By Mary Anastasia O'Grady*, Editor

                                   Ana Belen Montes could have gotten the death penalty. Instead the former U.S.
                                   Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who spied for Cuba got a 25 years sentence
                                   two weeks ago. The lenience was part of a plea whereby she agreed to tell the
                                   Justice Department about her espionage since 1985.

                                   Justice has so far declined to publicize what Ms. Montes told interrogators. Fair
                                   enough. After all, U.S. intelligence would certainly not want Cuba and its allies in
                                   the Middle East to know what Ms. Montes revealed about her work on behalf of the
                                   communist regime.

                                   Nonetheless, it is reasonable for Americans, now living under serious threats of
                                   aggressive terrorism, to wonder how much damage Ms. Montes did to homeland
                                   security. One reason she was picked up on Sept. 21, 2001 was because in her
                                   position at the Pentagon she had access to highly classified intelligence not
                                   limited to Cuba. Normally, a discovered spy might be left in place for months and
                                   tailed in order to uncover more information about her contacts and modus operandi.
                                   But Ms. Montes was quickly arrested after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for fear
                                   that she might further compromise U.S. security.

                                   Aside from her ability to tell Cuba secrets that might be passed along to terrorists,
                                   there was another risk posed by Ms. Montes' penetration of the DIA. In her role as
                                   the key Pentagon intelligence analyst on Cuba, Ms. Montes could influence the
                                   National Intelligence Council and thereby put her stamp on consolidated NIC
                                   reports. Those reports combine the findings of separate agencies but Ms. Montes
                                   could have overshadowed other analysts if her views were more highly valued by
                                   the higher-ups who consolidate the information.

                                   In fact, Ms. Montes held considerable sway over the Pentagon's opinion of Cuba. In
                                   1998 the Defense Department released a high-profile report claiming that Cuba
                                   posed no military threat to the U.S. It discounted risks that Cuba was developing
                                   chemical and biological weaponry. Ms. Montes was the key drafter of that report,
                                   which means not only that it is pretty much useless to U.S. intelligence but that it
                                   may have contained disinformation damaging to U.S. security interests.

                                   Ms. Montes is the 45-year-old daughter of Puerto Rican parents and was born on a
                                   U.S. military base in Germany. In 1979 she earned a degree in foreign affairs from
                                   the University of Virginia and in 1988 she finished a master's degree at Johns
                                   Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. In 1985 she began
                                   working as a junior analyst at the DIA, focusing on Nicaragua. She became a Cuba
                                   analyst in 1992 but reportedly worked for Cuba as far back as 1985.

                                   According to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Stephen McCoy and posted on
                                   the Justice Department Web site, "during the course of her employment, Ms.
                                   Montes has had direct and authorized access to classified information relating to
                                   national defense." He also says that she "was a clandestine CuIS [Cuban
                                   Intelligence Service] agent who communicated with her CuIS handling officer"
                                   through encrypted messages on short wave radio.

                                   Ms. Montes blew the cover of four U.S. agents working in Cuba and she shared
                                   numerous classified documents with Cuban intelligence. But it is her role in
                                   declaring Cuba harmless to the U.S. national security that may have had the
                                   biggest yet unappreciated effect.

                                   Not surprisingly, the 1998 report grabbed big headlines in the U.S. Anti-embargo
                                   types used it to back their agenda for making nice with Fidel. Journalists and
                                   academics soft on totalitarian Cuba were longing for a more accommodating
                                   posture toward the regime, and so was Castro. Evidence from the Pentagon that no
                                   Cuban threat existed seemed to boost the chances for engagement with the
                                   dictator. "The Pentagon has concluded that Cuba poses no significant threat to
                                   U.S. national security and senior defense officials increasingly favor engaging their
                                   counterparts to reduce existing tensions," said Knight Ridder News Service.

                                   William Cohen, then secretary of defense, did in fact have reservations about the
                                   report but pro-Cuban elements complained that he was merely responding to
                                   political pressure from Cuban-Americans. The Knight Ridder report referring to
                                   Cuban exile politics said, "That's why [Mr.] Cohen held off presenting the DIA report
                                   on Capitol Hill, which had been scheduled for Tuesday."

                                   As it turns out, Mr. Cohen was only exercising good judgment and common sense,
                                   perhaps even with input from other analysts who understood Castro and had far
                                   different opinions from those of Ms. Montes.

                                   Yet, Ms. Montes had done her job well. Top U.S. military brass enthusiastically
                                   embraced the report. Marine General Charles Wilhelm, then head of U.S. Southern
                                   Command, was quoted in the Miami Herald saying that the Cuban military "has no
                                   capability whatsoever to project itself beyond the borders of Cuba, so its really not
                                   a threat to anyone around it." In a long-winded op-ed piece in the Palm Beach Post
                                   in 1998, retired Marine Gen. Jack Sheehan told of a trip to Cuba where he shared
                                   rum and cigars with Fidel. He argued that the U.S. needed a kinder, gentler attitude
                                   toward the regime. "Our intelligence data also supported the conclusion that Cuba
                                   was not a military threat to the U.S.," Mr. Sheehan wrote.

                                   It is logical to suspect that one of Ms. Montes" jobs may have been to discredit
                                   defectors from Cuban intelligence who were telling stories of a less-than amicable
                                   Cuban agenda. Since then, State Department analysts have reported that Cuba
                                   has at least some bioweapons technology and has expressed concern that Cuba
                                   could share the science with rogue states. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya come to
                                   mind.

                                   The claims that Cuba is no threat to the U.S. may have seemed believable in the
                                   sense that, for what it's worth, Cuba is in no position to mount a military attack on
                                   the U.S. But that is a long way from saying that Castro is a benign presence or is
                                   incapable of doing harm to the U.S. through indirect means. That's why it is
                                   important to know to what extent information Ms. Montes shared with Cuba may
                                   have made its way to other U.S. enemies.

                                   ABOUT THE EDITOR

                                   *Mary Anastasia O'Grady is editor of The Americas, which appears every Friday.
                                   The column discusses political, economic, business and financial events and
                                   trends in the Americas. Ms. O'Grady is also a senior editorial-page writer for the
                                   Journal, writing on Latin America and Canada. She joined the paper in 1995 and
                                   was named a senior editorial-page writer in 1999.

                                   Prior to working at the Journal, Ms. O'Grady worked as an options strategist first
                                   for Advest Inc. in 1981 and later for Thomson McKinnon Securities in 1983. She
                                   moved to Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1984 as an options strategist.

                                   In 1997, Ms. O'Grady won the Inter American Press Association's Daily Gleaner
                                   Award for editorial commentary, and in 1999 she received an honorable mention in
                                   IAPA's opinion award category for her editorials and weekly column. Born in Bryn
                                   Mawr, Pa., she received a bachelor's degree in English from Assumption College in
                                   Worcester, Mass. She has an M.B.A. in financial management from Pace
                                   University in New York.

                                   Ms. O'Grady invites comments to mary.o'grady@wsj.com1