Bush Team in Sync on Cuba Policy

June 19, 2002 | The Miami Herald
by Frank Calzon

Critics of the Bush administration's Cuba policy, including Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Ct., have blasted John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, for a May 6 speech in which Bolton warned: "Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort . . . [and] has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states.''

Bolton's standing with Dodd didn't improve when Secretary of State Colin Powell recently refused to permit Bolton to testify about his statements. Instead Powell sent Carl W. Ford, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.

The debate over Havana's capability is somewhat reminiscent of the old political debates about the Soviet Union's capabilities and intentions. In an address to the Heritage Foundation, Bolton spoke about the threat posed not just by Cuba but by several other countries as well. No one in Congress is demanding that the administration produce a ''smoking gun'' to prove its assessment of the threat posed by Libya, North Korea or Syria. The credibility of the Bush administration's bio-weapon assessments is attacked only when it speaks out about Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Publicly Dodd insists that the issue ''is a very serious matter, and we in the U.S. Senate would refrain from the temptation to play politics with it. So, too, should the Bush administration, in my view.'' Those good intentions notwithstanding, the hearing itself clearly demonstrated that debate over the administration's Cuba policy continues to be mired in the acrimonious cultural wars of America's political elites that mysteriously deem communist Cuba's despot to be "different.''

Dodd wondered whether the charges against Cuba were substantiated by the facts and ''whether President Carter's visit to Cuba had anything to do with the timing of [Bolton's] speech.'' The senator even characterized Ford's testimony as evidence that the Bush administration had begun ''downplaying'' and was ''backpedaling'' from Bolton's statements.

The political culture on Capitol Hill discourages administration witnesses from challenging anyone as powerful, articulate and committed as Dodd. Bureaucrats inevitably respond in nuances and refrain from blunt, unaccommodating replies. But did Ford ''play down'' Bolton's earlier warnings?

Ford stated that on March 19, several weeks before Bolton's speech, he had told the committee that ''the United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited developmental, offensive, biological-warfare research and development effort'' and that Havana ''has provided dual-use technology to rogue states'' that could support biological-weapon programs. ''That assessment and our concerns have not changed in the intervening 2 1⁄2 months,'' he said.

DISCUSS THE EVIDENCE
He noted that ''Cuba's sophisticated denial and deception practices'' make ''even more difficult'' the task of procuring incontrovertible proof that it is engaged in illicit biological-weapons research, production, weaponization and stockpiling. He said that his remarks in an open forum would be necessarily limited, but he volunteered to ''discuss the evidence we do have in a closed session or to leave behind a classified statement for the record.'' The administration has ''a sound basis'' for its judgment on Cuba, he assured.

Questioned by Sen. Lincoln Chaffee, R-R.I., Ford added: 'We feel very confident about saying that they're working and have been working on an effort that would give them BW [biological weapons] -- limited BW offensive capabilities. And that's serious enough to tell you about it. If we didn't think it was important, if we didn't think that was a dangerous thing, we would have looked at the evidence, said, 'This is all bogus, and there's nothing here worth reporting.' I wouldn't have given it in my March 16 speech. I wouldn't be back here today telling you it [Cuba] had limited offensive BW capability if I didn't think that was a pretty important thing for you to know.''

As an old Spanish aphorism puts it: A buen entendedor, pocas palabras bastan. (A word to the wise is sufficient, enough said.)

Frank Calzon is Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that promotes human rights and democracy for Cuba.