U.S. spy asked to help Cuba

CUBA
U.S. spy asked to help Cuba
A former FBI agent revealed in his new book how Cuban diplomats asked
him to spy on the exile community.
Posted on Mon, Apr. 07, 2008
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

In 1999 Cuban diplomats in Washington tried to enlist a noted journalist
and literary editor to spy on members of the Cuban exile community and
prominent U.S. citizens, among them Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln
Diaz-Balart and Robert Menendez.

According to Robert Eringer, representatives from the Cuban Interests
Section tried to recruit him to obtain financial information on the
three Cuban-American legislators and to infiltrate the Cuban American
National Foundation (CANF). In exchange, the Cubans promised him
exclusive contacts and business opportunities on the island, according
to Eringer.

Eringer, however, was then working as an undercover FBI agent.

The revelations of Eringer's Cuban connections are revealed in his
upcoming book Ruse: Undercover with FBI Counterintelligence, expected to
hit bookstores by mid-April. The 215-page book will be published by
Potomac Books of Dulles, Va.

''Of course, at the FBI they went crazy with the case,'' Eringer
recalled. ``A Cuban intelligence officer asking me, a U.S. citizen, for
help spying on other U.S. citizens on U.S. soil was something completely
incompatible with his diplomatic status.''

According to Eringer, in addition to the Cuban-American legislators,
Cuban intelligence agents were also interested in the leadership of the
CANF; especially Jorge Mas Santos, Joe Garcia, Danny Hays, Feliciano
Foyo, Alberto Hernández Sarduy, José ''Pepe'' Hernández, Ninoska Pérez
Castellón, Kirk Menéndez and Abel Hernández, a New Jersey resident.

The Cubans, Eringer said, also wanted him to assist them in staging a
media campaign in the United States with the intention of obtaining the
extradition of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles.

Eringer, noted for his long career as an investigative journalist,
novelist, literary agent and private intelligence consultant, worked for
the FBI from 1993 to 2002. His mission at the time was to capture the
legendary spy Edward Lee Howard, who had deserted the CIA and taken up
with Moscow. Howard was found dead at his home in Moscow in 2002, under
circumstances that remain a mystery.

Before his death he traveled at least six times to Cuba for meetings
with officials from the General Intelligence Directorate of Cuba, known
by its Spanish acronym DGI, said Eringer.

Posing as a literary agent interested in publishing Howard's memoirs,
Eringer said he contacted Howard by phone in December of 1993. He said
they would meet seven months later in Moscow to discuss the publishing
of Safe House, which appeared in 1995.

According to Eringer, it was Howard who interceded with Cuban
intelligence in Moscow to allow his literary agent to enter Cuba in
1999. Eringer said he was then able to travel to Havana where they
discussed another possible project: a guide for spies.

The plan was to arrest Howard during a layover at an international
airport, but the plan was abruptly canceled by then-President Bill
Clinton over concerns it could hurt U.S. relations with Russia.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/485786.html