> >from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Miami Herald Casts Doubt on INS Spy Tale > >Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit > >What can this portend? The Miami Herald, the only newspaper so far >that has highlighted the sordid past of Faget's father as hed of >Batista's special anti-communist repression unit, has now >suddenly cast doubt on the FBI's INS Spy Fantasy. This, the week >after they published graphical reproductions of some of the anti-Cuba >affidavits filed in the Elian case by the gusano witnesses. (The >ideas in those affidavits are probably the source of the Lying Nun's >hysterical notions about Elian's fate if he returns to Cuba, and all >political motivations aside, they are also likely to have influenced >Judge Moore, assuming he is as ignorant of Cuba as the average anti- >communist, Catholic Amerikkkan. > >They paint a picture of Elian as a potential "brainwash" victim in >Cuba, and employ lurid 1950s Cold War prose about how the Cuban >Government will "indoctrinate Elian in the Communist ideology" and >make him forget his stay in the United States, etc. etc.) > >If the fix is in, there may no longer be a need for an INS spy, and >perhaps Faget will be turned loose. It is ironic that the Herald is >the first US mainstream media source to agree with the Cuban press in >ridiculing the absurd case concocted by the FBI against the INS >official. > >The Cuban analysis, based on Fidel's remarks this week, seems to be >that the case in Miami will be lost but that after a negative >judgement in Moore's court, the appeal process could take the case to >Federal court in in Atlanta, and thus make it possible for Elian to >return home rather quickly. > >The reasoning behind this idea, that the case must be removed from >the politically polluted atmosphere of Florida to be resolved, makes >good sense. This might also explain a rather bizarre development this >week -- the announcement by one of Clinton's Yale Law School >classmates, who represented Slick Willy during his impeachment >trials, and who also served as Ted Kennedy's Cuba expert, that Juan >Miguel Gonzales has "hired" him to represent his interests in the US >legal labyrinth, and that Juan Miguel is prepared now tocome to the >US tocollect Elian. Perhaps the case is nearing a successful >conclusion in Atlanta after one more negative decision in Florida, >although it is hard to reconcile this idea with the >deplorable performance so far by INS and their attorneys. -- NY >Transfer > > MIAMI HERALD HEADLINES THIS STORY WITH: "WAS INS OFFICIAL SPYING, >OR IS CASE A MISTAKE?" [sic!] > >Published Sunday, March 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald > >Faget: 'Spy' talk was only business Accused INS official lays claim >to anti-Castro past > >BY ALFONSO CHARDY [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Accused Cuban spy Mariano Faget Jr. has lived a life filled with >ironies. He's referred to as a member of Fulgencio Batista's >aristocracy, but the vast majority of his childhood and all of his >adult life have been spent in Miami. He's accused of being in league >with Fidel Castro, but one of the most terrifying moments of his life >was being shot at by Castro revolutionaries as a teenager in Cuba. > >He holds a ''secret'' security clearance, but former colleagues at >the Immigration and Naturalization Service don't recall him ever >handling secret or sensitive cases. And he's been charged with >withholding from his supervisors his involvement in a company >designed to do business with Cuba, even though there is no evidence >that the company has ever done a business deal. The address given for >its offices is a two-story house belonging to one of the partners. > >''He was just an administrator, someone who moved paper >competently,'' said Tammy Fox, a former INS prosecutor from 1983 to >1988 who knew Faget. ''The really sensitive cases were handled in >Washington.'' Mariano Faget has been the subject of intense >speculation ever since the FBI announced a month ago that he had been >arrested for revealing classified information to a childhood friend >just before the friend was to meet with Cuban officials. But a search >through Mariano Faget's life turns up little that suggests intrigue. > >He took a job as a government interpreter at age 20 because his >father could no longer work, and he later sought a mid-level >bureaucrat's post so he could spend more time with his family. He >once sold Amway products to bring in extra money. He was looking >forward to retirement in July. ''I was looking forward to a change in >my life,'' Faget said. ''I had no definite idea about what I was >going to do, just general plans about either becoming a stockbroker >or a consultant to an immigration lawyer.'' > >Now those plans are on hold as Faget fights to stay out of prison -- >and to restore his reputation. > >ANTI-COMMUNIST LEGACY > >Mariano Faget Sr. ferrets out suspected communists in Cuba > >Mariano Faget Jr. is Cuban-born almost by accident. When he entered >the world July 2, 1945, his