Cuba believed to have intercepted details of U.S. aid to dissidents

Posted on Sunday, 11.17.13

Cuba believed to have intercepted details of U.S. aid to dissidents
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

The documents were definitely not classified as secret. But they
contained detailed information about U.S. government programs to help
Cuban dissidents that Havana has outlawed as a semi-clandestine campaign
to topple the communist system.

So when the U.S. Agency for International Development mistakenly used an
unencrypted line to send the documents to U.S. diplomats in Havana,
USAID officials were chagrined and some of the authors of the document
were incredulous.

"An amazingly stupid thing to do," said an official of one of the groups
that generated the documents — minutely detailed applications for a $6
million USAID program to train emerging leaders of Cuba's non-government
sectors.

His application of more than 200 pages contained a complete history of
his past work with USAID's pro-democracy programs in Cuba, the official
said, some names of possible trainees and venues where they might be
trained.

USAID has played down the impact of the mistake, arguing that the U.S.
government never classified the pro-democracy programs as secret or even
confidential.

"Nothing about USAID's Cuba program is classified. We simply carry out
programs in a discreet manner to help ensure the safety of all those
involved," said USAID spokesman Karl Duckworth.

But the agency's own documents highlight the security concerns
surrounding the program.

"Given the nature of the Cuban regime and the political sensitivity of
the USAID Program, USAID cannot be held responsible for any injury or
inconvenience suffered by individuals traveling to the island under
USAID . . . funding," one agency contract states.

A slide presentation for non-government organizations (NGOs) that have
been awarded USAID grants advises them to report any "Security Concerns,
including Government of Cuba harassment and detention."

Alan P. Gross, a USAID subcontractor from Maryland, is serving a 15-year
prison term in Havana for delivering to Cuban Jews three satellite
telephones, paid for by the U.S. government, so they could have direct
and uncensored access to the Internet.

It was therefore shocking when USAID officials told applicants for the
$6 million in grants in September that their applications had been sent
to U.S. diplomats in Havana for their review on an unsecure line instead
of the usual encrypted line.

Duckworth declined to comment further on the incident. But four
officials of NGOs that applied for the funds provided details to El
Nuevo Herald. They asked for anonymity, saying they wanted to stay on
good terms with USAID.

The USAID request for proposal SOL-OAA-13-000110, posted publicly on
July 10, offered a total of $6 million over three years, broken up into
at least two grants of no more than $3 million and no less than $1 million.

Its goal was "to strengthen human capacity on the island by providing
opportunities for civil society leaders to travel outside of Cuba to
gain technical skills and experiential learning in an array of fields
important to democracy and civil society development."

More than 20 NGOs are believed to have submitted applications by the
Aug. 9 deadline — competition for the funds is stiff. Their applications
included proposed budgets, ways of monitoring and evaluations progress,
organizational charts and past experience in Cuba.

The applications are not required to include names or contacts, "but you
usually include some to show that you know people, that your
organization has some weight," said one of the NGO officials.

USAID officials called the applicants in late August to deliver the bad
news: All their proposals had been sent on an unsecure line to Havana.
One applicant quoted an agency official as saying, "We think the Cuban
government may have seen all the proposals."

Cuba's intelligence agencies consider the United States as their No. 1
enemy, and spy constantly on Washington's diplomats in Havana,
monitoring their communications and bugging their homes.

USAID told the NGOs they could withdraw the proposals if they considered
the risks to be too high. None the applicants withdrew, with one telling
El Nuevo Herald there was no sense turning back since Cuban intelligence
no doubt already had the documents.

A few weeks later, each of the applicants received rejection letters
that made no mention of the USAID gaffe but noted that their proposals
were weak in one way or another, the NGO officials said.

The $6 million was distributed among USAID's other ongoing Cuba
democracy programs, created under the Helms-Burton act of 1996.

Security around the USAID programs has long been an issue because of the
fears that Cuban government officials can get their hands on sensitive
information and use it to disrupt the programs or even throw
participants in jail — like Gross.

The Washington-based Freedom House voluntarily surrendered a $1.7
million Cuba grant in 2011 after complaining that USAID was asking for
too much information about how the funds were being spent, including the
identities and travel plans of participants.

"We take very seriously the need to be accountable for these programs,"
Freedom House Deputy Director of Programs Daniel Calingaert said at the
time. But USAID's requests for information are "not just onerous. They
really raise the risk of what we do."

A U.S federal indictment unsealed in April accused former USAID attorney
Marta Rita Velazquez of conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of
Cuba. She is living with her husband in Sweden, and has not been extradited.

The indictment said Velazquez introduced convicted Cuban spy Ana Belen
Montes, a former Pentagon intelligence analyst, to a Cuban intelligence
official in New York in 1984, when the two women were graduate students
in Washington.

Source: "Cuba believed to have intercepted details of U.S. aid to
dissidents - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/17/v-fullstory/3760633/cuba-believed-to-have-intercepted.html