Ex-Intelligence Officials Reject Cuba Threat Narrative

A group of former U.S. intelligence, military and diplomatic officials is challenging the national security justifications behind the Trump administration’s economic war on Cuba.

In a memorandum published in Consortium News and addressed to the president, members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) argue there is no evidence that Cuba supports terrorist organizations, hosts Chinese or Russian spy bases targeting the United States, or was behind the alleged “microwave attacks” on U.S. diplomats known as Havana Syndrome.

The memo also warned about covert U.S.-funded “democracy promotion” (aka regime change) programs that present a distorted view of Cuba: “We recommend that you review these covert activities closely…The record shows that covert action planners misled President Kennedy about the prospects for the Bay of Pigs operation, and C.I.A. analysts were kept in the dark.”

The former officials warned that currency policy would make a humanitarian disaster in Cuba more likely and that military action would draw the U.S. into “a losing war.”

“U.S.-driven ‘regime collapse’ and occupation or imposition of a government of our choosing will fail badly,” says the memo. “The same people who keep ’57 Chevrolets on the road with a coat hanger will wreak havoc against a foreign-imposed regime.”