parents actually lived in a one-story >house south of Flagler Street in Miami. Faget's father and his wife, >Elena, had moved to Miami after Gen. Fulgencio Batista, who had been >Cuba's strongman since the early 1930s, stepped down in 1944. > >Always a Batista supporter, the elder Faget had made a name for >himself as a police officer during the early years of World War II by >ferreting out German and Japanese spies in Cuba, including the owner >of a women's clothing store whose information to the German high >command about ship movements in Havana harbor led to the torpedoing >of allied ships off Florida's coast. The store owner was executed. > >''Since that time, the word in Cuba -- at high levels of the >Batista government -- was that Faget was the FBI's man in Cuba,'' >recalled Pedro Aloma, a former Havana councilman who now lives in >Miami. Batista's departure touched off a purge of Batistianos. Dozens >of officers chose to leave Cuba in 1944, among them Faget Sr. Faget >Sr. took to designing one-story, single-family homes in Miami. >Elena became pregnant, and in the summer of 1945, nine months >pregnant, returned to Havana to see her family doctor. She went into >labor and Mariano was born in the Havana suburb of Santos Suarez. > >But Havana in those days was no place for a Batistiano to raise a >family, and Elena and Mariano Jr. returned to Miami when he was 1 >month old. In 1951, little Mariano enrolled at Auburndale Elementary, >3255 SW Sixth Street, across the street, Faget remembers, from his >home. Later, the Fagets would move to a house at 75 SW 32nd Ct. Rd.. > >''My first memory is going to class at Auburndale and speaking >English, to the surprise of my classmates who didn't think that >someone with a Spanish surname could speak English,'' Faget recalls. > >Little Mariano was a second-grader when on March 10, 1952, Batista >suddenly returned to power -- overthrowing President Carlos Prio >Socarras in Havana. And on July 26, 1953, Faget was in third grade >when Castro undertook his first armed assault on the Batista regime. > >By 1956, Castro had been freed from jail, sent into exile and had >returned to Cuba with a clandestine guerrilla group. Batista summoned >Faget's father, who was still a lieutenant colonel in the Cuban >National Police, back to Cuba to head the Bureau for Repression of >Communist Activities or BRAC, its Spanish acronym. It was an >important job for Faget Sr., but Faget Jr. was not thrilled to leave >Miami. ''I grew up here,'' he says. ''My friends were here.'' > >He was so homesick that at one point his father flew a group of >his classmates to Havana for a week of fun. Eventually, however, >Havana grew on Faget Jr. He attended classes at the private Colegio >Cima where the children of many Batista military and police officers >were enrolled. Around this time, Faget Jr. met Pedro Font, a man >almost four years older who was then a young investigator at Faget's >father's BRAC office. The meeting was to prove fateful. Font is the >man to whom Faget is accused of leaking secrets. > >SON IS TARGETED > >Mariano becomes the object of kidnap conspiracies in Havana and Miami > >As the months went on, Cuba became increasingly dangerous for people >with Batista connections. In 1957, Cuban intelligence officials >discovered a plot to kill or kidnap Faget Jr. at Colegio Cima. The >boy's physical education ''My father decided that it was not safe for >me or my mother to be in Havana,'' Faget said. ''He sent us back to >Miami.'' > >The Miami police chief, Walter Headley, ordered round-the-clock >protection for the young Faget and his mother, who were back at the >house on 32nd Court Road. Faget enrolled in Shenandoah Middle >School. But within three months, Miami police uncovered a plot by >Castro supporters in Miami to kidnap him. ''So my mother and I packed >up again and went back to Cuba,'' Faget recalls. ''This time, my >father had me under virtual lockup. I couldn't go out because the >Castro revolutionaries were everywhere.'' > >Once, Faget Jr. went for a bike ride in town when a man in a car >opened fire with a machine gun. Faget believes the gunman was >shooting at him. He ducked and bullets struck a wall behind him. It >was 1958. Faget's brief time in Cuba was coming to an end. Faget >still remembers the call that came to the Faget household at >midnight on Dec. 31. > >''My father picked up the phone and was told that Batista was >leaving,'' he says. ''After he put down the phone, he told me 'Put on >your best suit.' I saw my mom getting dressed in a nice gown and I >asked her, 'What's going on? Where are we going?' and she said to me, >'We're going to a party.' '' But instead of a party, the Faget family >headed for Camp Columbia, a military airfield where planes were >already lined up on runways -- their engines running. > >The first plane to leave was Batista's. The third was the Fagets', >which flew to New Orleans. As the C-47 took off, heading north, Faget >Jr. peeked out. ''My last view of Havana were the blue flashes of >guns fired by Castro rebels shooting up at the