indicates that a polygraph examination that confessed Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes passed in 1994 was no routine screening exam, but rather was conducted specifically because she was among those who had access to classified information that had been compromised. Further evidence -- as if more were needed -- of the unreliability and, indeed, the disutility of polygraph screening, as misplaced reliance on the polygraph helped to shield this high level double agent:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15754464.htm Book outlines how spy exposed U.S. intelligence secrets to Cuba
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A senior Cuba analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency gave Havana detailed information on U.S. eavesdropping programs aimed at the Castro government, allowing Cuba to mount effective counterintelligence and deception operations for year, according to a new book on U.S. intelligence failures.
Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes, who was born in Puerto Rico, enjoyed nearly unfettered access to classified information until she was caught in 2001. She's now serving a 25-year prison term.
The book, "Enemies: How America's Foes are Stealing Our Vital Secrets and How We Let it Happen" was written by Bill Gertz, a defense correspondent for The Washington Times.
In it, Gertz reports that Montes leaked so many significant U.S. secrets to Havana that some U.S. officials rank the damage she did with that caused by Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, the infamous CIA and FBI turncoats for Moscow whose information resulted in the deaths of dozens of U.S. agents.
"Montes was the first national-level analyst from the intelligence community known to have turned traitor and the most damaging Cuban spy arrested to date," Gertz wrote, quoting from a still-classified damage assessment report on Montes.
U.S. intelligence officials consulted by McClatchy Newspapers confirmed that Gertz's book reflects the intelligence community's assessment of the Montes case, although some of the more sensitive information remains under wraps.
Gertz has written several books on intelligence matters.
U.S. officials believe Montes did the greatest damage by giving Cuba information on U.S. electronic eavesdropping systems, which were the primary sources of intelligence on Cuba since Washington had long found it all but impossible to recruit spies within the island, Gertz wrote.
During a briefing from the National Security Agency she received in 1999, Montes learned about "every single NSA eavesdropping program targeted against Cuba and Latin America," according to Gertz's book.
She also learned about current and proposed electronic spying systems by taking part in planning sessions for future imagery and other intelligence-gathering programs, the book adds.
Montes had access to an intelligence community computer system, the Corporate Information Retrieval and Storage system, which includes information from the CIA, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the NSA, the FBI and other sources, Gertz wrote.
The book notes that Montes also sat on an interagency group known as the Hard Target Committee, which discussed operations in places such as Iran, China and North Korea. The book doesn't say if the information was passed to those countries.
Through Montes, the Cubans obtained a clear picture of what Washington knew and didn't know about Cuba, allowing Havana to carry out "a robust denial and deception program," according to the damage assessment report.
Some of her disinformation included a 1998 U.S. intelligence report that downplayed the threat of Cuban armed forces and its bio-weapons capabilities, and a 1993 paper that said the Cuban military wanted closer ties with the United States, Gertz wrote.
The book also says there are "indications" that her spying may have led to the deaths of some U.S. agents in Latin America, but it provides no details. Court records show Montes leaked the identities of four U.S. agents in Cuba. Those agents weren't harmed.
The damage assessment report, however, paints an embarrassing picture for U.S. spy-catchers: Montes met her Cuban handlers, posing as business people, students or academics, at Washington restaurants more than 100 times, sometimes twice a week.
Montes, who pleaded guilty to spying charges, told a Washington courtroom that she had spied for Cuba out of conviction that U.S. policies were causing undue suffering to Cubans and that Havana paid her little or no money for her work.
According to Gertz, Cuba recruited Montes around 1985. She first came under U.S. suspicion in 1994, when Cuba detected a highly secret electronic surveillance system. Montes took a polygraph test and passed it. Montes came under suspicion again in 2000, when Cuban officials uncovered a U.S. agent working in Cuba for a special intelligence program, Gertz wrote. Montes was one of the few U.S. officials familiar with the operation. The FBI placed her under surveillance and arrested her in 2001.
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Source: Cuban Spy Ana Belen Montes Passed DIA Polygraph (Read 130986 times)
