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ANA BELEN MONTES: THE
SAGA OF CUBAN SPIES
MANUEL CEREIJO
Ana Belen Montes’ residence was a cooperative apartment located at 3039
Macomb St, N.W., apartment 20, Washington, D.C. Room C6-146A, 200
MacDill Boulevard, Washington, DC was the office/work space assigned to
Ana Belen Montes, at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, located
on Bolling Air Force Base.
She is a United States citizen, born on February 28, 1957, on a U.S.
military installation in Nurnberg, Germany. Montes graduated from the
University of Virginia, 1979 and obtained a masters degree from Johns
Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, 1988.
She was employed at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as a senior
intelligence analyst, since September 1985. Since 1992, she was
specialized in Cuba matters. Montes was the senior analyst responsible
for matters pertaining Cuba. Montes had direct and authorized access to
classified information relating to the national defense.
The Cuban Intelligence Service ( CuIS) communicates with clandestine
CuIS agents operating outside Cuba by broadcasting encrypted messages at
certain high frequencies. Under this method, the CuIS broadcasts on a
particular frequency a series of numbers. The clandestine agent,
monitoring the message on a short wave radio, keys in the numbers onto a
computer and then uses a diskette containing a decryption program to
convert the seemingly random series of numbers into Spanish-language
text. Typical messages consists of a series of 150 5-numbers groups,
like “30107 24624”.
This was the methodology employed by some of the spies convicted, in the
Southern District of Florida, of espionage on behalf of Cuba. Montes was
a clandestine CuIS agent who communicated with her handling CuIS officer
in the manner described above. Montes had a Toshiba laptop computer,
model 405CS to that effect.
Montes also had a Sony shortwave radio stored in a box in her apartment.
She had an earpiece that could be utilized with this shortwave radio,
allowing the radio to be listened to more privately. Similar earpieces
were found in the residences of the Cuban spies in Miami.
CuIS agents also communicate with her or his handling CuIS officer by
making calls to a pager number from a pay telephone booth and entering a
pre-assigned code to convey a particular message. This methodology was
utilized by Ana Belen Montes as well as by the spies convicted in South
Florida.
Espionage paraphernalia, including devices designed to conceal and
transmit national defense and classified intelligence information and
material, and implements used by espionage agents to communicate with
their handlers and with a foreign government, to wit: white tape,
mailing tape, colored chalk ( all used for signaling purposes), coded
pads, secret writing paper, microdots, any letters, notes or other
written communications (including contact instructions) between Montes
and any agents of the CuIS or other intelligence service of Cuba; any
computers, computer disks, cameras, films, codes, telephone numbers,
maps, photographs and other materials relating to communication
procedures.
CUBA IS A VERY DANGEROUS AND SERIOUS THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES AND
LATIN AMERICA
APPENDIX
EXCERPTS FROM A TAPED BRIEFING WITH ANA BELEN MONTES. THE TWO
PARTICIPATING REPORTERS I HAVE NAMED XXX, YYY.
BRIEFING WITH DEPT. OF INTELLIGENCE
)
DATE: JUNE 4, 1997
Maybe for the tape we could just review that I am Colonel JJJfrom the
Department of Intelligence’s (DI) public Affairs Office. We are here to
do a background interview generally speaking on the topic of Cuba. It’s
a background briefing and any attribution would be for a senior defense
official and maybe we should just go around the room and you could state
your name:
My name is: Ana Montes,
XXX, YYY
Colonel :Ok, so what’s your interest?
YYY: Well, a number of areas--but I was in Cuba this weekend and Bob and
I have been working on many issues, but specifically, on Cuba’s
capabilities on the area of biological warfare (“BW”) on whether they
have any capability in that arena or could rapidly develop such a
capability.
Specially in light of what they have been saying about us over the last
month which strikes us as very bizarre. They are offering us access to
their fields, access to crops____ and also offering access to
laboratories and I mean first of all it struck us completely out of left
field--when you saw it- I was in Burbank, and I said, wait until you see
this....and you know, why now? why this?--maybe that’s a good starting
point- I mean--- what has evolved as to why they are now accusing the US
of biological weapons?