planes,'' Faget said. >Batista's government had fallen. In a week Castro would be in >Havana. The C-47 cargo plane was packed with Batista officials. It >left Havana at 3 a.m. Jan. 1, 1959 -- just after Batista himself >fled. > >Faget said his father chose New Orleans as the plane's destination, >in consultation with the pilot, because he was afraid that Miami was >swarming with Castro sympathizers. Faget was 13. > >Within days, the Faget family was contacted by the elder Faget's CIA >and FBI associates and was taken to a CIA safe house near Washington, >D.C. After three weeks there, the family flew home to Miami. In 1960, >Faget enrolled at Miami Senior High School. The family moved so Faget >Jr. could be within walking distance of the school. Also in 1960, an >old acquaintance from Cuba arrived: The person was Font. > >He started visiting the family frequently until he moved to South >America to pursue business opportunities several years later, Faget >said. When the CIA began recruiting exiles in Miami for the ill-fated >1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Faget Jr. volunteered but was rejected >because he was too young. The 1963 edition of Miahi, Miami Senior >High's yearbook, contains a picture of the young Faget and lists him >as a member of the Pan American Club, a group that -- according to >the publication -- was organized ''to further understanding between >North American and Latin American students.'' > >BECOMING AN AMERICAN > >Faget Jr. becomes a U.S. citizen on the day John F. Kennedy is >assassinated Eduardo Padron, also a Miami Senior High graduate and >now president of Miami-Dade Community College, remembers founding the >Pan American Club and meeting Faget. ''He was an outgoing, popular >and helpful person,'' Padron recalled. What impressed Padron most was >Faget's English. ''I had just arrived from Cuba myself and didn't >know English like he did, and he did a lot to help me find my way >around the school,'' Padron said. > >While Faget attended classes, his father went to work at the INS -- >helping the CIA and the FBI screen the growing numbers of Cuban >refugees. After graduating in June 1963, Faget began preparing for >his U.S. citizenship test. He was sworn in as an American citizen on >Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in >Dallas. Faget also enrolled at Dade County Junior College, where he >received an associate of arts degree. Then he volunteered for the >U.S. Army Reserve. > >In 1965, his father suffered a detached retina and stopped working >full time. Faget applied to the INS as an interpreter. He was hired >and was assigned to help immigration inspectors interview the first >wave of seaborne Cuban refugees from the Cuban port of Camarioca. In >1970, Faget applied for a higher INS position, as entry-level clerk. >He got it. > >The promotion was fateful. That's how he met his wife, Maria. > >A Cuban refugee herself, whose family arrived in 1962, Maria had gone >to the INS to request a citizenship application form. Faget was the >INS clerk on duty, filling in for an absent employee. ''We would have >never met if the regular employee had been there,'' Maria now >recalls. > >When she returned a few days later with the completed form, Mariano >was waiting for her. ''He asked for my phone number and I gave it to >him because I thought he looked like a very honest guy,'' Maria Faget >recalls. ''Later, he told me he wanted to go out with me because it >was love at first sight.'' They went to a movie theater on Coral Way >on their first date. The movie was The Out of Towners, a 1970 Neil >Simon screenplay starring Jack Lemon. > >On Sept. 5, 1971, they exchanged vows and celebrated at a party hall >in Coral Gables. > >''That was a good day,'' Maria Faget recalls, fighting back tears. >''It's the best marriage anyone could have asked for.'' The couple >moved to a small house in Southwest Dade, where they began raising a >family. > >Faget began moving up the ladder at the INS. He was promoted to >immigration inspector and posted at Miami International Airport in >1971. In 1977, he was given an immigration examiner's position at INS >headquarters. By then, both his parents had died of cancer: his >father in 1972 and his mother in 1975. ''I changed jobs because the >work at the district office offered regular hours and I wanted to see >my children more,'' he said. > >In 1979, after some Miami Cuban Americans spearheaded an effort to >improve relations with Cuba, Faget was assigned to help process the >3,600 political prisoners released by Cuba as a sign of good >will. Faget said the INS wanted to send him to Havana to do the >processing there, but the Cuban government rejected him because of >his father's past. > >In 1980, Faget played a key role in interviewing many of the >100,000 refugees who fled Cuba during the Mariel boat lift. And he >got himself in trouble for labeling them as vagrants and low-class >people. ''Someone from the White House called and asked me to >describe the people who were arriving, and they didn't like what they >heard, because