Spy’s guilty plea shows how terrorist regime penetrated US military intelligence

The guilty plea of former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belen Montes shows how regimes that sponsor terrorism can penetrate the most sensitive US government institutions.

Montes admits to a 16-year spying career for the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. Among other things, she compromised at least four US agents, spied on a US naval exercise, and planted disinformation in intelligence reports for the Pentagon – including language downplaying Cuba’s biological weapons program.

The State Department classifies the Cuban government as a sponsor of international terrorism. Montes says she joined the DIA specifically to spy against the US for Castro, out of sympathy for his regime.

Cuba’s Soviet- and East German-built security and intelligence services have proven to be extraordinarily professional and effective. They reportedly doubled every CIA agent recruited in the country, and have a substantial political and military intelligence network in the US.