FIDEL SLAMS US THREATS

Don’t Teach Us Politics or Ethics

Following are excerpts from the response given by Cuban president, Fidel Castro Ruz on May 10, 2002, to the statements made by the United States government on biological weapons:

HARDLY three days ago, someone only too well known to us, Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich was caught in an embarrassing lie when he said that four Cuban planes had landed in the Venezuelan capital on April 12, and that nobody knew “what they were doing there, what they were carrying, we don’t know.” Apparently, it was the beginning of an anti-Cuba campaign or a vendetta due to the amazing failure of the fascist coup he set in motion, or both. On Tuesday, May 7, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs challenged him publicly, the State Department said that it had no confirmation whatsoever, and that it did not want to discuss the subject any more.

The idea of destroying Cuba, an obsession that has lasted more than 43 years, has led and still leads US policy down a tortuous path filled with lies, mistakes, failures and crimes. What the US government is telling the world today and what it is doing with Cuba is perhaps the most grievous and demoralising contradiction in its foreign policy. This great power had never found itself in such a compromising position and it has no alternative but to lie, lie and lie. And there is no lack of unscrupulous characters in major public positions willing to do so, no lack of press spokesmen caught up in the continuous and bitter need to right wrongs and explain the inexplicable in their bosses’ statements.

Even men like Colin Powell, son of Jamaican immigrants, that despite his military training or maybe because of it, is not considered a hawk since he knows about war and has seen many men die—a man that many Americans even came to look on as a potential presidential candidate—has found himself enmeshed in shameful and little ennobling intrigues promoted by such characters. He knows better than anyone else how inexperienced they are and what little intellectual and political worth those people have.

Who could be deceived by this new character involved in a sinister manoeuver against Cuba? Mr. John Bolton, an Under Secretary of State, none other than the one for Arms Control. What are they aiming for with the attack launched by this official in an aggressive speech against Cuba given at the Heritage Foundation, famous for its ultra-rightwing stance?

His statement, supposedly an analysis of the dangers of terrorism threatening the United States, begin by saying: “In addition to Libya and Syria, there is a threat coming from another Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) signatory, and one that lies just 90 miles from the U.S. mainland —namely, Cuba.” Then, after the usual name-calling and stupid remarks full of the hatred common in such arrogant and misinformed people, Mr. Bolton added something all his own: “We know that Cuba is collaborating with other state sponsors of terror.” “Castro has repeatedly denounced the US war on terrorism. He continues to view terror as a legitimate tactic to further revolutionary objectives. Last year, Castro visited Iran, Syria and Libya—all designees on the same list of terrorist-sponsoring states. At Teheran University, these were his words: ‘Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees. The US regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this weakness from close up.’”

“But Cuba’s threat to our security has often been underplayed. An official   US government report in 1998 concluded that Cuba did not represent a significant military threat to the United States or the region. It went only so far as to say that, ‘Cuba has a limited capacity to engage in some military and intelligence activities which could pose a danger to US citizens in some circumstances.’” Mr. Bolton immediately looked for something to cover up the suspicious fact that it had never before occurred to any US government official to make such an infamous accusation against Cuba. Mr. Bolton blames this weakness on William Cohen, who was the US Defense Secretary four years earlier when the criticized report was issued. Mr. Bolton made not the slightest mention of the fact that scarcely five months and two weeks earlier, on November 19, 2001, he himself made absolutely no mention of Cuba in a speech given to the conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Weapons in Geneva when he cited many countries that were a source of concern to him as potential biological weapons producers. Why this sudden and unexpected change?

Mr. Bolton’s May 6 piece of tabloid journalism ends by saying: “For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union. This industry is one of the most advanced in Latin America, and leads in the production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines that are sold worldwide. Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the activities conducted in these biomedical facilities.

“Here is what we now know: The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research-and-development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states. We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.”

The international press immediately picked up Mr. Bolton’s string of Olympic-size lies, which is exactly what he wanted. The list and the extension of articles and reports on Mr. Bolton’s remarks would be endless.

The job is already done! The entire world, especially the American public that is constantly bombarded with perfidious lies, has been informed and is ready to believe that Cuba is a biological power, that it has a program for producing such weapons and that it poses a danger to the United States. And as Mr. John Bolton, the very distinguished Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security has said it, we have to believe it.

However, as the old saying goes: “Lies have short legs.” In the United States itself some people are astounded and they are beginning to figure out the whole game.

According to a May 6 NOTIMEX news agency dispatch from “Washington, “political analysts pointed out that the accusation against Cuba made by President George W. Bush’s administration could be part of a White House strategy to find a justification for tightening its isolationist policy on Cuba.

“The statement that Cuba could pose a terrorist threat to the security of the United States was made at a time when several proposals to relax Washington’s Cuba policy are being analyzed on Capitol Hill.

Why should we believe Mr. Bolton? Anyone who remembers the fifteen incredible pretexts, known today through declassified official documents, that were elaborated at the end of 1961 by the high US authorities to undertake a direct military attack against Cuba in 1962, would not be surprised by such a sinister lie. We demand proof. Let them produce even the tiniest piece of evidence! They do not have any, and they cannot have them because they simply do not exist. They should not be hiding behind the alleged sensitivity of their sources, when there is actually not an atom of truth in what they are saying. This very old trick and overly stupid argument only serve to demonstrate their little consideration for, and low concept of the American people, whose intelligence deserves more respect.

I will also say this: If a Cuban scientist from any of our biotechnology institutes had been cooperating with any country in the development of biological weapons, or if he or she had tried to create them on his or her own initiative, he or she would be immediately presented in a court of justice, as we would consider it an act of treason to the country.

This is really an absolute lie, a treacherous blow against the sale of food to Cuba authorized in a law from the year 2000, which was subsequently modified on many occasions through amendments introduced by the staunch advocates of the blockade that made it practicably impossible to apply it after it had been passed. They are simply trying to mislead and dishearten the growing number of Americans who are increasingly upset by the most cruel and inhuman measure against the Cuban people, which clash with the idealism, and ethics of a nation that has, in fact, been deceived for dozens of years with regard to Cuba. The only truth in Bolton’s lie is that Cuba is 90 miles from the continental territory of the United States.

It is a slanderous invention, a fabricated lie, to say that Castro considers terror as a legitimate tactic for furthering revolutionary objectives. Actually, everybody knows that our revolutionary movement never used such methods that do not fit in with our doctrine, our principles and our concept of the armed struggle.

Mr. Bolton, you’d better get your facts right. Don’t be misled by the fantastic stories told by your dear friends from the CANF. Never were the civilian population and innocent people the victims of our actions. Our tactic always was to fight against heavily equipped enemy units. Presently, you want to call terrorism any armed resistance, regardless of the legitimate causes that may justify it. Along that line you could end up applying that definition to the struggle of the American colonists who rebelled and fought against English domination. George Washington and those who, after long years of war and enormous sacrifices, gained the independence of the United States of America were not terrorists.

We are sorry, Mr. Bolton. After the lies, slanders, tales and insults you launched in your May 6 speech, we are sorry to tell you that you lack any morale to make exhortations to Cuba on this subject and even less to make any demand at all using a threatening tone and language. Neither can you pretend to give Cuba any lesson in politics or ethics.

Anyway, you and your government could draw inspiration from Cuba’s decent and honorable behavior. I can assure you that we will charge absolutely nothing for this technology transfer.