BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Security at Miami's Southern Command headquarters is ``as good as it can be''
 but ``absolutely not'' foolproof, meaning a snooping janitor might be able to stuff
 classified U.S. military documents into his pants and walk out with them,
 according to testimony Tuesday in the Cuban spy trial.

 ``In certain portions of the building, that's possible,'' said Army Lt. Col.
 Christopher Winne, who is assigned to J-2, the intelligence directorate at the
 Southern Command in West Miami-Dade. ``Beyond a certain point, you have to
 trust a person.''

 But the chances are slim that the snooping janitor would be a Cuban. Winne said
 only 44 of the Southern Command's 1,500 employees are Cuban-born naturalized
 citizens. The military keeps numbers on all foreign-born employees, he said.

 The Pentagon's Southern Command, or SouthCom, directs U.S. military
 operations in Latin America and the Caribbean including Cuba. The facility was
 the target of Cuban intelligence agents who were instructed to penetrate it by any
 available means -- including by getting one of the 600-plus civilian jobs as janitors
 or gardeners, according to testimony.

 Winne's testimony showed that it was possible, though not likely, for a Cuban
 spy to get inside SouthCom and steal U.S. secrets. Three defense attorneys tried
 to get Winne to agree that being born in communist Cuba would ``raise a red flag''
 and prevent an applicant from getting ``secret'' security clearance. Winne
 disagreed.

 Winne said a series of security measures at SouthCom are designed to keep out
 people who don't have ``secret'' or ``top secret'' clearance. ``Virtually all'' of the
 installation's civilians have secret clearance, he said. They include janitors, who
 are granted unlimited access to most of the building.

 A portion of the building has ``top secret'' work areas, where security is the
 tightest. But most of the compound is classified as ``open storage/secret,''
 meaning that classified information may be left on desks or computer screens,
 Winne said.

 ``Anybody walking through there would be able to observe the work in progress, if
 that was their intention,'' Winne testified.

 The five men on trial are accused of spying for the Cuban government.