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Monday, April 28, 2008

FBI agent says Cuba sought dirt on Menendez

FBI agent says Cuba sought dirt on Menendez
Friday, April 25, 2008
Last updated: Saturday April 26, 2008, EDT 7:30 AM
BY ELIZABETH LLORENTE
Staff Writer

A former undercover FBI agent says in a new book that Cuban officials
asked him to spy on Cuban-Americans including Sen. Bob Menendez and a
Cliffside Park businessman.

Cuban diplomats in Washington, D.C., were obsessed with generating
scandalous information about Menendez and two other Cuban-Americans in
Congress, said Robert Eringer, the author of "Ruse: Undercover with FBI
Counterintelligence." They blamed Menendez, then in Congress, and his
two colleagues for tough U.S. policies against Cuba, he said in an
interview on Friday.

Eringer said he was posing as a literary agent, interested in publishing
the memoirs of legendary CIA turncoat Edward Lee Howard, when
representatives of the so-called Cuban Interests Section prodded him to
infiltrate Cuban exile organizations.

The Cuban officials wanted him to learn "the dynamics," as Eringer put
it, of Cuban-American communities in the U.S. "For Cuba, the Cold War
has not ended — it always continued with the United States," said
Eringer, who added he was promised exclusive business opportunities in
Cuba as a bribe. "They had no relationship with the United States. These
Cuban-Americans are people who are well-known to them, and they felt
they didn't have someone in their camp who could play back to them what
was going on" in Cuban-American communities.

Cuba and the U.S. have no diplomatic relations. They have "interests
sections," instead of embassies, in each other's capitols that perform
many of the consular services embassies typically handle.

Eringer said the Cuban officials were sure the three Cuban-American
congressional members – Menendez, a Demo­crat, and Florida Republicans
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart – were receiving illicit
money from Cuban organizations. They wanted him to "follow the money,"
he said, to "expose and humiliate them."

"The problem," the book quotes a Cuban diplomat as saying, "is three
congressmen have put a lock on normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations. Wouldn't
it be grand if somebody investigated them and exposed their back-door
financial contributions?"

Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said this week he was not
surprised that the Cuban government was trying to dig up damaging
information about him. He said many people have told him over the years
about attempts by Cuban government officials to obtain information about
him.

"Those of us who have been pursuing freedom and democracy for the Cuban
people and who have criticized the

communist regime in Cuba," Menendez said, "have known that the Cuban
Interests Section has been trying to get stuff of a personal nature on
us so that they can see what useful negative information they can find
on you.

"It's disturbing that they spend so much time on this kind of thing
instead of on putting food on the tables of the people in Cuba."

Efforts to reach Cuban officials on Friday night were unsuccessful.

Eringer said Cuban officials gave him a list of people they urged him to
meet and spy on. Among them was Abel Hernandez, a successful businessman
from Cliffside Park who is active in anti-Castro lobbying efforts.

"The Cuban government does everything possible to try to find dirt and
discredit those of us in the United States who have succeeded and
attained influence," said Hernandez, who belongs to the Cuban American
National Foundation. "I belong to CANF because it's against communism
and for human rights. The Cuban government has to create drama all the
time. They're paranoid, they're full of conspiracy theories. But they're
not going to shut me up."

Another particular target, Eringer said, was the Cuban American National
Foundation, a powerful Cuban exile lobby whose national vice president,
Remberto Perez, lives in Tenafly.

Perez declined to comment for this story.

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com

A former undercover FBI agent says in a new book that Cuban officials
asked him to spy on Cuban-Americans including Sen. Bob Menendez and a
Cliffside Park businessman.
AP
A former undercover FBI agent says in a new book that Cuban officials
asked him to spy on Cuban-Americans including Sen. Bob Menendez.

Cuban diplomats in Washington, D.C., were obsessed with generating
scandalous information about Menendez and two other Cuban-Americans in
Congress, said Robert Eringer, the author of "Ruse: Undercover with FBI
Counterintelligence." They blamed Menendez, then in Congress, and his
two colleagues for tough U.S. policies against Cuba, he said in an
interview on Friday.

Eringer said he was posing as a literary agent, interested in publishing
the memoirs of legendary CIA turncoat Edward Lee Howard, when
representatives of the so-called Cuban Interests Section prodded him to
infiltrate Cuban exile organizations.
FAST FACTS

The Castro regime and the United States have targeted each other for
espionage for decades. Below are some highly publicized incidents in
which the United States accused Cuba of spying:

* Ana Montes, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, confessed
after her arrest in 2001 to spying for Cuba for 16 years.
* Seven Cuban spies were convicted of or confessed to espionage or
related crimes in 2001, including trying to infiltrate U.S. Southern
Command headquarters.
* Some Cuban spies have posed as "defectors," infiltrating Cuban
exile organizations and the U.S. government-financed TV Martí, which
tries to send programming to Cuba.

Source: U.S. Department of State

The Cuban officials wanted him to learn "the dynamics," as Eringer put
it, of Cuban-American communities in the U.S. "For Cuba, the Cold War
has not ended — it always continued with the United States," said
Eringer, who added he was promised exclusive business opportunities in
Cuba as a bribe. "They had no relationship with the United States. These
Cuban-Americans are people who are well-known to them, and they felt
they didn't have someone in their camp who could play back to them what
was going on" in Cuban-American communities.

Cuba and the U.S. have no diplomatic relations. They have "interests
sections," instead of embassies, in each other's capitols that perform
many of the consular services embassies typically handle.

Eringer said the Cuban officials were sure the three Cuban-American
congressional members – Menendez, a Demo­crat, and Florida Republicans
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart – were receiving illicit
money from Cuban organizations. They wanted him to "follow the money,"
he said, to "expose and humiliate them."

"The problem," the book quotes a Cuban diplomat as saying, "is three
congressmen have put a lock on normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations. Wouldn't
it be grand if somebody investigated them and exposed their back-door
financial contributions?"

Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said this week he was not
surprised that the Cuban government was trying to dig up damaging
information about him. He said many people have told him over the years
about attempts by Cuban government officials to obtain information about
him.

"Those of us who have been pursuing freedom and democracy for the Cuban
people and who have criticized the

communist regime in Cuba," Menendez said, "have known that the Cuban
Interests Section has been trying to get stuff of a personal nature on
us so that they can see what useful negative information they can find
on you.

"It's disturbing that they spend so much time on this kind of thing
instead of on putting food on the tables of the people in Cuba."

Efforts to reach Cuban officials on Friday night were unsuccessful.

Eringer said Cuban officials gave him a list of people they urged him to
meet and spy on. Among them was Abel Hernandez, a successful businessman
from Cliffside Park who is active in anti-Castro lobbying efforts.

"The Cuban government does everything possible to try to find dirt and
discredit those of us in the United States who have succeeded and
attained influence," said Hernandez, who belongs to the Cuban American
National Foundation. "I belong to CANF because it's against communism
and for human rights. The Cuban government has to create drama all the
time. They're paranoid, they're full of conspiracy theories. But they're
not going to shut me up."

Another particular target, Eringer said, was the Cuban American National
Foundation, a powerful Cuban exile lobby whose national vice president,
Remberto Perez, lives in Tenafly.

Perez declined to comment for this story.

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com

http://www.northjersey.com/politics/FBI_agent_says_Cuba_sought_dirt_on_Menendez.html

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