U.S. shouldn't have 'to subsidize spying against' itself, replies official
By I.J. Toby Westerman. © 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. Tuesday July 25 2000.
The Russian government has condemned the U.S. House of Representatives for seeking to "slow or scuttle" Russian economic reforms, and to "impose its own will" on the world, according to official sources.
The Voice of Russia World Service -- the official broadcasting service of the Russian government -- says Moscow is reacting angrily to a bill passed by the House of Representatives linking the rescheduling of Russian debt to the dismantling of the Russian spy base in Lourdes, Cuba. The passage
of the law is "further evidence to the world community" that the United States has "the habit of interfering in the relations of friendly states," as well as "flouting international law." Moscow stated that the demand to close the spy base in exchange for rescheduling
its debt amounted to "the imposition of new sanctions on Russia."
The House bill, which passed by a margin of 275 to 146, requires the United States to link further rescheduling of Russia's debt to the closure of the Lourdes spy base.
Observers estimate that the Russian government pumps some $300 million per year into Lourdes, which is capable of intercepting U.S. telecommunications -- from telephone to computer operations.
Moscow equates the function of its Lourdes base to that of U.S. radar installations in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, in Greenland and in Britain.
WorldNetDaily contacted the office of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., sponsor of the bill, H.R. 4118, that links the closure of the Lourdes spy base to the rescheduling of the Russian debt. Ros-Lehtinen's press secretary, Rudy Fernandez, sees a contradiction in Russia's seeking debt relief
from the U.S. while spending some $300 million annually on the Lourdes cyber spy base.
"The U.S. taxpayers should not have to fund" what is generally regarded as "the largest spy facility outside of the borders of the former Soviet Union," he said. That is, the people of the United States should not be required "to subsidize spying against the U.S.,"
he said.
Fernandez also stated that the large Cuban base could even be a source of cyber attack against the U.S.
According to Moscow, the Lourdes site is merely a radar installation needed to verify compliance with arms control agreements, and that the House bill constitutes an "American demand" on the Russian government as to how Russia is to "monitor global strategic stability."
Russian claims of urgency over the need to monitor U.S. arms control compliance are regarded as questionable, since Russia has been guilty of 16 major, documented arms control violations since the breakup of the Soviet Union, a record reported by WorldNetDaily in "16 ways to cheat on arms
control."
Ironically, while Moscow demands "no interference" with its sophisticated Cuban cyber spy base, it evidently feels free to threaten other nations who cooperate with the U.S. In April, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov accused Norway of permitting its soil to be used for the
deployment of an advanced U.S. radar facility for the tracking of Russian missile launches. The Norwegian facility, Moscow stated, was to be part of the U.S. anti-missile system, and it warned darkly of "serious consequences" to its neighbor "if Oslo cooperates with the U.S."
The House bill passed by an almost 2-1 margin. The Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., will go before the Foreign Relations Committee most likely in September. President Clinton has threatened to veto the measure.
Editor's note: Readers who would like to express their views or ask a question of the White House, their congressional representative, or even their local media -- about this or any other issue -- may use WorldNetDaily's state-of-the-art Legislative
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Editor's note: WND's multi-lingual reporter Toby Westerman specializes in monitoring global shortwave broadcasts and reading foreign-language news journals for information not readily available from the domestic press. Each month, Westerman presents a special in-depth report in
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