Cuba’s government has spent decades recruiting Americans to betray their country.
asserted
government → spend → country
It objects to Secretary of State Marco Rubio inviting Cubans to cooperate with the CIA.
asserted
Rubio → object → CIA
Havana apparently believes espionage should remain a privilege of the dictatorship.
asserted
espionage → believe → dictatorship
The Trump administration is right to disagree.
asserted
administration → disagree → ?
Rubio is challenging a comfortable assumption in Washington: that Cuba is too broke to matter.
asserted
Cuba → challenge → Washington
A regime unable to keep the lights on can still penetrate a government, compromise an intelligence officer, and help America’s adversaries.
asserted
regime → keep → adversaries
Poverty has never disqualified a country from espionage.
asserted
Poverty → disqualify → espionage
It can make espionage one of its more valuable exports.
asserted
espionage → make → exports
I am an American of Cuban descent who spent more than two decades as a CIA operations officer, including service as chief of station in Latin America.
asserted
who → spend → America
That background leaves me with little patience for the assumption that a failing economy must produce an incompetent security apparatus.
asserted
economy → leave → apparatus
Dictatorships allocate resources according to what keeps them in power.
uncertain
what → allocate → power
Feeding the population and protecting the regime are different priorities.
asserted
Feeding → feed → regime
Havana has made its choice repeatedly.
asserted
Havana → make → choice
The record requires little elaboration.
asserted
record → require → elaboration
Ana Belén Montes became the Pentagon’s leading Cuba analyst while working for Cuban intelligence.
asserted
Montes → become → intelligence
She exposed American intelligence officers and distorted Washington’s understanding of the country she was supposed to assess.
asserted
she → expose → country
Victor Manuel Rocha served as a U.S. ambassador and on the National Security Council while secretly serving Havana.
asserted
Rocha → serve → Havana
Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers sustained an espionage conspiracy for 30 years.
asserted
Kendall → sustain → years
Cuban intelligence cultivated ideological commitment, steered recruits toward useful positions, and allowed American institutions to supply salaries, credentials, and trust.
asserted
institutions → cultivate → salaries
Montes needed no fortune deposited offshore.
asserted
Montes → need → fortune
The most damaging agent may be the respected expert whose colleagues cannot imagine that his judgment belongs to someone else.
uncertain
judgment → imagine → someone
The consequences extended beyond stolen documents.
asserted
consequences → extend → documents
Cuba’s Wasp Network penetrated exile organizations and targeted American military facilities.
asserted
Network → penetrate → facilities
One of its officers was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the 1996 destruction of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.
asserted
One → convict → aircraft
Four men died, three of them American citizens.
asserted
three → die → them
Havana’s intelligence operations have carried a human cost that diplomatic euphemisms cannot erase.
asserted
euphemisms → carry → that
Rubio’s invitation puts pressure where it belongs: on the people who keep the regime functioning.
asserted
regime → put → people
An intelligence officer, military official, or party insider may know which Americans Havana has recruited, which foreign services it assists, or who signed an order to arrest a dissident.
uncertain
who → know → dissident
That knowledge gives him something to offer.
asserted
knowledge → give → something
Washington should make clear that it is prepared to listen.
asserted
is → make → ?
The invitation also puts a question inside Cuban headquarters that no security chief can comfortably dismiss: Who among us has already answered?
asserted
Who → put → us
Even suspicion can consume time and manpower.
asserted
suspicion → consume → time
Every officer assigned to investigate a colleague is an officer unavailable for another mission.
asserted
officer → assign → mission
A service accustomed to exploiting American trust should have to spend more effort defending its own.
asserted
service → accustom → own
Havana will send fabricators and sources it controls.
asserted
it → send → fabricators
A volunteer’s hatred of the regime does not establish that his information is true.
asserted
information → establish → regime
Verify what he knows, test what he claims, and protect him if he proves reliable.
uncertain
he → verify → him
The measure of success is a Cuban agent inside an American institution identified, a threatened source protected, or a Cuban operation stopped.
asserted
measure → identify → institution
The president needs to know who works for Havana inside our institutions, what its partners receive, and where its chain of command is vulnerable.
asserted
chain → need → command
A negotiator who knows what the other side is concealing is harder to deceive.
asserted
side → know → what
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
