[Spooks] V2A and Defense Analyst Pleads Guilty as Spy

[Chris Smolinski]

The same thing occured when the WASP Network was broken up several years
ago. Presumably, each agent is assigned a unique set of OTPs, so messages
to other agents would no tbe compromised. Ideally the sked(s) for the
agent would not be cancelled but would continue with dummy traffic,
although knowing the humor that V2 has shown in the past, I wouldn't be
surprised if they continued sending messages specifically for the FBI to
read ;-)


On Wed, 27 Mar 2002, Dave Payne, Sr. wrote:

> The article says that she was using a laptop
> computer to decode the numbers she received from
> Cuba via shortwave. Looks like we (the US) have
> her computer and therefore, the deciphering
> program. I assume the Cubans know about this. Has
> anyone noticed anything different out of V2a
> recently? I've not, but it seems the cubans would
> be reacting somehow.
>
>
>
>
>
> --- William Knowles <wk@c4i.org> wrote:
> >
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50284-2002Mar19.html
> >
> > By Neely Tucker
> > Washington Post Staff Writer
> > Tuesday, March 19, 2002; 1:13 PM
> >
> > The Defense Intelligence Agency's senior
> > analyst for Cuban issues
> > pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to
> > being a spy for Fidel
> > Castro's government, admitting that she had
> > used her highly classified
> > position to steal information for 16 years and
> > pass it along to a
> > nation the State Deparment lists as a sponsor
> > of international
> > terrorism.
> >
> > Working with shortwave radios, encrypted
> > transmissions and a pay phone
> > outside the National Zoo, Ana Belen Montes told
> > the Cuban government
> > the names of four American "covert intelligence
> > officers" working in
> > Cuba; that the U.S. government had tracked down
> > the location of
> > various Cuban military installations; and
> > informed them of a "special
> > access program related to the national defense
> > of the United States,"
> > prosecutors said today.
> >
> > She spied for the Cuban government from when
> > she joined the DIA in
> > 1985 until she was arrested on Sept. 21 of last
> > year. She worked as
> > head of the Cuba section since 1992, but did
> > not arouse suspicion
> > until the FBI began a counter-intelligence
> > investigation of her 12
> > months before her arrest.
> >
> > "Montes used her position as an intelligence
> > officer and,
> > subsequently, a senior intelligence analyst . .
> > . to gather writings,
> > documents, materials and information,
> > classified for reasons of
> > national security, for unlawful communication,
> > delivery and
> > transmission to the government of Cuba," said
> > Ronald Walutes, the
> > assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case,
> > reading from the
> > indictment.
> >
> > When judge Ricardo M. Urbina asked Montes if
> > those charges were
> > correct, she replied, "Those statements are
> > true and accurate."
> >
> > Montes, 45, an American citizen of Puerto Rican
> > descent, will serve a
> > 25-year prison term if she cooperates with FBI
> > and other federal
> > investigators during the next six months,
> > telling them what she knows
> > of Cuban intelligence activities in the United
> > States, according to
> > terms of the plea agreement.
> >
> > She officially pleaded guilty to one count of
> > conspiracy to commit
> > espionage, a crime that could have carried the
> > death penalty.
> >
> > Her attorney, Plato Cacheris, said Montes did
> > not receive any money
> > for her 15 years of work for the Cuban
> > government, but instead was
> > motivated by her personal sense of justice for
> > the impoverished island
> > nation.
> >
> > "She engaged in these activities because of her
> > belief that U.S.
> > policy does not afford Cubans respect,
> > tolerance and understanding,"
> > said Cacheris, who has represented several
> > other high-profile clients
> > accused of espionage. "She was motivated by her
> > desire to help the
> > Cuban people and did not receive any
> > compensation."
> >
> > Cacheris characterized the plea deal and aiding
> > the U.S. government as
> > "an attempt to help herself."
> >
> > It was unclear today how much damage was done
> > by Montes' work. The
> > four agents she identified to the Cuban
> > government are "alive and
> > safe," according to U.S. Attorney Roscoe C.
> > Howard Jr. Government
> > officers who attended today's sentencing did
> > not go beyond that,
> > declining to say if they were aware of Cuba
> > passing along the
> > information to hostile countries or
> > organizations.
> >
> > Montes was born on a military installation in
> > Germany. She was a 1979
> > graduate of the University of Virginia, and
> > received a master's degree
> > from the Johns Hopkins University School of
> > Advanced International
> > Studies in 1988.
> >
> > She had joined the DIA, the 7,000-member U.S.
> > agency that produces
> > military intelligence about foreign countries,
> > in 1985. She was
> > assigned to analyze Cuban information in 1992.
> > She lived alone in an
> > apartment in the 3000 block of Macomb Street
> > NW, drove her Toyota Echo
> > to work each day at Bolling Air Force Base and
> > went undetected until
> > the fall of 2000.
> >
> > Then, acting on an undisclosed break in the
> > case, FBI agents began
> > tracking her movements. They obtained court
> > permission to break into
> > her apartment, copy computer data and slip out
> > undetected.
> >
> > They found that Montes communicated with Cuba
> > by high-frequency,
> > encrypted transmissions that she picked up on a
> > shortwave radio.
> > Listening with an earpiece, she would copy down
> > a series of numbers,
> > each coming in a set of bursts. She would key
> > those numbers into her
> > Toshiba laptop, where a deciphering code given
> > to her by Cuban
> > intelligence officers would translate the
> > numbers into Spanish
> > language text.
> >
> > She often sent information back by using pay
> > phones in Northwest
> > Washington and in Bethesda, to transmit similar
> > encoded information to
> > an electronic pager number. She paid for the
> > long-distance calls by
> > using a pre-paid calling card, preventing the
> > numbers she dialed from
> > appearing on an itemized bill.
> >
> > "This was a classic case of espionage and
> > counter-espionage," said Van
> > A. Harp, director of the FBI's Washington field
> > office.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> *=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D*
> > "Communications without intelligence is noise;
> > Intelligence
> > without communications is irrelevant." Gen
> > Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
> >
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> > C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence -
> > http://www.c4i.org
> >
> *=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D*
> >
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> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> "God hath spoken to a fish, but never to a beast."
>              --- Izaak Walton, "The Compleat Angler."
>
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