Post by RPankn on Apr 1, 2004 4:55:07 GMT -5
Why doesn't Bolton just stop beating around the bush and say Cuba is harboring al-Qaeda or Castro conspired in Sept. 11th. ;D
HAVANA, March 31 (Reuters) - Cuba on Wednesday rejected a renewed accusation by a senior U.S. official that it is developing biological weapons and said the charges were an attempt to seek a pretext to invade the communist-run island.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called a news conference to deny the latest charge by John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security in the Bush administration, who made a similar accusation in 2002.
Bolton told Congress in written testimony on Tuesday that Cuba remains a "terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States."
"I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba (biological weapons) effort is strong," Bolton said in a 25-page statement to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee.
Cuba has one of the most advanced biotech industries in Latin America, but insists research is solely dedicated to medical uses. It has research accords with a number of countries, including Iran.
"Mr. Bolton either suffers from schizophrenia, a permanent obsession with Cuba or doesn't have an ounce of shame," the Cuban foreign minister said.
"U.S. public opinion knows that our country has rejected the accusations that we produce violent weapons or conduct research on biological arms, that all this is false."
Bolton first accused Cuba of biological weapons research in 2002, on the eve of a visit to the island by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Carter disputed the accusations in a statement he read out during a visit to Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, where he said there had been no mention of the matter during briefings in Washington prior to his trip.
"Bolton is only trying to present pretexts and justifications for a military attack on our country," Perez Roque said.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31295009.htm
Cuban thingytails
The most advanced biotech industry in the developing world exports vaccines around the globe - despite US claims about biological weapons
Ian Sample
Tuesday March 30, 2004
The Guardian
Outright success stories have been hard to come by for Cuba since the collapse of its Soviet ally, but its biotechnology industry is increasingly looking like a triumph. Driven largely by domestic need, home-grown biotech has boosted what was already an advanced healthcare system to the point where Cuba's citizens now enjoy one of the highest life expectancies and most extensive childhood vaccination schemes in the world, and modern anti-retroviral drugs are available for all HIV/Aids patients.
But where Cuba sees success, the US sees danger. According to some elements in the Bush administration, Cuba's biotechnology efforts conceal nefarious goings-on. John Bolton, the under-secretary of state for arms control, says Cuba has at the least a limited offensive biological weapons programme. Other US officials have echoed the warning. Excelling at what could be the most lucrative new technology for decades has apparently landed Cuba in the crosshairs of a trigger-happy administration.
Few outside the US administration give credence to the idea that Cuban scientists are cooking up lethal broths of pathogens. In 2002, Glenn Baker, of the US Centre for Defence Information (CDI), took a team of scientists and former weapons inspectors to Cuba to investigate. They toured nine biotech centres, chosen with help from active intelligence officers, and found nothing to suggest an active weapons programme.
Last November, another CDI team concluded the Cubans were up to nothing more than producing a vast array of vaccines, mostly for domestic use, but also for export. Suggestions that Cuba must be a concern because it could churn out biological weapons should it choose to are misleading; any country with a modern biotechnology industry and a university with a half-decent biology faculty could make them.
To many observers, attempts to portray Cuban biotechnology as a new threat to US citizens mask the real motivation - to justify the trade ban in place since the 60s. "They need a reason to keep the embargo going," said Dr Agustin Lage, the director general of the Centre for Molecular Immunology at the West Havana science park. Ian Gibson, who chairs the House of Commons science and technology committee, recently visited the science park, where much of the biotech industry is based. He believes that the US line is simply propaganda, and that US officials are well aware there is no threat.
More here: education.guardian.co.uk/higher/sciences/story/0,12243,1180996,00.html
HAVANA, March 31 (Reuters) - Cuba on Wednesday rejected a renewed accusation by a senior U.S. official that it is developing biological weapons and said the charges were an attempt to seek a pretext to invade the communist-run island.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called a news conference to deny the latest charge by John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security in the Bush administration, who made a similar accusation in 2002.
Bolton told Congress in written testimony on Tuesday that Cuba remains a "terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States."
"I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba (biological weapons) effort is strong," Bolton said in a 25-page statement to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee.
Cuba has one of the most advanced biotech industries in Latin America, but insists research is solely dedicated to medical uses. It has research accords with a number of countries, including Iran.
"Mr. Bolton either suffers from schizophrenia, a permanent obsession with Cuba or doesn't have an ounce of shame," the Cuban foreign minister said.
"U.S. public opinion knows that our country has rejected the accusations that we produce violent weapons or conduct research on biological arms, that all this is false."
Bolton first accused Cuba of biological weapons research in 2002, on the eve of a visit to the island by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Carter disputed the accusations in a statement he read out during a visit to Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, where he said there had been no mention of the matter during briefings in Washington prior to his trip.
"Bolton is only trying to present pretexts and justifications for a military attack on our country," Perez Roque said.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31295009.htm
Cuban thingytails
The most advanced biotech industry in the developing world exports vaccines around the globe - despite US claims about biological weapons
Ian Sample
Tuesday March 30, 2004
The Guardian
Outright success stories have been hard to come by for Cuba since the collapse of its Soviet ally, but its biotechnology industry is increasingly looking like a triumph. Driven largely by domestic need, home-grown biotech has boosted what was already an advanced healthcare system to the point where Cuba's citizens now enjoy one of the highest life expectancies and most extensive childhood vaccination schemes in the world, and modern anti-retroviral drugs are available for all HIV/Aids patients.
But where Cuba sees success, the US sees danger. According to some elements in the Bush administration, Cuba's biotechnology efforts conceal nefarious goings-on. John Bolton, the under-secretary of state for arms control, says Cuba has at the least a limited offensive biological weapons programme. Other US officials have echoed the warning. Excelling at what could be the most lucrative new technology for decades has apparently landed Cuba in the crosshairs of a trigger-happy administration.
Few outside the US administration give credence to the idea that Cuban scientists are cooking up lethal broths of pathogens. In 2002, Glenn Baker, of the US Centre for Defence Information (CDI), took a team of scientists and former weapons inspectors to Cuba to investigate. They toured nine biotech centres, chosen with help from active intelligence officers, and found nothing to suggest an active weapons programme.
Last November, another CDI team concluded the Cubans were up to nothing more than producing a vast array of vaccines, mostly for domestic use, but also for export. Suggestions that Cuba must be a concern because it could churn out biological weapons should it choose to are misleading; any country with a modern biotechnology industry and a university with a half-decent biology faculty could make them.
To many observers, attempts to portray Cuban biotechnology as a new threat to US citizens mask the real motivation - to justify the trade ban in place since the 60s. "They need a reason to keep the embargo going," said Dr Agustin Lage, the director general of the Centre for Molecular Immunology at the West Havana science park. Ian Gibson, who chairs the House of Commons science and technology committee, recently visited the science park, where much of the biotech industry is based. He believes that the US line is simply propaganda, and that US officials are well aware there is no threat.
More here: education.guardian.co.uk/higher/sciences/story/0,12243,1180996,00.html
