Frank Calzon speaks at Free Cuba Foundation co-sponsored Winter Student Leadership Conference

The Free Cuba Foundation co-sponsored the Winter Student Leadership Conference with UM CAUSA and Young Cubans in Action held at the Grito de Yara - Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Conference Hall of the Cuban Democratic Directorate on December 28, 2009

The Conference was broadcast on UStream.



Frank Calzon on Cuban Intelligence and America’s Vulnerabilities 



A recent article that quotes Frank Calzon on the Cuban intelligence threat:

CASTRO’S SPIES’ ARRESTS ARE A WAKE UP CALL FOR A COMPLACENT WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON: The arrest this afternoon of a former State Department official charged with spying for the Castro’s dictatorship “for nearly thirty years,” is a wakeup call for the U.S. government, according to Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba. “The arrests coincide with increasing pressure generated by opponents of current U.S. policy in the Obama Administration to give the benefit of the doubt to the Cuba. The arrests of Kendall Myers, and his wife Gwendolyn Myers, who, according to press reports worked as a Congressional aide, should be a matter of great concern to the Congress because of the ongoing efforts by Cuban diplomats and others to influence the perception of both Congressmen and Senators about U.S. Cuba policy.

The Myers are not the first U.S. government officials to be accused of spying for Cuba. Ana Belen Montes, a high intelligence officer at the Defense intelligence Agency is currently serving a 25- year sentence for spying for Havana. She was very influential in the Pentagon assessment of Havana’s level of anti-American hostility. Havana’s diplomats in Washington have unimpeded access to Congressional hearings, Congressional offices, think tanks and universities, while American diplomats on the island are harassed and denied similar access.

While the Department of State has sought to improve relations with Havana for more than two years, Havana continues to implement policies that would be considered totally unacceptable if carried out by other governments, including the arbitrary delays and even the breaking into the United States diplomatic pouch.

The Center for a Free Cuba, a non-partisan pro-democracy organization, called today on Congressmen Silvestre Reyes and Peter Hoekstra, chairman and ranking member respectively of the House Committee on Intelligence “to hold hearings as soon as possible about both Cuban intelligence operations in the United States, the hostile efforts against the United States by Cuban intelligence operatives elsewhere, and the work of “agents of influence” working for Havana in Washington.”

Frank Calzon, executive director, of the Center for a Free Cuba, said that “the Obama Administration is absolutely right to monitor carefully the work of Cuba, North Korea, Iran and other regimes which have associated themselves with international terrorism.” The FBI should be congratulated for their undercover operation which brought to light the pernicious work of Mr. Myers who, according to the FBI, had access to more than 200 secret and top-secret intelligence reports about Cuba.

Perhaps this announcement will encourage American government officials, including Congressional staff, to report to appropriate government agencies any approach by diplomats and others working for those regimes.”

http://cubacenter.org/english/castros-spies-arrests-are-a-wake-up-call-for-a-complacent-washington