Carter Agrees: Bolton's Scum Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Carter Agrees: Bolton's a Lying Scum. [Not only does Jimmy Carter say Cuba is not manufacturing any kind of bioweapons, he also announced today from Cuba that before his trip he consulted with US officials who told him that there was no evidence Cuba was exporting materials for "weapons of mass destruction" to any other country. Following is Carter's statement, followed by the press spin. The Bushies have now dug in their heels and even got Colin Powell (whose capacity for humiliation seems boundless) to push the poison. ] AP via Yahoo - May 13, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&589&e=3&u=/ap/20020513/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_carter_text_1 Statement by Carter in Cuba By The Associated Press The following statement was made by former President Carter on Monday while visiting the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, as provided by The Carter Center: I think I can represent The Carter Center in saying that we have been overwhelmed with the dedication of the Cuban people and the government, and their research and humanitarian sharing of knowledge about better health care with the rest of the world. It may be that Cuba is unique in having emphasized the health need as a driving force and not just how to make a profit on specific medicines developed. We have also been impressed with the range of cooperation that has been developed between Cuba and other countries on Earth. The results of preventive health care, including vaccinations of children in Cuba, is indeed impressive. My hope is that in the future there could be close cooperation between the scientific and medical community in Cuba and that of my own country, the United States. My personal thanks and that of tens of millions of people around the world who have benefited from this research in Cuba I would like personally to emphasize. With some degree of reluctance I would also like to comment on the allegation of bioterrorism. I do this because these allegations were made maybe not coincidentally just before our visit to Cuba. In preparation for this unprecedented visit, I requested, and we all received, intense briefings from the State Department, the intelligence agencies of my country, and high officials in the White House. One purpose of this briefing was for them to share with us any concerns that my government had about possible terrorist activities that were supported by Cuba. There were absolutely no such allegations made or questions raised. I asked them specifically on more than one occasion is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. And the answer from our experts on intelligence was "no." I think it's very significant though that this allegation was made, and I'm grateful for a chance to come here at the center of this effort on behalf of Cuba. In the welcoming address at the airport when we arrived, your president publicly offered that any person who wanted to come and investigate any allegations concerning this bioterrorism issue would be free and welcome to come without restraint. My presumption and hope is that anyone who does have evidence of this kind would take advantage of this offer. One of the allegations was that Cuba was providing potentially terrorist information to Libya and to Iran. The understanding I have this morning is that there is no relationship at all between Cuba and Libya in this field, and that there is a standard contract prescribed by the international community that any technology shared would be restrained from any illicit use. The relationship between Cuba and Iran in this respect is just in the initial stages and has not reached the point of technological development. And my hope and my presumption is that Cuba will be very intensely concentrated upon enforcing that provision that would prevent any illicit or improper use of the technology which they share. In closing, let me thank everyone for these wonderful presentations that we have received this morning. * AP via Yahoo - May 13, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&589&e=1&u=/ap/20020514/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_carter_59 Carter Disputes Cuban Involvement By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) - Touring a major biotechnology lab with Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter on Monday took issue with Bush administration claims that the island nation has exported technological know-how to rogue states for use in biological weapons. Bush administration officials, however, said they were standing by their assertions that Cuba has at least a limited biological warfare program and has shared such biotechnology with rogue states. One allegation says those states are Iran and Libya, Carter said. A State Department official also said Monday that Carter was not briefed on the weapons issue because his briefing occurred before the allegations by Undersecretary of State John Bolton last week in Washington. Early Monday, Carter met with two leading Cuban dissidents for a human rights briefing. Later, he toured the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, telling Castro and Cuba's top scientists that he specifically asked White House, State Department and intelligence officials during a recent briefing if Cuba was transferring technology or other information that could be used in terrorist activities. "The purpose of this briefing was for them to share with us any concern that my