Miami Herald. Posted at 1:28 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 18, 2000 Castro jokes about interest in his tennis shoes
HAVANA -- (AP) -- A playful Fidel Castro joked about the intense interest in the brand of tennis shoes he wore during his May Day march with hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers
``I'm willing to negotiate for X amount for tennis shoes for children, for athletes,'' he teased during a Wednesday evening speech to Cuban farmers. ``And then I'll show off myself with the name of the brand on the tennies.
``It never even occurred to me to look and see the brand,'' he said. ``Do you know what brand it was. DO YOU?
``Well, I'm not going to say because I'm not going to be involved in advertising, and that's that,'' he said, drawing laughs from the hundreds gathered in the capital's Conventions Palace.
Cuba's communist government frowns on the glorification of product brands, saying such capitalist practices clash with its socialist principles.
Speculation had been rampant about the brand of tennis shoes Castro was wearing on May 1 with his traditional olive green uniform. Generally he wears black military style boots.
The 73-year-old leader said he got the shoes from Cuba's National Sports Institute when he asked for something comfortable to wear for the march.
FBI: Faget's contacts were Cuban spies
Intelligence officers under close surveillance, federal agent says
By David Kidwell. dkidwell@herald.com
The two Cuban Interests Section officials who met and tried to befriend former Miami immigration supervisor Mariano Faget were classified as ``known'' Cuban spies by the FBI, the bureau's top Miami agent said Thursday at Faget's espionage trial.
Hector Pesquera, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office, testified that his agents attempted to monitor every move of the two ``known Cuban intelligence officers'' Luis Molina and Jose Imperatore.
It is the first time the U.S. government has confirmed that belief, even though Imperatore was expelled from the United States earlier this year. Both Molina and Imperatore have denied they were spies.
Details of what led authorities to classify the men as spies remain secret.
It was the intense surveillance of Molina that led the FBI to suspect Faget, a 34-year veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami who was seen meeting with Molina at a Miami airport hotel bar Feb. 19, 1999.
``We have an INS employee who had a security clearance and access to any number of sensitive and classified documents who was in unequivocable, direct contact with known intelligence officers of the Cuban government,'' Pesquera told the jury. ``That in and of itself was enough to heighten my
concern.''
Faget and his attorneys acknowledge his relationship with the two Cubans, but say he was merely trying to build business contacts for a post-Castro Cuba. Faget had an undisclosed interest in America-Cuba Inc., a company established to represent retailers looking to enter Cuba once the U.S.
embargo is lifted.
Faget, 54, is charged with disclosing government secrets to his lifelong friend and America-Cuba partner Pedro Font, who also had contact with Molina and Imperatore. Faget is also charged with making false statements and failing to disclose his business interests.
Pesquera said the investigation began to focus on Faget immediately after he was identified as meeting with Molina.
But it wasn't until nearly a year later, on Feb. 11, 2000, that the FBI attempted ``a dangle'' -- the term used to describe an investigation where a piece of allegedly classified information is given to a suspected spy who is then watched.
Faget, authorities say, took the bait.
Jurors at Faget's trial watched FBI videotapes of a Feb. 11 meeting at Faget's office between Faget, Pesquera and an INS Assistant Director James Goldman.
Pesquera was seeking Faget's assistance in obtaining immigration documents for Molina, who was defecting, Pesquera told Faget. Pesquera told Faget repeatedly that the operation was secret, sensitive and classified.
``Let me tell you something,'' Faget told them. ``I need, I don't know if this is going to make a difference. I've met this guy before. . . . He was at the Interests Section in Cuba, in Washington, D.C., and I went to a dinner here one day and he happened to be there.''
``That's it?'' Pesquera asked. ``That's your only contact with him?''
``That's the only contact.''
At the time, Faget had met Molina on at least three occasions, once at Font's Connecticut home.
After Pesquera and Goldman left the office, the tapes continued to roll. Twelve minutes elapsed before Faget telephoned Font -- who was set to meet with Imperatore that day -- to pass along the secrets.
Faget says he was only trying to protect Font in case the Cuban officials tried to blame him for the defection.
``Seems certain things are happening in Cuba,'' Faget told Font in Spanish. ``Certain negotiations, and a person we both know, that was in Washington before and now is in Cuba.''
``Yes?'' Font said.
``Seems he's one of the ones working with the Americans,'' Faget said. ``Seems something pretty big is happening, so that you know, in case these people ask you two or three questions and catch you off base. Don't say anything. . . .''
Faget's attorney Ed O'Donnell was not allowed to cross-examine Pesquera on the classified evidence the government has that Imperatore and Molina are spies, but jurors were allowed briefly to view portions of Molina's secret FBI file.
If convicted, Faget faces about five years in prison. The trial is set to resume Monday.
Faget is expected to testify in his own defense.
FBI: We stalked 2 Cuban officials
Miami missions noted in spy trial
By David Kidwell. dkidwell@herald.com
FBI surveillance teams conducted as many as 200 missions in Miami since 1997 trying to catch two Cuban Interests Section officials they suspected were spies, an FBI specialist testified Wednesday at the espionage trial of former U.S. immigration supervisor Mariano Faget.
Neither of the Cuban officials -- Luis Molina and his successor at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, Jose Imperatore -- has ever been charged. Both have since returned to Cuba -- Imperatore on expulsion orders from the U.S. government.
John Bell, a 12-year investigative specialist for the FBI, described in detail one surveillance mission on Molina in which Faget made an appearance, but said the total number of missions topped ``100, maybe even 200.''
Faget, now facing charges that he divulged classified information to a friend with ties to the suspected spies, first showed up on surveillance logs Feb. 19, 1999, at a meeting with Molina at Pitcher's Bar at the Miami Airport Marriott.
