CUBA THE THREAT

CUBA: THE THREAT

By Dr. Manuel Cereijo *
Analysis
La Nueva Cuba
March 12, 2006

The Beginning

In 1982, Dr. Ernesto Bravo, from the Medical School, Universidad de La
Habana, a biochemist, visited Boston University. Dr. Lynn Margulis, then
at Boston University, introduced Dr. Harlyn O. Halvorson to Dr. Bravo.
Dr. Bravo's real mission was to develop interactions between Cuban and
United States scientists. Soon, in summer 1983, Dr. Margulis and Dr.
Halvorson visited Cuba. Shortly thereafter they created an organization
called North American/Cuban Scientific Exchange, known by NACSEX.

NACSEX organized visits of scientists to Cuba to exchange ideas and
information. About 80 individuals were part of this program which
continued in the 1980's and still is going on. These first visits led to
a series of training programs. Primarily, new molecular biology
technology from the United States was brought to the attention of active
young Cuban scientists. Courses were given in La Habana. Advice was
provided to a growing program. The Cuban medical and engineering
community built a basic infrastructure in a very short period of time.

In 1985, NACSEX conducted the Second International Seminar on
Biotechnology and Interferon in Cuba. Dr. Silva Rodriguez, a well known
Cuban scientist, spent then 3 months at University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, learning new technology related to biotechnology and genetic
engineering from Dr. Robert Zimmerman, a prominent United States scientist.

At this time also, during a visit of Castro to the Soviet Union, in
February 1981, Castro visited a laboratory where E. coli bacteria had
been genetically altered to produce interferon. Castro's interest
resulted in obtaining the help of Brezhnev, and immediately a strain of
E. coli was sent to Cuba, along with the equipment and working technology.

General Vladimir Lebedinsky, from the Soviet Union, visited Cuba in
1982, at Castro's personal invitation, with a team of military
scientists. They assisted then the young Cuban scientists who were
engaged in the creation of what can be considered today one of the most
sophisticated genetic engineering labs in the world-capable of the kind
of advanced bioweapons research done in Russia, Iraq, and North Korea.

The Development

Cuba's biotechnology sector has come a long way since 1981. It is the
world's second-largest producer, by volume, of Alpha interferon. Cuba is
also the only country, besides highly developed nations, producing a
range of human and recombinant interferon on an industrial scale.

Cuba's research centers have also produced monoclonal antibodies, as
well as chemically synthesized gene fragments and breakthroughs in
virological research. One center, the most important one, the Center for
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, CIGB, handles the research on
proteins, hormones, vaccines DNA probes, modification of enzymes,
biomass, and cell genetics.

The biotechnology program has focused on the following areas:

· development of genetic engineering

· origination of vaccines, biological preparations

· development of biotechnology for immunochemical applications

· production of monoclonal antibodies

· research with fetus

· medical microbiology and tropical medicine

· production of in vitro cultures

· manipulation of embryos

Cuba has had long practice in the art of deceiving outsiders, not to
mention its own people. There is an official version for the general
public and the outside world, one official version for the scientific
community, and yet another secret series of activities known only to a
small group of elite scientists and military personnel working on these
centers.

Despite the country's achievements in research and development, it has
made limited progress in selling its products worldwide. At a 1993 trade
fair, Foreign Trade Minister Ricardo Cabrisas reported that medical
products had accounted for 10% of the value of exports in 1992. But more
than half of that figure corresponded to sales of a meningitis vaccine
to Brazil.

A considerable proportion of the rest was sales of interferon to China.
It is estimated that, since 1991, Castro has spent over $3,500 million
dollars in the development of this sector. In 1998, according to Cuba's
official figures, the government spent $95 million dollars in
modernizing the facilities.

A report submitted by the U.S. Office of Technological Assessment to
hearings at the Senate identified seventeen countries believed to
possess biological weapons- Libya, North Korea, South Korea,Taiwan,
Syria, Israel, Iran, China, Egypt, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Bulgaria, India,
South Africa, and Russia.

Main Centers

Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

The most important institution in Cuba's biotechnology industry is the
Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, CIGB. It was
established in La Habana, in 1986, at a cost of $150 million dollars.
Located west of La Habana, 31 Ave, between 158 and 190 Streets, Cubanacan.

