Is China Building Spy Bases in Cuba? (msn.com) 47
"Images captured from space show the growth of Cuba's electronic eavesdropping stations," reported the Wall Street Journal this week, citing a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
But they added that the stations "are believed to be linked to China," including previously-unreported construction about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. (The Journal had previously reported China and Cuba were "negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including establishing a new joint military training facility on the island and an eavesdropping facility.") At the time, the Journal reported that Cuba and China were already jointly operating eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials, who didn't disclose their locations. It couldn't be determined which, if any, of those are included in the sites covered by the CSIS report.
The concern about the stations, former officials and analysts say, is that China is using Cuba's geographical proximity to the southeastern U.S. to scoop up sensitive electronic communications from American military bases, space-launch facilities, and military and commercial shipping. Chinese facilities on the island "could also bolster China's use of telecommunications networks to spy on U.S. citizens," said Leland Lazarus, an expert on China-Latin America relations at Florida International University... Authors of the CSIS report, after analyzing years' worth of satellite imagery, found that Cuba has significantly upgraded and expanded its electronic spying facilities in recent years and pinpointed four sites — at Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay and Calabazar... "These are active locations with an evolving mission set," said Matthew Funaiole, a senior follow at CSIS and the report's chief author.
The CSIS web site shows some of the satellite images. "Pinpointing the specific targets of these assets is nearly impossible," they add — but since Cuba has no space program, "the types of space-tracking capabilities observed are likely intended to monitor the activities of other nations (like the United States) with a presence in orbit." While China's own satellites could also benefit from a North America-based groundstation for communications, the Cuban facilities "would also provide the ability to monitor radio traffic and potentially intercept data delivered by U.S. satellites as they pass over highly sensitive military sites across the southern United States."
The think tank points out that one possibly-installed system would be within range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "Studying these launches — particularly those of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable first-stage booster rocket systems — is likely of keen interest to China as it attempts to catch up to U.S. leadership in space launch technology."
But they added that the stations "are believed to be linked to China," including previously-unreported construction about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. (The Journal had previously reported China and Cuba were "negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including establishing a new joint military training facility on the island and an eavesdropping facility.") At the time, the Journal reported that Cuba and China were already jointly operating eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials, who didn't disclose their locations. It couldn't be determined which, if any, of those are included in the sites covered by the CSIS report.
The concern about the stations, former officials and analysts say, is that China is using Cuba's geographical proximity to the southeastern U.S. to scoop up sensitive electronic communications from American military bases, space-launch facilities, and military and commercial shipping. Chinese facilities on the island "could also bolster China's use of telecommunications networks to spy on U.S. citizens," said Leland Lazarus, an expert on China-Latin America relations at Florida International University... Authors of the CSIS report, after analyzing years' worth of satellite imagery, found that Cuba has significantly upgraded and expanded its electronic spying facilities in recent years and pinpointed four sites — at Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay and Calabazar... "These are active locations with an evolving mission set," said Matthew Funaiole, a senior follow at CSIS and the report's chief author.
The CSIS web site shows some of the satellite images. "Pinpointing the specific targets of these assets is nearly impossible," they add — but since Cuba has no space program, "the types of space-tracking capabilities observed are likely intended to monitor the activities of other nations (like the United States) with a presence in orbit." While China's own satellites could also benefit from a North America-based groundstation for communications, the Cuban facilities "would also provide the ability to monitor radio traffic and potentially intercept data delivered by U.S. satellites as they pass over highly sensitive military sites across the southern United States."
The think tank points out that one possibly-installed system would be within range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "Studying these launches — particularly those of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable first-stage booster rocket systems — is likely of keen interest to China as it attempts to catch up to U.S. leadership in space launch technology."
What did US expect Cuba to do? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's one of the things that really pissed me off (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's one of the things that really pissed me of (Score:4, Insightful)
About the Trump administration we were on our way to normalizing relations with Cuba finally and he completely pissed it away. I understand why it's because that's a big part of how the Republicans hold Florida for the presidency but American electoral politics has completely fucked absolutely everything in our foreign policy and the most transparent and disgusting way imaginable...
Um ... or Occam's razor would say that letting a communist dictatorship sit off your coast risks it collaborating with other communist dictatorships.
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Um ... or Occam's razor would say that letting a communist dictatorship sit off your coast risks it collaborating with other communist dictatorships.
Occams's 3 blade razor would say it's to put annoying bollards between the US and the oil in Venezuela.
As opposed to all the other dictatorships (Score:2, Troll)
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Psst your Che tshirt is showing.
