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Frank Calzon. Posted on Wed, Jun. 19, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
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 ½ 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.) | 
