The Spy Who Colluded with Castro | Ready to Snap | 3

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0:15September 2000 The FBI field office, Washington, D.C. DIA counterintelligence officer Scott Carmichael and his colleague Gator are in a windowless meeting room. Sitting opposite them nursing a coffee in a polystyrene cup is their FBI counterpart, Steve McCoy. Steve, Gator and I have got some intel and we think it's going to blow your mind He waits for him to react but the FBI man seems more interested in his colleague's nickname Gator as in investigator Gator looks offended No, Gator as in alligator My dad was a game warden in Louisiana I had one as a pet McCoy looks amused but Carmichael stresses the serious purpose of their visit.

1:08Also gator as in sharp teeth, ready to close in on its prey. We asked for this meeting because we've identified Agent S, the Cuban spy you've been looking for. McCoy sits up. Hold on. How do you two know about Agent S? We were given a tip-off that Agent S had access to safe. That's our internal system and if there's a mole in our building, it's our job to investigate. With respect, there's an ongoing FBI investigation which could be compromised if word gets around the DIA. Who told you about this? With respect, the information we have is more important than where it came from. If you want to catch your spy, you need to hear what we came here to say.

1:52Have it your way. Besides, I've got a pretty good idea where the leak came from. So tell me what you've got. Carmichael chooses his words carefully. He needs to tread the line between protecting the DIA's source and showing McCoy that their evidence is sound. We know Agent S works within the DIA and we know they visited Guantanamo. We checked our systems and there's only one name that fits. Go on. Ana Montez. Ana? A woman? You're way off the mark. The agent we're looking for is a man. Have you considered that you might be looking the wrong way? Maybe the Cubans described Agent S as a man in their communications to cover her tracks.

2:40Listen here. We checked the Guantanamo Bay visitor stay logs, and there's no record of an Ana Montez overnighting there. But our database shows she did. McCoy looks at his watch and stands. Listen, I appreciate you and Gator taking the time to drop by, but I'm not at liberty to discuss our investigation further and I would appreciate it if you did the same. For if word gets out that we're looking for a spy then our target might hear about it and hot-foot it to Cuba before we can catch them. Thank you for your time, gentlemen. Carmichael leaves feeling defeated. The FBI is the only intelligence agency with the power to arrest.

3:24Without them on board, Carmichael's hands are tied. Montez is free to keep passing state secrets to Cuba and thanks to her high-level security clearance many of America's most important military secrets are vulnerable and the implications of that don't bear thinking about

3:48I heard a rumour that the CIA poisoned my grandad Gordon Banks, the world's number one goalkeeper It happened in Mexico, supposedly, at the World Cup in 1970. Sounds crazy? I'm an investigative journalist on the hunt for evidence. We needed to do some extraordinary things to counter the Soviets. This is Foul Play, an unbelievable tale of sports, spies and family secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts or early and ad-free on Audible.

4:24From Wondery, I'm Indra Varma, and this is The Spy Who Colluded With Castro. In the last episode, Ana Montez blew the cover of America's multi-billion dollar spy satellite program, Misty. Her handler, Ernesto, cut off face-to-face contact following the arrest of a Cuban spy ring in Miami. And National Security Agency analyst Elena Valdez alerted the DIA to the mole within its ranks. This is Episode 3, Ready to Snap.

5:04September 2000. Carmichael's office inside DIA headquarters, Washington DC. On a secure line, Carmichael calls Elena Valdez. She's the NSA officer who tipped him off about the spy in his agency. Elena, it's Scott Carmichael. Listen, I've got some difficult news. Gator and I met with the FBI, but they don't seem to be taking this thing seriously. We're going to need you to give us more details of your intercepts. I can't do that. I appreciate that it puts you in a difficult position. No, you don't understand. The FBI showed up here yesterday and read me the riot act. If I tell you anything more, I could lose my job or go to prison.

5:48Listen, I'm sorry. No, you listen. I'm sorry, but I shouldn't even be talking to you. I have to go. A month later, the FBI field office, Washington, D.C. Carmichael nervously enters the office of McCoy's supervisor, Diane Kresman. She eyes him warily. Mr. Carmichael, please sit. Do you want to tell me what this is about? Frustrated that McCoy has had his report on Montez for several weeks and done nothing, Carmichael is going over his head. Breaking the chain of command could ruin his career, but he can't see an alternative. Well, Ms. Kresman, I believe there's a spy working in my organisation.

