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March 20, 2002.
U.S. analyst admits spying for Cuba
By Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer. Wed Mar 20,
2:49 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. intelligence analyst who prosecutors say spied for
Cuba throughout her 16-year career faces 25 years in federal prison after
entering a guilty plea to espionage charges.
Ana Belen Montes, 45, revealed the identities of four undercover agents to
Cuban officials during her time as a spy.
Montes was spying for Cuba from the time she started work at the Defense
Intelligence Agency in 1985 until her arrest on Sept. 21, prosecutors say. By
that time, she was a senior intelligence analyst and had used short-wave radio
and coded pager messages to give Cuba U.S. secrets so sensitive they could not
be fully described in court documents.
Montes entered a guilty plea Tuesday.
"Yes, those statements are true and accurate," she told U.S.
District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina after the charges were read. When Urbina
asked whether one reason she had agreed to plead guilty was "the fact that
you committed the crime," Montes replied, "Yes."
Roscoe Howard Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said law
enforcement officials do not know whether any of the information Montes
transmitted to Cuba was shared with other countries. However, the Sept. 11
attacks on New York and Washington heightened the need to "get her off the
streets" and influenced the timing of her arrest, he said.
Howard added that, to the government's knowledge, Montes received only
nominal payments for expenses. He would not speculate on her motivation.
A U.S. official familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Montes was believed to have been recruited by Cuban intelligence when she
worked in the Freedom of Information office at the Justice Department, between
1979 and 1985, and was asked to seek work at an agency that would provide more
useful information to Cuba.
The four undercover agents whose identities she revealed, Howard said, are
safe.
Under the plea agreement, Montes would accept a sentence of 25 years in
prison with no possibility of parole, followed by five years of supervised
release. In exchange, Howard said, the government would get her full cooperation
in disclosing all information she may have about criminal activity regarding
herself or others with whom she may worked.
Urbina set a sentencing date for Sept. 24.
According to court papers, Montes communicated with the Cuban Intelligence
Agency through encrypted messages and received her instructions over short-wave
radio. From public pay phones, she then used a prepaid calling card to send
coded numeric messages to a pager owned by Cuban intelligence.
The FBI secretly searched Montes' residence under a court order on May 25
and uncovered information about several Defense Department issues, including a
1996 war games exercise conducted by the U.S. Atlantic Command, authorities
said.
The DIA, based at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, provides analyses of
foreign countries' military capabilities and troop strengths for Pentagon
planners.
U.S. cool on Cuban drug pact offer
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer Tue Mar 19, 4:53
PM ET
WASHINGTON - The State Department reacted coolly Tuesday to a Cuban offer to
sign an agreement for the two countries to cooperate on anti-narcotics work,
contending that Cuba's cooperation on law enforcement too often has been lax.
Spokesman Richard Boucher noted that Cuba recently deported two
individuals wanted in the United States, but he criticized Cuba's overall
attitude on law enforcement cooperation.
"We have been looking for Cuba's cooperation across the board on law
enforcement issues, and unless there's occasional case-by-case cooperation, I'm
afraid we just haven't gotten it," he said.
He said the administration might be interested in a formal agreement if Cuba
were more forthcoming.
"There are still dozens of fugitives from U.S. justice who have been
provided safe haven by the Cuban government," Boucher said.
He said they include "dangerous and noteworthy criminals" and
named:
_Charles Hill and Michael Finney, wanted in the 1971 death of a New Mexico
state trooper and the hijacking of a plane to Cuba.
_Joanne Chesimard, a militant in the Black Panther Movement who was
convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
_Former Wells Fargo guard Victor Manuel Gerena, on the FBI (news - web
sites)'s Most Wanted list for a $7 million dollar armed robbery in 1983.
In the past, Cuba has said the United States has harbored some of the worst
criminals during Fulgencio Batista's pre-1959 military government on the island
nation.
On Monday, Cuba said it was holding Rafael Miguel Bustamante Bolanos, an
alleged Colombian drug trafficker wanted by U.S. officials. It expressed
willingness to deport Bustamante if a counternarcotics agreement were signed.
"The possibility now exists for the U.S. administration to show that it
is truly willing to seriously undertake the fight against those grave scourges
of humanity while avoiding a double-standard approach," the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement published in the Communist Party daily Granma.
The ministry said it was up to the United States to prove that it "can
sidestep the petty interests of small anti-Cuban groups and defend the American
people's real interests."
Bustamante entered Cuba on Jan. 6 from Jamaica using a Venezuelan passport
identifying him as Alberto Pinto Jaramillo and was arrested at a Havana home on
March 6, the statement said.
Cuban authorities said they learned of Bustamante's true identity and the
accusations against him from other countries' anti-drug agencies.
The statement said Bustamante was involved with a major Bahamas-based
trafficking organization, and about 10 years ago he escaped from a Colombian
jail where he was serving time for trafficking.
On the Net:
Drug Enforcement Administration: http://www.dea.gov/
State Department's Cuba page:
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/c2461.htm | 