``They shook hands and greeted each other warmly, consistent with two people who had met before,'' said Bell, who had taken a seat at the bar and watched their 90-minute conversation. ``Mr. Faget raised his glass in a toast. They clinked glasses and proceeded to have their beverages.''
When Faget was questioned about the meeting a year later, he described it as less than friendly. He told FBI agents the meeting was short and stilted because Molina lacked social graces and conversational skills.
Faget, 54, a longtime supervisor with top-secret security clearance at the Miami office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was charged with divulging secrets after an FBI sting in February in which he was asked to process immigration documents for Molina's top-secret defection, one
cooked up by the FBI to see what Faget would do.
Within 15 minutes, Faget used his private cell phone to call a lifelong friend and business partner with the news. That friend, Pedro Font, then left his New York office for a scheduled meeting with Imperatore, of the Cuban Interests Section.
Faget argues he made the call to protect Font in case Cuban officials suspected he was involved in the defection.
U.S. Prosecutor Richard Gregorie, in opening remarks Wednesday, described Faget's leak as motivated by greed, not politics. Both Faget and Font were partners in America-Cuba Inc., a company attempting to build business contacts for a post-Castro Cuba.
``This case is not about political ideology,'' Gregorie told the 11-woman, one-man jury, which includes six Cuban immigrants. ``We're not talking about communism. This has nothing to do with whether you like the embargo or you don't like the embargo. This case is about three things: money,
information and access.
``They were interested in making money,'' Gregorie said. ``He's more interested in his retirement money and his business interests in America-Cuba than in his loyalty to the United States of America.''
Gregorie said he will present evidence that Faget had access to 57 sensitive law enforcement files and 21 classified intelligence files -- 16 of which involved Cubans.
O'Donnell portrayed his client as an avowed anti-communist and a fierce loyalist. O'Donnell said the government's case is based on ``misinterpreted meetings'' and one inappropriate phone call to a friend.
``You'll never meet a less greedy man than this,'' O'Donnell told the jurors. ``He feels a tremendous loyalty to his friends. He made a mistake, but there were no crimes committed here.''
A U.S. State Department official also testified Wednesday that Molina and Imperatore lied on travel documents that require them to state whether they intend to meet with U.S. government officials.
Faget is charged with divulging classified information, converting it for his own use, and making false statements to the FBI and on immigration records.
Judge in spotlight on Cuba issue
Moreno commended Dade's policy on arts groups while striking it down
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com
Federal Judge Federico Moreno was born in Venezuela, raised in Indiana, studied international relations at Notre Dame University, graduated from the University of Miami Law School, speaks English, French and Spanish fluently, and likes to travel with his family to France every summer.
In the past decade, Moreno, 48, also has been in the middle of many Miami cases with a foreign flavor.
Among them: his decision Tuesday to temporarily ban Miami-Dade County from requiring local arts groups that apply for county grants to pledge they will not do business with Cuban artists and other interests.
To colleagues who have known him for years, the amiable, modest, straight-talking judge made the right legal decision -- even they know that Moreno would have liked to sock it to Cuban President Fidel Castro.
``If there was ever a person who could rule against Castro on an issue where the law warranted it, Judge Moreno would be the one,'' said Bob Martinez, a former U.S. attorney in Miami. ``But here he ruled on constitutional grounds because he felt constrained to follow the law.''
Indeed, in his ruling, Moreno commended the cause behind the county's so-called Cuba Affidavit, a sworn statement that requires grant applicants to say they have never done business directly or indirectly with Cuba.
``The stated purpose of the `Cuba Affidavit' is to protest and condemn Cuba's totalitarian regime, an admittedly commendable cause,'' the judge wrote in his 17-page opinion.
``This sweepingly broad ordinance is intended to punish Cuba, not protect the citizens of Miami-Dade County. The county, at its own expense, nobly seeks to discourage any form of trade with Cuba. Precisely for these reasons, the [policy] is outside the scope of the county's power.''
Moreno, a Republican who lives with his lawyer wife Maria Cristina and their three children in Coral Gables, is no stranger to tough cases.
Moreno made his mark as a criminal defense attorney before he was appointed as a county court judge in 1986 by Gov. Bob Graham.
At the time, Moreno said he moved from Indiana to Miami to attend law school and then put down roots. ``I married a Cuban girl, and her father imposed a restriction that I stay in Dade County,'' he told The Herald. ``I'm glad I did.''
In 1987, Gov. Bob Martinez promoted Moreno to the state circuit bench. And in 1990, President George Bush nominated Moreno to the federal bench in Miami, and he breezed through the Senate confirmation. He became the first judge born in Latin America to take the federal bench in South Florida.
Two years later, Bush nominated Moreno to a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. But it was not acted on before Bush lost the White House to Clinton in 1992.
In his decade on the federal bench, Moreno has presided over some big-time cases -- including the 1991 conviction of Sarkis Soghanalian, a Lebanese arms dealer who conspired to smuggle combat helicopters and rocket launchers from the United States to Iraq.
Another high-profile case was the 1996 acquittal of Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta on charges of operating one of the longest-running cocaine businesses in South Florida history. Federal prosecutors later learned that the verdict was tainted because the jury foreman was bribed by the cocaine
kingpins.
Moreno's latest decision on the county's Cuba policy also drew the media spotlight. Some of the judge's longtime colleagues said his ruling was vintage Moreno.
``A lot of people might not like his decision, but it was brave because it was the right thing to do,'' said lawyer Dennis Kainen, president of the Dade County Bar Association. ``I realize there is a lot of passion in this community. Someone not as brave might have wanted to placate the majority
opinion.''
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |