Global Security Newswire

The Bush administration reaffirmed this week its assessment that Cuba could be using its biotechnology industry to research and develop biological weapons (see GSN, Nov. 19, 2003).

“The administration believes that Cuba remains a terrorist and BW threat to the United States,” said U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton in prepared testimony Tuesday to the House International Relations Committee.

“We are concerned that Cuba is developing a limited biological weapons effort,” he said, also charging that Cuba has aided biotechnology research — “including extensive dual-use technologies with BW applications” — in other countries listed as state sponsors of terrorism.

Bolton restated language used by administration officials in 2002 to describe their concerns over Cuba: “The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited developmental offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states. We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.”

Despite his charges, definitive findings on Cuba’s biological weapons plans were difficult to make, Bolton said, because “existing intelligence reporting is problematic, and the intelligence community’s ability to determine the scope, nature and effectiveness of any Cuban BW program has been hampered by reporting from sources of questionable access, reliability and motivation.”

Nevertheless, “I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba[n] BW R&D effort is strong,” Bolton said (U.S. House International Relations Committee release, March 30).

Cuba lashed out at Bolton for his comments, accusing him of seeking “pretexts and justifications” for a U.S. attack, Reuters reported today.

“Mr. Bolton either suffers from schizophrenia, a permanent obsession with Cuba or doesn’t have an ounce of shame,” Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said. “U.S. public opinion knows that our country has rejected the accusations that we produce violent weapons or conduct research on biological arms, that all this is false,” he said (Reuters, April 1).