Cuban Spy Case Still a Mystery

Cuban Spy Case Still a Mystery
September 3, 2014
By Miguel Fernández Díaz (Café Fuerte)

HAVANA TIMES — A yet unidentified Cuban spy convicted to 13 years in
prison in the United States has come into the limelight following the
bestowal of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Bronze Medal on
Master Sergeant Tessa M. Fontaine.

The case was processed by the NRO Counterintelligence and
Cyber-Counterintelligence Division in Chantilly, Virginia. Fontaine
engaged in 148 hours of interrogation with spies and documented 16 hours
of espionage activities conducted by Cuba’s Intelligence Department (DI).

According to the limited information provided by the NRO, Fontaine’s
work helped protect an intelligence system valued at 5 billion dollars.

The case of the “new Cuban spy”, however, continues to be shrouded in
secrecy.

Complete Silence

Chris Simmons, the US intelligence officer in charge of the case of Ana
Belen Montes, the Cuban superspy who had infiltrated the Pentagon,
affirms there is utter secrecy regarding the individual under
investigation and convicted thanks to Fontaine.

It has yet to be established whether the spy is of Cuban nationality or
whether they are a US citizen working for Cuba.

The information was made available by the NRO at the end of May
following reconnaissance activities and the promotion of officials on
the occasion of Memorial Day.

Fontaine had already been named Deputy Official of the Year by the Air
Force in 2013. Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, she is currently
stationed in the Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas. She has served
in international missions in both Kuwait and Iraq.

Cuba’s Interest in the NRO

The NRO designs, manufactures, launches and gives maintenance to all US
spy satellites. Cuba has no space program and its military
infrastructure is obsolete. As such, it is of little interest to the
NRO, which in turn does not represent a threat to Cuba.

Everything seems to indicate that Cuba’s DI had an interest in the NRO
nonetheless, in much the same way its Red Avispa wasp network was
interested in US air bases.

No reference to the Cuban spy detected by Fontaine has yet been made in
US public documents or media.

Cuba continues to pursue its international campaign calling for the
release of the three agents from the Red Avispa who are still imprisoned
in the United States, but interestingly it has never spoken on behalf of
Ana Belen Montes, convicted to 25 years in prison, and for Kendal and
Gwendolyn Myers, who leaked secret State Department information to
Havana for decades. Kendall Myers was sentenced to life imprisonment and
his wife Gwendolyn to five and a half years in prison in July of 2010.

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