50 Years of Lost Life:
Fidel Castro
and the
Threat to America
Compiled By: Ryan Mauro
tdcanalyst@optonline.net

 

            For a half-century now, Fidel Castro has been in power in Cuba, just 90 miles away from Florida. Unfortunately, not only could this have been prevented, but the United States today has the resources to finally give the Cuban people the freedom they deserve, with not a shot being fired. The mass opposition to Castro’s dying regime makes a unique opportunity to win a victory in the War on Terrorism, the struggle against proliferation, the War on Drugs, and ultimately, world peace. As I will explain below, the fact that we have such capability doesn’t mean we have the option to free the Cuban people. We have an obligation to free the Cuban people.

 Human Rights and the Threat to Freedom

            Western democracies’ misunderstanding of how Communists “hijack” revolutions, genuine revolutions, for their own causes may prove to be our own downfall one day. It certainly has led to the downfall of many countries to tyranny, and none is a better example than Cuba. Every single Communist take-over has come about using the “hijacking” technique, where revolutions, even “democratic” ones, are led by covert Communists, whom steal the freedom of millions. Remember, the US didn’t know Castro was a Communist until years after his takeover.

            Thus, it can be said that Castro’s first mass human rights abuses was his takeover, which instead of bringing freedom, brought tyranny. If Castro did such an evil thing, we subsequently should not have been surprised at the mass human rights abuses that would follow. According to the Black Book of Communism, from the beginning of his reign, Castro has imprisoned at least 100,000 people and killed up to 15-17,000 people. Regarding the “hijacking of revolutions”, I wish to quote Castro below:

             “...the importance of continuing to promote the consolidation of a common front to back the indispensable structural transformations required by the region. This process is backed by the active, large-scale incorporation of Christian groups and organizations in the struggles for national liberation and social justice, as has occurred in Nicaragua and El Salvador.”

                                    --Text of resolution adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in 1980.

 

            “The United States wanted us to make a strategic and tactical error and proclaim a doctrine as a communist movement. In fact, I was a communist...I think that a good Marxist-Leninist would not have proclaimed a socialist revolution in the conditions that existed in Cuba in 1959. I think I was a good Marxist-Leninist in not doing that, and when we did not make known our underlying beliefs. What the United States wanted was to judge, to know what we thought, and we did not want to allow ourselves to be maneuvered or manipulated by it. I think it was an excellent thing that we did not proclaim the Marxist-Leninist or socialist nature of the revolution at the time.”

                                    --Fidel Castro in an interview in Le Figaro Magazine. [1]

 

            Castro’s first attempt to destroy the freedom of people other than Cubans was as early as 1948, when he assisted the revolt in Colombia, while simultaneously trying to overthrow the dictator of the Dominican Republic. If Castro was a freedom-fighter, this would be a good deed, but we all know that if these attempts were successful, an old tyranny would be replaced with a new tyranny with more allies.

            Human rights abuses would even extend to foreigners. For example, in Vietnam, it is believed Cuban forces were deployed to help with the torture and interrogation of American POWs [2] , which may mean Castro had a role in the disappearance of POWs in the Korean War and Vietnam War, where American prisoners were tested on, and sometimes even transported to East Bloc countries. Many of them are thought to still be alive. [3]

            Castro has never ended his dream to make other countries a model of his own evil rule (a dream he carried out in Grenada, and we all know where that led). The best example of this is Venezuela, which produces up to a fourth of the oil the United States imports, and is a key strategic country. Because Chavez began modeling his country after that of Castro, we should not be all that surprised of its support for terrorism—both Islamic and drug-oriented—just like I explain in my previous article, “The Latin American Bloc: The Ignored Danger to Freedom”.

