From today’s Inside the Ring (Washington Times):

Cuba’s intelligence service is stepping up activities in the United States because of the impending demise of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to intelligence officials.

The Cuban activities are aimed at finding out what the United States plans to do against Cuba in the aftermath of Mr. Castro’s death, such as backing regime opponents in a putsch.

Cuban intelligence collection is being stepped up against key U.S. targets, including the White House National Security Council, the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community with the goal of finding out U.S. policies and plans toward Cuba.

Cuban intelligence is “very good at this business” of spying, Joel F. Brenner, the national counterintelligence executive, told a breakfast meeting last week. Mr. Brenner said that the Cuban spy case of Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Montes “compromised our entire program against Cuba, electronic as well as human.”

Scott Carmichael, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence official and author of a new book on Montes called “True Believer,” said recently that Cuba’s intelligence service currently has penetrated the U.S. government to a similar extent as the former East German Stasi planted agents inside the West German government.

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Cuban Armed Forces Review reports and translates the following piece from today’s Granma:

Army General Raúl Castro Ruz presided over a session of the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces’ (MINFAR) Military Council to evaluate 2006’s “Year of Defense Preperation.

In the reunion participated Revolutionay Armed Forces (FAR) vice-ministers, first vice-minister of the Interior Ministry, Army chiefs, and 150 principal chiefs of the FAR from the central level to military regions, and chiefs of large military units.

Through a spirit of rigor analysis were the following themes: planification and organization of combative disposition and for defense, personnel preparation, logistic assurance, command and control of material resources, engineering conditioning for the theater of military operations, production and modernization of war materials, tasks directed at extending traditional and natural medicine as well as working to guarantee adequate life and work conditions for personnel.

A great part of the session was dedicated to evaluating the importance and transcending effort employed in the field of defense for the nation, especially the July 2006 proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief that marked the beginning of Operation Caguairán.

[Operation Caguairán’s objective is to train and perfect the mobilization process and deployment of troops as well as the systematic preparation of reservists and militia. –ed.]

A novel method of effectiveness has been proven for organizing the leveled preparation in campaign conditions for those who are part of the regular unit reserves of the FAR or form part of the Territorial Troop Militias (MTT).

The Defense Minister signaled that this process will continue uninterrupted during the next twenty months until the realization of “Bastion 2008 Strategic Exercise” in November of this year, which will permit the incrementation of preparation and update the knowledge of hundreds of thousands of reservists and militia.

Army General Raul Castro synthesized the following conclusions of the military council:

1. “Operation Caguairán signified a superior challenge for the politico-ideological work and mobilization capacity of the FAR. It has been an exceptional opportunity to prove how effective we have been throughout the years.”
2. “The preparation of chiefs, specialists, and command and control were put to the test, and of importance: the attitude of the nation towards defense.”
3. “In the recent analysis conducted by the Military Councils of the armies, it could be taken into account the exceptional role of Provincial and Municipal Defense Councils, who have ratified once more their indispensable link in our defensive system.”

The Defense Minister finalized his words expressing:

“What has been obtained in 2006 bears fruit, in the first place, of the work of the Revolution, of the ideological values - patriotic and moral, of our nation.”

“For their firm response and conscience before defense tasks, in the name of the Party and of the Commander-in-Chief, I congratulate all the members of the FAR, including civil workers, reservists and militia, combatants of the Interior Ministry, organs of direction of the Party, Government, Union of Young Communists - UJC, mass organizations in different instances, directives and workers of the central administrative organs of the State, and of enterprises and workers centers.”

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