Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Michael Ganske, a retired CIA agent now living in Clymer, discussed the Cuban espionage case of Ana Montes with the League of Women Voters of Warren County on Thursday night in an event held at the Crary Art Gallery.

It’s not every day that a retired CIA agent is in Warren talking about espionage.

But that was the case Thursday as part of the League of Women Voters of Warren County’s annual meeting with Michael Ganske presenting the case of Ana Montes, an intelligence analyst who lived a double life as a Cuban spy.

“Everyday I get to talk about espionage is a beautiful day,” he said, offering the ability to “share things that go on in the world that we may not be aware of.”

According to the FBI, Montes was a senior analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the DIA’s top analyst on Cuba.

Montes was recruited by the Cubans while working in a clerical role at the Department of Justice and had spoken openly against U.S. policies toward the region. As a result, she agreed to help Cuba.

“She knew she needed a job inside the intelligence community to do that, so she applied at DIA, a key producer of intelligence for the Pentagon,” according to the FBI, which explained that she never removed any documents, instead keeping the details in her head and typing them up on a laptop at home.

“Then, she transferred the information onto encrypted disks. After receiving instructions from the Cubans in code via short-wave radio, she’d meet with her handler and turn over the disks,” per the FBI. The damage she caused included revealing the identities of four American undercover intelligence officers working in Cuba.

She was arrested just days after Sept. 11, 2001 and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to commit espionage. She is set to be released from federal custody early next year.

Montes, who acknowledged revealing the identities of four American undercover intelligence officers working in Cuba, pleaded guilty in 2002 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Ganske said there are four reasons people commit espionage, MICE, money, ideology, coercion and ego as well as three answers to the question “how?” — infiltration, exploitation and volunteering.

“In Ana’s case, she gave up the hard target assessment of Cuba,” Ganske said, as well as information on special operations and “multiple US government collection programs.

“When I say provided to the Cubans, that was her gateway,” he added. “What the Cubans did with that info was probably more worrisome” given that Cuban allies are nations like Russia, China and North Korea.

“Much of the information she provided to Cuba, it was a commodity to Cuba,” he said, that could be sold to other countries.

Part of the challenge of uncovering spies is that, in this case, “she was a great analyst,” Ganske said. “In the intelligence business… we compartmentalize. Even though I had top secret special access clearances, I still do, it doesn’t mean I get to know anything. … It’s a need to know. She was a true infiltration agent. She was recruited by the Cubans first and then directed to go and work for DIA.”

Montes was “unique” as a spy.

Ganske said that of the approximately 270 people convicted of espionage or conspiracy to commit espionage since 1947 just 11 percent are women.

“I can honestly say, I was never approached by a foreign intel service at all,” he said.

The espionage cases he said he was involved in — Rick Ames and Robert Hanssen who smuggled secrets to the Soviets and Russians as well as more recent cases including Edward Snowden and Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning) were motivated differently than Montes.

“They did not do it for loyalty issues,” he said. “My problem with Edward Snowden, he took an oath just like I did…. There were methodologies he could have employed first that he (did) not do. He just decided that he… his ego said ‘Well, I’m smarter than anyone else.”

While that might sound like a naive position at best, Ganske said there are always “some parallels” that can be drawn between Montes and the cases he worked on.

He said that the “lesser damaging” spies don’t have the highest intellect. “(You) don’t hear about the ones who (we) catch before they got going.”

As Montes’ release date approaches, will she stand to be a target by either side — the Americans or the Cubans?

“Could it happen, sure,” Ganske said, but he stressed that the last time she saw classified material was when she was arrested in 2001.

“She’s of no technical expertise to the Cubans anymore,” he said. “There’s no quid pro quo… (there’s) no benefit to us.”