He's guilty! Guilt - well, okay, maybe not

Something that's cropped up because of John Bolthead's nomination as ambassador to the UN is the US intelligence community's position on claims that Cuba is involved in developing biological weapons.

In 2002, Bolton gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation, attacking Cuba on the issue. Cuba had a "limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort," he said.

A couple of months earlier, Carl W. Ford, then-chief of the State Department's intelligence wing, had told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the same thing in just about exactly the same words. In June, the month after Bolton's speech, he admitted to the committee

that distinguishing between bioweapons and legitimate biotech work was "a difficult intelligence challenge" but stuck by his previous line.

"Clearly, we're suggesting that Cuba is working on biological weapons," he said.

He insisted the evidence was "substantial." Bolton echoed the claim, telling a House committee a year ago that the "case for the existence of a developmental Cuba BW R&D effort is strong."

That was then. This is now.

Last September, The New York Times reported that the U.S. intelligence community had concluded that it was no longer clear whether Cuba had an active biological weapons program.

It quoted an unidentified intelligence official as saying that the intelligence community "continues to believe that Cuba has the technical capability to pursue some aspects of an offensive biological weapons program."

Shortly afterward, an intelligence official tried to explain the new position to The Herald:

"We're not saying with absolute certainty that they don't" have a biological weapons program, the official said. "What we're saying is that we've lost some confidence in that judgment that they do."

I get it. Er... Yeah, I do. I think.