- Ana Montes, regarded as “a single of the most detrimental spies” in US heritage, has been unveiled from jail.
- The previous DIA agent was arrested in 2001 after years of sending US secrets and techniques to Castro’s Cuba.
- She spied only on the grounds of ideology and recognized no funds for her do the job.
Ana Montes, regarded as “a single of the most damaging spies,” has been introduced from a jail in Texas.
Montes, now 65, worked for the US Protection Intelligence Agency (DIA) as the top analyst on Cuba through the Chilly War. She was recognised about Washington as the “Queen of Cuba” for her insights into Fidel Castro’s communist regime.
But she was arrested in 2001 on conspiracy to dedicate espionage right after it was identified she was also a spy for Cuba.
She was later on charged with the offense and pleaded guilty, and was handed a 25-calendar year jail sentence. She served 20 of those yrs and was produced on January 6, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons database.
Montes’ spying was inspired not by revenue, but exclusively by ideology, in accordance to the FBI. She disagreed with US overseas coverage and was functioning to undermine it.
When performing a clerical position at the Department of Justice, she was recognized by Cuban authorities as another person who would be sympathetic to their trigger. She was approached by them and agreed to do the job with them.
Thomson Reuters
She then applied for her occupation at the DIA, and by the time she was in place of work in 1985, she was a recruited spy for Cuba, the FBI described.
She was able to pass remarkably delicate facts above to the Cuban authorities via memory alone.
In order to escape detection, she under no circumstances taken off any details from her operate personal computer. Instead, she memorized categorised facts and wrote them into her own computer system when she received home. She then set that facts on an encrypted disc and sent it to the Cuban authorities.
This lasted for 16 many years until eventually her arrest.
Speaking in Congress in 2012, then-head of US Counterintelligence below the Bush administration Michelle Van Cleave, explained Montes as “just one of the most harmful spies the United States has at any time identified.”
She added, “She compromised all the things — nearly every little thing — that we understood about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba and against Cuba,” Van Cleave stated.
Previous DIA investigator Chris Simmons explained Montes as “a extremely fatal female, a quite hazardous female,” documented NBC. “A large amount of spies traditionally have presented up info, but she consistently tried using to get Us citizens killed in combat,” mentioned Simmons.
Talking to CBS, Peter Lapp, a former FBI agent who investigated Montes, thinks she will now reside out her life quietly as a senior. “That portion of her everyday living is over. She’s finished what she’s finished for them. I are unable to consider her jeopardizing her liberty,” he mentioned.
