Allegations of Biological Weapons Use - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 267

at moderate to high incidence in Spain and Portugal. A natural introduc-
tion, most likely from Spain, is thus plausible. 89
However, six years later US investigative journalists published an ac-
count based on the testimony of several people who claimed to have been
involved in an operation in which the ASF virus was transferred to Cuba
from a CIA training camp at Fort Gulick, in the Panama Canal Zone. 90
The account was based on testimony of two alleged participants (CIA-
trained Cuban expatriates), with confirmation from a third CIA source in
Miami. None of the sources was named.
FOIA requests for 1971 CIA documents regarding ASF yielded only
translations of Cuban media accounts of the epidemic, intelligence source
reports on the epidemic, and internal intelligence summaries about the
epidemic. The last mentioned how dangerous this outbreak was to North
America. The apparent lack of any policy or planning documents, even
heavily redacted, suggests that there was no direct CIA involvement.
Genesis of the Allegations
Several scholars have interpreted the repeated Cuban allegations of US
biological attack as fraudulent. 91 They recognize that such allegations
may serve a political agenda to keep domestic loyalties strong by identify-
ing an external enemy.
However, we suggest that, as for the Chinese, the Cubans' belief that
they have been targets of US covert biological attack may be understand-
able. The broader context is, of course, the long history of hostile US ac-
tions against Cuba, including training and financing an invasion force,
providing training and materiel for violent sabotage in Cuba, mounting
efforts to assassinate Cuban leaders, working to isolate Cuba diplomati-
cally and economically, and imposing a total embargo on US trade with
Cuba. Thus there is a history of hostile activity, some of which (elements
of the trade embargo) continues today, much of which was covert, and
some of which was illegal.
In 1971, during the ASF outbreak, Havana's newspaper Granma specu-
lated that the outbreak might have been deliberately introduced from the
US. 92 However, the idea appears not to have resonated within the gov-
ernment, and the allegation was not repeated. In a speech in 1980 Castro
referred to several disease outbreaks over the previous two years but at-