6:35I don't need to tell you the implications of that for US national security. OK, let's hear what you've got. Carmichael goes through the intel he shared with McCoy and the additional evidence he's dug up since then. McCoy told me the FBI found no record of Montez staying on the naval base at Guantanamo. Well, that's because she stayed at a nearby hotel. I found a record of that. Being in the right place at the right time is not enough to make a case. We know that the Cubans were sending shortwave messages to Agent S when Montez was on vacation outside the USA. That suggests that she's not our spy.

7:14But what if she is? I'm sorry, I've reviewed your evidence and there is nothing concrete in it. You can't just point the finger at someone and ask us to place them under surveillance. That's not how we operate. We have to convince a judge to approve any surveillance operation and no judge would approve one based on this evidence. The following week, DIA offices Clarendon, Virginia.

7:43Carmichael arrives at his desk to find the message light blinking on his landline phone. He spent the weekend in turmoil. His efforts to convince the FBI to investigate Montez have hit a wall. It's his job to protect the DIA from spies. But now there's a spy stealing secrets from inside his own organisation and he can't stop them. He slumps into his chair and dials the number to check his voicemail. You have one message. Message one. Hi Scott, it's Steve McCoy of the FBI here. Carmichael's heart sinks. By now he'll know about his meeting with his boss. But then McCoy says something unexpected.

8:30Listen, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I've read your report and there are several things in it I'd like to follow up. I'm hoping you might be free to come in for another meeting. Carmichael's face breaks into a broad grin. The FBI are listening at last.

8:53A few months later, Grand Cayman Island, the Caribbean.

9:00Montez sits on the balcony of her hotel room overlooking the sea. Ostensibly she's here for a holiday, but she's really here to meet the Cuban handler who's sitting beside her sipping a beer. He turns to her. You said you had something important to discuss? Montez fiddles with the strap of her wristwatch and looks at the beach. There's a man about to dive from the rocks into the water. She takes a deep breath and dives in herself. I want out. She registers the look of dismay on her handless face, but she's determined to say her piece. I've done my bit for Cuba. I've lived my entire adult life serving your country, but I can't carry on leading a double life forever.

9:45What's brought this on? Are you in trouble? No, nothing like that. The opposite, in fact. I've fallen in love. I don't want to have to keep secrets. I want a chance to live a normal life. But Anna, you are our greatest asset. You are making history. Cuba needs you. Without you, we become more vulnerable to America's bullying. There must be someone else. Montez takes a sanitising hand wipe out of her purse and cleans her hands as she speaks. I can't do this forever. Having to pretend to be one thing and being another and not being able to talk to anyone, not even my therapist. It's too much. I'm losing sleep and I find it hard to concentrate.

10:31I'm afraid I'll slip up. I need to stop. The handler takes another sip of his beer and looks at her. What happens if you need us to get you out of the country? If you stop working for us, there is nothing we can do to protect you. Where would you go if what you've been doing for the past 16 years ever came to light? I don't know. Montez stares at the sea. She realises she's trapped. Maybe she's been trapped ever since the day she signed the biography she wrote for the Cubans in 1984. Her nerves are stretched, but she can't afford to let them snap. She takes another hand wipe out of her bag and wipes her palms clean for the second time in the past two minutes.

11:26Five months later, Washington, D.C. In a secret room in the heart of the Justice Department, an FBI official gives evidence to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge. We believe there is enough evidence to warrant extensive surveillance of the suspect. The FBI now agrees that Montez could be the DIA spy. but they need this judge's permission to put her under surveillance. They want to intercept her mail, tap her phone, install recording devices in her apartment and car, go through her garbage and keep tabs on her, both at work and in her own home. The FBI official thinks he's presented a solid case but the judge is unconvinced.

