TheUnited States has arrested a former government official and his wife oncharges of spying for Cuba. The Justice Department says both suspectspleaded not guilty to the spying charges in a federal court inWashington on Friday. They are both being held until a detentionhearing next Wednesday. The two are accused of passing top secretinformation to Havana over a 30-year period.
U.S. officials saidthey arrested Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn after anundercover operation in Washington. They said Walter Myers worked atthe State Department for nearly 30 years, partly at the department'sBureau of Intelligence and Research, before retiring in 2007.
Authoritiessaid an FBI agent, posing as a Cuban intelligence officer, contactedthe Myers in April and asked them to obtain information for Havana.During a meeting, officials say the Myers agreed to provide informationabout U.S. officials working in Latin America, and they discussed theirpast activities on behalf of Cuba.
According to an affidavit, Walter Myers told the FBI undercover agent that he was recruited aftervisiting Cuban officials in Havana in 1978, and later began passinginformation to intelligence agents, often in person. Myers said he wasidentified as "agent 202," and his wife was known as "agent 123."
U.S.officials did not comment on the kind of information the Myers areaccused of passing to Cuba. They say employee records show Walter Myersaccessed more than 200 sensitive reports about Cuba during his finalyear of work at the State Department.
Chris Simmons is a formerU.S. counter-intelligence official involved with several recent Cubanspying cases in the United States. He says Havana is often seeking anykind of U.S. intelligence, not just about U.S. policy toward the island.
"Theview from Havana is that U.S. classified information is a commodity tobe bought, sold and traded to anyone that can come up with the rightoffer," said Simmons.
Simmons helped identify one of thehighest-ranking Cuban spies in recent history, Ana Belen Montes whoworked at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Montes pleaded guilty in2002 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The Myers arefacing prison terms of up to 35 years if they are convicted of thecharges against them, which include acting as illegal agents of aforeign government.
In an affidavit, U.S. officials saidGwendolyn Myers described her contacts with Cuban agents, such aspassing secrets by exchanging shopping carts at the supermarket.Authorities say the couple also used short wave radio to take ordersfrom Havana and to transmit information.
Simmons say Havana haslong relied on short wave radio to send encoded messages using a systemthat converts letters into numbers.
"So anybody with a [shortwave] receiver can hear it, but unless you have the encryption packetall you hear are the numbers. Uno, zero, cinco, cinco," he said.
Simmonssays Cuba's intelligence agency still prefers short wave radios andface-to-face meetings over computers and more advanced technology. Hesays unlike e-mail, the short wave transmissions are almost impossibleto track.