Yahoo! June 14, 2001
WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department pulled back Wednesday from a
statement by a senior department official who told a House subcommittee that
China has transferred military equipment to Cuba.
Spokesman Philip Reeker said Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly
testified only that the Bush administration "would take seriously'' Chinese
military transfers to Cuba.
According to a transcript of Kelly's remarks, however, the assistant
secretary said: "We are very much concerned with this PLA (People's
Liberation Army) cooperation and movement of military equipment in Cuba.''
A department official, speaking privately, said Kelly had misspoken.
The issue arose Tuesday when Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (news - bio - voting
record), R-Calif., asked Kelly about a report in The Washington Times. The
report, based on intelligence information, said China was shipping arms and
explosives to Cuba.
Reeker noted that it is long-standing administration policy not to comment
on intelligence matters.
"We'll follow these things. We'll follow allegations. But we're not
going to make additional news based on reports in newspapers that we haven't
confirmed,'' he said.
"If there are reports to this nature, they are things that we follow.
... Allegations of this nature are serious matters, and we take them very
seriously. And we will obviously work to examine all the evidence to verify
existence of any such shipments.''
Under law, economic sanctions must be applied to countries that transfer
lethal military equipment to nations on the State Department's list of countries
that sponsor international terrorism. Cuba has been on the list for years. | 