> Since 1959 the CIA has conducted over 2,000 operations in Cuba.
> Our tax dollars at work.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Common Courage Political Literacy Course
> <webmaster at commoncouragepress.com>
> Date: Monday, June 12, 2000 2:01 PM
> Subject: Bio Warfare Against Cuba
>
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> >Monday June 12, 2000
> >
> >>=== United States Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons Abroad ===
> >
> >In Cuba:
> >
> >1) In August 1962, a British freighter under Soviet lease, having damaged
> >its propeller on a reef, crept into the harbor at San Juan, Puerto Rico
> >for repairs. It was bound for a Soviet port with 80,000 bags of Cuban
> >sugar. The ship was put into dry dock and 14,135 sacks of sugar were
> >unloaded to a warehouse to facilitate the repairs. While in the warehouse,
> >the sugar was contaminated by CIA agents with a substance that was
> >allegedly harmless but unpalatable. When President Kennedy learned of the
> >operation he was furious because it had taken place in US territory and if
> >discovered could provide the Soviet Union with a propaganda field day and
> >set a terrible precedent for chemical sabotage in the Cold War. He
> >directed that the sugar not be returned to the Russians, although what
> >explanation was given to them is not publicly known. Similar undertakings
> >were apparently not canceled. A CIA official, who helped direct worldwide
> >sabotage efforts against Cuba, later revealed that "There was lots of
> >sugar being sent out from Cuba, and we were putting a lot of contaminants
> >in it."
> >
> >2) The same year, a Canadian agricultural technician working as an adviser
> >to the Cuban government was paid $5,000 by "an American military
> >intelligence agent" to infect Cuban turkeys with a virus which would
> >produce the fatal Newcastle disease. Subsequently, 8,000 turkeys died. The
> >technician later claimed that although he had been to the farm where the
> >turkeys had died, he had not actually administered the virus, but had
> >instead pocketed the money, and that the turkeys had died from neglect and
> >other causes unrelated to the virus. This may have been a self-serving
> >statement. The Washington Post reported that "According to U.S.
> >intelligence reports, the Cubans--and some Americans--believe the turkeys
> >died as the result of espionage."
> >
> >3) According to a participant in the project:
> >During 1969 and 1970, the CIA deployed futuristic weather modification
> >technology to ravage Cuba's sugar crop and undermine the economy. Planes
> >from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center in the California desert, where
> >high tech was developed, overflew the island, seeding rain clouds with
> >crystals that precipitated torrential rains over non-agricultural areas
> >and left the cane fields arid (the downpours caused killer flash floods in
> >some areas).
> > This said, it must be pointed out while it's not terribly surprising
> >that the CIA would have attempted such a thing, it's highly unlikely that
> >it would have succeeded except through a great stroke of luck; i.e., heavy
> >rains occurring at just the right time.
> >
> >4) In 1971, also according to participants, the CIA turned over to Cuban
> >exiles a virus which causes African swine fever. Six weeks later, an
> >outbreak of the disease in Cuba forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to
> >prevent a nationwide animal epidemic. The outbreak, the first ever in the
> >Western hemisphere, was called the "most alarming event" of the year by
> >the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.25
> >
> >5) Ten years later, the target may well have been human beings, as an
> >epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) swept across the Cuban island.
> >Transmitted by blood-eating insects, usually mosquitos, the disease
> >produces severe flu symptoms and incapacitating bone pain. Between May and
> >October 1981, over 300,000 cases were reported in Cuba with 158
> >fatalities, 101 of which were children under 15.26
> > The Center for Disease Control later reported that the appearance in
> >Cuba of this particular strain of dengue, DEN-2 from Southeast Asia, had
> >caused the first major epidemic of DHF ever in the Americas.27 Castro
> >announced that Cuba had asked the United States for a pesticide to help
> >eradicate the fever-bearing mosquito, but had not been given any.
> > In 1956 and 1958, declassified documents have revealed, the US Army
> >loosed swarms of specially bred mosquitos in Georgia and Florida to see
> >whether disease-carrying insects could be weapons in a biological war. The
> >mosquitos bred for the tests were of the Aedes Aegypti type, the precise
> >carrier of dengue fever as well as other diseases.
> > In 1967 it was reported by Science magazine that at the US government
> >center in Fort Detrick, Maryland, dengue fever was amongst those "diseases
> >that are at least the objects of considerable research and that appear to
> >be among those regarded as potential BW [biological warfare] agents."
> >Then, in 1984, a Cuban exile on trial in New York on an unrelated matter
> >testified that in the latter part of 1980 a ship traveled from Florida to
> >Cuba with:
> >a mission to carry some germs to introduce them in Cuba to be used against
> >the Soviets and against the Cuban economy, to begin what was called
> >chemical war, which later on produced results that were not what we had
> >expected, because we thought that it was going to be used against the
> >Soviet forces, and it was used against our own people, and with that we
> >did not agree.
> > It's not clear from the testimony whether the Cuban man thought that the
> >germs would somehow be able to confine their actions to only Russians, or
> >whether he had been misled by the people behind the operation.
> >
> >6) On a clear day, October 21, 1996, a Cuban pilot flying over Matanzas
> >province observed a plane releasing a mist of some substance about seven
> >times. It turned out to be an American crop-duster plane operated by the
> >US State Department, which had permission to fly over Cuba on a trip to
> >Colombia via Grand Cayman Island. Responding to the Cuban pilot's report,
> >the Cuban air controller asked the US pilot if he was having any problem.
> >The answer was "no". On December 18, Cuba observed the first signs of a
> >plague of Thrips palmi, a plant-eating insect never before detected in
> >Cuba. It severely damages practically all crops and is resistant to a
> >number of pesticides. Cuba asked the US for clarification of the October
> >21 incident. Seven weeks passed before the US replied that the State
> >Department pilot had emitted only smoke, in order to indicate his location
> >to the Cuban pilot. By this time, the Thrips palmi had spread rapidly,
> >affecting corn, beans, squash, cucumbers and other crops.
> > In response to a query, the Federal Aviation Administration stated that
> >emitting smoke to indicate location is "not an FAA practice" and that it
> >knew of "no regulation calling for this practice".
> >
> >In April 1997, Cuba presented a report to the United Nations which charged
> >the US with "biological aggression" and provided a detailed description of
> >the 1996 incident and the subsequent controversy. In August, signatories
> >of the Biological Weapons Convention convened in Geneva to consider Cuba's
> >charges and Washington's response. In December, the committee reported
> >that due to the "technical complexity" of the matter, it had not proven
> >possible to reach a definitive conclusion. There has not been any further
> >development on the issue since that time.
> >
> >The full extent of American chemical and biological warfare against Cuba
> >will never be known. Over the years, the Castro government has in fact
> >blamed the United States for a number of other plagues which afflicted
> >various animals and crops. In 1977, newly-released CIA documents disclosed
> >that the Agency "maintained a clandestine anti-crop warfare research
> >program targeted during the 1960s at a number of countries throughout the
> >world."
> >
> >
> >--From "Rogue State," by William Blum
> > http://www.commoncouragepress.com/blum_rogue.html
> >
> >
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