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Cuba: Bush Administration Gave No Hint of Weapon Claims, Carter Says Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter yesterday said Bush administration officials had told him before he traveled to Cuba that there was no indication that Cuba had helped other countries to develop weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, May 13). “I asked them specifically, on more than one occasion, ‘Is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes?’” Carter said. “And the answer from our experts on intelligence was ‘No.’” U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation John Bolton last week said Cuba has been developing a limited offensive biological weapons program and might have aided other rogue nations in their biological weapons programs. While touring the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, Carter asked Director Luis Herrera if the facility had given other countries technology that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction, according to the Washington Post. Herrera said no, adding that although Cuba has technology transfer programs with several countries — including Iran, China and Egypt — they are only for scientific and medical purposes. Cuba does not have transfer programs with Libya and Iraq or any intention of starting such programs, Herrera said. Administration Stands by Claims The U.S. State Department said it supports Bolton’s claims on a possible Cuban biological warfare program. “Secretary Bolton’s remarks reflect the consensus of what the administration’s experts believes about Cuba and its biological weapons capability,” the department said in a statement (Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post, May 14). Cuba has the capabilities required to produce biological weapons, although they probably have not conducted any actual production, said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. “As Undersecretary Bolton said recently, we do believe Cuba has a biological offensive research capability,” Powell said en route to a NATO meeting in Iceland. “We didn’t say it actually had some weapons but it has the capacity and capability to conduct such research.” “Undersecretary Bolton’s speech ... was not breaking new ground,” Powell said (Reuters, May 14). The ability to conduct biological weapons research, however, can easily spill over into production of biological weapons agents, said U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. “You can’t show someone a biotech lab and be assured they’re not creating weapons of mass destruction,” Rice said. “That’s not how biotech weapons work. And they’re actually very easy to conceal and you need multiple measures to make certain biotech weapons aren’t being developed and transferred” (David Gonzalez, New York Times, May 14).
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