INTELLIGENCE REPORT FROM WASHINGTON 

by Marcelo Fernandez-Zayas
Washington, D.C., September 24, 2001

HAS CUBA CHOSEN ITS SIDE IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM ?

The terrorist attack against Washington and New York sent US fighter planes scrambling into the air over the Strait of Florida as US Cuba watchers stayed glued to their intelligence agency desks. For several days Cuba was off the screen in Washington's official press releases and the media in general. However, experienced observers of Cuba sensed that something was going on in their area of interest. They were correct. In the morning hours of Friday September 21, the FBI announced that agents had arrested in her office at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at Bolling Air Force Base the head of the Cuban Desk, Ana Belén Montes. Montes, 44, was born at an air force base in Germany in 1957 of Puerto Rican parents. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1979 and went to work sometime later for the Justice Department. In 1985, Montes started work at the Department of Defense. In 1988, she received a Masters Degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

From her position at the Cuba desk of the DIA, Montes was in a good spot to betray her country. From information currently available, it is not clear when she started to work for the Cuban DI (Directory of Intelligence), but one press report tied her descent into espionage to the purchase of a laptop computer in 1996. According to intelligence sources, the FBI has been carefully observing Montes since May of this year. She was seen contacting members of the Cuban Intelligence Services (DI) in the Washington metropolitan area, and reportedly making numerous calls from public phones to pager numbers. With the media focused intently on the terrorist attacks and the anticipated first steps of retaliation, the Montes arrest has received little attention since the initial announcement. The timing of the arrest, however, has led many to believe that Washington intends to send a serious message to her handlers. It is known that Cuba has housed, facilitated travel and provided refuge to diverse terrorists for many years. There is no question that Havana is now aware that something is cooking in Washington, and that the President's comments about "terrorists and those regimes that support them” will be seen in the same viewfinder as the teams of hijackers who crashed planeloads of innocents on September 11.

As soon the media realize this connection, many questions will be asked. It is expected that by the middle of next week the press will ask what is going on with the Cuban spies in the USA. It is difficult to say at this time how much damage Montes, the spy, may have caused in real terms . However, in political and psychological terms her discovery and arrest has been a devastating blow for the Pentagon. Cuba has had an agent for many years within the defense machinery of the USA at its most sensitive point: the brain.

How will Washington react? It is impossible to say at this time. Fidel Castro went for the chest of the King and buried his knife in the body. How serious is the wound? Was he acting solely in the interests of Cuba, or was he gathering information for exchange with unsavory characters like Osama or Saddam Hussein, as many suspect? In the present mood of the United States, this question looms much larger than any issue in the bilateral relationship over the past 10 years. It may affect the course of events.

Montes did not act alone in this country. Who collaborated with her? Will Washington retaliate soon? Voices on Capitol Hill will ask for explanations and retribution. And the voices, at this time, will be heard - not to be drowned out by the usual "be nice to Castro" crowd. The injury is too large and important to be ignored. On the other hand, Castro's alliance with Iraq has now taken on a more dangerous character.

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, it is known that Cuban listening posts aimed at American territory provided intelligence to Saddam Hussein. Could this story repeat itself? All these questions have to be debated and answered in the coming week. The United States is at war and Cuba is a potential enemy in our back yard.

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