RAMPING UP? : Inside the US, Havana's spy network is believed to be
continuing surveillance of military bases and the Cuban exile community,
mainly in south Florida
AFP, MANILA
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008, Page 7
AFP, MIAMI
Cuba's vast international spy network, considered among the best in the
world, will remain intact under the leadership of new Cuban President
Raul Castro, intelligence experts say.
Havana will probably even ramp up its information gathering in the
months leading up to the November elections seeking to win a firm handle
on the policies of the next US president, said Chris Simmons, a former
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) counterintelligence Cuba analyst.
"Havana has an insatiable appetite for information about US military
operations as well as US intelligence operations," Simmons said.
That need has become even more pressing since Raul Castro took on the
reins of power from his ailing brother, Fidel, in the first change of
leadership in almost half a century on the communist-ruled island.
"Raul needs to be better informed than he has ever been in his life,"
said Simmons, looking ahead to the changes that a new president in the
White House might bring.
Cuba already has a vast knowledge of US military operations and troop
deployments after decades of spying on military bases both in the US and
overseas.
Abroad, Cuba has already improved its intelligence operations in
countries such as Turkey, Iran and Pakistan keeping a close eye on US
military operations and diplomacy in the Middle East and South Asia,
Simmons said.
Under Fidel Castro, Cuba sent a number of former high-ranking
intelligence officers overseas to fill ambassador positions.
Cuba's ambassador to Turkey, Ernesto Gomez Abascal was either an
intelligence agent or an intelligence collaborator who was Cuba's
ambassador to Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Simmons said.
In 2006, Havana re-opened its embassy in Pakistan after 16 years and
observers believe that Iran and Cuba are working together to jam US
radio and TV programming into Iran.
Meanwhile, in the US, Cuban spies are believed to be continuing their
surveillance of military bases and the Cuban exile community,
particularly in South Florida.
Intelligence experts agree that US South Command (Southcom) just outside
Miami has long been the focus of Cuban spies, as any potential invasion
of the island would be orchestrated there.
"Cuban intelligence is still very active in South Florida", said Frank
Mora, a professor of National Security Strategy at the National War
College. "The United States is still very much the enemy of the [Castro]
regime."
Officials at Southcom would not comment on Cuban intelligence operations
aimed at infiltrating the command.
However, the legacy of Cuban spies in South Florida and elsewhere is
long and well-noted.
Juan Pablo Roque, a Cuban defector who was a paid informant for the FBI,
also infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban dissident group formed
in the early 1990s to help the Coast Guard rescue Cuban migrants fleeing
the island.
In 1996, two of the group's planes were shot down by a Cuban fighter
plane. Roque was implicated in the attack.
In 1998, the so-called "Cuban Five" were arrested in Miami and convicted
on espionage, murder and other charges and are serving sentences in US
prisons.
Among the charges against them were efforts to infiltrate Southcom and
sending to Havana some 2,000 pages of documents from the base.
In political circles, the damage inflicted by Cuban spies on US
intelligence was much more severe.
Most notable among those apprehended was Ana Montes. Arrested in
September 2001, Montes was a former DIA Cuba analyst who had been
feeding information to Cuba on US military operations both in the
Western Hemisphere and elsewhere for 16 years.
And outside of Washington, spies sent by Havana have managed over the
years to infiltrate several south Florida Cuban dissident groups.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/03/05/2003404117
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