US names spy operations 'manager' for Cuba, Venezuela

US names spy operations 'manager' for Cuba, Venezuela

by Maxim Kniazkov Sat Aug 19, 6:30 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has named a special "manager" for
its intelligence operations against Cuba and Venezuela, in effect
putting the two Latin American nations on a par with "axis of evil"
states confronted on multiple levels by the administration of
President George W. Bush.

North Korea and
Iran are the only other countries that have been assigned so-called
"mission managers," who supervise intelligence operations against them
on what the office of national intelligence director called "a strategic
level."

In a statement released Friday, the office of National Intelligence
Director John Negroponte said the manager would be responsible "for
integrating collection and analysis on Cuba and Venezuela across the
intelligence community" and "ensuring the implementation of strategies"
that have not been disclosed.

"Such efforts are critical today, as policymakers have increasingly
focused on the challenges that Cuba and Venezuela pose to American
foreign policy," the statement said.

The director's office said the manager would also be asked to ensure
"that policymakers have a full range of timely and accurate intelligence
on which to base their decisions."

The document did not say what kind of decisions US officials could be
making with regard to either of the targeted countries.

For the moment, the task of handling the Havana-Caracas axis fell to 32-year
Central Intelligence Agency veteran J. Patrick Maher, whose previous job
was deputy director of the
CIA's Office of Policy Support.

His biographical sketch supplied in the announcement indicates he was
one of the architects of the CIA's current counterterrorism strategy in
violence-torn Colombia and managed the agency's operations in the
Caribbean basin.

It was not immediately known whether he was directly involved in
planning the 1983 US invasion of Grenada in response of a feared
Cuban-backed leftist takeover of the island nation.

The statement made it clear, however, that Maher would be only an
"acting" manager while search for a permanent candidate for the job was
under way.

The decision to name an interim mission manager appeared to betray a
sense of urgency in the Bush administration now that Cuba has entered a
period of political uncertainty due to an illness of its longtime
communist leader,
Fidel Castro.

Castro stunned the world on July 31, when he announced he had temporary
ceded his presidential powers and the Communist Party leadership to
brother Raul Castro, the defense minister, following his
gastrointestinal surgery.

Earlier Friday, Raul Castro announced the mobilization of tens of
thousands of troops in response to activities by those he called US "war
hawks."

The Bush administration has bolstered its propaganda broadcasts to the
island in the wake of Castro's illness. Earlier, it announced a plan to
spend 80 million dollars in new money to bring about a pro-Western
government in Cuba.

On Friday, it rejected the Cuban transition plan, with State Department
spokesman Tom Casey insisting that "some kind of dynastic succession on
the island are certainly things that are not only not acceptable to us
but we think in the long run aren't going to be acceptable to the Cuban
people either."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a key ally of Castro and the chief
supplier of oil to Cuba, said he believed Maher's appointment was also
linked to presidential elections that are scheduled in Venezuela for
December and that Chavez is widely expected to win.

"This shows us that the empire does not rest, that it is hatching a plan
for December or a period before December," the Venezuelan leader told
reporters. "But whatever it is, we will thwart it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060819/ts_alt_afp/usintelligencecuba_060819221905