government had about possible terrorist activities that were supported by Cuba," he said. "There were absolutely no allegations made or questions raised. I asked them specifically on more than one occasion if there was any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. "The answer from our experts on intelligence was, 'no,'" Carter said. The former American president -- the first former or current American leader to visit Castro's Cuba -- noted the apparent contradictions and questioned their timing. "These allegations were made, maybe not coincidentally, just before our visit to Cuba," Carter said of Bolton's concerns. In remarks last week to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, Bolton said he believes Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. "Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states," Bolton said. "We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states. ... We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention." Havana denounced Bolton's allegation as a lie and promised Carter "complete access" to any Cuban biotechnology laboratory. But Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) repeated what Bolton said and added that it was not a new statement by the Bush administration. "I don't know what briefings President Carter received," Powell told reporters traveling with him to Iceland to attend a NATO summit. Otto Reich, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told The Associated Press that Carl Ford, the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, had given some of the same information to Congress at a March hearing. "We stand by every word of John Bolton's speech," Reich told the AP. President Bush plans to deliver a speech on Cuba next Monday before visiting the Cuban exile community in Florida. The speech appears to have been prompted, in part, by Carter's visit to Cuba. The Bush administration has promised not to ease America's four-decade-old trade sanctions against Cuba until the island has free elections and releases political prisoners. Carter, who has long has opposed the embargo, was plagued during his tenure as president by the Mariel boat lift, the 1980 exodus of 125,000 Cubans that helped sink his re-election efforts. Castro used the boat lift to get rid of tens of thousands of dissidents, criminals and psychiatric patients. Carter, known for his advocacy of human rights and democracy, also met Monday with two leading Cuban dissidents to discuss human rights. Carter said Monday that Cuban scientists deny they have any technology transfer program with Libya and that a new program with Iran has not yet started -- two countries considered rogue states by the U.S. government. Dr. Luis Herrera of the biotechnology center said Cuba had no program with Iraq, either. With Castro sitting next to Carter in an auditorium at the lab, Cuban scientists told Carter their transfer contracts with other countries forbid using Cuban technology for anything other than the vaccines and other lifesaving purposes they were designed for. Answering a question from Carter, Herrera insisted that Cuba monitors the use of technology transferred to other countries to ensure it is not used for terrorism. "I just want to assure myself," Carter said. Carter also praised Cuba's focus on medicine. "We have been overwhelmed with the dedication of the Cuban people and the government in the research and humanitarian sharing of knowledge about health care with the rest of the world," he said. "My hope is that in the future there can be close cooperation between the scientific and medical community in Cuba and in my country, the United States." Traveling with his wife, Rosalynn, and Carter Center staff, the former American president had no biotechnology experts with him when he visited the center on Havana's outskirts. Carter has a science background, but in nuclear technology. Castro wore civilian clothes instead of his usual military uniform. Carter also met Monday with dissidents Elizardo Sanchez and Oswaldo Paya, who briefed Carter on a proposed referendum asking voters if they want guarantees of individual freedoms, an amnesty for political prisoners, the right to own their business and electoral reforms. "Carter understands the concept very well because he is a man of dialogue," Paya said. Carter also made his first public mention of human rights in Cuba, telling young Cubans that Americans "feel that it is very important to have absolute freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly." "We take great pride in our freedom to criticize our own government and to change our government when you don't like it, by voting in elections that are contested," Carter told social worker students Monday. In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Castro should give his own people the same freedom to travel and speak to dissidents that he has given Carter. "Why have one standard for a visitor and have a far worse, much more repressive standard for his own people?" Fleischer said. On Sunday night, a dark-suited Castro threw a dinner for Carter and his delegation at the Palace of the Revolution and said a Tuesday speech by Carter would be broadcast live. "You can express yourself freely whether or not we agree with part of what you say or with everything you say," Castro said. "You will have free access to every place you want to go. "We shall not take offense at any contact you may wish to make," he added, referring to the dissidents and human rights activists Carter plans to