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The Miami
Herald, March 15, 2002.
Accused spy for Cuba may cut plea deal
By Tim Johnson. tjohnson@krwashington.com.
WASHINGTON - Nearly six months after the FBI arrested a senior analyst at
the Defense Intelligence Agency and charged her with spying for Cuba, her
attorneys are in behind-the-scenes talks with federal prosecutors about her
cooperation.
Those familiar with similar espionage cases say Ana Belen Montes, 45, may
already be sharing information with prosecutors in hopes of reducing a
potentially severe sentence.
Montes' high-profile lawyer, Plato Cacheris, has represented some of the
most prominent spies of recent years, including FBI mole Robert Hanssen and CIA
turncoat Aldrich Ames, both of whom agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors
in return for avoiding the death penalty.
Montes, who was marched out of her office in handcuffs on Sept. 21, has not
had a detention hearing before a federal judge or been indicted. In court
motions filed by her attorneys, she continually waives her right to a speedy
trial.
Five times since early October, prosecutors and Cacheris' firm have
requested that the federal court in Washington postpone a hearing.
''The government and the defense counsel continue to actively discuss this
case,'' the two sides stated in the latest motion to postpone, filed last week.
A hearing was reset for April 8.
''That's the signal that they are involved in plea negotiations and possible
cooperation,'' said Jon A. Sale, a defense attorney who is a former chief
assistant U.S. attorney in Miami.
In granting the new delay, federal Judge John M. Facciola noted ''both
unusual and complex'' underlying facts in the case. He did not elaborate.
HIGHEST-LEVEL SPY
At the time of her arrest, Montes, a Puerto Rican who was born in Germany,
was the senior analyst on issues related to Cuba at the Defense Intelligence
Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence-gathering arm. She is the highest-level spy
ever accused of espionage for Cuba, and her arrest sent shock waves through the
U.S. intelligence community.
By some accounts, Montes allegedly engaged in espionage for ideological
reasons, rather than for cash. She lived alone in a modest, walk-up apartment in
northwest Washington, driving a red Toyota to work at Bolling Air Force Base
near the Potomac River.
She had both detractors and admirers of her insight into Cuban affairs.
''On the Cuban military, she was good, boy, she was good,'' said one State
Department official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Nearly a month after her arrest, authorities put her on a medical alert,
apparently afraid she would commit suicide, court records show.
Cooperation agreements with accused spies can take time to iron out, experts
say, in part because of overlapping and conflicting agendas of different
government agencies.
The CIA and the DIA want a full accounting of what occurred, the contacts
Montes may have had, information about Cuba spy tradecraft and operational
activities, and complete details about what she may have revealed to Havana.
But the intelligence community worries that if Montes goes to trial, her
attorneys would want classified information made public, perhaps damaging
activeintelligence operations.
Already, the Montes court file shows that Cacheris and two other attorneys
in his firm have been cleared to receive top-secret evidence against Montes.
They are blocked from making the evidence public.
As in many spy cases, no one seems particularly interested in pursuing the
death penalty because it means the accused spy never gives details of how badly
he or she may have damaged national security.
WHAT'S DOABLE
Cacheris, a former Marine and one-time assistant U.S. prosecutor, did not
return calls made to his Washington office.
''Someone like Plato would be realistic in what is doable or not doable in
this case,'' said John L. Martin, the former head of internal security at the
Justice Department. "He would be advising her -- on prospects of prevailing
at trial.''
If Montes cooperates, she would be debriefed by the FBI, the CIA, the DIA
and any other agency or department that feels victimized by her actions, experts
say.
''You take her back,'' said one expert, who asked not to be identified. "You
go to the beginning and do it in reverse chronological order.''
Then debriefers would focus on people Montes may have dealt with, then
perhaps focus on subject matter. If they felt she was lying, they would subject
her to a polygraph.
NO FAMILY TIES
In other prominent spy cases, prosecutors held leverage over accused
turncoats. Hanssen and Ames were married and their families could be threatened
with loss of a government pension, or -- in the case of Ames, whose wife was
compromised as a possible accomplice -- jail time.
Montes is single. Without family to worry about, she could exchange
cooperation for a reduction in sentence and such issues as where she would serve
jail time and what kind of treatment she might receive for medical or other
concerns, experts said.
Small plane crashes in Cuba, killing 17 people including 13 foreigners
By Vivian Sequera. Associated Press Writer.
BAEZ, Cuba - (AP) -- Authorities early Friday were pulling the bodies of 17
people -- including 13 foreigners -- from a dam in central Cuba after a small
Soviet-made biplane crashed in this rural region.
The plane, a single-engine Antonov AN-2, went down around 4:30 p.m. EST
(2130 GMT) Thursday in this small community just south of Santa Clara, the
capital of Villa Clara province about 270 kilometers (165 miles) east of here.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Farmer Ramon Sampiero said he was feeding his pigs Thursday afternoon when
he saw the plane start to lower in the sky over this agricultural community.
''I saw it fly very low, but did not hear it crash,'' Sampiero, 65, said
early Friday.
Another local resident, Ramona Montero, 36, said the craft was spinning as
it went down. She also said she heard no explosion.
Witnesses who rushed to the dam to investigate said they could see the
plane's tail jutting out of the water. They said at least one piece of twisted
steel from the craft had been pulled from the water, along with some luggage and
shoes.
About 120 police officials, firefighters, Communist Party officials and
military officers including at least one general surrounded the area around the
dam, blocking all access to the crash site on Friday morning.
Associated Press journalists saw seven funeral cars with caskets inside
leaving the area around the pond around dawn.
The AN-2 model, the world's largest biplane, was operated by the small local
charter company Aerotaxi. The telephone at the company's Havana office rang
unanswered early Friday.
In the past, some AN-2 planes were used by Soviet paratroopers, but most
were used as small passenger planes that traveled within the former Soviet
Union.
Killed were two Germans, 6 Canadians -- including a minor, five British
citizens and four Cubans, an official from the International Press Center said
Thursday night.
A doctor answering the telephone in the emergency room of Santa Clara's
Arnaldo Milan Castro Hospital, said he was among those who went out to crash
site and confirmed that 17 had died. There were no survivors, he said.
The doctor, who did not give his name, said police and rescue teams were
still working to retrieve the bodies late Thursday evening. It had not been
decided where the bodies would be taken, he said.
Mia Yen, spokeswoman for Canada's Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, said
late Thursday that Cuban authorities had told the Canadian Embassy in Havana
that the plane was a small chartered aircraft traveling from the central city of
Cienfuegos to Cayo Coco, an exclusive resort in the keys stretching along the
main island's northern coast.
Yen said she could not confirm the number of Canadians killed, nor their
identities.
She said that Canadian Embassy officials in Havana, along with the Canadian
Honorary Consul based in the beach resort of Varadero east of here, were in
contact with Cuban authorities and preparing to travel to the crash site. | 
