It's Havana that's foot-dragging on exile evidence, U.S. retorts

Published Wednesday, March 24, 1999, in the Miami Herald

It's Havana that's foot-dragging on exile evidence, U.S. retorts

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer

FBI agents have been examining evidence provided by Cuba officials linking exiles to terror attacks, but Havana has been avoiding a follow-up meeting with the investigators since December, U.S. officials say.

The officials spoke in an angry retort to recent complaints from Havana that Washington had done nothing with the evidence that Cuban State Security officials gave FBI agents during meetings in Havana Aug. 15-17.

``We've acted in good faith from the beginning. We told them in December that we were ready to meet again. But we heard nothing, until they started accusing us of doing nothing, an annoyed U.S. official said.

FBI and State Department officials declined to comment, leaving open several questions on a case viewed as politically sensitive because of U.S. reluctance to deal with Cuba's security apparatus:

Will the FBI use the Cuba-provided evidence to launch a full-blown investigation of the accused exiles, most of them in South Florida and some of them senior officials of the Cuban American National Foundation?

Part of Cuba's evidence allegedly involves the seven exiles awaiting trial in Puerto Rico on charges of plotting to kill President Fidel Castro. A U.S. grand jury in San Juan indicted them last year.

How detailed and credible is the evidence provided by Cuba? Past Havana submissions to the FBI have ranged from solid to little more than clippings from U.S. and Cuban newspapers, knowledgeable officials said.

``I would guess this was nothing dramatic, or we would have taken action immediately,'' a U.S. official said. ``The Cubans' evidence is sometimes little more than a few facts seeded among lots of hearsay and allegations.''

Cuba first disclosed its most recent cooperation with the FBI when State Security Col. Adalberto Rabeiro testified two weeks ago at the trial of a Salvadoran man who had confessed to six terror bombings around Havana in 1997. Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to death.

``We had a group of specialists sent here by important U.S. officials Aug. 15-16-17, Rabeiro said. ``We gave them all the information you have heard at this trial, and more, and we're still waiting for the results.

Castro chimes in

Castro himself echoed the grievance last week, saying he held U.S. officials ``responsible for a dozen or more bombings in 1997 because of their ``actions, omissions or conscious purpose.

The FBI's failure to crack down on exile terrorists shows that Washington had ``previous knowledge or tolerance of attacks plotted or financed by Cuban American National Foundation officials, Castro said. The foundation repeatedly had denied any links to terrorism.

U.S. officials knowledgeable about the case admitted that the FBI got off to a slow start after the August meeting in Havana because its bomb experts were busy investigating the Aug. 7 truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

They also worked more slowly than usual ``because of the need to evaluate the information in more detail than normal, due to the source of the materials, another U.S. official said.

But Washington notified Cuba in December that the FBI team was ready to return to Havana to brief security officials on the preliminary results of its inquiries, yet never heard back, the officials added.

Denial of inaction

``They do nothing for three months and then accuse us of sitting on our hands. That's a lie, said a U.S. official authorized to speak on the issue.

``Basically we've acted in good faith on this from beginning to end, he added. ``We're prepared to follow up and take law enforcement action when warranted by the facts and the law. In this specific case, we did follow up.

Cuba and U.S. officials have long met regularly, perhaps two or three times per year, to talk about U.S.-based exile groups plotting violent attacks on the Castro government, several veterans of the contacts say.

The talks always were kept discreet because of concerns about the image of accepting information from a repressive communist regime. Washington never gives Havana intelligence information that could be used to harm U.S. citizens or residents, the veterans insisted.

Rabeiro testified during Cruz Leon's trial that the evidence turned over to the FBI visitors in August ``includes everything before this court -- sweeping his hand toward three nearby and crammed tables.

Traceable evidence

Among them were explosive detonators and guns whose serial numbers might allow the FBI to trace them to their buyers, and a cellular telephone whose call records could lead the FBI to identify its users.

Prosecutors also presented witnesses who testified to alleged links between senior Cuban American National Foundation officials and Cruz Leon, a second Salvadoran bomber and two Cuban exiles jailed in Havana for terrorism in 1995.

The witnesses included three men who described themselves as Cuban spies and testified that they had visited Miami and been offered money by exile leaders to carry bombs and explosives on their return trip to Cuba.

Rabeiro and the other State Security agents who testified at the trial alleged that a paramilitary wing within the Cuban American National Foundation had financed or planned a series of terror attempts against Cuba beginning as far back as 1992.

``We cannot reveal all the details we have for security reasons, Rabeiro said, ``but what more proof do [U.S. officials] want to act against these terrorists?

A U.S. official answered: ``Obviously it wasn't anything too dramatic, or we would have done something quickly. But perhaps over time, the law enforcement will find reason to act.