The CIGB has the most modern and efficient technology for bioscientific
research as well as facilities for manufacturing and continuous work
flow. It has a total area of 60,000 square meters. The Center has
state-of-the-art equipment, second only to the United States in the
Americas.

At the center work outstanding scientists and engineers dedicated to
genetic research, virology, cloning, with the capacity to develop
bioweapons, such as anthrax, smallpox, Ebola, and others.

The main CIGB buildings cover an area of 43,200 square meters and
contain specialized labs for both general purposes and dedicated
research. The CIGB has a biotherium, barrier zones or white rooms, which
allow research with sensitive and lethal agents. The CIGB's modern and
efficient technological equipment includes mass spectrometers, infrared
and ultraviolet, electron and scanning microscopes, gamma counters, DNA
synthesizers. Also, and very important, downstream fermenters, drying
and milling machines, centrifuges, which can, therefore guarantee
research and development of bioweapons, such as bacteria and virus agents.

In the CIGB work more than 700 highly skilled researchers, scientists,
and engineers. Russians scientists cooperated with the CIGB several
times, including, according to certain intelligence sources, assisting
in the development of altered strains of bacteria. Major General Yury
Kalinin, chief of the Main Directorate, and Deputy Minister of Russia,
was invited to Cuba in 1990 to discuss the creation of a new
biotechnology plant ostensibly devoted to single-cell protein.

To facilitate the development of biological agents without suspicion,
the CIGB has efficient, flexible, and dynamic organizations. It is
structured into several large sub-directions made up, in turn, by a
number of divisions with specifically oriented work lines.

The main ones are: research and development in diseases in humans;
development of new vaccines by genetic engineering; recombination of
enzymes; analysis, design and modeling of peptides and proteins.

The process of weaponizing anthrax, for example, can be done easily at
these facilities. A few grains of freeze- dried bacteria are kept in a
stoppered vial. Then, a small amount of a nutrient medium is put into
the vial. A mother culture is created. With tiny pipettes, a scientist
draws the mixture out of the vial and transfers a small amount into
several slightly larger bottles. The bottles are left to incubate in a
thermostatic oven for two days. So far, this process is very similar to
the one to make a vaccine.

A seed stock in a standard vial will swell to billions of microorganisms
after 48 hours, but it will take weeks to of brewing to produce the
quantities required for weaponization. Once the culture emerges from the
oven, it is siphoned off into large flasks. The flasks are taken into a
special room where they are connected to air-bubbling machines, which
turn the liquid into a light froth. The bacteria can grow now more
efficiently.

Each new generation of bacteria is transferred into larger vessels,
until is vacuum pressure into fermenters. These fermenters incubate the
substance for two days. The bacteria continue to multiply until
scientists decide they have reached maximum concentration. At this
point, they process it through a centrifuge to be concentrated as much
as thirty times further.

Fermenters, and centrifuges, are equipment very similar to the ones used
in the dairy industry, in the sugar industry, and liquor industries.
These are industries where Cuba has had experience for years. Therefore,
the equipment is now manufactured in Cuba. Even at this stage, there is
not a weapon. The pathogen has to be mixed with special additives to
stabilize it over a long period. A scientist works with recipes. The raw
ingredients are similar, but quantities and combinations of nutrient
media, heat, and time vary. If something fails, the scientist has to
start all over again.

Smallpox, as mentioned before, requires no concentration. Also, it is a
virus, not bacteria. Tissue cells are obtained from animals or humans.
The tissue has to be kept alive outside its natural habitat in cell
lines and stored at precise temperatures. Cells can be taken from the
kidneys of green monkeys or from the lungs of human embryos.

The nutrient media needed to cultivate tissue cultures are different
from those used to grow bacteria. A special complex of amino acids,
vitamins, salts, and sera, distilled with de-ionized water, is crucial
to the process that promote tissue cells and ultimately viruses to grow.
The CIGB, in conjunction with other Cuban biological centers and
institutes, like the Finlay Institute, or the Biocen, are quite capable
of weaponizing such agents.

Commercially, the CIGB has developed a number of preparations, such as:

· Heberbiovac HB, a hepatitis B recombinant vaccine, the production of
which has now been switched to a new purpose-built plant

· Heberkinasa, a recombinant streptokinase. Applied by intravenous or
intra-coronary injection, it rapidly dissolves life-threatening blood
clots. This product is one of 50 types of enzymes obtained in Cuba

· Hebermin, a healing and antiseptic cream containing human recombinant
epidermal growth factor.

