How Did Ana Montes Cuban Spy

Ana Montes: The Cuban Spy Ana Montes worked much of her adult life to become one of the most trusted insider threats in the United States Government. In the trusted positions she garnered because of her intelligence and drive, she was put into a position to do grave harm to the United States Government and pave the way for the death of a United States Service Member. This paper will illustrate her background, indicators, material compromised, information pertaining to the methodology used by her handler, the investigation, Montes’ impact on national security, why she was successful and possible prevention which may have prevented her success.

BACKGROUND

Montes was born in West Germany in 1957. Her father was a United States Army psychiatrist

She graduated college in 1979 with a degree in Foreign Affairs, emphasizing on Latin America. That same year, Montes started working full-time for the Department of Justice. Montes was trained to perform in a paralegal capacity and work on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court requests. Here is where we catch a glimpse of Montes’ views towards American foreign policy, specifically how America treats its neighbors in South and Central America. Montes believed the United States was using its size and power to bully and manipulate the smaller countries to its south. Montes took special concern in how the Ronald Reagan Administration was treating Cuba and the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The United States was aiding the Contras, a rebel group, in their fight against the Sandinista

Montes skyrocketed to become one of the most senior Cuban intelligence analyst in the country. Her opinions and briefings of senior policy makers would go on to form the countries viewpoint of Cuba. Montes was tapped to brief both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council. Montes had a heavy hand in crafting the official Pentagon’s estimate of Cuba. Montes presented Cuba as an isolated island which had no real capability to endanger the United States, but to contrary, Cuba was capable and utilized their Defense Intelligence Agency spy to further their goals. As a senior and respected analyst, Montes was given access to almost all intelligence pertaining Central and South America. In the sixteen years Montes worked on behalf the Cuban government, Montes would pass as much as she could to them, to include the identities of undercover intelligence officers working in Cuba, almost all ongoing technical operations in Cuba and she is believed to have compromised the United States’ 1990-1991 Persian Gulf plans. In addition, Montes revealed the location of a secret training base located in the jungles of El Salvador which was used by United States Special Forces to train the local populace. Cuba subsequently forwarded the location of this secret training base to the El Salvadorian government which then attacked and killed many local fighters and Special Forces