            Chavez, an open admirer of Castro, China and Communism, quickly seized power after his election. To prepare for his totalitarian rule, he created the Circulos Bolivariano, the Venezuelan version of Cuba’s Revolutionary Defense Committees. The Circulos Boliviariano have seized police stations throughout the country, and seized factories of the largest oil companies. This oil was later delivered to Castro for free or at outrageously cheap prices, allowing the Cuban regime to stay afloat.

            Castro’s plans to assist Chavez emanate from his original plan he made for Chile’s Salvador Allende, which involved sending in Cuban special forces to assist the totalitarian shift. Opposition sources in Venezuela claim this has already occurred, as Cuban advisors and intelligence officers have been seen populating Venezuelan intelligence services, merchant-marine schools, ports, Chavez’ Presidential Guard, and all aspects of the oil industry. [4]

            When the opposition forces rose and nearly forced Hugo Chavez out of power in Venezuela, Fidel Castro was sure to come to the aid of this enemy of freedom. Cuban special forces took over security, helped secure his position, and ultimately, led to the protection of the rule of Chavez. [5] As I explain in my previous articles, the victory in Venezuela set the stage for quasi-socialist takeovers in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and the rest of Latin America. It is likely, if not probable, that Castro’s dreams of a successful Latin American revolution, led by and loyal to himself, will indeed come true in the next 5-6 years.

 

Violations of Treaties

             You may be surprised to learn that Cuba not only violates international treaty by having chemical and biological weapons, and sponsoring terrorism, but also was so bold as to break Cold War agreements in the 1960s and 1970s. Presidential reports to Congress cited violations of treaties by Cuba in September—October, 1962. The report described the violation as the “deployment of offensive weapons (MRBM and IRBM missiles; medium bombers) in Cuba, September—October, 1962). Cuba was also listed as violating arms agreements from 1970 to 1974 by “deploying and tending Soviet nuclear missile-carrying submarines in Cuban territorial waters, 1970—1974). [6]

            It is clear that Cuba uses treaties and any attempt at a “soft approach” to Cuba to further its goals. For example, just days after Jimmy Carter told Americans to stop being so paranoid about the threat from Communism (May 22, 1977), Cuba dispatched a major military force to Ethiopia, to further international Communism. [7] Anyone who appears to be a threat to Cuba, like Ronald Reagan for example is considered a target for assassination, a propaganda attack, or other ways to minimize their ability to threaten Cuba. While governor, Ronald Reagan received a package with an undertaker’s needle, only days after speaking out against Fidel Castro, along with a death threat. It was signed by “friends of Cuba”. Whether this was on the orders of Cuban intelligence or not, it shows that Cuba can and probably will utilize friendly assets here in the United States. [8]  

Cuba’s Intelligence War Against the United States

 September 1998:  Ten people are arrested in Miami as Cuban spies trying to infiltrate military sites and groups of Cuban exiles. The action led to the subsequent arrest of six more of Castro’s spies.

 December 1998:  Three Cuban diplomats at the United Nations headquarters are expelled for intelligence-related activities.

 May 2000:  A senior immigration official in Miami is arrested for providing classified information to Cuba.

 June 2001:  Five Cuban spies are arrested in Miami. One of which is found to be involved in the Cuban attack on two planes in 1996 that killed 4 dissidents.

September 2001:  Ana B. Montes, a top Pentagon intelligence analyst, is arrested for being a Cuban agent.

 Fall 2001:  Press reports that FBI believes that Cuba’s DGI has a network of at least 300 agents in the United States and Canada, trying to infiltrate Cuban exile groups, and military sites. Most focus was on military and civilian aviation.

August 2002: Cuba’s former ambassador to the United Nations testifies that most Cubans attached to their UN mission are intelligence officers.

October 16, 2002: A senior DIA intelligence analyst is arrested for spying for Cuba for sixteen years as one of the most senior experts on the Cuban military. Some of what was passed along was so secret it couldn’t even be mentioned in court, but it is known she helped Cuba identify four undercover American agents, learn details about US surveillance of the armed forces, and information on the December 1996 war games in the Atlantic Ocean. [9]

November 2002:  America expels four more Cuban diplomats for spy-related activity.