COLONEL: This is not the first time. The history goes back to 1981. It
deals with Dengue Fever accusations-- unfounded. Frankly, we always
felt-- (again this is general sense of comparison) ---that their
presence in other parts of the world, supporting Angola... and
otherwise, really brought that and probably Conjunctivitis back to Cuba
and then conveniently claims were made that this was somehow a
biological warfare attack by the U.S. which was totally absurd. So this
is a continuing thing...
But they haven’t made anything recently?
Col No. There hasn’t been any news about anything since that time period
until very recently until the State Dept. aircraft incident. So
everything has been sort of quite in that sense. So the accusations are
there and we kind of shake our heads whenever they are made---because
some of them are so bizarre ---you find with the case with the
infestation that is happening in the general region and not just Cuba.
But the State Dept. answered their questions.
XXX: But is there any particular reason why now? Is there anything that
you guys can look at and say this is the reason or that is the reason?
It’s been basically 14 years. I remember when the retired General
Wilhelm ? went to that Senator Defense Information trip in 1994 -- and
they were screaming about the US and and they cut him off...and said
that the Miami Cubans... and suddenly the conversation ended--- and that
appeared to me that they were lowering the temperature of the subject.
And suddenly you know, this comes out of nowhere.
DI It’s really hard to know...I can tell you from our standpoint..we
don’t see any any reason again from the standpoint of their perception
of “BW” or whatever, why this should come up at this time. We monitor
them, look at their country, and off course, are deeply interested in
their capabilities, but there is nothing out of the ordinary which seems
to have been the provocatour (if indeed, there is a reason that is the
genesis of this or the nexxus of it) but it may not be -- it may just be
a coincidence and maybe grabbed on to Castro for no reasons. Whether
they are well thought of or not is also possibly an opportunity--
coincidental with an aircraft flying over and having a problem with a
crop and 1 + 1 =2. And why not go back and bring this up again. Again
nothing that we can say.
YYY: On the other side of the ledger, there have been over the last 20
years a proliferation of scientific institutes (Biotech Center,
Institute of Tropical Center, The Finley Institute, The Geographic
Institute + 10 others etc..) And I am told that even the institutions
have declared for BL/ 3 BL4 facility declarations which give them a
capability of .....
DI: Oh, you bet!. You don’t even necessarily need a BL 4 capability to
undertake that type of program......but it dosen’t hurt..and it
reflects..the fact is, just to get to the heart of it-- what you said is
essentially totally correct about that their biotechnology industry in
many areas is equivalent (and certainly not across the whole spectrum--
but in many areas) equivalent to 1st world levels and they have some
projects that certainly reflect significant advanced potential and
certainly the Institute for Biotechnology in Havana is a good indicator
of their capabilty for research projects They claim for instance, they
are working on HIV, they produce vaccines, pharmaceuticals..
YYY: About 100 million dollars worth of exports?
DI: In fact, Castro favors, the biotech industry. He has personal
interest in it. So, from a standpoint unlike that of many other
countries we look at them from a 1st world capability- Cuba has all of
the necessary ingridients to accomplish a BW effort if they would choose
to do so. But, if that’s their intention---(which I can not discuss the
details relating to that), but if so, the infrastructure affords them
that potential.
YYY: Are there any indications of their intentions?
DI I can’t really go into that at all. Probably can’t give any more
details about that unfortunately.
YYY: When we talk to other people, in other places in the government,
they claim-- well, that the Cuban military does not do biological
training. You know, their gas masks are a disaster, they have not
replenished them which leads me to either one of two possiblities: a.)
There is no program. or b.) There is a program, but outside the
traditional military realm-- sort of a “dooms day”.
DI Certainly all that is possible. The one general statement that I
would make about biological intentions is that the very fact whether the
capability for physicial protection or medical protection exists or does
not exist, is not a primary requisite for an offense of capabilty, so,
it doesn’t necessarily (not just talking about Cuba but in the general
sense) that its not even-- depending on how one would choose to affect a
BW operation- you do not necessarily have to have your troops vaccinated
or protected because in many senses, BW would be looked-- and is looked
at- as less of a tactical capability and more of a strategic capability
to be delivered upon someone else’s territory rather than yours.
YYY: Has he--now he apparently said something recently that was somewhat
ambigous in this area-- (I have a head cold, I don’t know if I have some
personal BW--or clouding of the mind)...He recently made a statement
that the Miami Cubans had seized upon as an indicator that he’s got
something going----Is there anything that strikes a cord with you in the
last month or two?
DI Nothing that we’ve seen. We have seen the articles regarding the
accusations about “Germ weapons and missiles” and frankly we do not put
much credibility to that type of statement.
YYY: This was said by a formal Colonel?
DI Yes, and at this point it just doesn’t add up- and 2 and 2 doesn’t
make 4. And so we just don’t pay too much credibility to this.
YYY: Is there any public statement that he’s ever made
that has caused you any concern in this area?
DI Not really a public statement per se, no no. Our area of concern
relates to his general “unfriendliness towards the US and his interest
in biological (albeit)---and certainly civilan sector capabilities”
which would be our concerns and also his potentials. Whenever a leader
which such immense control takes a personal interest in an area that can
have that potential, then our antena is of course raised and we are
watching. Certainly, they are close to our borders and with the advanced
capabilities this is something that we watch, but then again, off
course, we watch many, many other countries that have this potential.
YYY: Now they are a signatory to the BW _______
When I look at the active reports, the full? reports there is no mention
of . What is that an indicator of?
DI: Well, at this point I really wouldn’t like to try to read into the
State Department does--and a ____ _ _? So I really do do want to comment
on to why is there or not there.
DI: There are a lot of signatories that are mentioned that you probably
see that are mentioned that
YYY: Yes, but there are some that are signatories that are mentioned as
having programs or in wonderfully lithical diplomatic language Egypt,
Taiwan,
Di: Yes, Syria, China.
YYY: But those are less of a pickle?
Di: Yes.
YYY: Right. I mean, Egypt and Taiwan I thought were particularly
____?
Di Yes, they really are. I really can’t answer that in either in an
affirmative or negative why they were or were not included in that
section.
YYY: I’ve got a couple of specific things that I’ve been thinking
about-- within the last 24 hours people have been telling me-- and
obviously, it is disturbing what I’ve been told because of the local of
the southern extreme of the United States and the access with which it
can reach us and --level of outrage, the point was there is a defector
who came here two or three years ago, he is a physician who worked at a
biotech center and claims that a toxin, (a para___ toxin) was being
developed with the aid of a Japanese company--- you’re nodding?
DI: I am familiar with the information, and really can’t comment on
that. We have looked at that closely and we have assessments but it gets
into areas that I really would not want to try to provide.
YYY: Let me see if I can--would it be worthwhile for us to talk to
this guy?
DI: My sense is that the way we always look at intelligence is that if
you look at a single source, as such, it could be very misleading-
that’s why I can’t go on anything because it brings up textual
information and if we say that we agree-- that he is valuable or not
valuable- it brings up other information that I can’t go into which
would corroborate or not corroborate with saying. So, you’re on your
own!
YYY: Laughs, Ok., Well, I’ve also heard that there is a Naval Hospital
in Havana-- have your interests?
DI: Yes,-continually, we see again coming mostly from the so-called,
“free Cubans”-- a lot of information that comes out- I can’t
characterize any one bit of that information as plus or minus, but I
will say that classically most of the information that comes from that
sector is more based on a tidbit of information that then becomes
strapulated beyond what would be reasonable. It is very hard to find
anything that you can actually corroborate. You have a data point and
when you try to follow some of these data points they become simply
something that just goes into thin air. There is nothing to base it on.
