Washington – Ana Belen Montes (65) was released from prison in Texas yesterday after serving 20 years in the case of treason. Ana was still convinced that she had not done wrong in the court of conscience.
The US administration has called Ana Montes ‘the most dangerous spy the country has ever seen’. The woman who held a top position in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and leaked secrets to Cuba wrote the ‘most shameful chapter’ in American history.
For 17 years of her employment, Ana Montes was passing secrets to Cuba. The exchange involved the transfer of highly sensitive information, including the information of 4 top US intelligence officials in Cuba. In the words of US President George Bush’s intelligence chief, Michael Van Cleve, ‘They handed over everything. All the information about Cuba and how we are doing against Cuba’.
Ana pleaded guilty when she was arrested on September 21, 2001 while serving as a senior analyst for DIA dealing with Cuban affairs. But the US got tired of the open statement that it was motivated by anti-American ideology.
Here’s the story: Ana was a girl outraged by US support for the Contras, an armed rebel group to overthrow the leftist government in Nicaragua.
In 1984, a classmate at Johns Hopkins University approached Ana with this in mind. He was then introduced to the Cuban intelligence officer.
Ana Montes takes on a new mission to save Nicaragua. After secretly traveling to Cuba for training, he joined the DIA in 1985 with a fully Cuban mind. During the following years, he met the Cuban representative every few weeks at restaurants near Washington, DC, and exchanged secrets.
At the same time, she was praised for her excellent work in the DIA and rose to the top and was known as the ‘Queen of Cuba’. In 1996, she was noted as a no-show for an emergency meeting at the Pentagon.
It was only after 4 years that the FBI had some doubts that there was a ‘Cuban spy’ in the DIA. Information was also obtained that the person had visited the US prison at Guantanamo on certain days.
American intelligence was shocked to recognize the person who visited those days. Ana Montes was then the top intelligence official who knew everything about Cuba.
When they were arrested, they were indifferent. Arresting officer Pete Lapp said that he was mentally prepared for it and was even ready to accept the death penalty.
‘I obeyed my conscience. America’s intervention in Cuba was brutal and unjust. “My conscience told me that it was my responsibility to support the resistance of the people of that island nation against the imposition of American politics and values,” she said.
Those who leaked it before
There have been incidents in the past where the ‘thief on the ship’ has caught American intelligence agencies. US intelligence officers Robert Hansen and Aldrich Ames were arrested in 2001 for leaking information to the Soviet Union. Both are serving life sentences in prison. Both of them worked as double agents by taking huge amount of money.
English Summary: Ana Montes, who spied for Cuba released from prison