China Confidential
Sunday, April 19, 2009
North Korea Threatens Nuclear Action; Test Likely
As if to mock the Obama administration's appeasement policy--and fear of angering China--North Korea has again threatened to "bolster its nuclear deterrent." Click here for the report.
China Confidential analysts say the threat should be taken as a sign that Beijing's vassal intends to test another nuclear weapon, perhaps as early as this July.Raul Ready to Discuss 'Everything' but Bioweapons
Cuban dictator Raul Castro made headlines last week by saying that he is prepared to discuss "everything" with the United States. Human rights, political prisoners--you name it--Raul is ready to talk about it.
Really?
One subject that Castro is surely not eager to talk about--and the Obama administration is not likely to raise out of fear of ruining the dialogue--is Cuba's biological warfare program, which is alarmingly advanced and sophisticated. Both sides will avoid the issue like the plague.
In fact, bubonic plague is one of the toxins that Cuba has developed under civilian cover, probably at a lab just outside Havana that foreigners have visited without understanding the facility's real importance. Cuba has also developed botulism and yellow fever--and bacteria and viruses that can be used to spread dangerous sicknesses that are unknown and difficult to diagnose.
Cuba's bioweapons can be deployed as simply as sending a conventional suicide bomber to attack a mall or a restaurant, making the Communist-controlled country, which is located in the northern Caribbean, just 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, a potential biowarfare base for Iran.
Yes, Iran. Cuba's close cooperation with the Islamist menace in military and intelligence matters dates to the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 (Carter administration-assisted) overthrow of the Shah, a modernizing monarch who made the fatal mistakes of trusting blindly in U.S. assurances and commitments (Israel, take notice) and getting on the wrong side of the left-leaning media.
In 2001, Fidel Castro visited Iran, Libya, and Syria--on whose side Cuba covertly fought against Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. During his visit to Iran, Castro said, “Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees.”
His visit followed a visit to Cuba by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami--hailed in the West as the mullahocracy's first "reformist" President--who toured Havana's flagship Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and praised the Castro regime's achievements in science and technology. Khatami's 2000 visit and speech, replete with references to "imperialist" enemies, reflected nearly a decade of biotechnology cooperation accords and transfer agreements between Cuba and Iran.
World Leader
Boasting more than 300 biotechnology centers, Cuba is a world leader in biotech-pharmaceutical research. Scientists in Havana are working on vaccinations against AIDS, cancer, leprosy and cholera.
Cuba has transferred to Iran proprietary technology and production equipment for hepatitis-b vaccine, erythropoietin (EPO), interferon, streptokinase, and other biotechnology products. Cuba has also provided advanced training in biotechnology techniques to some 30 Iranian scientists.
In 1996, three years after signing their first biotechnology cooperation agreement, Cuba's aforementioned state-owned center and Iran's state-owned Pasteur Institute formed a joint venture firm, Novaran Tec Kish. Its genetic engineering/biotech research center has been described by Cuba's official media as "the most modern [biotechnology complex] of its type in the Middle East."
America's former UN envoy, John Bolton, while serving as Undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, triggered a furor in May of 2002, when he said: “The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."
Nearly 11 years ago, in May 1998, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen testified in Congress that Cuba possesses advanced biotechnology and is capable of mass-producing agents for biological warfare.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
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