· Hebertrans, which contains human transfer factor obtained from human
leukocytes. It is used to treat herpectic infections

The CIGB also has a computer network created in 1991 to provide computer
communications, database access, information services and data
processing to the Cuban scientific research community.

Biocen

The National Bio-preparations center, Biocen, located in Bejucal, south
of Habana province, at Carretera de Beltran km 1 1/2 is engaged in
industrial scale production of human vaccines. Also, culture media,
nutritive bases and a wide range of genetic engineering products,
developed at the CIGB and the Finlay Institute. It was created in 1992,
at a cost of $15 million dollars.

Biocen's culture media plant has an annual 40 tons capacity. It is
equipped to carry out homogenization, hydrolisis, dehydration, milling,
sifting, filtration, and several other processes required not only for
the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, but for bacteria and virus
weaponization. A new department that manufactures recombinant products
went into operation in 1993. The complex also includes a plant producing
immunological reagents and two vivaria labs.

Innovative techniques have been developed at Biocen for obtaining
culture media, substituting the traditional expensive nutritive bases,
like meat, casein. They have developed 14 alternative protein sources.
The development is vital for the creation of bioweapons.

Among Biocen's special products are allergenic extracts, dust mites,
insects, atmospheric fungi. A prominent Cuban scientist, Dr. Mario
Estrada has done extensive research on fish-transgenesis with the
assistance of the CIGB. Most of the more lethal toxins are developed
from fish and marine research.

Biocen follows the organization and functions of the Soviet Union, now
Russia, mos important center, Biopreparat. Biocen can be considered the
brains of the weapons program, and secrecy is vital. It supplies the
scientific and engineering expertise for the projects commissioned by
the military.

Staff members do not know what colleagues in other parts of the
organization are doing. Yet, even the most furtive networks are made of
human beings. However, gossip, rivalry, desertion, allows information of
secret activities to be known.

The Finlay Institute

The Carlos J. Finlay Medical Research Institute is commercially best
known for the development of the world's first effective vaccine against
both meningitis B and C. It is located in Ave. 27, No. 19805, La Lisa,
Habana. The Institute occupies an area of 23,000 square meters, divided

into three areas: fermentation, purification, and "clean rooms". Over
950 persons work at the Institute. Of these, 60% are engineers and
scientists.

The Institute has done extensive work in the research and development of
new vaccines. Among them are vaccines against Leptospirosis, Hepatitis,
Cholera, and Meningitis. The Plant III area is well prepared for the
production of bioweapons.

The main areas of research and production of the Institute are related
to bacteria and viruses. The Institute has been as important as the CIGB
in the research and production of bioweapons. Commercially, it has
worked on research and production of vaccines.

The Institute of Tropical Medicine

The Institute was founded in 1937 by Dr. Flori, a very well known Cuban
scientist. The center's research area is in microbiology. The Institute
has the necessary state-of the-art equipment for research and
development of bioweapons related to tropical bacteria and viruses.

Lately, the Institute has done extensive work on the strains of viruses
and cells related to parainfluenza 3, adenovirus 3, measles, and
influenza type A. Hep2 two cell line was grown in minimum essential
medium, MEM, containing 10% fetal calf serum, 1% glutamine, 100 U/ml
penicillin and 100 mg/ml streptomycin sulfate.

Clinical specimens were processed using nasopharyngeal exudates of
children who had been admitted to the William Soler Pediatric Hospital,
in La Habana. An extensive scientific process was followed to evaluate
the ability of the RNA-PCR method.

The Institute has also conducted extensive research on yellow fever.
Yellow fever is a viral disease that has caused large epidemics in the
world. Infection causes a wide spectrum of disease, from mild symptoms
to severe illness and death. The yellow in the name is explained by the
jaundice that affects some patients. The disease is caused by the yellow
fever virus, which belongs to the flavivirus group.

The virus remains silent in the body during an incubation period of
three to six days. There are two disease phases. Those patients who
enter into the second phase or toxic phase develop jaundice, bleeding,
kidney function deteriorates. Half of the patients in the toxic phase
die within 10 days.

