Israeli minister wanted by FBI to meet Castro

Israeli minister wanted by FBI to meet Castro
By AFP
Middle East Times
Published May 15, 2006

Israeli minister Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad spy who is wanted by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said on Monday that he would
visit Fidel Castro in Cuba next week in a move that could anger the
Jewish state's chief ally.

The 79-year-old minister of pensioner affairs said that he would be
going to Cuba strictly for private business. "I will be visiting Cuba
next week for private business," said Eitan, who entered parliament as
leader of the newly-formed Pensioners party and became a minister for
the first time following the March 28 elections.

Israel has no diplomatic ties with Cuba due to pressure by the
United States, which has placed an embargo on the communist regime of
President Fidel Castro since the 1950s.

Eitan, who became a successful businessman after he quit Israel's
Mossad intelligence service, has several large-scale farms in Cuba and
is a personal friend of Castro.

As a Mossad operative, Eitan handled Jonathan Pollard, a US marine
analyst who handed thousands of top secret documents over to Israel in
the mid-1980s. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison. As Pollard's
handler, the FBI issued an arrest warrant against Eitan.

A senior Israeli government official said that "a private trip by a
member of the government does not require the cabinet's approval".

http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060515-100241-7550r