YYY: Is this because Cuba is such a difficult intelligence target or is
it because the information is almost always wrong?
DI: Oh no, no, I would not even characterize it either way, difficult or
not difficult or whatever. It’s just that the information that comes
from that sector doesn’t help us necessarily-- in terms of accessing if
Cuba has a capability or not. We’ve never seen were that’s been tied.
YYY: Do you look for imports or parts of equipment.
DI: We watch everything.
YYY: Great. You have 3 - Flash-4 facility being one--- fermentors?
DI: Yes.
YYY: Large scale fermentors?
DI: Absolutely.
YYY: Right. Small to large.
DI: Very minor dual use.
YYY: And then everything biological is dual use--as someone pointed out
to me, if you look at nuclear, chemical and biological-- I mean, nuclear
there is a small part which is dual use and a larger part which is
military use- chemicals get a little more confusing- biological is
hopeless.
DI: Pretty much although there exists (again not solely related or not
related to Cuba with the Australian group) and they have been fairly
successful (and we have supported the Australian group quite a bit, the
US has) in trying to define that material that could lend itself to BW
programing. Interestingly, again this is just background on BW and not
Cuba, but pretty much when you look at it if you look at the genesis of
the BW programming, it is strictly an offensive program what you are
going to find is that -you are going to find an R&D effort dealing with
agents and pretty much when you’re looking at agents it becomes very
difficult to ascertain whether the program is going to actually split
off in a “Y” towards defensive or commercial sector vs. Strictly
offensive. But there are notes that exist-and the fact is that in the
early phase it is virtually impossible to discriminate between the two.
However, with the Australia group, you set certain limits as to the size
of fermenters for instance that would be construed as being beyond that
necessary for a normal pharmaceutical or commercial sector.
YYY: In kilograms or--
Di: No, liters (volumes)
YYY: What’s that 150?
Di: It keeps going back and forth and right now, 150 is a good number.
Which a piot is about 50 to 70 where he sort of grilling it up sort of
speak, getting ready to pour it into something to make it larger. And
that’s starting off at 150, but when you are in large scale productions,
what’s practical is about 1500 liters or so.--and that’s for a full
capability.
? But you wouldn’t need large scale capability.
? You don’t need it.
YYY: Right. But they have them.
DI: Yes. And so as a consequence something they might have is smaller
size fermentor. Which we would call pilot which could in fact lend
itself to the production of enough biological agents (mainly talking
about infectious agents right now, not toxins which are bi-products of
other organisms) but with infectious agents. You can also---you can
believe or not, grow biological agents in flasks and just have many,
many, many flasks-- and that can give you the capability of producing
enough agents, it doesn’t take a lot of organisms to cause infections
YYY: There are certain parts of organisms too.
DI: That is correct. There are literally--from a military standpoint- a
very effective military effort-the way we look at biological is that
first of all generally, (and again not bioterrorism or low intensive
conflict) but more military-- you try to look at an agent that is not
--because you are looking at hitting the individual causing the effect
and moving on. You do not want an epidemic. From a military standpoint
that becomes a logistical nightmare. That’s why Anthrax, botulin toxin
also sit on the top of anyone’s list.
YYY: What about BEE and things like that.
Di: Yeah, BEE again, that’s a little more difficult virus to grow up and
it takes more sophistication. But BEE certainly is a prom candidate and
any of the ______group viruses and Middle Eastern Bee.
YYY: Any about Rheumatic fever?
Di: Rheumatic fever viruses are more difficult---the futility has yet to
be demonstrated. You are working with not necessarily highly contagious
viruses because--- if they were..
YYY: We would be dead!
Di: ....the good news is that they would kill their host very rapidly
and not spread on. And plus they are not spread throughout the aerosol
or respiratory---for example you have a renal virus right now, probably
an upper respiratory virus...
YYY: I sure do.
Di: And you are more contagious- depending if you are in the incubation
period, how long have you had it?
YYY: I’m at the end of it.