May 13, 2003:  Fourteen Cuban diplomats are expelled from the UN mission for spying. [10]

 

State Sponsor of Terrorism

            Cuba’s reputation as a state sponsor of international terrorism began in 1959, when the intelligence services made contact with the various “armies of national liberation” (the Communist attempt to thwart being labeled terrorists) in Africa. Raul Castro also made a visit to the Gaza Strip to show his solidarity with the Palestinian movements. Cuba quickly became a training base for anti-government guerilla fighters and militants from Chile, Guatemala (EGP), the Dominican Republic and Venezuela (MIR and FALN). The EGP in Guatemala would go on to ally with the FMLN in El Salvador in the 1980s.

            At the end of the 1950s, and into the early 1960s, Cuba also directed its allied Communist Parties to join with Castro’s regime in sponsoring terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime. As explained in Joseph Douglass’ Red Cocaine, these crime syndicates were infiltrated and “hijacked” by Cuban intelligence. Throughout the book, Cuba is identified as one of the primary reasons for the War on Drugs, and Douglass describes in chilling detail, what a massive role Cuban intelligence played in the drug plague. Do to these operations, crack cocaine and heroin was introduced, modified drugs came into the country, and Cuba used these opportunities to corrupt a startling number of politicians, law enforcement officials, banks, top businesses and corporation, and overall, to corrupt a major part of American society. If there is one book I would ask my readers to buy about Cuba or drugs or even Soviet “active measures”, it would be Joseph Douglass’ Red Cocaine. There is simply too much information in it to be posted here.

            By 1961, Cuba began selling arms to the FLN group of Algeria, and trained future rebellious leaders of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Spanish Guinea, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. This was the beginning of Cuba’s major involvement in the Communist campaign in Africa. Communism’s first victory in this arena occurred in Zanzibar in 1964, where a Cuban-trained Communist (John Okello) led the overthrow of the pro-American leader. The new regime became a friend of the Soviet Union and Cuba, and ally in the struggle for Africa. The continued hotspot of this struggle for the time would center in Congo in 1965, where Cuba actively supported the guerillas they had previously trained.

            The early 1960s also saw Cuban sponsorship of anti-American guerilla forces in Venezuela, and coordination between most of the Latin American Communist Parties (under Cuba’s direction) in sponsoring similar forces in Haiti, Paraguay, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras. The focus was primarily on Latin America, but the Palestinian movement did not go without notice. Cooperation with Fatah elements began in 1965 in Syria and Algeria. As intense as the sponsorship of terrorism was, 1966 would become the year it would become clear the threat from Castro in this area.

            1966 saw the creation of the Organization for the Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America to find a common standards among the wide range of “liberation movements” Castro and his allied Communist Parties would assist; The National Liberation Directorate to coordinate Castro’s efforts to sponsor the different groups; and The Latin American Solidarity Organization which would oversee the North American terrorist activity. The next two years would also see new attention being given to “liberation movements” in the Middle East besides that of the Palestinians. Special support was given to the NLF forces in South Yemen.

            The Communists also saw it fit to ally with the Middle East terror sponsors. Cuba made an alliance with Syria to jointly support the Eritrean Liberation Front and Fatah. Syria would soon reduce its support for Fatah, forcing Cuba to take over as the main sponsor of Fatah and the majority of Palestinian movements. Cuba even went so far as to sent military advisors to terrorist training camps in Jordan in 1968 to help oversee the training of the Palestinian Fedayeen, and to manage high-level contact with Fatah.

            At the end of the 1960s, Cuba was sponsoring the M19 of Colombia, the Siad Barre of Somalia, and the terrorist groups previously mentioned. Seeing the success in Africa in particular, Castro accelerated his cooperation with terrorists in 1974 by forming an alliance with Libya. This was also the year that the National Liberation Directorate was re-organized as the America Department of the Central Committee, which still carried out the same objectives as it always has. The America Department began sponsoring the Sandinistas of Nicaragua and the Tupamaros of Uruguay, and began consolidating remnants of anti-Western forces into common fronts throughout North and South America.

