Cold War Spy Ring at State Dept. Busted Up After 35 Years

Ex-U.S. State official, wife face Cuba spy charges

Fri, Jun 05 19:45 PM EDT By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - A former U.S. State Department official and his wife have
been arrested for spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years,
the Justice Department said on Friday. Walter Kendall Myers, 72, aided
by his wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, used his Top Secret security
clearance to pass on classified information to the Cuban government
and at one point met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to
court documents.

The two were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the
Cuban government and to communicate classified information to Cuba,
the Justice Department said. They were also charged with wire fraud
and acting as illegal agents. They face up to 35 years in prison. The
two pleaded not guilty and will be held until a detention hearing on
Wednesday, a Justice Department official said. A lawyer representing
the couple declined to comment. The arrests come as the United States
and Cuba have offered glimmers of hope that they might be ready to end
years of hostility. In mid-April, President Barack Obama pledged a
"new beginning" with Cuba after modestly easing the 47-year-old U.S.
trade embargo against Havana. The Cuban government had no immediate
reaction.

According to court documents, the two were recruited in 1979 by a
Cuban official who directed Kendall Myers to pursue a job at either
the State Department or the CIA. Myers worked part-time at the State
Department since 1977 and joined full-time in 1985, eventually working
his way up to a position of senior analyst specializing in
intelligence analysis on European matters. With a Top Secret/SCI
security clearance, he had daily access to classified information and
viewed more than 200 intelligence reports about Cuba, according to the
affidavit. He retired in 2007. Gwendolyn Myers worked at a bank. The
two received messages from the Cuban government via shortwave radio
and hand-passed messages, and typically passed their responses to
handlers by hand. Gwendolyn Myers said her favorite way to pass
information was by swapping carts at a grocery story, according to the
affidavit filed by an FBI agent.

A Justice Department official said they were motivated by a desire to
help the Cuban government, not money. They traveled occasionally to
Cuba and other locations across Latin America to meet with their
handlers, and met Castro in 1995. Kendall Myers told an undercover FBI
source posing as a Cuban intelligence officer he had received "lots of
medals" from the Cuban government. The undercover operation began in
April. In meetings with the FBI source, who at one point offered
Kendall Myers a cigar, the couple allegedly agreed to provide
information on the April 17-19, 2009 Summit of the Americas in
Trinidad and Tobago, according to court documents. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton has ordered a damage assessment and a review of the
department's security procedures, the State Department said.

(Additional reporting by James Vicini and Arshad Mohammed in
Washington and Tom Brown in Havana)

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