Da: "Nello Margiotta" A: Oggetto: Bush minaccia di estendere la guerra anche a Cuba Data: giovedě 9 maggio 2002 18.55 War on terror may extend to Cuba Julian Borger in Washington Tuesday May 7, 2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk The US threatened to extend its war on terror to Cuba yesterday, accusing Fidel Castro's regime of developing biological weapons and sharing its expertise with Washington's enemies. In a speech called Beyond the Axis of Evil, the undersecretary of state John Bolton presented no evidence for his claims, pointing only to Cuba's advanced biomedical industry and Mr Castro's visits last year to three "rogue states" accused by the the US state department of sponsoring terrorism: Iraq, Syria and Libya. "States that renounce terror and abandon WMD [weapons of mass destruction] can become part of our effort," Mr Bolton said. "But those that do not can expect to become our targets." Critics of the Bush administration's policies in Latin America described the accusation as an attempt to exploit popular support for the war on terror to pursue a rightwing political agenda. The administration has also accused Farc rebels in Colombia of supporting anti-US terrorism, while calling for increased military aid to Bogota. Larry Birns, head of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs thinktank in Washington, said yesterday: "What is dangerous now is that the anti-terrorist war has no standards and no criteria. It is whatever the Bush administration says it is at any given moment." Mr Bolton, a rightwinger appointed against the wishes of the moderate secretary of state, Colin Powell, told the conservative Heritage Foundation: "For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union. "This industry is one of the most advanced in Latin America, and leads in the production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines that are sold worldwide. Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the activities conducted in these biomedical facilities." A 1998 US government re port concluded that Cuba represented no significant threat to the US, but Mr Bolton said its menace had been underestimated by the Clinton administration, because of to the malign influence of Cuban agents. He pointed to the example of Ana Belen Montes, a senior Cuba analyst at the defence intelligence agency who was discovered to be a Cuban spy. She pleaded guilty to espionage in March. "Montes not only had a hand in drafting the 1998 Cuba report but also passed some of our most sensitive information about Cuba back to Havana," he said. · Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, provided a bleak assessment yesterday of the country's chances of averting war with America. He was speaking the day after Colin Powell indicated that the US might take action even if Baghdad allowed UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq. In a rare interview, Mr Aziz questioned whether the US was simply looking for a pretext to attack his country. Nello change the world before the world changes you because another world is possible www.peacelink.it/tematiche/latina/latina.htm