            Cuba’s training of special forces in biological terrorism, and passing of this information to terrorist groups, emanates from a declaration in 1966. The Soviet Military Encyclopedia explains this declaration:

            ...“use of ‘biological weapons, narcotics, terrorist activities, poisons and other methods. This definition accords with a decision made at the Tri-Continental Conference of world revolutionary groups held in Havana in January 1966. The decision called for the planned destabilization of the United States and explicitly detailed such activities as the exploitation and undermining of American society through the trafficking of drugs and promotion of other corrupting criminal activities." [11]

            The creation of today’s modern terrorism began in the East Bloc and Cuba. Among those trained by Castro was Illich Ramirez Sanchez, or, “Carlos the Jackal”, who is suspected of having had some involvement in founding Al-Qaeda (his terrorist graduates comprised the core of the group), and he has even “appointed” Bin Laden as his successor in the struggle against imperialism in the mid-1990s. He also has praised Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, who have tried to get him out of jail for his terrorist acts.

            In Africa, Cuba’s assistance to Communism’s war on the free world was bringing results. By supplying arms and money to MPLA, led by Angostino Neto, began winning the multi-way civil war in Angola once Portugal withdrew. In return for the dispatching of East Bloc military forces to help MPLA, Nemo agreed that his offensives would spread to Zambia, Zaire, and the Congo.  By the end of the Communist takeover, Cuba would deploy 36,000 troops and 300 tanks to the war. [12]

            Contact was established with Yasser Arafat, resulting in close cooperation in regards to helping Palestinian militants and the movement of the nucleus of training camps for worldwide militants to Lebanon. In 1974, Latin American militants first received training in Lebanon. Cooperation with Syria increased again, as Castro contributed military personnel to assist them in the Yom Kippur War against Israel until it ended in 1975, when up to 3,000 Cuban personnel were in Syria. Meanwhile, Cuba also deployed tens of thousands of soldier to Ethiopia to help secure the Pro-Communist regime led by Mengistu Haile Mariam.

            In 1974, Cuba directly sponsored an attack on an American politician. According to KGB files, the kidnapping and murder of the American ambassador to Nicaragua in December of 1974 was supported and approved of by Fidel Castro and DGI, the Cuban intelligence service. This obviously marks a bold new phase that would continue to escalate as long as no consequences were in store for the Castro regime. Seeing this escalation, we cannot be surprised at allegations of covert sponsorship of terrorism today. [13]

            The Communist sponsors of terrorism, seeing no consequences for their actions, decided to take it all a step further in 1975. Cuban intelligence officers infiltrated Canada, and began training black American citizens so that they could later join the Black Panthers terrorist group. The most favored recruits were sent for training in Havana, Cuba, and would become the hierarchy of the group.  The country became one of the most popular spots for receiving training in guerilla warfare and terrorist operations. By the next year, the CIA believed that at least 300 Palestinians alone were being trained in Cuba.

            I personally find Cuba’s assistance to homegrown American terrorists the most intriguing. I quote the following page from the book, Reagan’s War by Peter Schweizer, page 53:

 

            “The Weathermen were not students philosophizing about a revolution after reading Karl Marx in Poli Sci 101. They began an armed struggle and maintained extensive contact with foreign intelligence agents in countries such as Cuba, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and North Vietnam.

            Miniskirted Bernardine Dohrn and the group’s other leader, Mark Rudd, would travel to New York and meet with spies from the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. There they arranged for Weathermen to be trained in the use of weapons by Cuban military officers during visits to Cuba. They received money and advice on organizing their movement. North Vietnamese intelligence officers gave them advice on how to find recruits who were physically capable of doing battle with police. And when the Weathermen had to flee the FBI, Cuban spies developed a system of codes that permitted secret communication with the radical group.