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Psst your Che tshirt is showing.
Che t-shirts are manufactured in capitalist factories, using capitalist supply chains, and sold by capitalist retailers in capitalist malls. All to celebrate a guy who was a failure as a commie.
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Yeah, I'm hearing an absurd amount of "Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!!!" Why are conservatives such cowards?
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Yeah, I'm hearing an absurd amount of "Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!!!" Why are conservatives such cowards?
"Fear", lol?
The story is literally about the little communist dictatorship island off our shores collaborating with another (far more dangerous) communist dictatorship.
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Yeah, cowards. You're terrified of an island with a GDP of less than 1/10th of the state of Florida, and half its population.
The fact that it's survived almost seven decades of everything we could do to it without kowtowing is completely incomprehensible to you, isn't it? If "might makes right" doesn't work then your very concept of the world is being challenged.
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The people of Honduras only wish they could "suffer" like the Cubans. The last time they had a government who attempted to do something for the vast majority of its citizens instead of the elites there was a narco-coup that Sec of State Clinton called "restoring democracy", which resulted in them becoming the murder capital of the planet.
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And this is a problem . . . why? The Chinese system works for China, the Cuban system works for Cuba, the US system (kind of) works for the Untied States. I'm not sure if it's lack of imagination or ignorance of history and anthropology that make conservatives have that quasi-religious belief that only capitalism and our bastard form of democracy should be imposed on everyone everywhere.
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It wasn't Florida, it is just that the former alleged president had never heard of Cuba before and Pompeo assured him it was an island in the Indian Ocean. Then Pompeo asked the former alleged president if he would kneel down and help him pray for Jesus to return. But the former alleged president asked Pompeo how much money Jesus had and Pompeo didn't know. After that a bright shiny object distracted the former alleged president and the rest is history.
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Sure, eliminating a market for US goods is a great idea, we should only sell domestically, right? /s
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That isn't a market for US goods. It's post-Castro Cuba, which is just as bad as Castro's Cuba. It exists for us to defeat it, not for us to do business with it. Or are we already forgetting the lessons we learned in China?
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Somehow I suspect that your opinion of "the lessons we learned in China" is a wee bit different than mine.
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Well, it's only sanctions from the US. And honestly, Obama actually lifted a lot of sanctions while he was in office. This was greatly cheered by the Cuban public. Sadly, his successor decided to reinstate those sanctions.
And travel to Cuba remains open to people from other countries - Canada, for example. Canadians travelling to Cuba is a thing and it's as normal as travelling anywhere else.
In fact, one of the first comments from Americans starting to
Yes (Score:1)
Someone does need to keep an eye on the commie Cuban government.
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Yeah, can't have them being a good example for the poor of the rest of the Americas.
Why bother ? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maybe those shops inconspicuously located next door to the facilities in the USA need relay stations because they can't broadcast all the way to China without getting detected.
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There's this thing called the "Internet" which allows you to send data back and forth. You might want to check it out.
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The Chinese already have the next door facilities, this is just to poke the U.S. in the eye, geopolitically speaking.
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Modern Day Cuban Missile Crisis without the missiles.
Re: Why bother ? (Score:2)
What tells you that they don't?
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Cuba probably wanted some kit for themselves, and did an intelligence sharing deal with China in exchange for it.
Similar to FIVEEYES and other intel sharing groups.
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They often use their ability to loan money to accomplish their goals.
Of course they do, that's called "international trade". Fortunately for the people of the Global South their goals seem to be less rapacious than those of the US/UK.
What comes around goes around (Score:4, Interesting)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Cuba is the same distance from the US as Taiwan is from China. You can probably guess the US has spy facilities in Taiwan, especially since there are now US troops in Taiwan including on the island one mile from China's coast: https://www.newsweek.com/taiwa... [newsweek.com]
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I was waiting for someone to mention this. The opprobium attached to listening stations in Cuba could just as easily be attached to those. Self-awareness is not a US strong suit.
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This is from some think tank, not the US gvt. I doubt they give a shit.
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Hypocrisy isn't a lack of self-awareness.
There was a similar thing with putting a bunch of nukes in Turkey pointed at Russia and then getting all upset at the response of putting nukes in Cuba.
Snip snip on some cables (Score:2)
Re: Snip snip on some cables (Score:2)
Re: Snip snip on some cables (Score:2)
Is it really spying? (Score:2)
Can we really call monitoring rockets and satellites spying these days? I guess it's not that secret, and it's even expected.