General wants prisoners released

HAVANA -- A retired U.S. Army general said Sunday he talked for 12 hours with Fidel Castro and encouraged the Cuban president to release 250 political prisoners in this island's jails in an effort to encourage dialogue with the U.S. \nGen. Barry McCaffrey, now a university professor visiting the island with the Center for Defense Information, told a news conference that Cuba did not present a military risk to the United States. "They represent zero threat to the United States," he said. \nThe general said he told Cuban authorities during meetings Saturday that the United States did not present a military risk to the island, either. He said he also met with Castro's younger brother, Gen. Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister. \nMcCaffrey said he supported increased cooperation between the United States and Cuba in the areas of drug interdiction and fighting terrorism. \n"I see no evidence at all that the Cubans are in any way facilitating drug trafficking," the former White House drug policy director said. "Indeed, I see good evidence of the opposite. I strongly believe that Cuba is an island of resistance to drug traffic." \nSome Cuban exile groups and conservative members of Congress in the past have accused the communist country of involvement in the narcotics trade. \nMcCaffrey said he also did not believe that Cuba was a terrorism threat to the United States, as some Cuban exile groups insist.\n"I don't believe they are harboring terrorist organizations," he said. \nCuba remains on the U.S. State Department's terrorism watch list, primarily because of the presence on the island of some Basque separatists, former members of Puerto Rican nationalist groups and a handful of American fugitives -- many of them former Black Panthers -- who have lived here for decades. \nBoth the U.S. and Cuba must change to help create a dialogue between the nations, the McCaffrey said. \n"It's time to leave the chasm of 1958-59 and move to 2002 -- on both sides," he said. \nThe U.S. should care more about Latin America in general and Cuba in particular, he said, rather than allowing the Cuban-American community to control the political debate over the Caribbean island. \nCuba also should do more to improve communication with the U.S., and releasing the political prisoners would be a good start, McCaffrey said. He did not say what Castro's response was, except that he received "an attentive and respectful hearing." \nMcCaffrey now teaches national security studies at West Point military academy. The Center for Defense Information is an independent military research organization based in Washington. \nThe trip is among a flood of visits Cuba has seen this year by American groups seeking to learn more about the communist island just 90 miles from U.S. shores. The visitors have included members of Congress, business organizations and representatives of non-governmental organizations.