Bioterrorism accusations against Cuba

Dear Friends,

You may have already heard the news today: the Bush administration has officially included Cuba in the "Axis of Evil". It was only a matter of time; only a pretext was needed. In a speech called Beyond the Axis of Evil, undersecretary of state John Bolton charged that Cuba was producing biological weapons and was selling this technology to the so-called rogue states.

What is really interesting about Bolton's sensational disclosure is that proof of the accusations can not be obtained by the press because administration officials say that they can not compromise U.S. intelligence sources. Well, as a matter of fact, the sources of this information are very well known and the information was widely disseminated in South Florida by the Miami Herald several years ago.

Journalist Luis Ortega even wrote a column about it in New York's El Diario/La Prensa which I have translated and distributed over the internet twice. I again reproduce Ortega's article below in case some one would like to send it to elected officials and local newspapers, thus blowing the cover off of John Bolton's "intelligence sources". It's worth a try. You could become a modern day Daniel Elsberg.

Luis A. Martin 
carlosbalino@netzero.net

-----------------------------------------------

"Some administration officials, convinced that Cuba has an active germ warfare program, have been pressing to make the evidence public, but guardians of the information have worried that its release would compromise U.S. intelligence sources, according to more than one official".

Peter Slevin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, May 7, 2002; Page A18

------------------------------------------------

THE TALES OF MONTANER

by Luis Ortega

On the 28 of December, Day of the Innocent Saints, the meritorious Carlos Alberto Montaner (leading Cuban journalist for the Spanish edition of the Miami Herald) published a lengthy article telling the truculent tale of how Fidel Castro inoculates his adversaries with cancer. The fact that Montaner invents this type of stories is not surprising. He learned it from his father and carries it in his blood with legitimate status. What is really unfortunate about this is that the Spanish version of the Herald, where perhaps one or two persons with common sense could be found, would allow itself to fall so low as to show such absolute disrespect for the intelligence of its readers. How far can idiocy be carried by Cubans?

Just like his father, Montaner always tells very amusing stories. One must recall that historical scene of Carlos Alberto knocking on the door of a Havana hotel to be marveled at the sight of Fidel Castro himself, opening the door in his underwear. The many grandchildren that Carlos Alberto will have --if not already-- will always be astonished by the capers of their grandfather.

In his latest article, the man tells us that 19 years ago he met a young Cuban biologist at the Barajas airport, who had defected as he was traveling to Cuba from Bulgaria. Montaner, who has always had good relations with the police, interviewed the defector who told him how he had been trained in Sofia "to induce cancer in the enemy".

With this hypothetical interview, our admired essayist, poet and novelist, constructs the tale that Castro, in his zeal to survive, has assassinated numerous adversaries, the last being Sebastian Arcos Bergnes. Other victims mentioned by Montaner are Rafael Garcia Navarro, Jorge Mas Canosa, Manuel Artime and does not leave out others who had violent deaths such as engineer Torriente or Aldo Vera.

But Montaner does not end there. He also knows, and courageously condemns it, that in the neighborhood of Siboney in Havana there is Center for Genetic and Biotechnology Engineering which manufactures a carcinegeous substance named Aflotoxine that affects the lungs. These laboratories also produce substances similar to the ones that Sadam Hussein hides in complicity with Castro.

But there is more. Hussein's personal physician is Dr. Alvarez Cambra, who also happens to be Castro's personal physician.

There is even more. Castro is using migratory birds, which fly between Cuba and Miami, to transmit plagues to Florida.

Given all this sensational information, one would imagine that Ileana Ross and Lincoln Diaz Balart would be sounding the call to produce an immediate invasion of Cuba...A naval and aerial blockade, a bombardment to erase the Siboney neighborhood from the map.

I am not exaggerating. I have merely told what is said in this person's article. I suppose that after the intelligent people of Miami (there are some) make fun of him, he will hide behind the excuse that he said it on Innocent's Day (equivalent of Fool's Day).

But it will not be a good excuse. This article clearly reveals the mentality of the Herald's writer. Montaner believes his stories and he fabricates them with a certain glee, in the same manner in which he invented the scene of Castro in his underwear --and a few other thousands.

Besides, this is the Cuban environment of Miami. For 39 years, they have been tirelessly inventing the greatest of lies in order to create conflicts inside Cuba. If a chronological history could be written of everything that has been done since 1959 to create discord in Cuba and provoke an invasion of the Marines, it would demonstrate that there is something fundamentally deficient in a large sector of the Cuban people.

They continue to believe that the fate of Cuba will be resolved when the Americans are sufficiently frightened into carrying out a massacre in Cuba. It is precisely what Montaner intends to do by inventing this type of truculent tale.

El Diario La Prensa

Jan 21, 1998
Luis Ortega is a Cuban journalist residing in Miami
Translated by Luis Martin