A weaponized yellow fever virus produces a strong strain of what is
known as urban yellow fever. There is no specific treatment for yellow
fever. Prevention is through vaccination. There are other tropical
disease that could be used as bioweapons, such as: malaria,
dracunculiasis, filariasis, leishmaniasis, dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Dengue is caused by the Dengue viruses. The disease is tropical in
origin. There is no specific treatment available. Intravenous fluids and
oxygen therapy are often used for patients who experience shock during
their illness. Dengue is characterized by the rapid development of
fever, intense headache, joint and muscle pain, and a rash.

The hemorrhagic form of dengue fever is more severe and associated with
loss of appetite, vomiting, and high fever. Untreated hemorrhagic dengue
results in death in up to 30 percent of cases.

The Institute is probably the best in the world in research and
development related to tropical diseases. The Institute is funded in
many activities by UNESCO, OMS, and the French government.

CIM

The Center for Molecular Immunology is a 15,000 square meter, two floor
facility., built at a cost of $20 million dollars. Over 250 employees
work at the Center, of which, 200 are scientists and engineers. The
ground floor includes development, pharmacology, and toxicology. The
auxiliary technical services, and secret research and development are on
the second floor. Hollow fiber, fermenters, and "cleaning in place"
units are installed on this floor.

Their main research activities are on antibodies-hybridoma, molecular
biology, cellular immunology. CIM has laboratories equipped for cell
culture, immunochemistry, and radiochemistry. Their work on the immune
system is related to the development of stronger strains of virus and
bacteria. The Center has all the pertinent equipment to produce

Conclusions

There was a slippery interrelation between Soviet support to scientific
programs to Cuba and Cuba's ability to develop biological weapons. For
many years, the Soviet Union organized courses in genetic engineering
and molecular biology for Cuban scientists. Scientists from the United
States also organized courses, seminars, and other similar activities in
Cuba since 1981. Many prominent European scientists have also cooperated
in the development of Cuba's biotechnological industry in the last 20 years.

There has been a constant exchange of scientific information, visiting
scientists, technology transfer from the Soviet Union and the United
States to Cuba. The Soviet Union sold industrial fermentation equipment
vessels to Cuba. The models were the ones used to develop and
manufacture bacterial biological weapons.

Cuba also acquired equipment from other European countries under the
excuse that the equipment was intended to grow single-cell protein for
cattle feed. However, even exhaust filtration equipment capable of
achieving 99.99 percent air purity was sold to Cuba. This level is used
only in weapons labs.

Cuba has also acquired the technology and the capacity to manufacture
their own equipment. Some of the equipment required is very similar to
equipment related to diary production, sugar cane processing, and liquor
manufacturing, areas where Cuba has had great experience.

There is a definitive and important relation with Iran in the field of
biotechnology. Luis Herrera, one of the founders of the CIGB and the
biotechnology program in Cuba is directing the Iran/Cuba activities.
Refer to Chapter XIII for further details on Cuba/Iran cooperation.

Some analysts maintain that evidence of biological warfare research is
not proof that viable weapons are being produced. However, even the most
primitive biological weapons lab can produce enough of an agent to
cripple a major city. Certainly, Cuba's facilities are recognized as
outstanding.

Viruses and bacteria can be obtained from more than two thousand microbe
banks around the world. The international scientific community depends
on this network for medical research and for exchange of information
vital to the fight against disease. There are very few restrictions on
the cross-border trade in pathogens.

In the past twenty years Cuba has been working in the research and
development of biotechnological products. Research has proven that
viruses and toxins can be genetically altered to heighten their
lethality, paving the way for the development of pathogens capable of
overcoming existing vaccines.

The arsenal of Cuba could include weapons based on tularemia, anthrax,
epidemic typhus, smallpox, dengue fever, Marburg, Ebola. It could also
extend to neurological agents, based on chemical substances produced
naturally in the human body. It is easier to make a biological weapon
than to create an effective system of biological defense.

The United States plan to stockpile and develop vaccines against known
agents is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Vaccines work
by inducing the creation of antibodies that fight specific diseases. It
is not medically advisable to combine too many different courses of
vaccination. There are currently no known vaccines for brucellosis,
glanders, and melioidosis, or for many viral diseases, such as Ebola and
Marburg.

Vaccines provide excellent protection against specific diseases, but the
characteristics that makes them so effective is also the source of their
limitations. Smallpox antibodies offer no protection against plague.
Combined vaccines are possible, but most of these go straight to the
metabolism of specific organisms. An all purpose antidote simply does
not exist.

