Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Biowar Bullying of Cuba
From: Tom Keske (trkeske@yahoo.com)
Date: 17 Jan 1998 04:18:10 GMT

BIOWAR BULLYING OF CUBA

It is somewhat naive to look for "smoking guns" when trying to
understand how biowarfare may have contributed to emerging
diseases- biowarfare is prized in large part precisely BECAUSE
it leaves no smoking gun.

However, what does become evident in time, amid many
allegations that are supported but unproven, are some clear
and consistent patterns.

I previously described how a major dengue fever erupted in
Cuba at the exact time that gays in America began getting
AIDS. I described how courtroom testimony of alleged
participants indicated deliberate attempts to spread the
disease.

It is not simply a case of  one or two diseases or incidents,
however. The larger context is an ongoing series involving a
great variety of biowarfare agents.

Starting in 1962, a CIA agent who helped direct worldwide
sabotage efforts revealed that "There was lots of sugar being
sent out from Cuba, and we were putting lots of contaminants
in it." [1]

President Kennedy was furious that a precedent could be set
for chemical sabotage in the Cold War (New York Times,
4/28/66).

The same year, a Canadian agriculture technician working as an
adviser to Cuba was paid $5000 by "an American military
intelligence agent" to infect Cuban turkeys with Newcastle
virus. Subsequently, 8000 turkeys died.  The Washington Post
reported that "the Cubans - and some Americans - believe the
turkeys died as a result of espionage." (3/21/77)

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a paramyoxovirus and causes
fatal respiratory infections in poultry. By 1985, at the
Society for General Microbiology in England, inventors were
presenting newly developed methods for cloning NDV genes with
recombinant DNA techniques.  Other literature relating to NDV
shows development of methods for "Purification and Isolation"
(Scheid et al, Jour. of Virology, 1973), "Use of Antibodies
(Avery et al, Infections & Immun., 1979), "Hybridization of
Synthetic...",  (Wallace et al, Nucleic Acids Res., 1979).

In 1971, also according to participants, the CIA turned over
to Cuban exiles a virus which causes African swine fever. Six
weeks later, an outbreak of the disease in Cuba forced the
slaughter of 500,000 pigs.  The outbreak, the first ever in
the Western Hemisphere, was termed by the United Nations Food
and Agricultural Organization as "the most alarming event of
the year." [2]

Cuba has a "CIA Museum" in Havana, dealing with numerous
biowarfare attacks, as well as many other types of high-tech
harassment.  You can take a tour of this on the web, complete
with a photo gallery of many captured CIA gadgets, and
pictures of crop damage.

The current embargo against Cuba includes an inhumane blocking
of AIDS treatments- obviously, our country cares little how
many get infected or die of the disease, there. Perhaps the
same recklessness and lack of concern could once have been
directed against gays, as well.

Tom Keske
Boston, Mass.


[1] Branch and Crile, op. cit. p. 52
[2] The CIA: a Forgotten History", William Blum

[Keske]