If phones go dead . . .

Money changes everything. Certainly it has for Cuba. Lawyers for Cuba didn't show up when the central issue in a civil suit was simply Cuba's murder of U.S. civilians flying unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes. But the lawyers appeared when real money was at stake.

Last year a federal judge ruled that Cuba was guilty of that despicable act and awarded $187.6 million in damages to the families of three of the four dead fliers engaged in a humanitarian mission. The Cuban government ignored the proceedings and didn't bother to send lawyers.

Yet now that the families appear close to collecting the damages, lawyers for Cuba's interests came to court. That was high drama last week in Miami, in the courtroom of Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King.

After the U.S. government blocked attempts to collect damages from long-frozen Cuban assets, the families went after the millions currently paid by U.S. phone companies to ETECSA, a joint venture 59 percent owned by Cuba's government. Lawyers for ETECSA and the U.S. phone companies argued against the families getting the money. No surprise there.

Unjustifiably, the U.S. government weighed in on the same side as Cuba. It argued that broader U.S. national interests outweigh the interests of the families. Since when aren't human rights in the national interest?

The families, wanting justice, simply followed the rule of law. They went to civil court to get it. That's because of U.S. failure to charge the culpapble Cubans in criminal court. It should. The civil case already provided enough evidence that Cuba deliberately murdered Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales and Mario de la Peña. Recent revelations by Richard Nuccio, then White House special adviser on Cuba, add to the case. Cuban pilots, it seems, even practiced the attack.

Obviously Cuba's regime does not play by the rule of law until its treasury is affected. Since January it has been threatening to cut off phone service to the United States, one of the few lifelines of the Cuban people. After the courtroom debate last week, Cuba warned that it will stop calls if the six main U.S. long-distance providers don't pay up by tomorrow, the third anniversary of the fliers' deaths.

``The Cuban government considers this a totally reasonable position,'' Cuba's Foreign Ministry proclaimed, ``especially when the lack of payment is to satisfy the opportunistic appetite of a group of immoral exiles . . . taking advantage of the manipulable nature of the judicial system.'' Nothing could be more cynical.

Cuba's state murdered in cold blood, tells its judiciary what to rule and is the one to blame if phone service is cut.