BY ALFONSO CHARDY

 The U.S. government now concedes that immigration official Mariano Faget may
 not be a Cuban spy after all.

 Investigators acknowledge that they have filed no evidence in court showing that
 Faget, a veteran Immigration and Naturalization Service officer with access to
 secret files, passed secrets to Cuban officials.

 They also concede that the title of the FBI's original press release announcing Faget's
 arrest -- Operation False Blue Cuban Spy Case -- may have been misleading, creating
 the impression that Faget was suspected of spying for Fidel Castro's government.

 ``The title does not reflect the facts of the case at this time,'' said Terry Nelson,
 a local FBI spokesman. ``The title does reflect the violation of the Espionage Act,
 and to a lay person, espionage and spying are synonymous.''

 Investigators point out that Faget still is accused of serious crimes under the
 Espionage Act -- revealing classified information to an unauthorized person and
 meeting without authorization with Cuban officials believed to be intelligence
 operatives.

 ``This is not a drug offense or some arguably victimless crime. This is one of the
 most serious offenses known to the law against the government and the people of
 the United States,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis B. Miner told a recent court
 hearing.

 If convicted, Faget faces between 5 and 10 years in federal prison.

 But there is no evidence currently on file that any secrets were given to Cuban
 officials, a senior law enforcement official familiar with the case said.

 Richard Gregorie, senior litigation counsel at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami,
 declined to address the issue on the record.

 ``This is a matter in ongoing litigation, and we won't comment on it,'' Gregorie
 said.

 The case stems from a two-minute telephone call that Faget made to a friend
 after being told by Miami's top FBI official that a Cuban intelligence officer whom
 Faget knew was about to defect.

 FABRICATED `SECRET'

 Hector Pesquera, special agent in charge of the Miami FBI office, deliberately
 concocted the story to test whether Faget could keep a secret. He told Faget not
 to disclose the information because it was classified.

 But only 12 minutes after Pesquera left his office, Faget telephoned childhood
 friend and business associate Pedro Font to advise him about the ``defection.''

 Faget's call is at the heart of the chief charge: violating a section of the Espionage
 Act that prohibits ``communicating national defense information'' to people not
 authorized to receive it.

 Faget was entitled to the information because he had a secret clearance. Font, a
 private citizen, did not.

 Had Faget not called Font, according to the law enforcement official familiar with
 the case, the FBI might not have arrested him.

 Faget is also facing charges of lying about the frequency of his contacts with
 Cuban officials and hiding from his INS superiors his involvement in a private
 company created to develop future business deals in Cuba.

 Trial has been tentatively set for April 24.

 `ERROR IN JUDGMENT'

 Faget has pleaded not guilty. However, he has -- through his lawyer, Edward
 O'Donnell -- acknowledged the government's case while denying he was passing
 secrets to Cuba.

 ``The man, at most, made an error in judgment,'' O'Donnell told the court Feb. 24
 when he failed to get his client out of jail on bond. ``He wasn't spying.''

 The senior law enforcement official familiar with the case said Faget came to the
 FBI's attention during surveillance of Cuban government officials. FBI agents grew
 concerned when they realized one of the people meeting with the Cubans was a
 senior INS officer with a secret clearance.

 The FBI began tracking Faget in December 1998 to determine whether he was a
 Cuban ``asset,'' an intelligence community term referring to people who carry out
 missions assigned by control officers from a foreign nation.

 Over the next 12 months, FBI counterintelligence agents documented three
 meetings between Faget and Cuban officials -- two with Luis Molina and one with
 Jose Imperatori, both of whom were consular officers assigned to the Cuban
 Interests Section in Washington.

 VOICE NOT RECORDED

 Most of the meetings were videotaped but not audiotaped, and the FBI could not
 determine what Faget said to the Cubans.

 The Cuban government newspaper Granma said Faget and Molina also met in
 May -- a meeting not listed in court files or acknowledged by Faget.

 In a recent interview, Faget said he discussed possible future business deals in
 Cuba once Castro and the U.S. trade embargo were gone. Granma, however, said
 Faget also discussed ``unclassified'' immigration issues -- a claim that Faget
 denies.

 A possible incentive for the meetings may have been a letter that household
 products maker Procter & Gamble had given America-Cuba, the Florida
 corporation in which Faget and Font were partners. The letter granted the
 company authority to act as its Cuba representative once the U.S. trade embargo
 was lifted.

 LAPSE OF MEMORY

 The FBI said Faget's last contact with the Cubans was a Dec. 14 phone call
 between him and Imperatori -- a call that Faget says he does not remember.

 Between Dec. 14 and early February, the FBI debated what to do next -- whether
 to order Faget to stop meeting with the Cubans or test whether he was leaking
 secrets.

 The FBI decided to test him.

 ``The strategy . . . was to give him some information and test him, see what he'd
 do with it,'' the official said.

 Pesquera, FBI agent in charge in Miami, contacted top INS officials, briefed them
 on Faget's activities and enlisted their cooperation.

 James Goldman, INS assistant district director, contacted Faget and told him to
 attend a meeting with Pesquera at INS headquarters at Biscayne Boulevard and
 Northeast 79th Street at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 11.

 It was at that meeting that Pesquera revealed to Faget that Molina was planning
 to ``defect'' and that Faget revealed to Pesquera that he knew Molina from a
 previous ``dinner'' in Miami.

 CAUGHT IN A FIB

 Pesquera, who knew Faget had met Molina more than once, asked whether that
 was the only contact.

 ``That's the only contact,'' Faget replied.

 Twelve minutes after Pesquera and Goldman left, Faget picked up his cellular
 telephone and called Font in New York. The FBI recorded the call.

 Immediately after Faget's call, the FBI pondered its next move.

 Faget was summoned to local FBI headquarters six days later, where agents
 confronted him with the evidence.

 James Patrick Laflin, an FBI counterintelligence agent assigned to the case, said
 in court that the FBI viewed the Feb. 17 meeting as a chance for Faget to set the
 record straight -- at least on Molina.

 ``He was being provided an opportunity to describe the background of that
 meeting and the nature of it and the extent of his relationship with that individual,''
 Laflin said.

 Instead of disclosing all of his contacts, Faget ``continued to spin falsehood after
 falsehood,'' Miner, the federal prosecutor, told the court.

 Faget was arrested that same day at FBI headquarters, largely because he
 continued to lie, the law enforcement official familiar with the case said.

 ``Since he was not truthful, it was better to arrest,'' the official said.

 A few hours later, the FBI issued the Operation False Blue Cuban Spy Case
 press release.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald