The Tribune Editorial of Monday, September 18, 2006 is reprinted here with the kind permission of Mrs. Eileen Carron, Publisher/Editor.

FIFTEEN Bahamians – to be known as “Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five” – have banded together to free from prison five Cubans, who in our language are called “spies”, but in the doublespeak of Cuba are called “heroes.”

Mr. Alexander Morley, co-chairman of the “Bahamian Friends” drew a distinction between the imprisoned men and terrorists by explaining that the five Cubans were in the United States “hunting down terrorists – this was their job, they were just looking for information – they weren’t using weapons.”

Well when you clandestinely go into another man’s country to snoop around without informing the officials of that country what you are about and you are caught, you are automatically arrested. A spy’s life is like walking too near the edge of a cliff. One false step and you plunge to eternity. And so
if a spy is caught, he knows it means life imprisonment.

When those five Cubans entered the spying business this was the risk they were willing to take. They should be thankful they were caught committing their underground activities in the US, where they probably live in Hilton-like conditions compared to the dungeons they would have been consigned to if they had been arrested doing “their job” in Cuba. In a reverse situation they probably would have been executed in Cuba.

COB science lecturer, Felix Bethel, who is also a member of the “Friends”, believes his students have the right to know as much as he knows, “and perhaps a little bit more, about the importance of the Cuban revolution…”

We agree. We believe that the “little bit more” that Mr. Bethel obviously does not know, but his students should be told, is how Fidel Castro betrayed his revolution. There are many Cubans, who believed as much in the revolution as did Castro. However, when they discovered that their leader was a man of straw, they abandoned him and the revolution. Today, some of them live in exile in the Bahamas. Mr. Bethel should invite these men to lecture to his students – if, indeed, it is the whole truth – and not propaganda – he wants them to know.

According to the “Friends”, when the five spies uncovered information about planned terrorists’ activities in the US, they sent it to Cuba and shared it with US authorities. The Americans took their information, but instead of hunting down the terrorists arrested the Cuban “investigators.” This certainly doesn’t seem very sporting of them.

Of course, that is Castro’s story. But that is not the whole story. All the Cuban government seems willing to talk about are five Cuban “heroes.” They have nothing to say about the other five in the spy network – the ones who in fact talked to US authorities, implicating themselves and the five who are still in prison. Nor do Cuban officials talk about the other two Cubans in the spy ring who escaped arrest and returned to Cuba.

The “Bahamian Friends” are telling the truth when they say that five Cubans gave their information to US authorities. However, the question is: Which five? One can be certain that the information was not given by the five who the “Friends” are now trying to spring from jail.

In September 1998 the FBI arrested 10 Cubans based in Miami. Linked to Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI), the 10 were accused of spying. Further investigations implicated 12 persons in the Wasp Network. However, as we have already said, two skipped town before they could be arrested.

News of arrests, trial and sentencing were reported in the United States and around the world, but Cuba kept it quiet for three years, announcing it only after the group was convicted. The US honoured Cuba’s official request for information about the proceedings, but Cuban authorities shared none of that information with their own citizens. Even today the Cuban people do not have the full story. And so, we would suggest to the “Friends” that before they start their propaganda mission on behalf of the Cuban government, they should get the full report of the trial. At present they are satisfied with Cuba’s version that only five agents who had done nothing wrong were convicted. What about the other five agents who pleaded guilty and cooperated with US authorities? And the other two who slipped through the net?

When you start telling stories, you should gather all your facts and tell them straight.

The case is too long and complicated to try to condense it in this column, but tomorrow we shall report the tie between the Wasp Network and the Cuban Air Force’s shooting down of the two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over the straits of Florida on February 24, 1996. All readers of The Tribune should remember that tragic case.

We shall also report on the espionage case of Ana Belen Montes, a US citizen, attached to the Pentagon who also spied for Cuba.

These are all related, and so before our readers get too bleary-eyed over the tall tale about to be told by the “Friends”, we shall try to put some solid flesh on their story to give it more meaning. Our readers can then decide for themselves where the truth lies.