THE SCOTT REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000500100024-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: July 23, 1969
• Content Type: REPORT

THE SCOTT Wed For Release 2005/11/21 :'EA -FW~?5 029 lPOd6i4-023' 1969
From The Washington News-Intelligence Syndicate
7508 Elmhurst Street, O.E,, Washington, D.C. 20028
Phone: 301 -- 736-6834 202 -- 225.4551
By Paul Scott
Washington, July 23: This week's visit of Soviet warships to Cuba is an in-
tegral part of Moscow's bold new forward strategy of positioning military
forces in strategic areas of the world.
Under a secret agreement reached in 1968 with Premier Fidel Castro,
the Russians obtained naval and air base rights in Cuba in exchange for a
step.-up of Soviet military and economic aid.
That's the dark heart of a report that Orlando Castro Hidalgo, a
high-level Cuban intelligence officer who defected to the,,U.S: recently, has
furnished American'intelligence authorities.
Castro Hidalgo, no relation to the Cuban Premier, defected to the
West from his post in the Cuban Embassy in Paris after Castro's secret police
began an investigation of his and his wife's background.
One of the most important Cubans to defect in recent years, Castro
Hidalgo has been a. veritable gold mine of information on the lel1ind-the-scenes
working relation between the Communist. leaders of Russia and Cuba.
In sharp contrast to the stories now being circulated here that
Castro is souring on Russia, Castro Hidalgo has warned that:"the Cuban dictator
is helping the Kremlin tighten its hold on the strategic Caribbean island,.
Under the secret 1968 Soviet-Cuban accord, the Russians began send-
ing additional technicians to Cuba to beef-up their force of 8,000 Soviet ad-
visers, who stayed on after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Main mission of the new army of Soviet technicians, Castro Hidalgo
says, is to prepare and maintain naval and air bases for the Russian missile-
firing ships, submarines, and planes which soon will- be stdti oned on. the strat-
egic island.
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SCOTT REPORT - 2
This new information confirms American naval intelligence reports
that the Kremlin has decided to use Cuba as part of an advance network of
military bases now being established around the world.
THE OUTWARD PUSH -- Long before the dramatic appearance of the Soviet
fleet in Cuba this week, the Russians established new bases along the shores
of the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and elsewhere around Africa.
The construction of shipyards .t Bassra in Iraq and at Alexandria,
Egypt, has extended the reach of Soviet sea and air power to the Suez Canal
and Persian Gulf. This network is now being extended into Algeria.
With an eye to securing military control of the Indian Ocean, Moscow
has begun acquiring a foothold south of the Suez Canal in Yemen and Somalia.
Additional bases are now being sought in India, Cambodia, and North Vietnam.
The Soviet master-plan, according to documents Castro Hidalgo has
turned over to the U.S., calls for a link up of these Soviet bases to protect
Russian forces operating in any part of the world, including Latin and Central.
America.
The acquisition of these bases, including the ones in Cuba, is part
of Moscow's grand design to encircle Western Europe and the U.S. with per-
manent and floating bases in order to c1}j off the U.S. militarily and polit-
ically from its European NATO allies, forcing the withdrawal of American+troo;
from the continent.
This outward movement of Soviet military power, according to Castr-
Hidalgo, will see an increase in both the militancy of national-liberation
wars and movements and in direct strategic Soviet support for thorn. in Latin
America, Africa, and Asia.
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SCOTT REPORT ? 3
Unless the U.S. works out comprehensive plans to deter this new
Kremlin strategy, the anticipated result could be far-reaching Soviet hegemony
over a substantial portion of the world's territory and population, U.S. in_.
telligence officials warn.
INTELLIGENCE NETWORK Castro Hidalgo also furnished American
officials with documents showing that Castro's intelligence service and secret
police have been taken over by the Russians.
Known 6P General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Cuban spy
and espionage service has received large amounts of money from Russia to
extend its operations in CGnada, Mexico, and at the United Nations headquar-
ters in New York and Geneva.
This Soviet take over of Cuban intelligence operations is partic-
ularly significant in that the DGI is understood to have taken on many of the
diplomatic activities formerly handled by the Cuban foreign service office.
Castro Hidalgo, a DGI operator in Paris, has furnished full details
of how Cuban agents trained in Havana and Moscow during the past three years
were infiltrated into the U.S. to make.contact with militant student and
negro organizations.
.A number of these agents were sent to the U.S. as correspondents
of Prensa Latina, the Cuban news service, to cover the United Nations. The'
government-owned news service is now run by the DGI and is used both by Mos-
cow and Havana as an intelligence gathering organization throughout the world.
CARIBBEAN FLASHES -- Col. Francisco Caamano Deno, the leader of the
unsuccessful 1965 DominicenRepublic revolution, is now in Cuba. He arrived
there after Che Guevara, the communist guerrilla leader, was gunned down in"
Bolivia in October, 1967. So far, the efforts of Castro to build Deno up as
another Guevara haven't gotten off the ground ....... If Panama's military has
- more -
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SCOTT REPORT 4
its way, Dr. Arnulfo Arias will never again serve as President. The nation's
small but efficient National Guard deposed Dr, Arias last October -- only 10
days after he assumed the presidency. Army officials say the Harvard-educated
physician will not be permitted to run for office of presidency again because
of his communist ties....... The Bahamas may become the next independent nation
in the Western Hemisphere. Lying off the east coast of Florida, the Atlantic
Ocean island chain has a new Constitution which grants full internal self
government to the 2,700 islands and keys that make up the chain. Under the
new Constitution, the Bahamas have a Commonwealth status with Great Britain
retaining foreign affairs and defense responsibilities. Bahamian Prime Min-
inter Lynden 0. Pindling, leader of the islands' first black government, says:
"This Constitution is probably the last before the people of the Commonwealth
decide to go on to full nationhood." His target date for this move is 1973..
.....Mexico's high-yield wheat varieties have-turned the nation into a major
exporter of the grain for the first time in 20 years. The famous high-produc-
tion Mexican wheat is now being used in grain-deficient India and Pakistan,
,.there it is brightening the agricultural outlook beyond anything dreamed of
only a few years ago .......The Dominican Republic could become the first non-
Commonwealth member of CARIFTA -- the tiny,-but increasingly important Car-
ibbean Free Trade Association. Its admission?into.CARIFTA, now composed e { n-
`irely of English speaking islands, is now under consideration by the new
group.
(Washington News-Intelligence Syndicate)
(All Rights Reserved)
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