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Ana Montes: Top spy freed in US after more than 20 years

* Published
2 hours ago

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* [54]Cold War

Ana Montes after her arrest in 2001 Image source, FBI
Image caption,
Ana Montes after her arrest in 2001
By Matt Murphy
BBC News

Ana Montes - among the best-known Cold War spies caught by the US - has
been released from prison after more than 20 years in custody.

The 65-year-old spent almost two decades spying for Cuba while employed
as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency.

After her arrest in 2001, officials said she had almost entirely
exposed US intelligence operations on the island.

One official said she was among "the most damaging spies" caught by the
US.

Michelle Van Cleave, who was head of counter-intelligence under
President George W Bush, told Congress in 2012 that Montes had
"compromised everything - virtually everything - that we knew about
Cuba and how we operated in Cuba".

"So the Cubans were well aware of everything that we knew about them
and could use that to their advantage. In addition, she was able to
influence estimates about Cuba in her conversations with colleagues and
she also found an opportunity to provide information that she acquired
to other powers."

After her arrest, Montes was accused of supplying the identities of
four US spies and oceans of classified material. She was handed a
25-year prison sentence, with the sentencing judge accusing her of
putting the "nation as a whole" at risk.

However, unlike other high-profile spies caught during the cold war,
Montes was motivated by ideology, not personal gain. She agreed to work
for Cuban intelligence in part based on her opposition to the Reagan
Administration's activities in Latin America.

In particular, a report from the defence department's inspector general
found, she is believed to have been angered by US support for the
Nicaragua Contras - a right-wing rebel group suspected of committing
war crimes and other atrocities in the country.

She was initially approached by a fellow student at Johns Hopkins
University in 1984 after expressing outrage at US actions in Nicaragua.
She was later introduced to a Cuban intelligence agent and at a dinner
in New York City she "unhesitatingly agreed to work through the Cubans
to 'help' Nicaragua", the inspector general's report said.

After travelling to Havana the following year for training, she joined
the Defence Intelligence Agency, where she would eventually become the
organisation's senior analyst on the island's communist government.

For almost two decades she met with Cuban handlers every few weeks at
Washington DC restaurants and sent coded messages containing top secret
information to them via pager. She received her orders by transmissions
sent over short-wave radio.

She was finally detained in September 2001 after US intelligence
officials received a tip that a government employee seemed to be spying
for Cuba. One of the FBI agents who arrested her said she had appeared
stoic upon her arrest.

Montes will remain under supervision for five years after her release
and will have her internet usage monitored. She will also be banned
from working for the government or contacting foreign agents without
permission.

But Pete Lapp, one of the FBI agents who arrested Montes, told CBS News
that he thought it was unlikely that she would try to re-establish
contact with Cuban agents.

"That part of her life is over," Mr Lapp said. "She's done what she's
done for them. I can't imagine her risking her liberty."

You may also be interested in:

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Media caption,

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera told the BBC how her father turned her in
to the secret police.

More on this story

* [55]The man who spied on Cuba for the US
+ 17 December 2014
A man raises his fist with a Cuban flag in Mexico City on 26 July
2011
* [56]Cuban spy released from US jail
+ 27 February 2014
The Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona from which
Fernando Gonzalez was released on Thursday
* [57]Ex-US government worker 'Cuban spy'
+ 25 April 2013
Skyline of Havana, Cuba file picture 2009

Related Topics

* [58]FBI
* [59]Cuba
* [60]Spying
* [61]Cold War
* [62]George W Bush
* [63]United States

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