            ‘SDS was the group we concentrated on in those days’, an ex-Cuban intelligence agent told the FBI. ‘Oh, we didn’t start it. But we radicalized it, we gave it form. Every leader came and left [Cuba] with new ideas.’

            One of those who traveled to Cuba was Gregg Daniel Adornetto. After his visit he joined an underground terrorist group in the San Francisco area known as the Emiliano Zapata Unit. The group bombed literally dozens of targets in the Bay Area, and maintained contact with a Cuban intelligence officer named Andres Gomez. The FBI broke up the group with a series of raids, arresting seven of its members. Adornetto was among them, and he began talking to agents. Gomez, he said, had been working with the group on a special project he said. The plan was to kill Ronald Reagan. ‘If Gomez dies, his body must be burned and his fingers cut off so he cannot be identified,’ Adornetto said he was instructed.”

             As a result, friendships with other state sponsors continued to grow. South Yemen would ally with Cuba, and both would send forces to help Ethiopia fight their war against Somalia, a pro-American nation that had invaded Ethiopia. They would also find partnership in assisting the Dhofaris forces fighting in Oman. Saddam Hussein’s regime saw what was going on, and wanted in on the action. By forming good relations with Castro, Cuban military advisors would arrive in Iraq. As state sponsors took the offensive, so did the groups sponsored by them. The Congolese National Liberation Front (trained by Cuba) invaded Zaire; The Liberation Movement of Southern Sudan launched an offensive in Sudan with help from Cuba and Ethiopia; FMLN launched an offensive in El Salvador, armed with Cuban weapons; The EGP of Guatemala began kidnappings; and Islamic radicals in Iran, with political support from Castro, took power in Iran. All while this was going on, Libya and Cuba jointly made the World MATHABA to coordinate the terrorist and “liberation” activities around the world.

            In 1983, the Cuban-financed Macheteros (Puerto Rican terrorist group) became violently active in the United States, and still Castro went free. Chilean MIR, Macheteros, Mexican terrorist groups (financed by bank robberies in Mexico by Cuban intelligence), Palestinian Intifada, Yasser Arafat’s militants, Palestinian National Authority, and other groups would all receive new, increased assistance from the Castro regime. Again, going free, Castro increased his support for terrorism.

            In early 1989, a Cuban general was chosen to be the orchestrator of a plot to blow up a US transmission balloon in the Florida Keys. The next year, despite condemning Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Cuban military advisors arrived in Iraq to give Saddam Hussein the intelligence it had collected regarding American military activity in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—both pre-war and post-war. In Uruguay, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement received explosives and other arms from Cuba, which would be used in several attacks on American interests in the country.

            Over the next decade, direct, overt Cuban sponsorship of terrorism increased, probably do to the collapse of the Soviet Union, an economic collapse, and US pressure. However, during the next decade, US intelligence on Cuba would be dismantled, and US intelligence as a whole wounded, nearly beyond repair. It is possible we simply lack the intelligence to know what Castro is up to. What we do know is that Cuba gave the ETA Basque terrorist group a headquarters in Havana, maintained high-level contact with Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and their air force destroyed two private planes carrying Cuban dissidents, resulting in the deaths of three American citizens (February 24, 1996). It is believed that the PLO still has close relations with Castro, and that intelligence cooperation and joint training of militants is going on to this day, although little is known.

