Carter backs Cuba on bioweapons
Former President Carter greets Cuban dissidents Elizardo Sanchez, center,
and Oswaldo Paya, left, at the entrance of a hotel Monday in Havana.
As Cuba welcomed President
Carter, many of the island's
dissidents were hoping to gain
a greater voice on the
international stage. NBC's
Andrea Mitchell reports.
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
HAVANA, May 13 — Former President Jimmy Carter
embroiled himself in a growing dispute between the United
States and Cuba on Monday, saying he was told by U.S.
officials they had no evidence the communist country was
transferring to other countries technology that could be used
to make weapons of mass destruction — contradicting what
the Bush administration has said publicly. He also
suggested the claim, made by a top State Department
official, was timed to coincide with his landmark trip to
Cuba.
A WEEK AGO, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton
charged that Cuba is trying to develop biological weapons and
transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile to the United
States, such as Libya and Iran.
It marked the first time the United States raised the possibility
of Cuban involvement in weapons of mass destruction.
Saying he was raising the issue “with some degree of
reluctance,” Carter told President Fidel Castro and Cuba’s top
scientists that he had asked U.S. officials about the alleged
activities during a briefing ahead of his historic trip.
“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 made. 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 sued for terrorist purposes.
“The answer from our experts on intelligence was ’no’,” Carter
told a gathering at Cuba’s top biotechnology lab.
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“These allegations were made, maybe not coincidentally, just
before our visit to Cuba,” Carter said of Bolton’s speech, made
during a meeting of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
research group in Washington.
Havana had denounced Bolton’s allegation as a lie.
ASSURANCES
Earlier, answering a question from Carter, Dr. Luis Herrera of the
Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology 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.
Herrera said Cuba has no technology transfer program with
Iraq, but does have programs with China, Iran, and even some
European countries.
Carter was escorted for the tour of the institute by Castro, who
laughed off the U.S. accusation in a brief interview with NBC’s
Andrea Mitchell.
When asked if the center produced weapons for germ warfare,
Castro replied, “Here they are” and then laughed, adding “Can’t
you take a joke.”
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.
DISSIDENTS MEETING
Earlier on Monday, Carter met veteran rights activists Elizardo
Sanchez and Oswaldo Paya at his Havana hotel.
Both 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,” Paya said.
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
said.
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Carter, the U.S. president who did more than any other to ease
tensions with Cuba, arrived Sunday — the first time a U.S. head of
state, in or out of office, had visited the communist island since
Castro’s 1959 revolution.
As the strains of “The Star-Spangled Banner” faded in the wind
at Havana’s international airport Sunday, Castro turned to his
visitor and said, “It’s been a long time since that happened.”
When they arrived, Castro escorted Carter and his wife
Rosalynn to a wooden podium where flags from the two nations
flew side by side and both national anthems were played. “The
Star-Spangled Banner” is rarely heard in Cuba, though it was also
played when the Baltimore Orioles competed against a Cuban
all-star baseball team here in 1999.
On Sunday night, a dark-suited Castro played host to Carter
and his delegation at talks and a dinner in the Palace of the
Revolution.
The visit gave the Cuban leader an unusually high-profile
chance to reach out to Americans, and he used it by symbolically
throwing open the doors of the island to Carter, who has made a
post-presidential career out of monitoring elections in developing
democracies.
Castro nodded in agreement when Carter asked if a Tuesday
speech 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.
FIRST SINCE COOLRIDGE
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.”
He said there were “differences on some of these issues” with
Cuban leaders, “but we welcome the opportunity to try to identify
some points in common and some areas of cooperation.”
After the arrival ceremony, Castro gave the Carters a taste of
the sort of honors visiting heads of state received in the era of
Carter’s 1977-81 presidency: He joined the Carters in a black
Soviet-made Zil limousine donated to Cuba by Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev in the mid-1970s. It is used only for the most
distinguished guests.
Carter, the first former or sitting
president to visit Cuba since Calvin
Coolidge came in 1928, has emphasized
that this is a private trip and that he will
not be negotiating with the Cuban
government.
There have been 10 American
presidents since Castro took power, and
relations were less hostile under Carter
than any other.
As president, Carter oversaw the
re-establishment of diplomatic exchanges
between the two countries and negotiated
the release of thousands of political
prisoners. He also made it possible for Cuban exiles to visit relatives
on the island and, for a short time, for other Americans to travel
here freely.
But relations have remained cold. A U.S. trade embargo is still
in place and visits by Americans are tightly limited, or are supposed
to be: Tens of thousands skirt or ignore the travel ban each year.
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