Ana Montes, one of the best known spies of the Cold War, has been released from prison after more than 20 years in prison in the United States. The 65-year-old spied for Cuba for more than 20 years while working as an analyst at the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
After her arrest in 2001, the US administration declared that she had revealed to Havana almost all US intelligence operations on the island and was therefore considered one of the “most harmful spies” for American security.
Michelle Van Cleave, who headed counterintelligence under President George W. Bush, told Congress in 2012 that Montes had “compromised virtually everything we knew about Cuba and our operations on the island and the Havana government was able to use all the information to his advantage.”
Following her arrest, Montes was charged with, among other charges, revealing the identities of four US spies and providing classified material. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Unlike other spies, however, Montes had decided to work for Cuba, after being approached by a student at her Johns Hopkins university in 1984, for an ideological reason, her opposition to the then president’s policies Ronald Reagan.
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