            Despite its weakened position, Cuba still provided safe haven to US fugitives including the former leader of the Black Liberation Army, and members of the Republic of New Afrika Movement, Macheteros, Basque ETA, FARC, ELN, and according to the testimony of arrested Cuban spies, move people, arms and explosives into the country. [14] In 1999, Worldnetdaily.com reported that Cuban intelligence officers and military engineers were involved in Thailand, assisting the drug trafficking rebels whom were also allied to Al-Qaeda. [15]

            September 11, 2001 brought new urgency to the Cuban threat. Although I consider it unlikely that Cuba had a role in the terrorist events of that horrible day, Fidel Castro’s sponsorship of terrorism must be dealt with. I have heard some say that Cuba should be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but I challenge those allegations. After all, Air Force One was hacked into on 9-11 (reported and later denied), something that only an extremely advanced intelligence service with cyber warfare capabilities could do—either China, Russia or Cuba. The Cuban-Russian base at Lourdez which specializes in that type of activity is the most likely candidate.

            It appears that do to the demise of Communism around the world, Fidel Castro has decided to rise up the Marxist-Leninist version of Islam, more commonly known as radical Islam, which sponsors terrorism (just like the old Communist regimes did). To be precise, radical Islam is just Communism using Islam to make strict rule (an idea that came about do to East Bloc infiltration, propaganda, and active measures). But I will save that discussion for another time. For those reasons, Cuba is promoting the spread of Islamic revolution. Fidel Castro is quoted as saying:

            “A world order based on the Koranic model, which was proposed by Imam Khomeini as a substitute for Western models of state administration, must figure in the agenda of every future forum for alternative world orders. We also have a common enemy that always threatens us—an enemy that has invaded all the countries of the world.”

             It is known that Fidel Castro’s regime operates in a similar way as to Saddam Hussein—it is unlikely citizens can do much in the way of sponsoring terrorism without some kind of knowledge by the regime. Castro’s regime takes strenuous note-taking on the activities of its people, and has one of the best intelligence services on the planet, which has successfully penetrated the United States many times. For this reason, the fact that a young Afghan terrorist who was trained in northeast Afghanistan claimed to have seen Cubans being trained at the camps of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban is suspicious. This testimony was found out by the press in the first quarter of 2000, well-before the media took a hard look at what was going on in central Asia. [16]

            I was unable to confirm (or find proof to the contrary) of the allegation by Newsmax.com’s Dr. Nemets and Dr. Tarda, two researchers I hold in very, very high esteem, that linked Mohammed Atta to Castro. On December 2^nd, they wrote in Newsmax.com that US special services have received information that Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9-11 hijackers, had links to Cuban intelligence which included a meeting with a high-ranking representative in spring of 1999. The meeting occurred in Miami, fairly close to the flight school where the hijackers were being educated in how to carry out the plot. From this information, the two writers felt it was likely that Russia’s Lourdez electronic espionage base in Cuba. This base specialized in gathering classified data on the flight paths of civilian airliners, flight-codes for all sorts of aircraft including those belonging to the air force, and even is known for hacking into US Air Traffic Control. Within 2 months of September 11^th, Russia closed this base down. It is probable we will never know the true role on this base in the intelligence war. [17] But what we do know is that Cuba’s armed forces went on high alert after the 9-11 attacks.

            These develops made me look back to Cuba earlier in 2001. During the spring, Castro traveled to Libya, Iran and Iraq, to express support, friendship, and of course, to demonstrate a common front against the United States. A quasi-alliance with Iraq seemed to be formed, but even more disturbing, was what Castro sent to the leaders of Iran:

 “You overthrew the shah 22 years ago, but there is another shah one thousand times stronger and better armed...This shah is imperialism, and its main stronghold is only miles away from our border... [America] has military bases and aircraft carriers everywhere and its nuclear warheads aimed in every direction, but it can be toppled just like your shah was overthrown.”

This occurred less than six months before 9-11. Of course, this does not necessarily show Cuba had a role, but his rhetoric does show Cuba is allied to the state sponsors of terrorism (which we already knew from Cuba’s dealing with dual-use items with Iran).

