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Disinformation diverts terror efforts
Editorial. Posted on Mon, Sep. 23, 2002
The Miami Herald.
That the Cuban regime would offer U.S. officials misleading terrorism tips
should surprise no one. The regime's protestations notwithstanding, the
widespread antics of Cuban intelligence are well known. So is Fidel Castro's ill
will and compulsion to jab at the United States.
The State Department has every reason to denounce the regime's newest
disinformation campaign. Last week, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western
Hemisphere Dan Fisk said that Cuban intelligence agents have been feeding a
steady stream of "false leads seeking to misdirect the investigation.''
The fake leads began to flow on the very day of the Sept. 11 attacks and
have continued monthly. Tips from Cuban agents on at least three continents have
led U.S. authorities on ''wild goose chases intentionally initiated by the
Castro regime,'' Fisk said.
Such a campaign has diverted resources better spent on real
counter-terrorism efforts. ''This is not harmless game-playing; it is a
dangerous and unjustifiable action that damages our ability to assess real
threats,'' Fisk said.
Cuba's foreign minister emphatically denied the accusations as ''a colossal
lie.'' We think he protests too much -- perhaps because he is projecting his
regime's propensity to twist the truth.
U.S. authorities have seen Cuban agents peddle disinformation before,
particularly in false tips about Cuban exiles. And there's no question that
there are plenty of Cuban agents around to do the regime's bidding. Five of them
were convicted on espionage charges in Miami last year. Among their jobs was to
represent themselves as radically violent exiles -- in letters and calls to the
media and politicians -- and in doing so, make all Cuban Americans look bad.
Ana Belén Montes, a convicted Cuban mole, was a veteran Pentagon
intelligence analyst until arrested last year. She's cooperating with U.S.
authorities now, but it's impossible to calculate how much disinformation she
spread in the 16 years she worked for Cuban intelligence.
The Cuban intelligence service is quite good at what it does. It trained in
the best tradition of the former Soviet bloc and has had four decades to hone
its techniques. Worldwide, its long-term efforts to paint Cuba as a socialist
paradise still are paying off.
The false terrorism tips may have been intended to divert the United States
from any leads that could tie Cuba's regime to terrorism. The possibility of
such ties isn't a stretch given the regime's decades of training and harboring
international terrorists, including Palestinians and Syrians, and its relations
with other rogue nations such as Libya and Iran.
Just as easily, Castro may have wanted to retaliate since the Bush
administration rightly has rebuffed his repeated offers to cooperate.
The disinformation campaign also may have been intended to play the
administration as a patsy -- which it is not. The administration knows that
Castro's newest charm offensive is simply his latest desperate ploy to cling to
power in the face of growing internal opposition. | 