Countries with the capacity and technology to produce sophisticated
vaccines can certainly produce bioweapons. Cuba's biotechnology efforts
have been very successful in the creation of vaccines.

In 1957, European scientists identified the first cytokine, named
interferon, which form a bridge between specific and nonspecific immune
systems. They are produced in response to viruses and bacteria, or to a
general stimulus in the blood. Interferon took years to isolate, but in
1979 an American produced interferon alpha artificially, called
antiviral penicillin, a sophisticated biotechnological achievement. Cuba
is a large producer of interferon.

Cuba's biotechnological capacity places it in group four of the World
Health Organization's five national categories. To reach group five,
which contains the seven top industrial economies, Cuba must produce at
least 20 percent of the 260 basic materials. It regularly produces 17
percent of these and certainly has the scientific ability to produce the
others with biotech methods.

Priority access to research and development funding, 160 distinct
research units and over 10,000 researchers give the Cuban scientific
establishment an edge over their counterparts even, in some Western
countries.

Research is ongoing in medicine, genetic engineering, biotechnology,
industrial applications, and bioweapons. Development of hardware and
software for the research effort has been also a priority.

The range of products, and research and development areas, include:
monoclonal antibodies, vaccines against hepatitis B and bacterial
meningitis, a neural growth factor, a range of interferon, enzymes,
streptokinase, culture media with 14 alternative protein sources,
several reagents, transgenetic fish, interferon beta, proteolytic
peptides, lipopolysaccharide peptides, LBP-derived synthetic peptides,
human Papillomavirus 16, MT-4 cells, and many others.

Certainly, a country with such capacity can produce bioweapons. There is
really no technical solution to the problem of bioweapons in Cuba. It
would need an ethical, human, and moral solution, which is obviously
impossible while the government is in the hands of a sociopath. Ordinary
intelligence and surveillance techniques cannot prove the existence of a
biological warfare program.

Even the highest resolution satellite imagery can't distinguish between
a large pharmaceutical plant or center and a weapons complex. The only
conclusive evidence comes from first hand information. A site inspection
of Cuba's facilities, by an objective international team must be requested.

Since 1986, Castro has developed a very large and sophisticated
biotechnology industry.

It has 9 very large BioCenters, and 160 small ones

Main Centers: The CIGB (Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center),
established in 1986, at a cost of $150 million dollars

BIOCEN, National Preparations Center, modeled after the Soviet
Biopreparat, established in 1992, at a cost of $15 million dollars

CIM, Center for Molecular Immunology, established in 1994, at a cost of
$20 million dollars

It is estimated that between 1986 and 2001, Castro has invested $3,500
million dollars in the biotechnology industry

The total export from the industry, in 18 years, has been $150 million
dollars

There was an intensive and extensive interrelation between the former
Soviet Union and Cuba on biotechnology, as testified, among others, by
Ken Alibek.

Cuba has a bilateral agreement with Iran on biotechnology. Since 1998 to
May 2001, Cuba built and equipped Iran’s major Biotechnology Center,
inaugurated by Castro on May 2001. Cost: $550 million dollars.
Technology transfer cost: $200 million dollars/year

There was a bilateral agreement between Cuba and Iraq on biotechnology,
since 1988. There is a bilateral agreement between Cuba and Lybia on
biotechnology.

The World Health Organization has classified countries, depending on
their biological industry development in 5 categories. Cuba has been
classified in # 4. Only the G7 countries are on #5.

Scientific and intelligence organizations have expressed that any
country with the capacity and technology to produce vaccines,
interferon, synthesize proteins, (all of which Cuba does) is capable of
producing bioweapons.

There are over 10 scientists, and engineers, who worked in these
Centers, who are now in exile, working on research labs in the USA,
Switzerland, Germany, and Puerto Rico. They all have expressed the
sophisticated capacity of Cuba in biotechnology.

DON’T FORGET: THIS IS THE SAME CASTRO THAT IN 1962, DURING THE MISSILE
CRISIS, TRIED TO FORCED KRUSCHEV INTO LAUNCHING A SURPRISE NUCLEAR
ATTACK AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.

* Dr. Manuel Cereijo, a professor at Florida International University,
Miami, Florida, United States.

http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/manuel-cereijo-85.htm