            By October 2001, serious questions were being raised about Cuba. Rep. Robert Menedez of New Jersey testified that three Afghan terrorists were captured in the Cayman Islands with false passports and $2 million on their way back to Cuba, and the press also learned about how two Cuban spies recently arrested in Florida had stolen highly-classified information on the US mailing and post office systems and their security. This made some people question if the anthrax attacks were supported by Cuba and Iraq together or perhaps by Cuba alone. [18] Around the same time, two other people were arrested in Panama for financial connections to Al-Qaeda. They were arrested en route to Cuba.

            On November 4, 2001, while opposing the war in Afghanistan, Castro warned that US imperialism would suffer for their attack. He predicted that Afghanistan would become a new “Vietnam War” for US forces, take 20 years to destroy the Taliban, and we would never be successful in eradicating Al-Qaeda. The mere fact that Castro opposed the War on Terror, and appeared to hope for US suffering in the war, should classify him as a threat. [19]

            Castro’s sponsorship of terrorism has not stopped to this day, despite the pressure applied. As one of the managers and sponsors of the Sao Paulo Forum, Cuba is still an intricate part of the terrorist network. The Forum is where virtually all anti-American forces come together including rogue states, Communist parties, and terrorist groups of all kinds, to discuss a common strategy against the West. The Forum in December 2001, 4 months after 9-11, was unusually large. It consisted of representatives from:

Fidel Castro’s Communist Party of Cuba

Da Silva’s Workers Party of Brazil

Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas

Argentina’s Communist Party

Peru’s Communist Party

Chile’s Communist Party

Colombia’s Communist Party

Uruguay’s Communist Party

Venezuela’s Communist Party

Hugo Chavez’s regime in Venezuela

Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq

Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria

Lucia Inacio Lula da Silva’s regime in Brazil

Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime in Iran

Mu’ammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya

Kim Jong-Il’s regime in North Korea

ELN terrorist group of Colombia

FARC terrorist group of Colombia

FMLN terrorist group of El Salvador

Irish Republican Army terrorist group of the United Kingdom

Basque ETA terrorist group of France and Spain

PFLP-GC terrorist group. [20]

            As late as September 2002, Cuba’s “cooperation” in the war on terrorists in general and specifically Al-Qaeda was described as poor or non-existent. State Department officials claim that Castro was given the US false leads on potential terrorist attacks, and providing a large amount of disinformation that was tying up US intelligence resources. The only information Cuba ever gave on Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda militants, they said, was at least a decade old. [21]

            Although opposing the war in Iraq is not a crime at all, assisting the Saddam regime during the war is. Agustin Blazquez has reported to Newsmax.com that a friend of his, Carlos Wotzkow, said that every day for one week, hundreds of Iraqis dressed in the traditional clothing of Kuwaitis had been arriving in Cuba alongside women and children. They arrived using Air France, and possibly came from Syria (after escaping Iraq). [22]

 

Weapons of Mass Destruction

            I am discouraged to see how long it took for people to recognize the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Cuba. The same regime exists that began the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, with the same rhetoric and political system. Despite the end of the Missile Crisis, Castro’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction have all but ended. For example, in 1990, according to Cuban defectors, Russia still maintains nuclear bombers in Cuba, and nuclear material and MiG-29 fighters were moved into Cuba from the former Soviet Union. In April 1991, US intelligence discovered that at least one SS-20, with a range of 3,000 miles with the capability to launch three warheads filled with WMDs, were in Cuba. An obvious violation of the 1962 treaties and the INF Treaty. [23]

            Defectors have said that there is a chemical and biological weapons site at Kimonor, which was built by the Soviets in 1981 and today is the primary site for Cuba to train its special forces in weapons of mass destruction. The testimony indicates that the chemical weapon known as yellow rain is being produced and modified there. Another site is available at Jardin de Orquilles, which specializes in the use of biological weapons in attacks on water supplies. The propaganda that goes along with the training of the special forces seems to indicate that the tactics that would be used with the weapons at the site are primarily aimed against the United States. [24] It is now believed that there are at least a dozen chemical and biological weapons sites known by US intelligence, and they are believed to be first-rate. [25] I highly suggest reading, “Castro: A Threat to the Security of the United States”, a report written in 1997 by Dr. Manuel Cereijo, which identifies these sites.

