06/03/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09922

CUBA AND TERRORISM

President George W. Bush has said that the nations of the world must choose sides in the war against terrorism: either you are with the anti-terror coalition or with the terrorists.

Cuba remains a country that supports terrorists. It is so identified in the U.S. State Department’s newly released report on patterns of global terrorism. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has made Cuba a shelter for violent extremists from throughout Latin America as well as from Europe.

Evidence has also emerged of Cuban protection for members of a Chilean terrorist group, the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. Joanne Chesimard, an American who murdered a police officer in 1973, has lived in Cuba as a guest of the Castro government since 1979. In addition, Castro continues to allow members of the Basque nationalist terrorist group known as Fatherland and Liberty, or ETA, to live in Cuba, from where they coordinate terrorist activities.

Cuba not only supports terrorism but in addition has at least a limited offensive biological weapons research and development effort and has provided dual-use technology to other rogue states.

In typical fashion, Fidel Castro responded to the global war on terrorism led by the United States after September 11^th by denouncing it as "worse than the original attacks, militaristic, and fascist." The Cuban government even falsely claimed that the U.S. had deliberately targeted children and hospitals in the campaign against the al-Qaida terrorists and their Taleban allies in Afghanistan.

Cuba cannot take its place in the family of civilized nations until its Communist dictator, Fidel Castro, ceases to support terrorism.