Ana Montes could have been locked-up for a great erica. After a very adorned U.S. intelligence analyst that have a-two-bedroom co-op in Cleveland Park, Montes today stays in a two-bunk mobile from the highest-shelter women’s prison in the united kingdom. Their unique locals enjoys provided an old homemaker exactly who strangled a pregnant lady to acquire her baby, a long time nurse exactly who slain five patients having enormous treatments regarding adrenaline, and you can Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the Charles Manson groupie whom made an effort to assassinate Chairman Ford.
Instead, she discover the headlines surprisingly soothing
However, tough time in the Lizzie Borden ward from a tx prison has not yet softened the former Security Service wunderkind. Decades immediately following she are stuck prying having Cuba, Montes remains defiant. “Jail is just one of the past urban centers I’d enjoys ever picked to be in, however some anything in life can be worth going to prison getting,” Montes writes when you look at the a beneficial 14-webpage handwritten letter to help you a member of family. “Otherwise value performing after which killing yourself before you could need certainly to invest a lot of time when you look at the jail.”
Instance Aldrich Ames and you can Robert Hanssen in advance of their particular, Ana Montes blindsided the new intelligence society which have brazen acts away from treason. In the day time hours, she is actually a buttoned-off GS-fourteen inside a protection Intelligence Agency cubicle. By night, she is into the time clock for Fidel Castro, playing coded messages more shortwave radio, passageway encoded files to handlers within the congested eating and slipping undetected to your Cuba putting on a wig and you can clutching an artificial passport.
Montes spied for 17 ages, patiently, methodically. She passed together so many secrets about her colleagues – in addition to cutting-edge eavesdropping platforms you to definitely American spooks got secretly hung inside Cuba – that intelligence professionals believe their particular being among the most hazardous spies into the recent recollections. However, Montes, now 56, failed to hack merely her country and her acquaintances. She and additionally deceived her brother Tito, an enthusiastic FBI unique agent; their former boyfriend Roger Corneretto, an intellect manager toward Pentagon specializing in Cuba; and her sis, Lucy, an excellent twenty-eight-seasons seasoned of your own FBI who may have acquired honors to possess providing to help you unmask Cuban spies.
Full Display screen The actual situation up against the ‘King from Cuba’ See Photographs Ana Montes spent almost 20 years prying getting Cuba while being employed as a You.S. intelligence specialist. Ana Montes invested nearly 2 decades prying to own Cuba when you find yourself functioning just like the an effective U.S. intelligence specialist. Ana Montes’s FBI booking photos at the time off their arrest, . ./ Courtesy of FBI Hold off step 1 second to carry on.
On the months following the i profession workplace are on large aware. Most of the hijackers got spent time in Southern area Florida, and you can FBI team there have been desperate to know if or not any longer got lived behind. Once a management questioned Lucy Montes to get to their office, she did not blink. Lucy try an experienced FBI code expert who translated wiretaps and most other sensitive and painful correspondence. However, so it impromptu meeting had nothing in connection with Sept. eleven. An FBI squad commander sat Lucy off. Your own sister, Ana, has been arrested for espionage, the guy told her, and she you can expect to face brand new dying punishment. Their sister, Ana, is good Cuban spy. Lucy didn’t shout, did not violent storm call at disbelief. “I sensed it instantly,” she recalled inside the a recently available interviews. “It informed me a lot of things.” Biggest news communities reported towards stop, however, nevertheless is overshadowed by the nonstop publicity of your violent attacks. ***
Now, Ana Montes remains the essential spy you have never heard about
Created toward a beneficial You. S. Armed forces foot inside 1957, Ana Montes ‘s the eldest youngster out of Emilia and you can Alberto Montes. Puerto Rico-born Alberto is the leading Army dily went appear to, from Germany to Kansas in order to Iowa. They compensated when you look at the Towson, additional Baltimore, where Alberto setup a profitable private psychological habit and Emilia turned a frontrunner on the regional Puerto Rican community. Ana thrived inside the Maryland. Lean, bookish and you will witty, she finished having a beneficial step 3. To outsiders, Alberto was a compassionate and you may well-experienced dad out-of four. But behind closed doors, he was small-tempered and you may bullied his youngsters. Alberto “happened to believe he met with the right to overcome his students,” Ana create later give CIA psychologists. When he got furious. Yes. Ana are 15 whenever her moms and dads decades had been complete.