meet. Reuters via Yahoo - May 13, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=6&u=/nm/20020513/ts_nm/cuba_carter_dc_20 Carter Sees No Threat in Cuba Biotech Research By Anthony Boadle HAVANA (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Monday toured Cuba's main biotechnology facility and suggested Washington's allegations Havana was developing weapons of mass destruction were designed to cast a shadow over his landmark, goodwill visit. Accompanied by a sporty-looking Fidel Castro, who wore a light blue "guayabera" shirt typical of Cuba instead of his trademark fatigues, Carter said U.S. officials had told him before his visit there was no evidence linking Cuba to the export of biological weaponry. "I asked them specifically about any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information with any other nations on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes ... and the answer was no," he told reporters, in a reference to pre-trip briefings by U.S. intelligence. The former president, on a visit to try to mend relations with Cuba, also met two leading dissidents and encouraged their efforts to seek internal reform to the one-party communist state led by President Castro. John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, charged a week ago that Cuba was working to develop biological weapons and had shared such technology with other rogue states. But Carter said the Bush administration's charges were timed to coincide with his visit. Carter is the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Castro took power in a 1959 revolution. "These allegations were made not coincidentally just before our visit to Cuba," he said after visiting Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Carter said he had extensive briefings by U.S. government agencies before his trip but the alleged terrorist threat posed by Cuba's research program was never mentioned. And he praised the Caribbean island for its medical advances, including production of the world's only Meningitis-B vaccine, which is widely sold abroad. CASTRO REJECTS U.S. CHARGE Castro on Friday rejected the U.S. charge as a lie intended to counter growing support in the United States for establishing normal relations with Cuba. Cuba says its biotech and genetic engineering program, one of the most advanced in Latin America, is dedicated only to peaceful purposes and to making of medicines and vaccines, including generic versions of four AIDS drugs. Cuba has joint ventures with numerous countries, including Iran, Egypt and India, to produce pharmaceuticals. Since 1996, Cuba and Iran have been building a pharmaceutical research and production facility in Karaj, outside the capital of Tehran. Scientists at the center told Carter they were working on new vaccines for AIDS, dengue, cholera and tuberculosis. Dismissing the idea that Cuba was providing sensitive know-how to Iran, Carter said he believed Havana would abide by international agreements that restrain the improper use of the technology shared with other countries. Earlier, Carter met for more than an hour with Elizardo Sanchez, a veteran activist, and Oswaldo Paya, who leads a campaign for a national referendum on civil rights. The dissidents said they informed Carter about political prisoners in Cuba, the human rights situation and the prospects for peaceful change under Castro. "The situation will change for the good, but I don't know when," Sanchez told reporters after the meeting at Carter's hotel in the heart of Havana. "Our priority is to improve the situation of civil, political and economic rights, which are all violated by the government," he said. Carter arrived on Sunday for a six-day visit hoping to improve relations between the two countries, which have been feuding bitterly for four decades. Castro, who invited Carter because of his criticism of the 40-year U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, told the former president he was free to meet anyone he wished. Cuban authorities say the dissidents are counter-revolutionary traitors financed by Washington and Cuban exiles in Florida. GALVANIZED BY VARELA PROJECT The island's small but growing dissident movement has been galvanized by a campaign to obtain a popular vote on the expansion of civic rights, known the Varela Project. On Friday, Paya handed in an unprecedented petition signed by 11,020 Cubans to the Cuban legislature, calling for a referendum as provided for in the country's constitution. Carter will meet with a larger group of dissidents, between 15 and 20, on Thursday, Sanchez said. The group is expected to include Vladimiro Roca, Cuba's most prominent jailed dissident, who was freed by authorities a week before Carter's visit, two months before he completed a five-year prison term on charges of subversion. Carter's visit comes as powerful U.S. business interests are pushing for the lifting of trade sanctions imposed in 1962 and ending the ban on Americans traveling to the island. But the Bush administration, backed by anti-Castro exiles in Florida, wants to tighten the embargo, seeking the collapse of the **economically ruined communist state. ** (actually, the economic recovery of the island is a bit miraculous). * Powell Gets On Board the Train of Lies AP via yahoo - May 13, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&ncid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20020513/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_carter_55 Carter: No Proof of Cuba Terror Link By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) - Jimmy