CUBA's FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

Manuel Cereijo

When the Cold war ended, it was widely believed that a new era of international cooperation had begun. However, simply put, the end of the cold war has not led to a more peaceful world.

The United States is the target of those who challenge the status quo, and one of those is Cuba. Furthermore, the PRC has joined efforts with Cuba in a new axis. The deterioration in China's relations with the United States is also being accompanied by a warmer relationship with Russia.

There are three nations that use intensively their intelligence services to harm the interests of the United States. The nations are: PRC, Cuba, and North Korea. These nations continue to expend significant resources to conduct intelligence operations against the United States.

These efforts are centered on producing intelligence concerning the United States military capabilities, other national security activities, and military research and development activities.

They have now expanded their collection efforts to place additional emphasis on collecting scientific, technical, economic, and proprietary information. These collection efforts are designed to provide technologies required for the acquisition and maintenance of advanced military systems, as well as to promote the national welfare of these nations.

Each one of these countries has the ability to collect intelligence on targeted U.S. activities using HUMINT, SIGINT, and the analysis of open source material. Also, Cuba, China, and Russia have access to imagery products that can be used to produce IMINT.

The United States is now the target of those who want to challenge the existing state of affairs. Security threats, in this new era of asymmetric warfare, will inevitable emerge more and more frequently.

The 'fall of communism" has not reduced the level or amount of espionage and other potential serious activities conducted against the United States. Recent espionage cases involving Russia, China, and Cuba are just the tip of the iceberg.

Software is one weapon of information based attacks. Such software includes computer viruses, Trojan Horses, worms, logic bombs, and eavesdropping sniffers. Advanced electronic hardware can also be useful in information attacks. In terms of maturity of the threat, the numbers tell the story. So far, in July of this year there have been over 300 reported hacked web sites.

High Performance Computers (HPCs) are important for many military applications, including processing information acquired through espionage. HPCs provided to Cuba by the PRC could facilitate many of Cuba's asymmetric military modernization objectives.

The PRC has obtained the HPCs from the United States. The contribution of HPCs to military modernization is also dependent on related technologies such as Telecommunications, Microelectronics, and Computer Networking, areas in which the PRC has been assisting Cuba intensively since 1998.

The principal intelligence collection arms of the Cuban government are the

· Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI)of Ministry of Interior, and the Military Counterintelligence Department of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. The DGI is responsible for foreign intelligence collection.

· The DGI has six divisions divided into two categories of roughly equal size:

The Operational Divisions and the Support Divisions.      

The operational divisions include the Political/Economic Intelligence Divisions, the External Counterintelligence Division, and the Military Intelligence Division.

The support divisions include the Technical Support Division, the Information Division ,and the Preparation Division.

The Technical Support Division is responsible for production of false documents, communication systems supporting clandestine operations, and development of clandestine message capabilities. The Information and Preparation Divisions are responsible for intelligence analysis functions.

· The Political Economic Intelligence Division consists of four sections:

Eastern Europe, North America, Western Europe, and Africa-Asia-Latin -America. The External Counterintelligence Division is responsible for penetrating foreign intelligence services and the surveillance of exiles.

· The Military Intelligence Department is focused on collecting information on the U.S. Armed Forces and coordinates SIGINT operations  and controls the Bejucal base.

· The Military Counterintelligence Department is responsible for conducting counterintelligence, SIGINT, and electronic warfare activities against the United States.

The full range of Cuba's espionage activities are a very serious matter of concern. Despite the economic failure of the Castro regime, Cuban intelligence, in particular the DGI, remains a viable threat to the United States. The Cuban mission to the United States is the third largest UN delegation The United States' intelligence agencies should devote their resources to the most serious security threats, principally international terrorism, and adverse political trends.

United States' Intelligence

U.S. intelligence has 13 major components. Coordination is the responsibility of the Director of Central Intelligence, who also directs the CIA and is assisted by the Community Management Staff and the National Intelligence Council. Among these agencies, we have:

Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Army Intelligence, Navy Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, Marine Corps Intelligence, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of the Treasury, Department of energy, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency. All share a budget of around $33 billion, even though exact figures are secret.

Agencies must find a new balance between electronic eavesdropping and spies on the ground to counter global terrorism. Human intelligence, or spying, can be a devastating weapon against terrorists because in the right circumstances it reveals the specific dates, targets, plans, and people involved in a plot. Technical intelligence, most commonly intercepted communications, is typically less useful because attackers generally do not discuss specifics over e-mails or telephone links.

In the United States, analyses of intelligence weaknesses before and after September 11 have focused on four areas:

· Human inadequacies in analysis, language skills, and especially spying-the gathering of data from informers within a hostile or targeted government.

· Growing gaps in technical intelligence in, for example, the ability to decrypt, analyze, and deliver expeditiously messages intercepted amid the oceans of encrypted emails, phone calls, and other communications monitored around the world

· Lack of cooperation between organizations that collect foreign intelligence and others that counter the intelligence activities and terrorism of foreign countries at home, for example, Cuba, Iran.

· Spotty relations among various countries' intelligence services.

Whereas espionage once had rules, that's not true in a war against a bin Laden, a Saddam Hussein, or a Castro. It is like Torquemada, the 15th century leader of the Spanish Inquisition: there are no rules.

George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence, told the U.S. Senate in February, 2001 "terrorists are seeking out "softer" targets that provide opportunities for mass casualties.

The U.S. must be ready.

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