DI: You are not in the incubation stage right now--you have Blue Cross
and Blue Shield? But actually what you produce in the early or
incubation stages are called filmates and they are particles of sputum.
It is a highly contagious virus but of the most biological are not
readily contagious. If you wanted to try to get Anthrax you have to
literally get down and touch the patient and get right in their face.
YYY: Well that’s where military _______
DI: Well, again, it depends on the goals-- and if you want to start
certainly an epidemic, there might be some agents that you can pick up.
For the most part when you get into agents that cause epidemics they are
very hard to grow, they are hard to manage and to keep confined. So
generally, they are not picked because they are just to hard to work
with.
YYY: When you look at the various facilities, I’m assuming that the
Biotech and Genetic Engineering is on the top of your list of things to
look at and to watch. Are there others?
DI: Well we watch---there are more than a dozen or so key facilities and
we watch them. Absolutely. We watch the whole Cuba capability very
closely.
YYY: Is your work at the biotech center based on its large capacity, its
large numbers of people, its large fermenters and it being a flash 4
facility--is it that primarily that gets you nervous or is it the fact
that they have genetic engineering capabilities?
Di: Well, really, the first level of concern is with the technical
infrastructure and that would lend itself. The genetic engineering
portion, for the most, if you look at biological warfare in general, it
is area, that again, that we are watching, following, but we’ve accessed
that any country developing a BW capability first With what is familiar
to them Is classical- so genetic engineering is certainly something we
have our eye on cause we are always ready for intervention. But for the
most, our major concerns______
YYY: Does the Institute of Tropical Medicine interest
you?
Di: They all do.
YYY: Ed and I spent a wonderful day when we met with the special troops-
the Red Berets in Pinar Del Rio. Does that interest you in this area?
DI: Ah, not any more, I would say that I characterize it as....not any
more than the whole capability of looking at the country in total. I
can’t really go on focusing on any one specific element just to see if
we have interest or not--we look at the country in total and its
capabilities.
YYY So with the capabilities you are talking are the whole “Bio” ---.
DI: The whole bio capabilities, yes. What I was going to say in terms of
us looking at the capability is when that juncture occurs that I was
speaking about, that’s a very interesting point with BW because when a
country decides to go towards weaponization- you can see a scale of
capabilities it’s not indicative of legitimate commercial. Nothing Cuba
is doing at all--.A large scale of production and any relationships, any
concerns that they could just be just scaling off-- which would not be
consistent with the BWC.
YYY: Have you seen any of that?
DI: I can’t talk about that.
YYY: I am also told that during the first two years of the Clinton
administration, you guys prepared two reports on Cuba’s BW. Is that an
accurate statement?
DI: We prepared several reports, not on Cuba BW but on Cuba as part of
the world-- if you look at it. We were constantly preparing reports
accessing the general capabilities of again, many countries so to say
specifically, Cuba I can’t speak to that. When we look at lots of
countries and its fair to say that whether its positive or negative
again, I won’t characterize Cuba as having a BW program, but I’ll say
that we follow it and we do prepare reports and access what their
capabilities are.
YYY: Has there been any other analysis of the shoot down that would
indicate that on that particular day that the order came directly from
Fidel or Raul because continuously, they have given us the impression
that it was their defense officer who had standing instructions to order
the shoot down. But do you know anything more now about what happened?
Montes: That is our understanding as well. That this was a standing
order -this was a decision which had been made weeks before.
YYY: A standing order?
Montes: Right, a standing order.
YYY: And nobody called Fidel and said, “Ok their out there....
Montes: Not as far as I know.
YYY: Is the air Marshall still around?
Montes: The air Marshall?
YYY: The person who ordered the shoot down on that particular day.
Montes: We have had no indication of any changes in command whatsoever,
to the contrary.
YYY: What’s the contrary?
Montes: That the pilots themselves were highly praised and glorified
within the military for what they had done and that the entire chain
used congratulatory comments.
