BY DAVID KIDWELL

 Mariano Faget -- the U.S. immigration official charged with passing a government secret to a friend with alleged ties to the Cuban government -- might not have been charged if he had agreed to turn on other suspected spies, an FBI agent testified Monday at a federal hearing.

 Jury selection is set to begin today in Faget's espionage trial, although he is not accused of being a Cuban spy. He acknowledges he leaked classified information to a lifelong friend who authorities say might ''possibly'' have been a spy.

 No one else has been charged in the case.

 Two FBI agents and their bosses tried during six hours of questioning the day Faget was arrested in February to get Faget to come clean and cooperate, ''but Mr. Faget had consistently given us inconsistent information and lies,'' FBI Agent James Patrick Laflin testified Monday.

 ''We repeatedly expressed to him our feelings that he was lying and untrustworthy,'' Laflin said, adding that authorities were hoping to turn him into a confidential informant against what they believed was a Cuban spy ring.

 ''It was unlikely that he would be prosecuted, and if he would have been, it would be a minimal violation,'' Laflin said. ''He would not be accused of espionage.''

 Laflin said Faget lied about the number of meetings he had with members of the Cuban Interests Section and what he told his friend -- New York businessman Pedro Font -- about a top-level Cuban defection.

 That defection was concocted by authorities trying to catch Faget.

 Within 15 minutes after being told of the defection, the FBI recorded Faget telephoning Font to tell him the news.

 Investigators first began to suspect Faget when he was inadvertently videotaped at an after-hours meeting at a Miami bar with an official of the Cuban Interests Section and a suspected spy.

 Faget argues the meetings were innocent, and simply designed to build contacts within the Cuban government to use after the embargo was lifted. Faget had become involved in a company that planned to do business in Cuba once the U.S. embargo is lifted.

 Laflin's testimony came as Faget's defense attorneys tried to have the FBI's Feb. 17 interviews with Faget thrown out as evidence.

 They argued that Faget was lured to FBI headquarters under false and friendly pretenses, then subjected to nearly five hours of interrogation before being informed of his right to counsel and to remain silent.

 Attorneys Ed O'Donnell and Diane Ward tried unsuccessfully to persuade U.S. District Judge Alan Gold that Faget was in effect already under arrest as he walked into FBI headquarters that day, and therefore entitled to an attorney.

 Faget took the stand briefly to explain that he felt as though he was not free to leave the interview.

 Under cross examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Gregorie, Faget also acknowledged he withheld facts from FBI agents until he was confronted with contradictory evidence.

 Laflin testified that Faget was told repeatedly he was free to leave, and that federal authorities had not decided whether to arrest him because they wanted to cut a deal to get his cooperation.

 ''If he was going to provide us with assistance, it was going to be in a confidential manner,'' Laflin said. ''If he was going to be on our team, it was not our intention to arrest him.''

 Faget faces about five years in prison if convicted.

 Charges against Faget include violating a section of the Espionage Act that prohibits ''communicating national defense information'' to people not authorized to receive it; 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.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald