US Still Concerns Bioweapons in Cuba

The United States on Tuesday accused Cuba of developing biological weapons even it could not offer any evidence to prove it.

"Based on what is well known, we have concerns about Cuba's limited offensive biological warfare research and development," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at a regular news briefing.

Asked repeatedly by reporters if the United States had evidence of a Cuban bioweapons program, the spokesman would only say, "We have concerns."

"The United States has plenty of reasons to be concerned," he said. "One of the issues that is always difficult when dealing with bioweaponry is that it is hard to find."

During a visit to a Cuban biological research center on Monday, former US President Jimmy Cater said that Bush administration officials repeatedly assured him before his landmark trip there that they had no evidence that Cuba had provided other nations with technology suitable for developing weapons of mass destruction.

"I asked them myself specifically on more than one occasion `is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information with any country on earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. And the answer from our experts on intelligence was no," Carter said.

A senior State Department official last week publicly accused Castro of developing limited biological weapons, but Cuba strongly denied the charge.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2002)