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NEWS
U.S. ‘Mole
Hunter' Warns of Cuban Spy Danger
Paul Crespo
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
www.Newsmax.com
MIAMI -– Fidel Castro's intelligence services still pose a significant
threat to the United States. That is the message Scott Carmichael, a
Special Agent and counter-intelligence specialist with the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) told a packed house of reporters and citizens
last weekend. The press conference was hosted by Republican
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and her colleagues, Lincoln
Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Carmichael was the DIA "Mole Hunter" responsible for investigating and
capturing Ana Belen Montes, the senior Cuba analyst at DIA who became
the nation's highest ranking Castro spy ever uncovered in the U.S.
Carmichael's newly published book, "True Believer," chronicles his
five-year counter-intelligence investigation and analyzes the impact Ana
Belen Montes had on U.S. national security.
According to intelligence officials, Ms. Montes, who is of Puerto Rican
heritage, caused incalculable damage to our Latin American intelligence
networks. She was arrested shortly after Sept. 11th, 2001 because
investigators feared she would provide Castro the U.S. war plans against
the Taliban and al-Qaida, which Castro would then forward to them.
Unfortunately, Montes became the "forgotten spy" because her arrest was
overshadowed by all the reporting in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
Carmichael argues that she may have caused more damage than CIA turncoat
Aldrich Ames and the FBI's only mole, Robert Hansen. Due to her senior
position she was able to compromise sources and methods, including spy
networks and technical collection means, allowing Havana to mount
effective counterintelligence operations for years.
When asked about Montes' motivations, Carmichael sounded like Dr. Phil
or Freud emphasizing childhood traumas caused by what she considered a
bullying father. Montes, the eldest of several children was unable to
protect her siblings from her father's perceived abuse, and felt a need
to protect the weak against bullies.
Initially she saw Nicaragua under the Sandinistas as the weak country
being bullied by the U.S. When the Sandinistas lost power in the
elections of 1990, she transferred her protector role to Castro's Cuba.
Of course, Montes never saw that the real bullies were the dictatorial
regimes in these countries that repressed their own people.
Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart noted that we often cover Cuba "like
normal countries such as Costa Rica, Panama or France, and that's a big
mistake."
The unrepentant Montes is serving a 25 year prison sentence brokered
with U.S. attorneys because she agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Carmichael, who remains on duty at DIA, may be the only government "Spy
Catcher" to ever write a book while on the job. Using his extensive
files and notes on the Montes case as his research, he told NewsMax he
was able to write "True Believer" in a matter of weeks.
Asked why he wrote the book, which was cleared by DIA, he added that the
Castro intelligence threat has consistently been down played or ignored.
He wanted to expose and disseminate the dangers posed by Cuba's
intelligence services. Part of this downplaying may have been the
product of Montes's active disinformation campaign during her 16 years
at DIA.
In 1998 she helped write the threat assessment which concluded that Cuba
did not pose a serious military threat to the U.S. William Cohen., the
Defense Secretary at the time, found the assessment so mild, that in his
transmittal letter accompanying the report, he added: "While the
assessment notes that the direct conventional threat by the Cuban
military has decreased, I remain concerned about the use of Cuba as a
base for intelligence activities directed against the United States."
Cohen also expressed concern about Cuba's asymmetrical warfare threat,
including the potential to develop and produce biological agents.
Carmichael concurred, emphasizing that while "Cuban amphibious forces
may not be landing on Miami Beach anytime soon, the Cuban intelligence
threat is serious." Just how serious is what legislators hosting the
event want to know. True Believer prompted these lawmakers to call for
the Defense Department to reveal more on the damage done by a spy who,
among other serious damage, may have caused the death of a U.S. green
beret in El Salvador in 1987.
Collaboration:
Lila" <lila01@choicecable.net>
/ LAIDA CARRO / joseito76@aol.com
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