China, Cuba and the espionage alliance against the U.S.
Author - Toby Westerman Tuesday, January 10, 2012
China's intelligence operations are the "core arena" for achieving the
superpower status which the Communist elite in Beijing so passionately
desires. Central to its spy activities is the island of Cuba which is
strategically located for the interception of U.S. military and civilian
satellite communications. China's spy services also cooperates closely
with Havana's own world-class intelligence services.
Inexplicably, the U.S. mass media are ignoring both the existence of the
spy base as well as the Cuban-Chinese alliance which is responsible for it.
International News Analysis Today is challenging that media silence in
an exclusive interview with counterintelligence expert Chris Simmons,
who explains why China needs Cuba and details the dangers to the United
States in Havana's espionage partnership with Beijing.
Simmons is a retired Counterintelligence Special Agent with 28 years
service in the Army, Army Reserve, and the Defense Intelligence Agency,
and has testified on the subject of Cuban espionage before members of
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Simmons notes that China has the largest espionage network in the world
with an estimated two million career staff intelligence officers, making
Beijing's spy services larger than the intelligence operations of all
the other nations in the world combined.
While Americans are well aware of China's financial might, its espionage
activities get relatively little attention.
"We are too often distracted by China's economic gains. For China,
however, espionage and economics are tied hand in hand, and China has
the largest appetite for U.S. secrets in the world," Simmons told
International News Analysis Today.
The members of China's intelligence services, both its officers and
those recruited as agents by those officers, tend to be ethnic Chinese,
Simmons observed. This ethnic orientation of China's espionage services
limits the available avenues of access to American security information.
China's spy alliance with Cuba, however, assists China in overcoming
this potential handicap.
Cuban penetration of U.S. society augments Chinese efforts and makes an
extremely valuable contribution to Beijing's overall espionage effort.
Cuba's human intelligence operations give needed perspective to
information China receives both from its own operatives and from
electronic spy bases operating in Cuba.
"That is why China needs Cuba," Simmons stated.
The kind of restricted information gathered electronically in Cuba
covers military, economic, and political affairs, and ranges from how
foreign policy is determined to indications of troop and fleet movements
to significant details on important political figures.
The value Beijing places upon the information acquired via Havana can be
seen in the October 2011visit to the island by Gen Guo Boxiong, Vice
Chairman of China's Central Military Commission. Guo's presence in Cuba
underscored that China has a special military commitment in addition to
a sizable economic investment in Cuba.
China is in the process of replacing Cuba's aging Soviet-era military
equipment, purportedly supplying only "non-lethal" aid. The U.S.
prohibits "lethal" assistance to Cuba, and Beijing is risking U.S.
sanctions if that prohibition is known to be violated. The true volume
and nature of Chinese military aid to Cuba is, of course, difficult to
assess.
General Guo's trip to Cuba follows a December 2010 military agreement,
signed by top ranking PLA General Fu Quanyou, insuring needed military
aid to the Castro regime.
Simmons pointed out that China's electronic intelligence activities on
Cuba are particularly interesting, because China claims they don't exist.
"Officially they are not there," said Simmons, commenting upon Beijing's
denials that it has electronic spying capabilities in Cuba.
The island of Cuba has been used as an electronic spy base for decades
The island of Cuba has been used as an electronic spy base for decades,
going back to the Soviet construction and use of the facility at
Lourdes. The construction of the base at Lourdes was hard to miss as the
concrete buildings and large antennas appeared on the Cuban landscape.
The Russians pulled out of Lourdes in 2001, much to the relief of many
in Washington and the expressed displeasure of Fidel Castro and his
regime. Simmons stated that Moscow scored a propaganda victory in the
U.S. media and among the U.S. political establishment with its
abandonment of Lourdes.
The reality of the matter, however, was much different than appearances
seemed to indicate, Simmons told International News Analysis Today.
When the Russians left Cuba, they also left a well-trained Cuban
electronic intelligence battalion functioning on the island at the base
in Bejucal, as well as an understanding with Havana to share
intelligence information important to Moscow.
As a result, Russia saved millions of dollars which had been spent on
the Lourdes base, Moscow avoided Congressional censure and obtained
important economic cooperation from the United States, all at the same
time still receiving important intelligence information on the U.S. from
Cuba.
"It was a win-win situation for the Russians," Simmons stated.
50-100 Chinese intelligence officers are at Bejucal gathering and
interpreting information
The base at Bejucal, however, is still operating. While the Cubans
technically run it, some 50-100 Chinese intelligence officers are at
Bejucal gathering and interpreting information, according to Simmons.
In sharp contrast to Moscow, there is no political cost to China.
"It took us years to find out they [the Communist Chinese] were
operating there. We found out through émigrés, defectors, and travelers
to Cuba," Simmons told INA Today.
Unlike the Soviets, China has not constructed a facility and only with
the greatest of difficulty can the Chinese be connected with Cuban
electronic spy base activities. In this way, China can plausibly deny
both the use of the base and the transference of information from its
Havana embassy to Beijing, Simmons informed INA Today.
The Chinese even took pains to cover the expected increase in radio
traffic from the Chinese embassy in Havana to Beijing as the Bejucal
base, and smaller bases across the island which are connected with it,
became more active.
In anticipation of a greater volume of radio communication activity
between Cuba and China, Beijing gradually increased useless or "dummy"
radio traffic with Havana. These "dummy" messages were later replaced,
at least in part, with actual intelligence information generated from
the Bejucal facility and its sub-stations as they became an important
Chinese information source.
As a result, the U.S. has difficulty determining the "spikes" of real
intelligence information within the broadcasts of "dummy" transmissions
coming from the Chinese embassy in Havana, Simmons said.
The eye of the Chinese dragon is upon the United States. We do not know
what information is coming from bases that supposedly do not exist, but
Simmons commented on China's military and commercial investment in
Communist Cuba and declared that, "Whatever they [the Chinese] are
paying, they are getting a steal."
Chris Simmons is a security consultant and is author of the soon to be
released novel, The Spy's Wife.
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