Carter said Monday that American officials briefing him for his trip to Cuba said they had no evidence the communist country was transferring abroad technology that could be vused to make weapons of mass destruction. The former president's statement followed remarks last week by Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who said Cuba has provided such biotechnology to rogue states. Secretary of State Colin Powell, asked about Carter's comments while traveling to Iceland to attend a NATO summit, repeated what Bolton had said and added that this was not a new statement on the part of the Bush administration. Carter, the first U.S. head of state in or out of office to visit Cuba since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, also met at his hotel with two leading Cuban dissidents for a briefing on human rights. The opposition leaders called on Carter to promote dialogue between the two countries. Carter, who arrived in Cuba on Sunday, told Castro and this country's top scientists that he had asked White House, State Department and intelligence officials specifically if Cuba was transferring technology or other information that could be used in terrorist activities. "The purpose of this briefing was for them to share with us any concern that my government had about possible terrorist activities that were supported by Cuba," he said. "There were absolutely no allegations made or questions raised. I asked them specifically on more than one occasion if there was any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. "The answer from our experts on intelligence was 'no'," Carter told a gathering at Cuba's top biotechnology lab. "These allegations were made, maybe not coincidentally, just before our visit to Cuba," Carter said of concerns Bolton raised during a May 6 meeting of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in Washington. As for countries the U.S. government has described as rogue states, Carter said Cuban scientists deny they have any technology transfer program with Libya and that a new program with Iran is not functioning yet. Dr. Luis Herrera, director of the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology that Carter visited, said his country had no program with Iraq, either. In his remarks at the time, Bolton said he believes Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. "Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states," Bolton said. "We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states. ... We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with rogue states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention." Havana has denounced Bolton's allegation as a lie and promised Carter "complete access" to any Cuban biotechnology laboratory. As Castro sat next to the former American president in an auditorium at the lab, Cuban scientists told Carter that their transfer contracts with other countries forbid the use of Cuban technology for anything other than the vaccines and other lifesaving technology purposes they were designed for. Answering a question from Carter, Herrera insisted that Cuba monitors the use of technology transferred to other countries to ensure it is not used for terrorism. "I just want to assure myself," Carter said. Traveling with his wife and a small group of executives and staff from his Carter Center, the former American president had no biotechnology experts in his delegation for the visit to the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology on the outskirts of Havana. Carter has a science background, but in nuclear technology. Elizardo Sanchez and Oswaldo Paya, the dissidents who met with Carter, are both coordinators of Project Varela, a proposed referendum asking voters if they want guarantees of individual freedoms, an amnesty for political prisoners, the right to own their business and electoral reforms. Paya said the men explained the need for dialogue. "Carter understands the concept very well because he is a man of dialogue." In Washington, a White House spokesman said Monday that Castro should give his own people the same freedom to travel and speak to dissidents that he has given Carter. "Why have one standard for a visitor and have a far worse, much more repressive standard for his own people?" Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. Carter, who did more than any other president to ease tensions with Cuba, arrived Sunday to the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Castro turned to his visitor and said, "It's been a long time since that happened." Sunday night, a dark-suited Castro threw a dinner for Carter and his delegation at the Palace of the Revolution. The visit gave the Cuban leader a chance to reach out to Americans, and he used it by symbolically throwing open the doors of the island to Carter. Castro said a Carter speech on Tuesday would be broadcast live. "You can express yourself freely whether or not we agree with part of what you say or with everything you say," Castro said. "You will have free access to every place you want to go." "We shall not take offense at any contact you may wish to make," he added, an obvious reference to the dissidents and human rights activists Carter plans to meet. Cuban officials have been irritated with some other foreign leaders who have held similar meetings, but Castro said Carter had proved his sincerity in the past. "A man who, in the middle of the Cold War and from the depth of an ocean of prejudice, misinformation and distrust ... dared to try to improve relations between both countries deserves respect." Speaking in Spanish, Carter said he hoped "to discuss ideals that Rosalynn and I hold dear ... peace, human rights, democracy and the alleviation of suffering." * AP - May 13, 2002 12:22 P.M. Carter meets with Cuban dissidents [sic], visits biotech lab The Associated Press HAVANA -- Jimmy Carter visited a major biotechnology lab with Fidel Castro on Monday, just one week after U.S. officials accused Cuba of trying to develop biological warfare -- a charge the Cuban leader has denounced as a lie. Traveling with his wife and a small group of executives and staff from his Carter Center, the former American president had no biotechnology experts in his delegation. Carter has a science background, but in nuclear technology. He traveled to the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology on the outskirts of Havana after meeting two leading Cuban dissidents [sic], who briefed him on Cuba's human rights situation and called for him to promote dialogue between the two countries. Elizardo Sanchez and Oswaldo Paya, who saw Carter at his hotel, are both coordinators of Project Varela, a proposed referendum asking voters if they want guarantees of individual freedoms, an amnesty for political prisoners, the right to own their business and electoral reforms. Paya said the men explained to Carter the need for dialogue. "Carter understands the concept very well because he is a man of dialogue." In Washington, a White House spokesman said Monday that Castro should give his own people the same freedom to travel and speak to dissidents that he has given Carter. * Atlanta Journal-Constitutions - May 13, 2002 Castro dinner for Carters ends at respectable hour By MONI BASU and MIKE WILLIAMS Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers HAVANA -- Fidel Castro is famous for keeping visiting dignitaries up until the wee hours in free-ranging conversations, but his first official dinner with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter wound up at a respectable hour, a bit after midnight. "It was great, very interesting," said Becky Carter, Carter's daughter-in-law and part of the 9-person delegation traveling with the former president. The formal dinner at the Palace of the Revolution, high atop a hill in the heart of this sprawling city, was closed to the press, but apparently lasted about 4 hours, including a pre-meal talk session held at a large conference table festooned with small Cuban and American flags. Carter is the first sitting or former U.S. president to visit the island in more than 70 years. He is making the six-day trip as a private citizen, but hopes to open a dialogue that might improve U.S.-Cuba relations, which soured about 40 years ago when Castro installed a communist government shortly after leading his 1959 revolution. Castro emerged on the marble steps of the Palace of the Revolution about 8 p.m. Sunday night, dressed in a natty blue business suit as he welcomed Carter, his wife Rosalynn and the other members of the delegation as an honor guard of Cuban soldiers dressed in sky-blue jackets with red, white and blue sashes snapped to attention. After a brief picture-taking session, the press was dismissed and the parties settled in for the discussion session. It wasn't known exactly how many people attended the dinner, which featured traditional Cuban fare including pork, rice and beans and plantains, Becky Carter said. Carter speaks some Spanish and it is believed that Castro can communicate at least a bit in English. But at both public appearances between the two men Sunday, a Cuban woman hovered just over Castro's shoulder and could be seen translating the conversation. Carter has been careful to caution the public not to expect any dramatic developments from his trip, which he has described as an opportunity for finding areas of common ground. But politics still hovers in the background. This morning, Carter is scheduled to visit a genetic engineering and biotechnology facility, a field where the Cubans have been immensely proud of their accomplishments. Last week, however, a senior Bush Administration official charged that Cuba may be trying to develop and even export bio-weapons technology, a claim that quickly drew an angry denial from the Cubans. In his welcoming speech Sunday, Castro pointedly invited Carter to expand the Monday visit to the bio-tech facility, saying "you may have free and complete access" with "any specialists of your choosing." It was unknown whether Carter would seek to expand the visit to the center, which was scheduled weeks in advance of the Bush Administration charges. This afternoon, Carter is scheduled to visit a school for social workers in Cojimar, a small town just outside Havana, and the Latin America Medical School. Castro has long touted his country's accomplishments in the medical field and has made the school a showcase for foreign visitors. The highlight of Carter's visit may come Tuesday night when he holds a discussion with students at the University of Havana and then makes a live address in Spanish on Cuban national television. The balance of the trip is made up of visits to other schools and clinics, along with what Cuban officials are terming "personal activities" on Thursday, a time Carter has set aside to meet with religious leaders and human rights activists, some of whom have reportedly been harassed by Cuban authorities. © 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-05.14.02-02:00:20-17849