Carter Speaks, Powell Backpedals - Roundup Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Carter Speaks, Powell Backpedals (slightly) [Secretary of State Colin Powell, still unable to express himself too frankly, has at least distanced himself minutely from the Bush-Bolton charges by claiming that they are "nothing new" and that similar concerns "about the potential capacity to produce" biological weapons were expressed in March before the Congress. A matter of splitting diplomatic hairs on Powell's part. More important, note that the Commander in Chief is still being undercut by his employees (anonymously of course) and that the fact of dual-use exports from anyplace with an advanced science infrastructure is admitted. Meanwhile, the mainstream press has now caught up with the obvious Big Lie of all this, and its timing. They're even portraying the half-wit in the White House as 'concerned' -- he's certainly having some shrill temper tantrums. They don't seem to be doing very good damage control on this one. What Powell admits is that Cuba has some smart scientists. They are capable of biotechnology -- what's more, biotechnology that other countries want and will buy. If a country can make thermometers, they can poison people with mercury. Why aren't all those thermometer-manufacturing countries on the axis of evil list? And where oh where is the Anthrax Mailman? Does he exist only to sow fear into the hearts of Americans at strategic moments? This is going to go down as one of the more Haig-like moments in the WMD debate, except while Haig was yapping about preliminary data in the yellow rain business, the Bushies are blowing pure smoke, and rather thin smoke at that. I guess they borrowed a lesson from Clinton and decided not to inhale....] http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Cuba.html Bush Expresses Concerns About Cuba By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 11:04 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush urged Cubans on Tuesday to ``demand freedom'' from Fidel Castro, who has gotten a burst of international attention this week at the side of visiting former President Carter. Bush's remarks came after the White House and Carter butted heads over Cuba's biotechnology programs. The president said of Carter's trip: ``It doesn't complicate my foreign policy because I haven't changed my foreign policy -- and that is Fidel Castro is a dictator and he is oppressive and he ought to have free elections and he ought to have a free press and he ought to free his prisoners and he ought to encourage free enterprise.'' Carter said during his Cuba visit Monday that he had been told by administration officials that the United States had no evidence the communist country was transferring technology that could be used for terrorism. The White House on Tuesday held to its stand that Cuba has provided other nations with biotechnology that could be used by terrorists. However, the United States has no evidence Cuba is exporting equipment or expertise with the intent of helping anyone make biological weapons, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Nor is there evidence that Cuba has biological weapons of its own. Cuba's exports consist of dual-use medical equipment -- devices that have a benign medical purpose but can be used to produce biological weapons, officials said. Dozens of companies in Europe, Asia and the Americas also make and export similar equipment. Without criticizing Carter directly, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the subject of biological technology never came up in Carter's pre-trip conversation with Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser. He said the White House is worried about Castro's biological program. ``The United States has plenty of reason to be concerned,'' Fleischer said. Carter told Castro and leading Cuban 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. He said he was told Cuba was not. Explaining the U.S. view, Fleischer pointed to a widely reported speech by Undersecretary of State John Bolton shortly before Carter's trip. In the speech, Bolton said Cuba has provided biotechnology to ``other rogue states'' and the United States is concerned the information could support biological warfare programs. Fleischer praised Carter as a champion of human rights, and urged the former president to use his influence to push Castro toward democratic reforms. He called the Cuban leader ``one of the world's last great tyrants.'' Later Tuesday, Bush previewed a speech on Cuba he plans to give next week in Washington before visiting Cuban Americans in Miami. ``My message to the Cuban people is to demand freedom and you've got a president who stands with you,'' Bush said. In anticipation of his remarks, a bipartisan group of House members is set to call on the president to ease the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. The 40 House members say the four-decades-old embargo has failed, and the best way to undermine Castro is to allow Americans to travel to the island and to sell agricultural products there. ``It's time to try something new,'' said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the House Cuba Working Group. The Bush administration has called for tightening restrictions on travel to Cuba. * AP - March 14, 2002 Bush Concerned About Carter in Cuba By JOHN J. LUMPKIN WASHINGTON, May 14 (AP) - President Bush urged Cubans on Tuesday to ``demand freedom'' from Fidel Castro, who has gotten a burst of international attention this week at the side of visiting former President Carter. Bush's remarks came after the White House and Carter butted heads over Cuba's biotechnology programs. The president said of Carter's trip: ``It doesn't complicate my foreign policy because I haven't changed my foreign policy - and that is Fidel Castro is a dictator and he is oppressive and he ought to have free elections and he ought to have a free press and he ought to free his prisoners and he ought to encourage free enterprise,'' Bush said. Carter said during his Cuba visit Monday that he had been told by administration officials that the United States had no evidence the communist country was transferring technology that could be used for terrorism. The White House on Tuesday held to its stand that Cuba has provided other nations with biotechnology that could be used by terrorists. However, the United States has no evidence Cuba is exporting equipment or expertise with the intent of helping anyone make biological weapons, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Nor is there evidence that Cuba has biological weapons of its own. Cuba's exports consist of dual-use medical equipment - devices that have a benign medical purpose but can be used to produce biological weapons, officials said. Dozens of companies in Europe, Asia and the Americas also make and export similar equipment. Without criticizing Carter directly, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the subject of biological technology never came up in Carter's pre-trip conversation with Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser. He