DATE=3/1/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=MIAMI / CUBA SPY (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-259717 BYLINE=MICHAEL BOWMAN DATELINE=MIAMI CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: For the first time since his arrest on espionage charges two weeks ago, a high-ranking U-S Immigration official has spoken publicly about charges that he passed sensitive information to the Cuban government. The case led to the recent expulsion of a Cuban diplomat who was stationed in Washington. As V- O-A's Michael Bowman reports from Miami, the U-S Immigration and Naturalization Service officer admits meeting with a Cuban representative in the United States, but denies he ever spied for anyone. TEXT: I-N-S supervisor Mariano Faget (pron: fah-HET) spoke with a Miami television station (A-B-C affiliate W-P-L-G) from the detention center where he has been held since February 17th. The Cuban-born suspect, who worked for the I-N-S for more than 30 years after coming to the United States as a young man, says he never passed sensitive information to any foreign agents. /// FAGET ACT /// I am a moral person. I love this country and I would never do anything to hurt it. And what would I have to gain by giving information? There's nothing to gain there. I've never considered doing anything like that. /// END ACT /// But the F-B-I says it has clear evidence Mariano Faget is lying. Last month, after months of surveillance, the F-B-I launched a sting operation in which Mr. Faget was asked to prepare political asylum papers for a high-raking Cuban official who was -- supposedly -- about to defect. The F-B-I says Mr. Faget promptly called a New York businessman known to have ties with Cuba, and revealed the name of the supposed defector. F-B-I special agent Paul Mallett says that was just one of several incidents that led to Mariano Faget's arrest. /// MALLETT ACT /// Faget is known to have placed telephone calls to an extension of the Cuban Interests Section -- which is a representative office of the Cuban Government -- in Washington. Faget has met with representatives of the Cuban Interests Section. Faget has also had numerous contacts with a Cuban-born resident alien who is the chief executive officer of a business located in New York city, who, in turn, is known to have had several meetings with agents and representatives of the Cuban Government during the past year. /// END ACT /// Mr. Faget acknowledges he contacted the New York businessman, but insists his intention was not to betray the supposed Cuban defector. He also admits that in late 1998, he met with Cuban diplomat Jose Imperatori, whom the United States has also accused of spying and expelled from the country this past Saturday. But Mr. Faget says he was never asked, nor did he volunteer, any U-S secrets. /// FAGET ACT /// That meeting was the first time I met him. We discussed, in general, the future of Cuba. My job never entered into (had any part of) any conversations with him. /// END ACT /// Mariano Faget has been denied bail while awaiting trial and says he is eager to have his day in court. Meanwhile, Canada is trying to expel Mr. Faget's one- time Cuban contact, Jose Imperatori, who has spent several days in Cuba's Embassy in Ottawa since his deportation from the United States. Cuba has accused the United States of artificially creating the spy scandal in an attempt to delay the return to the island of six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor, Elian Gonzalez. But Mr. Faget says that in his I-N-S duties, he never handled any portion of the Elian Gonzalez matter. On that question, federal authorities agree with their suspect. (SIGNED) NEB/MCB/JP 01-Mar-2000 11:21 AM EDT (01-Mar-2000 1621 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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