12:14This is weak. What you describe as evidence is largely circumstantial. The word Guantanamo came up on an intercept and your suspect visited the base. The word safe was mentioned and that's the name of a computer system used in the DIA. All of which could just be coincidence. None of this will stand up in a court of law. Which is why we need a warrant. So you can search her home for a shortwave radio? That's hardly evidence of espionage. and neither is owning a Toshiba laptop. I imagine thousands of the citizens in Washington own one. And this particular citizen has served her country well for over a decade and received numerous commendations for her work.

13:00Which is why we can't simply ignore what we know. Montez has access to a wealth of national secrets. We know that Cuba sells these secrets on. If our enemies gain access to some of the things Montez has access to, then the security of the whole country is at risk. I'll give you 90 days, and you report back to me at the end of that time. If you haven't got anything better than this by then, then I'm shutting you down. The FBI official nods. He's got little choice but to accept the judge's ruling. 90 days doesn't give the team long, but at least it gives them a chance to do the only thing that will settle this case once and for all.

13:43to catch Ana Montes in the act of spying.

13:58Spring 2001, a week later, a gym in Washington, D.C. Montes pounds the treadmill after work. Her evening workouts are about the only things that constitute a social life. She switches the treadmill up a level and runs faster, attracting a look from the man jogging on the machine next to hers. Whoa, take it easy. Montez ignores him, the way she ignores just about everyone these days. Spying for Cuba has isolated her from her friends, family and colleagues. And with the Cubans unwilling to let her go because they still need her help, she's accepted that this is her life and thrown herself into her mission.

14:43harder than ever. She still sees her boyfriend Roger when time allows at his home in Miami or when he visits Washington. But she can't see how they can ever live together now. It would be impossible to keep her covert activity from him if they were under the same roof.

15:0730 minutes later, McComb Street, Washington, D.C.

15:15Montez arrives at her apartment in the Cleveland Park area of the city. Her hair is still wet from her post-run shower. She looks at her watch, switches on her shortwave radio. She extends the antennae and tunes it to 7887 kHz, the frequency of the numbers station that her Cuban spymasters use to send her messages. Then she sits, pen in hand, with a sheet of water-soluble paper on the table in front of her, waiting for the robotic voice from Havana to begin.

15:51Montez writes down the numbers.

15:58When the broadcast ends, she deciphers her latest instructions. Then she heads to the bathroom, drops the decoded messages in the toilet, and watches as they dissolve. Montez switches on the shower and looks in the mirror at the gym-honed, short-haired and tense-looking woman gradually being eclipsed by the steam from the shower She turns away, undresses takes one of the many bars of soap stored under the sink gets in the shower and, for the second time in as many hours begins to scrub her body clean

16:38A month later, Montez's apartment block. FBI agent Peter Lapp steals into the building with a small team of men. They move quickly but quietly up the stairs to the second floor and to apartment 20, the home of Ana Montez. Carefully, he opens the apartment door using a copy of the keys. Montez is in Miami visiting Roger for the weekend and this is the FBI's chance to search her apartment Lapp bends down, removes his shoes and signals to the others to do the same Montez's neighbours may know she's away and if they hear anything they'll call the cops Make a note of where everything is before you move it I want not even a dust ball left out of place Now let's find her radio and laptop.

17:36Lap makes careful steps across the living room, taking in the contents. There are books everywhere. And then... You're kidding me. There, straight ahead, right in front of the window, is a shortwave radio, its antennae still up, ready to receive. Sloppy Montez. Very sloppy. He switches the radio on, but it's not tuned to a numbers station. OK, not so sloppy. If it had been tuned into a Cuban numbers station, it might have constituted hard evidence, but possession of a shortwave radio is not a crime. The team checks the closet, but there's nothing aside from the clothes and handbags. Lap goes into the bedroom and looks under her bed There's a black backpack He pulls it out The bag's heavy He opens it Bingo Inside is a Toshiba 405 CS The exact laptop the Cubans told Agent S to buy One of the team links it up to an external hard drive And copies the contents Lap returns the laptop and the team creeps back out of the apartment, making sure everything is exactly where they found it.

19:08A few days later, DIA headquarters. In a secure meeting room, FBI agent Steve McCoy updates DIA Director Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson on the progress of their investigation into Montez. Her laptop's hard drive had been wiped using software provided by the Cubans, but that software wasn't much good. There are still traces of the deleted documents on there, and almost all of them are intelligence reports. Here's a list of the topics. McCoy hands the vice-admiral the list. The admiral scans the list, his expression darkening as he does. Misty's on this list. That surveillance programme cost billions.

