Ana Montes, Cold War spy who fed secrets to Cuba, is released - The Washington Post

For astir 17 years, Montes gathered concealed U.S. authorities accusation and passed it connected to quality officers successful Havana. She disclosed the identities of astatine slightest 4 U.S. officers covertly operating successful Cuba, provided classified photographs and documents, and alerted Cuban authorities that the United States was monitoring respective of its subject installations, The Washington Post reported successful 2002.

Montes accessed delicate accusation successful her relation arsenic a elder expert for Cuban affairs astatine the DIA, the bureau liable for providing subject quality astir overseas countries, wherever she had worked since 1985. Within 7 years, she had been promoted arsenic the agency’s apical authoritative moving connected Cuba and was liable for sharing concealed U.S. authorities accusation connected Havana with different national agencies.

“She is 1 of the astir damaging spies the United States has ever found,” Michelle Van Cleave, nationalist counterintelligence enforcement nether President George W. Bush, told a House subcommittee successful 2012.

“After 16 years of spying connected behalf of Cuba, she compromised everything, virtually everything that we knew astir Cuba and however we operated successful Cuba and against Cuba. So the Cubans were good alert of everything that we knew astir them and could usage that to their advantage,” Van Cleave added.

Van Cleave, who oversaw the interior harm appraisal of Montes’s actions, told the House sheet that the erstwhile expert besides utilized her presumption to power DIA colleagues’ estimates astir Cuba.

According to national prosecutors, Montes was motivated by ideology and not fiscal incentive. She was ne'er paid for thing but expenses, they told the court.

“I obeyed my conscience alternatively than the law,” Montes told the judge who sentenced her successful 2002 to 25 years successful situation pursuing her condemnation for conspiracy to perpetrate espionage. “I judge our government’s argumentation toward Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to assistance the land support itself from our efforts to enforce our values and our governmental strategy upon it,” she said.

“She secretly and without remorse systematically compromised classified accusation relating to the nationalist defence of the full country,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes Jr. said astatine the time.

According to the FBI, Montes communicated with her Cuban handlers via shortwave radios, machine diskettes and pagers, The Post reported successful 2001.

Federal agents obtained tribunal support successful 2001 to participate Montes’s apartment, wherever they discovered a shortwave radio, an earpiece and a laptop. They secretly copied the computer’s hard thrust and restored deleted text, uncovering grounds that provided foundations to the allegations against Montes, according to an FBI affidavit.

Agents began pursuing Montes and observed her making little calls connected wage phones extracurricular the National Zoo, state stations and different locations successful Northwest Washington and Maryland, seemingly sending encrypted messages to pagers, the affidavit said.

“She was conscionable a precise businesslike spy, quiet, benignant of unassuming and devastating to U.S. nationalist information due to the fact that of that,” Jim Popkin, writer of a caller book connected Montes, told Washington Post Live successful an interrogation Thursday, the time earlier her release.

According to Popkin, Montes kept a debased illustration astatine the DIA, seldom removing documents and preferring to perpetrate delicate quality to representation instead.

“Everything was successful her head, and truthful time occupation would extremity astir 5 o’clock. She’d spell home, possibly enactment out, and she lived successful a condo successful Cleveland Park connected Macomb Street and frankincense begins her nighttime job, which was typing that classified accusation into her Toshiba laptop,” Popkin said. “Nearly 17 years of classified accusation she’s typing successful virtually each day, and past she would instrumentality that, enactment it connected disks, and meet, erstwhile convenient and erstwhile safe, with her handlers successful Washington oregon Cuba.”

According to the FBI, authorities were archetypal alerted to Montes successful 1996 erstwhile 1 of her DIA colleagues raised suspicions “on gut feeling” that she was acting for Cuban intelligence. Montes was interviewed by a information official, but nary enactment was taken, the FBI said.

Four years later, erstwhile the information authoritative learned the FBI was moving to place a suspected Cuban cause believed to beryllium operating successful Washington, helium contacted the FBI astir Montes and prompted its agents to unfastened their probe into her.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled successful 2002 that upon her release, Montes should beryllium placed nether supervision for 5 years, during which clip her net and machine usage volition beryllium monitored and unpermitted interaction with overseas governments forbidden. Any conditions attached to her merchandise Friday were not instantly clear.

Shane Harris and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.