>Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 21:37:02 -0500 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: CUBA: ROLLING UP SOME CARELESS SPIES >CUBA: ROLLING UP SOME CARELESS SPIES > >Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > >excerpt from "Intelligence" No. 374, 13 November 2000 > >CUBA: ROLLING UP SOME CARELESS SPIES > >On 4 October, Pedro Riera Escalante, 49, reportedly a major in the Cuban >Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI) who had entered Mexico illegally, >was deported back to Cuba. He had been talking to the Mexican newspaper, >"Reforma", for some weeks and was supposedly considering asking for >political asylum in Mexico. Some newspapers say Riera joined the DGI in >1968, some say 1973, but he spent much of his career in Mexico -- including >a 1986-1991 posting as consul -- where he had operated against the CIA >station in Mexico City. He was reportedly involved in several operations >that compromised CIA officers and significantly impeded CIA communications >in Operation LUPA, in 1989. He supposedly overhauled DGI practices for the >recruitment of sources. In 1991, his cover was blown by US-financed TV Marti >and he returned to Cuba. On 5 October, the US declared that the Mexican >government has a "special responsibility" to ensure the safety of Riera, but >declined to explain its strong interest in the case. Riera had met with US >officials at the embassy before his deportation. With more than 20 years DGI >experience, Riera is presumed to have extensive information about Cuban >intelligence operations in the US and Mexico. But, if this is true, he >wasn't very bright hob-nobbing around Mexico City and thinking Mexico would >let him drop into the arms of the CIA instead of sending him back to Cuba. >Mexico may have assumed he had "turned his coat" and was working for the CIA >against Mexican interests ... and those of Cuba, too. > >The more recent "roll-up" is even more silly. On 9 October, the DGI arrested >six "undercover" British private eyes -- and a girlfriend along for the >vacation -- for spying in Cuba on a wealthy foreign businessman, Mike >Nahmad, who has close ties to Fidel Castro. They were reportedly working >under contract for Sarah Kardonsky, the jealous wife of Nahmad, a wealthy >Panamanian with a long history of doing business in Cuba. She suspected her >husband of having an affair on the island and was allegedly looking for >evidence to strengthen her case for divorce. Moreover, the "private dicks" >weren't on the first trip to Cuba. A previous team had left Cuba to return >to England on 23 September. > >They were working for SIP Investigations, in the east London suburb of >Snaresbrook, which advertises itself and "The ultimate in investigation and >security." The agency's boss, Ken Lodge, 53, was arrested along with London >resident, John Fawcett, Derek Pitt, from Hertfordshire, two men identified >only as Will Smart and Mike, and the latter's girlfriend. They were >operating clandestinely in Cuba on tourist visas and carrying sophisticated >eavesdropping and surveillance equipment. Apart from SIP, Lodge owns two >companies with offices in Mayfair: European Research and Investigations and >Drug Alert. He offers protection to dignitaries and lists armored vehicles, >body armour and anti-riot equipment among his areas of expertise. > >Lodge made a bad target choice: Mike Nahmad, a Panamanian who runs Genpower, >the company supplying electricity to much of Cuba, has been one of Cuba's >top US blockade runners for two decades. He made his fortune shipping goods >to the Cuban government from offices in the Colon Free Zone, Panama's duty- >free import-export operation at the Atlantic Ocean entrance to the Panama >Canal. His financial interests in Cuba also include building a power plant >on the Isle of Youth. But Lodge's client wasn't a "nobody". She is a member >of a rich Panamanian Jewish family -- the Kardonskys -- who emigrated from >Europe before World War II. Her uncle, Sam Kardonsky, was kidnapped in 1984 >and reportedly freed only after a $2 million ransom was paid in a release >negotiated by the British Control Risks Group. The Kardonskys built their >wealth as exclusive distributors for Japan's Sanyo Corp. throughout Latin >America and they also own a major bank that has branches in the United >States. > >Once the DGI moved in, they realized that the private detectives not only >rented rooms in the five-star Melia Hotel overlooking Genpower's office in >the capital, but had installed themselves as Mr. Nahmad's next-door >neighbors. Posing as tourists, four members of the team rented a pink and >white beach-side bungalow less than five meters from the businessman's home >on the Marina Hemingway estate in Miramar on the western outskirts of >Havana. > >In the midst of all this spy activity, US federal prosecutors and FBI agents >were planning to fly to Cuba to question Cuban officials believed to have >evidence that could help prove the innocence of five Cubans facing trial on >spy charges in Miami. Despite prosecutors' protests, US District Judge, Joan >Lenard, ruled that the five alleged Cuban spies -- all area residents >arrested in South Florida in 1998 -- are entitled to build their defense >case using testimony from eight Cuban officials. Lenard will decide later >whether any of the videotaped testimony will be used at trial. > >Of the 14 alleged Cuban spies suspected of plotting to infiltrate Miami >exile groups and gather intelligence from Florida military installations, >four are fugitives believed to be in Cuba, five others are serving prison >terms in the US ranging from three-and-a-half to seven years, after pleading >guilty to charges that they didn't register as foreign agents. Among the >eight Cubans to be interviewed in Havana are military officials who say the >defendants were not spying on the US government but on exile groups Cuba >deemed terrorist threats. Those testifying include: Cuba's chief of the >military's Center for Strategic Studies, Col. Amels Escalante Colas; the >president of Cuban Civilian Aviation, Fidel Cruz; and Martinez Gonzalez, the >air traffic controller who spoke with Brothers to the Rescue leader, Jose >Basulto, the day their planes were shot down. > >Intelligence is published by ADI, 16 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris, France >Editor: Olivier Schmidt > >Copyright 2000, ADI and NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. > > >================================================================= > NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems > Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us > 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 > http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >================================================================= > >nytcov-11.20.00-21:36:34-8839 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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