            The report explains how Cuba studies how to use marine technology to conduct biological warfare, and unique tactics to use such as how to let containers loose in the ocean to infect the United States. All the tactics studied were aimed at the United States. Advanced binary chemical and biological weapons, Novichok-class agents (the deadliest in the world), A-232, VX, and many other weapons are believed to be researched and developed. The testimony of Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union’s “civilian” biological weapons program, has said that rogue states like Iraq learned their deception programs (to hide WMD) from Cuba, which has the best program for that purpose in the world. Alibek also testifies that the Soviet Union’s deadliest chemical and biological agents are now in Castro’s hands, including genetically-altered strains of anthrax and possibly smallpox, and that he is positive Castro has an extremely advanced, and massive, WMD program. I encourage people to buy his book, Biohazard.

            In 1998, Insight Magazine ran an investigation into Cuba’s WMD programs. They confirmed these findings, and added more. The most advanced and most new facilities for WMDs in Cuba are adjacent to SS-20 medium-range ballistic missile purchased from the Soviet Union, which can carry warheads with weapons of mass destruction deep into the US homeland. Besides testing WMDs on people in prison, the weapons are being tested on rats, birds, and insects. Among the items being researched are landmines with needles infected with tetanus. Additional information covered was Cuba’s connections to Mexico’s Zapatistas (a massive Marxist movement which is putting pro-Castro politicians in power throughout the country). [26]

         

            Not long after the war in Afghanistan, the look at Cuba’s possession and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction—specifically chemical and biological weapons, became intense. The height of the worry resulted in a very temporary media frenzy over the issue, around September 2002, which resulted in (or was caused by) a US accusation that Iran and Cuba were trying to exploit the ban on biological weapons by buying dual-use items for their programs in this area. [27]

            Part of the deception program, it has been alleged by Venezuelan opposition forces, is the movement of Cuban biological weapons labs to Venezuela. They claim that one such lab was airlifted out of Cuba by a Venezuela C-130 immediately once the American press reported on its existence—reportedly moved to San Antonio Los Altos near Caracas. Cuban technicians and scientists have been seen by witnesses at the location. These same sources claim that the “verbal message” Castro wanted to give to Saddam Hussein in July 2002 had to do with cooperation in the biological weapons arena (an interesting allegation if you read my article, “West Nile Virus: The Underreported Allegations”). If true, this lends credibility to the testimony of Chavez’ private pilot, whom defected recently, Air Force Major Juan Diaz Castillo, that: “With Castro, Chavez always discussed U.S. world dominance and how it could be contained. Of the solutions discussed, the most recurring centered on biological weapons." [28]

            Tularemia, anthrax, smallpox, epidemic typhus, dengue fever, Marburg and Ebola are all believed to be among the weapons being researched and developed by Castro, alongside the genetically-modified agents. There are about 160 small, dispersed sites with at least 10,000 scientists, engineers and physicians contributing to the WMD program, under the guise of biotechnology research for civilian use. [29] The same reported cited explains that Castro’s cyber warfare program began in 1991, which is being used to develop capabilities to gather intelligence, hack into computer networks, destroy electronic or computer equipment using electromagnetic radiation, and the use of computer viruses.

            Coupling all this with the allegations that Cuba was trading biological-chemical weapons technology (under the guise of dual-use technology) with Iran, Iraq and Syria [30] , may mean that action should be taken against Fidel Castro. Military means are not even needed, as an isolated Cuba with a supported dissident movement could easily change the entire picture.

            The United States’ ignorance of the moment at hand to deliver a fatal blow to Castro’s regime, without a single American loss, may result in another generation of tyranny and oppression for the freedom-loving Cuban people.