U.S. Clears Cuba of Bioterror Charges

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 06, 2002

U.S. Clears Cuba of Bioterror Charges

The United States on Wednesday said it did not have direct evidence that Cuba had a full-fledged program to develop biological weapons.

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The United States on Wednesday said it did not have direct evidence that Cuba had a full-fledged program to develop biological weapons.

"All of our information is indirect," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Carl Ford testified before a panel of the U.S. Senate.

"We never tried to suggest we had a smoking gun," the official added. But he maintained that the U.S. was worried about Cuba's capabilities to develop such a program.

The testimony was a slash to an allegation made by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton in May who claimed that Cuba had at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.

Bolton made the accusations shortly before former U.S. president Jimmy Carter began a historic visit to Havana.

Although Ford said the U.S. was concerned about Cuba's exports of dual-use biomedical technology to countries which Washington regards as state sponsors of terrorism, he quickly indicated that U.S. allies may do the same.

Cuba strongly denied that it has any program to develop biological weapons and invited Carter to inspect Cuba's biologicalresearch labs during his stay in the island country.

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