"The Spy You Never Heard Of" Topic

Ana Montes has been locked up for a decade with some of the most frightening women in America. Once a highly decorated U.S. intelligence analyst with a two-bedroom co-op in Cleveland Park, Montes today lives in a two-bunk cell in the highest-security women's prison in the nation. Her neighbors have included a former homemaker who strangled a pregnant woman to get her baby, a longtime nurse who killed four patients with massive injections of adrenaline, and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, the Charles Manson groupie who tried to assassinate President Ford….

link

Thanks for posting the link – made for fascinating reading.

I had heard of her. But then, I read National Review.

Good link.

Never heard of her, but sounds like she has the perfect roommates.

I wonder if they know what she did, and vice versa.

If not, I hope that they remind them daily, and that Ana sleeps well at night (he said, sarcastically).

She like so many want to be 007s is a prime example of why tighter controls and less promotions based on quota should be the hallmark of the intelligence community. I am shocked her family did not lose their jobs as well. And she gets out in 2023?

VR
James Mattes

Wow! Very interesting article. It's material for a novel or a movie. Sometimes, reality surpasses fiction.

By the way, James, from the article you can't deduce she was hired based on quota: 3.9 GPA, bilingual, single, hard-working, educated in top schools and very dedicated. That are the traits that any agency would look in any employee, male or female.

Fascinating. Not sure why you think the rest of her family should be punished James.

The background checks should have revealed that she visited Cuba, or at least discovered that she harbored leftist political views in college even if she tried to hide them. There must have been some kind of red flag raised before they finally caught on.

I am sure you call for equally enlightened treatment for American spies imprisoned in other countries.

Shouldn't we have never heard of most spies?
-Kle.

I am sure you call for equally enlightened treatment for American spies imprisoned in other countries.

Sure.
Jail seems perfectly reasonable punishment for treason.
-Kle.

No question about it, 28mmfanatik. What I dispute is the insinuation by James that she was hired to fulfill a quota.

Fascinating, And she gets out in this lifetime? injustice.

I was aware of her. She should have faced a firing squad.

Antonio,

She was a clerk at State and had no intelligence background. Spoke Spanish yes but as with other bi-lingual females around the same time was the only requirement along with a clearance. I saw several Hispanic secretaries around the time of the Falklands and El Salvador get hired with no background in intelligence or understanding of HUMINT or SIGINT. One I had to train in basic intelligence processes ended up the lead analyst on a project working Central America yet she had never been farther south than Laredo! She was "cute" and had the eye of the section chief of the department. We use to refer to many of these "hires" as the little old ladies in tennis shoes.

VR
James Mattes

Whatever James' opinion of her hiring, she was universally recognized, according to a myriad of news stories, as a hard worker, sharp cookie, and top analyst who rose to the top of her field based on her abilities. "Quota hire?" I don't think so.

"I am shocked her family did not lose their jobs as well."

Yeah, right, Sippenhaft for all living relatives. Way to support due process and rule of law.

"She was a clerk at State and had no intelligence background"

Newsflash: nobody has any background the first time they are hired for something. Whatever criteria they used to select her, she apparently met, because to everyone's eyes she was a success at her job.

Where the government failed, as noted before, was insufficient background vetting.