said the White House is worried about Castro's biological program. ``The United States has plenty of reason to be concerned,'' Fleischer said. Carter told Castro and leading Cuban 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. He said he was told Cuba was not. Explaining the U.S. view, Fleischer pointed to a widely reported speech by Undersecretary of State John Bolton shortly before Carter's trip. In the speech, Bolton said Cuba has provided biotechnology to ``other rogue states'' and the United States is concerned the information could support biological warfare programs. Fleischer praised Carter as a champion of human rights, and urged the former president to use his influence to push Castro toward democratic reforms. He called the Cuban leader ``one of the world's last great tyrants.'' Later Tuesday, Bush previewed a speech on Cuba he plans to give next week in Washington before visiting Cuban Americans in Miami. ``My message to the Cuban people is to demand freedom and you've got a president who stands with you,'' Bush said. In anticipation of his remarks, a bipartisan group of House members is set to call on the president to ease the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. The 40 House members say the four-decades-old embargo has failed, and the best way to undermine Castro is to allow Americans to travel to the island and to sell agricultural products there. ``It's time to try something new,'' said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the House Cuba Working Group. The Bush administration has called for tightening restrictions on travel to Cuba. * 05/14/02 19:01 EDT AP - May 14, 2002 Carter Debates Democracy With Castro By JOHN RICE HAVANA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter found himself in a debate on human rights and democracy with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, after he sparked controversy at home by saying U.S. officials told him they had no evidence Cuba was involved in developing weapons of mass destruction. Visiting a school for social workers, Carter said he would discuss ``the differences in our approach to the form of governments we have'' during a major speech Tuesday night, which Castro promised would be broadcast live throughout the communist island. ``In the United States, we believe that it is very important to have absolute freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,'' Carter told the students Monday, citing two liberties that nearly all human rights groups find lacking in Cuba. On Monday night, Castro played host to Carter at the Latin American School of Medicine, where the Cuban leader argued that the concept of democracy was born in ancient Athens, with fewer than 20,000 citizens ruling some 50,000 non-citizens and 80,000 slaves. Noting the vast poverty of most of the world's people, Castro compared Western-style democracies to an Athens in which a minority unjustly dominates the majority and said Cuba was striving for ``a society with justice'' and equal opportunity. He said his country was seeking ``that dream of justice, of true liberty, of true democracy, of true human rights.'' Castro used the occasion at the school - where the impoverished country gives free six-year medical educations to 6,000 poor students, most from Latin America - to begin drawing the outlines of a longer response that is sure to come. The response is to be a statement of principles that may serve for his revolutionary movement's 50th anniversary next year. Critics say Cuba's government harasses organized opposition groups, accusing them of being hirelings of foreign governments, and has allowed no opposition parties during Castro's 43 years in power. Cuban exile groups had urged Carter - who has campaigned for democracy in other nations - to raise the issue during his visit to Cuba. ``We take pride in our freedom to criticize our own government and to change our government when we don't like it by voting in elections that are contested,'' said Carter, who began Monday by meeting two human rights activists who have spent time in Cuban prisons. Early Tuesday, Carter - the first former or current American president to visit Castro's Cuba - was to visit Cuba's AIDS sanatarium and a farm cooperative, both on the outskirts of Havana. After his Tuesday night speech, Carter was scheduled to attend a baseball game of all-star teams from eastern and western Cuba. Castro also was expected to attend. Carter also suggested Monday that the detailed briefings the Bush administration gave him before his visit to Cuba contrasted sharply with its public statements a few days later. Last week, Undersecretary of State John 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.'' But Carter - a former president and Navy nuclear scientist who presumably has a security clearance far higher than the general public - said officials at the State Department, White House and intelligence agencies had not mentioned or raised questions about the issue when they briefed him not long before his trip. ``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?''' Carter said during a visit to a major Cuban biotechnology laboratory. ``The answer from our experts on intelligence was 'no.' `` Carter said anybody with such evidence should accept Castro's offer to tour the Cuban biotechnology centers for themselves. He also urged Cuba to ``intensively concentrate'' on enforcing its existing contracts, which ban other countries from converting Cuban medical technology to other uses. But the former president praised Cuba's ``generosity'' in spreading treatments against or detection of hepatitis, meningitis, Alzheimer's, cancer and AIDS to some of the world's poorest nations. Cuba claims its vaccines have saved the lives of thousands of children. ``It may be that Cuba is unique in having emphasized health needs as a driving force and not just to make a profit,'' Carter said. Bush administration officials 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. Carter did not directly contradict Bolton's allegations. But he said they ``were made, maybe not coincidentally, just before our visit to Cuba.'' Otto Reich, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said similar information had been given at a Congressional hearing in March by Carl Ford, the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC on Monday that ``we do believe that Cuba has a biological offensive research capability.'' ``We didn't say it actually had such weapons, but it has the capacity and capability to conduct such research and this is not a new statement, I think it's a statement that has been made previously,'' Powell said. ``So Undersecretary Bolton's speech, which got attention on this issue again, it wasn't breaking new ground as far as the United States' position on the subject.'' 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. 05/14/02 09:08 EDT ================================================================= 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 ================================================================= nytmed-05.15.02-06:29:22-25564