After the arrest of Ambassador Manuel Rochas on espionage charges for Cuba, a logical question was whether there were one, two, many, Manuel Rochases (and Kendall Myerses) over at the State Department?
What else can one conclude with whoever it was at State who made a decision like this?
According to the Washington Times:
Homeland Security gave a delegation from Cuba a look behind the curtain at airport operations at Miami International Airport, in a move critics say may have given the hostile communist regime inside information on security protocols.
Diario Las Americas reported that the delegation was given a tour of the Transportation Security Administration’s facilities at the airport, including where the agency has new X-ray technology.
TSA acknowledged the visit but cast it as normal international cooperation.
…and…
TSA said the visit was coordinated with the State Department.
U.S. officials were taking them all over into the innards of the Miami International Airport where they got to look at the layout of the airport, could examine its security systems, may have learned how it gets staffed (so as to get their operatives in), could examine the technology used (the better to jam it), and could get the names of personnel for blackmail purposes or pro-Cuba proclivities.
People who know airports think the whole thing looks like a disaster in the making.
The Washington Times cited this expert:
But Emilio Gonzalez, former CEO of the airport, said Cuba isn’t like those other nations.
…
“Nobody in their right mind, no federal employee, would approve this unless they had top cover at the highest levels,” he said. “You do not invite a country as a state sponsor of terrorism to visit any installation, let alone a sensitive airport, as is Miami International Airport.”
Mr. Gonzalez, who also ran U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Bush administration, said the delegation may have been able to get a close-up look at the layout of the airport, how it’s staffed, technology and employees’ identities.
“These are all things that intelligence officers live for,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who said it’s likely Cuba had intelligence operatives in the delegation.
Cuba, as it happens, is still a nation on the list of state sponsors of terror, same as North Korea, Iran and Syria. Will the Bidenites be giving Miami airport tours to those nations, too? President Obama dropped them from the terror list in 2015, but President Trump put them back on the list on Jan. 11, 2021 in one of his last acts as president.
According to the Department of State’s statement at the time, there were good reasons:
The State Department has designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.
AC