Posted on Thu, Jun. 06, 2002
WASHINGTON - Backpedaling from recent pronouncements, a Bush
administration official said Wednesday that Cuba's biological weapons research
is an ''effort'' and not a full-fledged weapons "program.''
Cuba has [allegedly] experimented with biological agents to harm humans,
livestock and crops, but Cuban officials view the research on the biological
weapons more as a deterrent against a U.S. attack than for first-strike use,
said Carl Ford Jr., the State Department's assistant secretary for
intelligence and research.
"Do I go home every night and worry about it before
I go to sleep? No.''
FIRST EXPLANATION
Ford's remarks were the first real attempt by the Bush administration to
explain a surprising speech May 6 by a more senior State Department official,
John Bolton, that amounted to a five-star alarm over what he called Cuba's
``limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.''
The speech, which seemed to signal a stark reassessment of Cuba's hostile
potential toward the United States, brought headlines.
In a prepared statement, Ford told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee
on the Western Hemisphere that the U.S. government has ''a sound basis'' for
making the assertion.
Responding to senators' questions afterward, Ford said that the assessment
that Cuba can ''build the bug'' is based on ''substantial information'' but
noted that ``our information is indirect.''
Saying he had been briefed by other officials in the intelligence community,
Ford explained: ``The research and capabilities of Cuba include work on areas
-- biological agents, pathogens -- that could be effective against people,
livestock and crops.''
''I didn't ask them which crops,'' he told Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida
Democrat who pressed for details. ``I'm assuming that they're talking about
those close by. As you know well, both the cattle industry and the fruits and
vegetables in Florida would be clearly at least on my list of things to be
worried about.''
A CAUTION
But Ford cautioned against undue concern.
''I don't want to give you the impression that we are
suggesting . . . that there is a person with a satchel on his way to Dade
County or St. Pete with a bag of biological weapons,'' he said. ``Indeed, if
you want to talk about intentions, it has to do with their fear of the United
States and wanting to have a deterrent, wanting to have something in their
capability that they could strike back at us.''
[Note that no evidence of even this lesser charge has been produced.
This, nevertheless, represents quite a climb-down from the initial,
obviously false allegations by Bush and Bolton only a few weeks previous. --
Dan]
Ford said Cuba was far from the No. 1 concern of U.S.
policymakers keeping tabs on hostile biological weapons programs around the
globe.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the subcommittee,
said he was ''terribly disappointed'' at Secretary of State Colin Powell's
decision to block Bolton, the department's undersecretary for weapons
proliferation, from appearing at the Senate hearing.
Visibly peeved, Dodd said he would provide Powell's department ''with an
equivalent level of cooperation'' until the matter is cleared up.
Dodd asked whether Bolton's speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation was
timed to undercut a May 12-17 trip by former President Jimmy Carter to Havana.
SEEKING DETAILS
Dodd said he was seeking details of Cuba's biological weapons capability to
ensure that U.S. defenses against terrorism are properly managed.
''If we're off chasing an issue here that is not substantiated by facts, then
we are misallocating resources,'' he said.
In a speech May 11, Cuban leader Fidel Castro called Bolton's assertions
''heinous slander'' and ''a string of Olympic-size lies.'' He said Washington
might be trying to sandbag efforts by Cuba to market its bio-engineered
medicines around the world.