has caused, it should begin by not continuing on its present course. As long

overdue first steps, the regime should must:

· Renounce unequivocally terrorism and "revolutionary" violence.

· Sever all ties with the ETA, FARC, ELN, IRA, and other terrorist

organizations.

· Provide complete, timely, and actionable information on its terrorist links

with rogue nations and narco-terrorist groups.

· Extradite terrorists and criminals to the nations seeking them.

· Open all its biotechnology laboratories to full, unannounced, international

inspection. And,

· Prosecute officials responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians such

as in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown and 1994 "13 de Marzo"

tugboat cases, in which Cuban patrol boats deliberately sunk a boat of

refugees, causing the drowning deaths of 40 Cubans, more than half children.

NOTES

1. Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1999/2000, U.S. Department of State.

2. Alberto Miguez, "Terroristas de ETA se trasladan a Cuba desde varios

países latinoamericanos," Madrid, Diario Las Américas, November 17, 1997;

Martin Arostegui, "Island a safe haven for basque guerrillas," The Miami

Herald, December 27, 1997.

3. "La Policia Espanola detecta la presencia de unos 70 etarras en Venezuela

y othros 20 en Cuba," Europa Press, Madrid, February 12, 2001.

4. "Spanish paper says ETA members seek refuge in Cuba," Reuters, November

17, 1997; Arostegui, ibid; Miguez, ibid.

5. Europa Press, ibid.

6. "El servicio secreto cubano planeó sacar de la República Dominicana a

'Anxtón' y a otros cinco terroristas," J.M. Zuloaga & J. Pagola, ABC

(Madrid), November 24, 1997.

7. M.Arostegui, El Nuevo Herald, December 27, 1997, ibid.

8. Ibid; Zuloaga & Pagola, ABC, November 24, 1997.

9. "Dos activistas de ETA eran los hombres de Cuba de Gadusmar," El País

(Madrid), May 29, 1998; "ETA intentó extender su red financiera a Suiza," El

Mundo (Madrid), July 19, 1998.

10. " ETA se refugia en Cuba," Epoca (Madrid), 10 de diciembre 2000.

11. "Flores y Castro chocan por Posada Carriles," El Diario de Hoy (Panama),

November 18, 2000; "Trifulca en la Cumbre," El Nuevo Herald, November 19,

2000.

12. "IRA men held in Colombia linked to Cuba," UPI, August 17, 2001.

13. "IRA man was Sinn Fein's Cuban Link," Irish Independent, August 16 2001.

14. "IRA Men Paid by Castro," The Mirror (London), August 17, 2001.

15. Ibid.

16. "IRA Tested Napalm Bomb in the Jungle," The Sunday Times (London), August

19, 2001.

17. "Colombia Provo is Top Man for Castro and IRA in Latin America," The

Mirror (London), August 17, 2001.

18. New York Times, March 3, 1987; Latin American Weekly Report, November 5,

1987, The Soviet-Cuban Connection in Central America and the Caribbean (U.S.

Department of State, March 1985).

19. In 1999, FBI director Louis Freeh, noted in a statement to Congress, "the

kidnapping of seven Americans during 1998 in Colombia by terrorists groups,

bringing to 92 the total number of United States citizens reported kidnapped

in that country between 1980 and 1998, of which 12 Americans have died in

captivity." The April 2001 State Department Consular Information Sheet for

Colombia states: "In the past 20 years, nearly 120 American citizens have

been kidnapped in both individual incidents and large group hostage

situations. At least 14 American kidnapping victims have been murdered." Most

kidnappings of U.S. citizens in Colombia have been committed by guerrilla

groups, including the FARC and the ELN.

20. Signed by John Hay for the U.S. and Gonzalo de Quesada for Cuba, April 6,

1904.

21. FBI statistics.

22. "Revolutionary or Cop killer? A fugitive in Havana," Star Tribune,

February 6, 2000; "People on the run finding selves at home abroad with

Castro," The Miami Herald, March 10, 2001; "Havana, a haven for expatriates,"

Newsday, September 20, 1998; "1972 hijacking from Birmingham led to airport

security changes," Associated Press, September 30, 2001; "Bill aims to force

Cuba to give up U.S. fugitives," Associated Press, June 19, 2001; "Former spy

to testify about Cuban support for Los Macheteros," MSNBC, Hartford, December

30, 1999; "Report: Freed Puerto Rican nationalists linked to Cuba," CNN,

November 7, 1999; "Ex Agente Afirma que Castro Financió Robo al Banco Wells

Fargo," EFE, January 3, 2000.

23. www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten.

24. In 1999, The Hartford Courant conducted a study of the 1983 armored car

robbery, analyzing the FBI investigation and interviewing 50 sources,

including former Cuban agents, FBI agents and congressional investigators. It

cited an FBI confidential memo detailing numerous court-authorized

interceptions of conversations which "have determined that the Cubans support

and direct the Macheteros at a firsthand level."("Report: Freed Puerto Rican

nationalists linked to Cuba," CNN, November 7, 1999.)

25. "Robert Vesco, the fugitive financier, goes on trial in Cuba on fraud

charges," The New York Times, August 2, 1996; "U.S. demands Vesco's return

from Cuba, but it's unlikely," The New York Times, August 28, 1996; "Tribunal

cubano condena a Vesco a 13 años de prisión," El Nuevo Herald, August 27,

1996.

26. "Crisis speeds spy suspect's arrest," The Washington Post, August 28,

2001.

27. Ibid.

28. Testimony of Oliver Revell, former Associate Deputy Director for

Investigations for the FBI, before the House International Relations

Committee, October 4, 2001.

29. Text of Fidel Castro Speech, Granma, August 25, 2001.

30. Ibid.

31. Official Statement of the Government of Cuba, Granma, August 19, 2001.

32. Ibid.

33. "Iran and Cuba bolster ties, strengthen anti-US solidarity," Agence

France Presse, May 10, 2001.

34. Nature Biotechnology, October 1, 2001.

35. Amy Smithson of the Henry Stimson Center, as quoted in The Miami Herald,

October 10, 2001.

36. "Potential Cyberattacks Worry U.S.," AP, May 16, 2001.

37. Cuba's Repressive Machinery, Human Rights Watch, June 1999.