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Cuba: No Biological Weapons Program, Bush Administration Official Says By David Ruppe The official said that the United States has no direct proof of biological weapons work, apparently clarifying recent administration comments widely taken to suggest otherwise (see GSN, May 7). “We never tried to suggest we had a smoking gun,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Carl Ford, appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The term “effort,” as explained by Ford, refers to Cuba’s dual-use “facilities and capabilities,” intended ostensibly for nonmilitary biomedical production, but which could be used for offensive military purposes. It is “the research and development necessary to create BW weapons,” he said. Cuba has a “robust” biotechnology infrastructure, he said, which includes trained medical and scientific personnel, research into various human and animal diseases, biological containment facilities and other research facilities, he said. “They have everything you need to build an offensive biological weapon.” Ford stopped short, however, of saying the United States has direct evidence that Cuba is using those biotechnological capabilities to develop biological weapons. There is a difficulty of clearly identifying whether biological capabilities are being used for weapons work, “owing to the dual-use nature of the technology and materials used to support a BW program,” he said, in a prepared statement to the committee. Capabilities, No Program Ford, furthermore, said Cuba does not have a program to develop biological weapons or their delivery systems. The criteria for determining whether a country has a weapons “program” were developed during the Cold War, Ford said, describing how a weapons program would include “test facilities, weapons, development weapons production, the weaponization process in sort of its entirety.” “If you look at what we see going on in Cuba, we don’t see that sort of thing,” Ford said. “I certainly see no indications that there is a first strike capability or an effort to strike the United States,” he added. Nevertheless, Cuba’s biological capabilities should be a concern to the United States, considering that biological agents can be delivered without a sophisticated delivery platform, Ford said. “Though we make a distinction between a program and an effort, it’s not to suggest that an effort cannot help you,” he said. Criticism The official’s comments, which were made at a hearing examining whether Cuba is in fact pursuing biological weapons, appeared to clarify comments made by Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John R. Bolton earlier this year. Those comments were widely taken to mean the Bush Administration believes Cuba is developing biological weapons. “The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research-and-development effort,” said Bolton on May 6, speaking at the Heritage Foundation. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter took issue with the “allegation of bioterrorism,” saying he had been briefed by U.S. authorities, who provided no indication Cuba has such program (see GSN, May 14). Carter said the allegations “were made maybe not coincidentally just before our visit to Cuba.” “There is a lot of rhetoric around this, made by a very high ranking administration official,” said Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), noting, “there are various people trying to spin this thing. That concerns me.”
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