YYY: So there was only one--except---
Montes: Well, some instances of mistakes that might have been made. You
know, technically/ tactically. But not the final outcome. The final
outcome was much desired, much welcome by the higher military.
YYY: We were amazed when we were done there cause we flew in on morning
after the shoot down that they did not have, the political types did not
have, any sort of coordinated strategy or coordinated response. I mean
we had breakfast with Alarcon that Tuesday morning. That Tuesday
morning, and it was like--we kept waiting for them to say-- well off
course we were able to determine that the planes were headed from Playa
Baracoa and you know, Fidel was there or something. You know, some
justification and there just wasn’t anything of any--you know..
Montes: I’m just saying that the military knew about this and they knew
about it ahead of time-- and they knew this was coming down ahead of
time. This was a military operation that they planned and it wasn’t
quite examinated by the political elite.
YYY: So what was the tactical mistake?
Montes: Problems with equipment, mistakes primarily made by equipment,
they did not function as it was expected to function. Pieces of
equipment that did not function as it was expected to function.
YYY: So on the actual report it was technical (subheadings). And they
knew because of Roque?
Montes: That’s what we suspect- in part. In part.
YYY: We had a very funny experience with Roque. He took out his little
diary or phone book and he was showing us he that had the names of the
FBI agent, you know, and the cell phone number to show me that he had
made contacts with the FBI agent and then he was showing it to Ed and
then he dropped it and when he dropped it we noted that there was not
another entry in the entire book so this must have been a very important
source because it was the only source. Everything was very well printed
in that one page.
Montes: Did he tell you that he had been working for the Cuban
Government from the beginning--that when he defected he was already a
spy for the Cuban government? What did he say?
YYY: No, No. He said that he had changed his mind.
Montes: Changed his mind.
YYY: We interviewed him and I think we gave it to our Miami affiliates
because it was it was after. We interviewed him the next day--we
were the second in line which made our bosses not happy. Actually, Cuban
T.V. interviewed him first......but he was-- -he’s a very good actor,
obvious. But he did not---there was actually one point where we did
catch him on something but I can’t remember what it was. It was
something where it was--it was something interesting. He sort of slipped
at one point. It was quite obvious I thought that he was who he was--
and the manner in which it was planned to get the photographs and
videotapes of him which were already in Cuba-that would be the other
thing that struck me---the videotapes that were shot of him buzzing
Havana were on Cuban television you know, simultaneously and the
photographs of him with Jorge Mas and you know all that other stuff was
there already. He left on Thursday night I think--
YYY: But the Cessnas came in once and then they left and then they came
back--and Roque had already been in town too as well.
Montes: But since this was an event that the Cuban military knew in
advance--several days in advance-and before, they had probably prepped
Fidel and Raul, briefed them, they gave the OK and from then on it was
in the lower ranking military personnel’s hands at the air base. But at
the time within minutes before they actually shot down, did they call
Fidel and ask for permission to shoot them down at the moment? No.
YY: The standing order would have been. And that’s always been your best
guess? Has that changed at all since last year?
Montes: No.
YYY: It’s been consistent throughout. There’s no other information?
Montes: No, it was a standing order.
YYY: Right. Right. And that there may have been briefings a couple of
days before? They knew several days before. He left on Thursday
afternoon- is the last time his wife saw him.
Montes: It appears that that would have been probable.
YYY: What’s happened to him-do you know what has happened to Roque?
Montes: We don’t know.
? We have time for one more question.
Montes: I just want to ask you a question. Why are the cubans watching
this campaign of accusations against the US for biological warfare. I
think it falls into the same category as this recent press conference
that the Cubans have had. They are very determined to exploit what they
see as the opposition of the rest of the world to US policy and I think
the more hostile, and the more aggressive they can portray US policy
towards Cuba, the more they can generate sympathy for Cuba on the part
of other countries and opposition by other countries to US policy.
YYY: Has there been problems with Spain? Made them think
more in these terms?
Montes: That they need to work harder with other countries and
generating.....??? Very possibly.
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INFOCUBA