19:54If she gave the Cubans this, it's compromised and we've been pouring taxpayers' money down the Straits of Florida. All intelligence those satellites have gathered could be complete junk. That's it. I want this woman out of my organisation. When are you arresting her? We still don't have enough evidence. What's all this then? He waves the list at McCoy. It's information in her possession. We have no evidence that she's passing it to Cuba, and we don't know how she does that. We're following her every move, but we haven't seen her meet anyone. She's not making dead drops, but she does keep using payphones.

20:32We think she's sending encrypted messages to a pager. Let me get this straight. You're saying she's using payphones to communicate with Cuba, and you can't do anything about it? We first need to find the cipher she's using to encrypt her messages. Our guess is that she keeps it in her purse, which she keeps on her at all times. So to get at it, we need your help. A few days later, DIA headquarters.

21:06On the sixth floor of the DIA head office, McCoy stands at one of the cubicles and pretends to check the computer. He's posing as an IT technician and has swapped his usual suit and briefcase for jeans, button-down shirt and a large backpack. He puts the backpack on the floor next to the computer chassis that's underneath a desk. As he does, he steals a glance at the next cubicle where Montez is busy working. He opens the backpack, takes out a screwdriver set and pulls the computer chassis out from under the desk while listening for Montez to receive a phone call. Anna Montez? McCoy asked Vice Admiral Wilson to arrange for her to be called away to a meeting at short notice.

21:52She sounds annoyed by this. In three minutes? I'm in the middle of something here. OK, I'll come now, but this better not take too long. Montez puts the phone down, gets up and storms past McCoy. To his relief, just as he hoped, he sees that she hasn't taken her purse with her. But he doesn't have much time. McCoy dives under Montez's desk. If anyone spots him, he'll say he's looking to isolate the power supply. He grabs her purse, sticks it in his backpack and gets ready to leave, offering a brief word of explanation to anyone who cares to listen. I need to pick up another drive from the basement.

22:34I'll be back in ten minutes. McCoy heads out of the office and slips into a room further down the corridor where his colleague Lapp is waiting You've got the purse? Yes, but we need to be quick She went to the meeting insisting she didn't have much time to spare Lapp goes through Montez's purse Driving license, credit cards, nothing unusual Hang on, what's this? He passes a payphone card to McCoy Who uses phone cards these days besides drug dealers? It's evidence, but it's still circumstantial. What they really need is the cipher. McCoy checks his watch. We need to hurry. I am. Check this. He holds up a scrap of paper.

23:20There's a number written on it. Looks like a telephone area code. Also, the paper feels strange. Could be water-soluble. OK, if there's nothing else, I need to get the purse back. Put everything back as it was. Shit! What? I didn't know which card was where. The two FBI agents exchange glances. Not only has their audacious purse snatch not yielded any concrete evidence, but Lapp's error could alert Montez to the fact that the FBI are onto her.

24:02A month later, September 11, 2001, DIA headquarters, Washington, D.C.

24:14Anna Montez and all of her colleagues are staring out of the window of their office across the Potomac River to the Pentagon. Plumes of black smoke are billowing out of the building. Holy shit! Montez looks from the Pentagon back to a nearby TV screen. On it is footage of the two planes that smashed into the Twin Towers in New York less than an hour ago. She looks back out the window again. Moments earlier, a passenger plane crashed into the Pentagon building. Several of their DIA colleagues would have been inside. Everyone in the office is nervous, and no one is sure what's going on. They're saying there's a force plane heading towards Washington.

24:59What if it's aimed for the White House? What if it's heading for us? Montez's cell phone rings. She sees her mother's number and answers. Mum? Oh, thank goodness, Anna, you're safe. I've just seen that a plane hit the Pentagon. Where are you? Are you okay? I'm okay, Mum. I wasn't in the Pentagon, and I doubt whoever's behind this will strike this area again. There'd be no point. Oh, well, I hope you're right. Do you know who could be behind this dreadful attack? I don't know, Mum. We've done so many people so much wrong, I can't guess which of them might be doing this to us today. Anna, how can you be so unemotional?