Ana Belén Montes, the convicted Cuba spy who is set to be released from prison in January, was willing to pass military secrets about the U.S. war in Afghanistan if requested by her spymasters in Havana, even if that resulted in the death of American soldiers on the ground, she told FBI investigators after her arrest in September 2001.
Montes, who before her arrest was the most senior analyst of the Cuban military at the U.S. Department of Defense, also passed classified information about a U.S. secret satellite program to Cuba that was so sensitive that prosecutors were banned from using it had the case gone to trial. That information was unrelated to Cuba, and investigators believe Fidel Castro likely passed it to other foreign adversaries like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
“That was the most damaging non-human intelligence she provided to the Cubans and likely to other adversaries. And I found it,” said retired FBI agent Peter Lapp, who led the covert operation to break into Montes’ apartment and copy the contents of her computer.
