Cyber Attack Aimed at U.S.?

International Affairs

Cyber Attack Aimed at U.S.?

Toby Westerman

A dying Cuban dictator Fidel Castro could launch a devastating cyber-terror attack as a last and final blow against his decades-old enemy -the U.S. - according to a Cuban-born computer engineer in an exclusive interview with International News Analysis.

Cuba and its terror allies are intent on destroying the United States, and Castro's precarious physical state may be a key factor in timing a terror attack against the United States, according to Manuel Cereijo, a Cuban-born expert in computer engineering, and head of a consulting group to industry and government.

Castro - ailing, bitter and unpredictable

The very technology that has insured U.S. world leadership in commercial and military endeavors could also make American society vulnerable to a sophisticated cyber attack, Cereijo stated.

An initial bio-terror attack would be used to set the stage for social chaos in the U.S., Cereijo warned. As deadly pathogens begin to take their toll in human lives, a follow-up cyber attack could paralyze America's capacity to respond. Phone and other forms of communications would begin to break down.

The effect of the biological attack would be multiplied many times by the fear imposed upon the population by the inability to communicate with others. Police, emergency personnel, and hospitals would all be operating without coordination or knowledge of the actions of one another. Panic could ensue among the targeted population as the sense of isolation increased.

America's response to such an attack "would be tremendous," Cereijo said, but worth the price to Castro and his terrorist allies, if it meant serious damage to America.

Castro will be 80-years-old this August, and has been in power since 1959. He is rumored to have Parkinson's disease, and may be suffering from the beginning effects of Alzheimer's.

Castro's implacable hatred against the U.S. political and economic system has not changed over his nearly 50-year reign, and he has even advocated Nuremberg-type war crimes trials for capitalists.

During the 1962 missile crisis, Castro urged the Soviet Union to launch an atomic strike against the U.S., despite the destruction it would mean for Cuba. Today, Castro remains a potentially reckless figure capable of risking catastrophic consequences for his island nation, Cereijo told International News Analysis.

The Communist Cuban regime is committed to terror. Havana has close ties with virtually every important terror group and terror-supporting nation in the world, including the missile-ready regime of North Korea and the nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian and Cuban governments have already vowed to bring the United States "to its knees."

The Castro regime has cultivated cyber warfare techniques for years, and it has made the island an electronic spy station first for Russia and then China.

China is known to be developing cyber warfare techniques to facilitate an invasion of the island of Taiwan. Beijing claims sovereignty over the democratically controlled island, and has stated that it has the right to take the island by force, if necessary.

Cyber warfare techniques would be used in the early hours of an invasion to paralyze Taiwan's computer and telecommunications systems before the major attack from the mainland.

China's "Integrated Network Electronic Warfare" program is designed to disable enemy computers and communications equipment at the beginning of offensive military operations. Information warfare units are already training with regular Peoples Liberation Army forces, indicating a firm commitment to cyber warfare, and causing concern among some U.S. government computer professionals.

Fidel Castro and China's president Ju Jintao

China's president Ju Jintao and Fidel meet to sign accords and affirm the alliance

Chinese and Cuban technical-military ties have grown increasingly close in the past several years. China has assisted Cuba in computer telecommunications techniques, and the Cuban government operates university-level training courses in cyber warfare.

Cereijo does not believe that China would directly assist a Cuban-launched cyber attack on the U.S., but Beijing's technical and material aid to Havana provides the Cuban regime with the necessary know-how to carry out this kind of strike.

Cuba's carefully acquired skill in cyber warfare, its close ties with terrorist groups and terror supporting nations, and first rate spy services which are operating within the United States, all combine to make Cuba a serious candidate for coordinating a cyber-terror attack.

Cuba has already interfered with U.S. pro-democracy satellite transmissions to Iran. For six weeks Cuba prevented U.S. broadcasts from reaching Iran, Cereijo said.

Although Al Qaeda and other terror groups have attempted to hack into U.S. computers, only the Cuban regime has the knowledge and resources to combine with terror groups to initiate an effective cyber-terror campaign, Cereijo told International News Analysis.

Even if a dying Castro does not attempt to attack the U.S. as a last strike, Cuban skill in cyber warfare remains a threat to the U.S., especially when combined with existing terror networks dedicated to the destruction of the United States.

American vigilance and countermeasures have thus far prevented any harmful attack, but the U.S. must remain alert and be prepared for a possibly desperate assault from a dying dictator and his terrorist friends, Cereijo urged.

Manuel Cereijo heads Professional Advancement Corporation, a Florida-based consulting group to industry and various levels of government. Cereijo was educated in Cuba, where he held a professorship in engineering before fleeing to the United States.

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Posted June 22, 2006

Toby Westerman publishes
International News Analysis - Today
An investigative, analytical, and uncompromising weekly analysis of the world situation

Contact T. Westerman at
www.inatoday.com
or P.O. BOX 5182, Rockford, ILL, 61125-0182

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