US Top Spy Freed After More Than 20 Years

After more than 20 years in detention, Ana Montes, one of the most well-known Cold War spies apprehended by the US, has been freed from prison. The 65-year-old worked as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency for over two decades while spying for Cuba.

Officials said that she had nearly completely disclosed US spy operations on the island after her detention in 2001. She was among "the most devastating spies" the US managed to capture, according to one official.

Former George W. Bush counterintelligence chief Michelle Van Cleave testified before Congress in 2012 that Montes had "compromised everything - nearly everything" we knew about Cuba and how we conducted business there.

"So the Cubans were well aware of everything that we knew about them and could use that to their advantage. In addition, she was able to influence estimates about Cuba in her conversations with colleagues and she also found an opportunity to provide information that she acquired to other powers."

Following her arrest, Montes was charged with providing the names of four US spies and tons of top-secret information. She received a 25-year prison sentence when the sentencing court declared that she had endangered the "country as a whole."

However, Montes was driven by philosophy rather than selfish ambition, in contrast to other well-known spies discovered during the Cold War. Due in part to her hostility to the Reagan Administration's initiatives in Latin America, she decided to work with Cuban intelligence.

She is thought to have been particularly enraged by US assistance for the Nicaragua Contras, a right-wing rebel group suspected of perpetrating war crimes and other atrocities in the nation, according to a report from the inspector general of the defense department.

In 1984, she expressed concern over US operations in Nicaragua and a fellow student at Johns Hopkins University approached her. After being introduced to a Cuban intelligence agent, she "unhesitatingly volunteered" to collaborate with the Cubans to "assist" Nicaragua at a dinner in New York City, according to the inspector general's investigation.

The next year, she went to Havana for training before joining the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she eventually rose to the position of senior analyst for the group's analysis of the communist regime on the island.

She communicated with her Cuban handlers through pager and met with them every few weeks at restaurants in Washington, DC, for nearly two decades. Through short-wave radio transmissions, she was given directives.

After US intelligence officials received a report that a federal employee appeared to be spying for Cuba, she was eventually taken into custody. She was apprehended by an FBI agent, who noted that she had a stoic demeanor.

After being released, Montes will be under observation for five years, and her internet usage will be tracked. She won't be permitted to contact foreign agents or work for the government without authorisation.

Pete Lapp, one of the FBI agents involved in the arrest of Montes, however, told CBS News that he didn't believe she would make another attempt to get in touch with Cuban spies.

That chapter of her life is over, according to Mr. Lapp. "She has taken action on their behalf. I can't picture her jeopardizing her freedom."