President Carter was planning to say he welcomed these >refugees with open arms and open hearts, and my supervisors pulled me >out of Key West and back to Miami the next day,'' Faget said. > >Faget today doesn't deny making the remarks, but he says he does >regret them. ''In hindsight, I no longer believe that the majority of >Mariel Cubans were low-class or criminals or homosexuals or >lesbians,'' Faget said. > >By the 1990s, Faget had become well known to refugee rights >advocates, particularly those representing Haitian and Cuban >immigrants. He headed a refugee subcommittee that was part of a >broader organization known as the Miami Area Refugee Task Force. > >A task force member, who asked not to be identified, said Faget >surprised some participants at the meetings because he was often >critical of INS policies. ''He was very open,'' the task force member >recalled. ''He would tell us stuff about INS policy. I would say he >was indiscreet.'' Other immigration attorneys said Faget seemed >devoted to his job. > >''He showed up to work at 6:15 or 6:30 a.m.,'' remembers Mary Kramer, >an attorney who befriended Faget. ''Employees liked him very, very >much, and the attorneys respected him.'' > >He also tried to recruit some of the attorneys to sell Amway >products, Kramer recalled. ''It was part of his enterprising >streak,'' she said. Maria Faget said she and her husband stopped >selling Amway products because it was difficult to convince other >people to join. > >A SUDDEN ENDING > >Faget was arrested after he allegedly took the bait in an espionage >sting The fateful act that led to Faget's downfall at the INS was a >two-minute telephone conversation that he had with his old friend, >Pedro Font. In it, Faget revealed the name of a Cuban official that >Faget had just been told would be defecting from Cuba. In fact, the >official wasn't about to defect; Faget had been given the name to see >whether he would leak it and give federal officials the evidence >they were seeking to arrest him. No evidence has been made public >suggesting that Font then passed the name to Cuban officials, and >Font has not been charged. Font declined comment. > >When the FBI first announced Faget's arrest, a week after his >telephone call to Font, Faget was accused of ''knowingly and >willfully'' disclosing secret information, even if it was the >fabricated defection story, without regard to the ''injury'' that >such action could cause the United States. He also was charged with >lying to a federal agent because he had not revealed how well he knew >the Cuban official who reportedly was going to defect. > >When the indictment was announced March 3, federal officials added >three charges. One of the new allegations in the indictment was that >Faget had violated INS rules by not getting authorization to engage >in business or employment outside the agency. Faget says now that he >was just speaking out of turn to a friend, not committing espionage >for Cuba. He says his meetings with Cuban officials have been blown >out of proportion by the government -- that he was not passing >secrets but trying to find out when it would be possible to do >business with Cuba. > >He says the America-Cuba company in which he and Font were partners >was more talk than business. He says he wasn't even a partner when >the company was originally formed in 1993 but joined in 1996 or 1997 >when one of the original partners dropped out. ''It was Font who came >up with the idea of America-Cuba with a view to getting ready for >Castdiscussions had to do about the business of the company and how >we could sell goods to Cuba once the embargo was lifted, >and political and ideological changes occurred,'' Faget said. A phone >call from his home to the Cuban Interests Sec years that I pulled out >three or four files that were classified,'' Faget says. > >People who have worked closely with Faget at the INS say they do not >recall instances in which he was directly involved in intelligence or >sensitive law euring a 2 1/2-hour interview last week at the Federal >Detention Center in downtown Miami. He seemed subdued but pleased to >discuss his background. He cried whenever he talked about his >wife. ''My whole life has been to achieve the American dream and my >values are the values of my father, who was very anti-communist and >very pro-American,'' Faget said. ''He once told me, after Castro had >taken over Cuba, 'We lost our country and we have no place else to go >if we lose this one.' '' > >Herald Staff Researcher Liz Donovan and Staff Writers Don Bohning and >Juan Tamayo contributed to this report. > >================================================================= >NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems >Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us >339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 >http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ================================================================= > nytcari-03.12.00-10:22:26-23905 " JC > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
