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Editorials
Monday, February 21, 2000Immigration official’s
arrest for espionageCUBAN Americans, already angry about Washington's efforts to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, have another reason to be suspicious of the federal government.The issue: An official of the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been charged in Miami with spying for the Cuban government.
An Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisor has been charged with spying for the government of dictator Fidel Castro. Mariano Faget, 54, who had "secret" security clearance within the INS, is suspected of divulging classified information about defectors to Cuban intelligence officials.
The State Department ordered the expulsion of a Cuban diplomat linked to Faget. The FBI said that as a supervisory district adjudication officer for the INS, Faget could supervise decisions that affected the residency status of immigrants. It said he had access to classified and sensitive INS files relating to confidential law enforcement sources and Cuban defectors.
The FBI charged that Faget made unauthorized contacts with Cuban intelligence officers in Miami and in other cities.
Jose Basulto, president of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, said he believes there are many Cuban spies working in the United States.
"The U.S. should be very embarrassed by this finding," Basulto said. "Who knows how many people Castro had a grudge against that were sent back? This man was, for us, in a very tragic position."
At a briefing Friday, an FBI spokesman said Faget waited only 12 minutes to pass on information about the defection of a Cuban official by telephoning a New York businessman with ties to Cuban government agents. It was false information given to him as part of a sting.
This is by no means the first case of alleged Cuban espionage. In October 1998, 14 people were charged in Florida in the largest case of its kind in years. Authorities said the group tried to penetrate U.S. military bases, infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups and manipulate U.S. media and political organizations.
Five people have pleaded guilty in the case and three have been sentenced, receiving prison terms of up to seven years.
The arrest comes with the case of little Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who has been the focus of an international custody battle since he was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast Nov. 25, still awaiting decision. Elian's mother and 10 others died when their boat sank.
The boy's Miami relatives are fighting to keep him in the United States, despite an order by the INS to reunite Elian with his father in Cuba.
The INS said the accused official had nothing to do with Elian's case but the charges against Faget can only strengthen Cuban Americans' resistance to his return to Cuba.
Missile defense
INDICATIONS are growing that the United States will need a system to defend itself against missile attacks from so-called rogue nations in the years ahead. For this reason, research and development of a limited missile defense system should continue.
However, the temptation to rush a defense system into deployment prematurely should be resisted. It appears that the current timetable, which calls for Defense Secretary William Cohen to deliver his recommendation on deployment in June, should be extended.
Philip Coyle, the Defense Department's director of testing, said the timetable is putting "undue pressure" on the program's managers "to meet an artificial decision point in the development process." He warned that imposing such deadlines "has historically resulted in a negative effect on virtually every troubled (Defense Department) development program."
Coyle urged that the deployment decision be delayed until officials have had time to study the results of the fifth flight test, which could take several months. In the test last month over the Pacific, an attempt by an interceptor to destroy a dummy missile failed. However, last June a rocket succeeded in intercepting and destroying a target missile over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Since former President Reagan proposed the "Star Wars" space-based missile system, the nation has spent $60 billion on missile defense without producing one usable weapon. Technical difficulties and other considerations have resulted in scaling back the program, eliminating space-based lasers and other components.
Over the years the program has thereby gotten considerably closer to achieving viability. Although it would not be capable of stopping a mass attack by an enemy such as the Soviet Union, the system is designed to intercept a few rockets launched by North Korea or Iran -- nations that might not be deterred by the threat of retaliation.
Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed that it was rushing things to make a decision on deployment by June, but said the schedule is justified by the danger of a missile attack. Obviously he takes the threat of attack seriously.
All the more reason, then, to make the right decision -- even if it means further delay. The Clinton administration should not allow the fact that missile defense may be an issue in the presidential election campaign to force a premature decision.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
