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True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy Hardcover – March 5, 2007
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- Print length208 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNaval Institute Press
- Publication dateMarch 5, 2007
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101591141001
- ISBN-13978-1591141006
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- Publisher : Naval Institute Press; First Edition (March 5, 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1591141001
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591141006
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,960,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,307 in Political Intelligence
- #186,808 in Biographies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Hi. I'm Scott Carmichael. I was born in the State of Wisconsin and, yes, I will forever be a die-hard Green Bay Packers and University of Wisconsin Badgers fan. But my journey through life has taken me far from the place of my birth in the small farming community of Fort Atkinson. I spent four years in the service of our country as a U.S. Navy enlisted man during the Vietnam War. I was a Chinese-Mandarin linguist then, posted to small communications stations located in the Philippines and Okinawa, though I occasionally volunteered for temporary assignments on board American submarines operating secretly in the Tonkin Gulf and the South China Sea. The crews of USS Wahoo (SS-565) and her sister boat USS Gudgeon (SS-568), introduced me to the real Navy - the pig-boat Navy, and developed within me a greater understanding and appreciation for the concepts of teamwork, comradery, commitment, and - the stench of diesel fuel, which permeates the body and remains deeply etched at least within my memory banks to this day. Following discharge from the Navy, I obtained a BA degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Washington, in Seattle. Beautiful city. Met some of the most memorable and wonderful people imaginable during my stay there, and I miss them. But I returned to Wisconsin after graduation - to become a cop. I served as a police officer in my mother's hometown of Edgerton for a period of approximately 7 years, and learned while so employed virtually everything that I now know..about people. Priceless knowledge. Invaluable. That experience, that education as a police officer has since served me very well indeed. Because my business today is all about people, and what makes them tick. In 1984, I assumed new duties as a Special Agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS. That was before the service became the focus of its own TV show. I specialized in Foreign Counterintelligence, and spent a couple of years stationed at the Naval Base on Treasure Island, located in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Wow. Go there, if ever you have the opportunity. It is a long ways from cow country, believe me. Then I married, and in 1986 moved to Washington DC, where I accepted assignment to NCIS headquarters. Two years later, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) developed an organic capability to find spies within its ranks - and hired me as one of a number of specialists to perform that mission for the agency. That has been my calling, ever since. I have accumulated a total 25 years employment as a Special Agent of DIA, and serve today as the senior security and counterintelligence investigator for the agency. I sometimes work alone, but more often work in cooperation with agents of the FBI and/or the military service investigative agencies to resolve counterintelligence issues which impact DIA - and, I do other things as well. Whatever the boss asks of me. In 2007, the Naval Institute Press published my first book, True Believer, and in 2010, published my second, Moon Men Return. I have others in the works. And that is me. My biography. I do not consider myself to be a writer by trade. I am an investigator who happens to write, and I love doing so whenever I have the time or feel the inclination. I suppose I will continue to write until people tell me to stop. Thanks.
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Carmichael, Scott W. 2007 True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy. US Naval Institute Press (March 3, 2007) Annapolis, Maryland ISBN-10 1591141001 ISBN-13: 978-1591141006
This is an excellent book and makes fascinating, interesting, and informative reading. Any who study Cuba must read it.
The news of the capture of Ana Montes was no surprise to the Cuban-American community here in the US, for we are long resigned to the inaccuracies in US government reports on Cuba, and watch with dismay as even CIA reports describe Castro propaganda as reality. We knew there were sources in our government committed to the support of Castro.
The first thing that struck me when Ana Belen Montes was caught was: How could the US Government spy-catchers miss the particular circumstance that the feast of Saint Ann, grandmother to Jesus (Santa Ana) is the 26th of July, the date in 1953 when the Castro brothers attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba? Still Ana or Ann is a common name, as in Annapolis, the city of Saint Ann where this book was published. However, as I mentally celebrated the capture of the first major Castro directed mole in the US defense establishment I also noted that the spies second name Belen is the name of the Jesuit Lyceum which Fidel Castro received his most significant secondary education.
In Cuba as in most of Latin America, communists often have such names, one readily recalls Universo (implies conquer of the world) Sanchez one of Castro's original "12," "Fabio" (the stealthy guerrilla warrior Consul of Ancient Rome) Grobart Stalin's man in Havana and said recruiter of Castro in 1948, and Cuban labor-leader Ursinio Rojas (the red bear). What seemed unusual was that nobody, outside of the Cuban-American community, had pondered on Ana Montes name before.
Carmichael discusses in several places the culture of misinformation on Cuba so prevalent in official US government circles. This was so vividly displayed by a major presidential candidate in giving a speech in Miami last month (March 2007) who in error recited one of Castro's own slogans to Cuban-American audience thinking it was a reflection of the exile circumstance. Only now with the trial and jailing of academics spying for Castro at an "International University" and books such as this, has the erroneous nature of the information on Cuba commonly expounded to innocent students in academia, become obvious.
As I read Scott Carmichael's book sometime later, it became readily apparent how important Ana Belen Montes was and how deeply she had penetrated and influenced the US defense establishment (e.g pp. 135-143 (hard copy edition). It also became clear how insignificant most people in the US government think Cuba, that "small" that 760 mile long island next door, is to the US; and how so many in important positions in the US underestimated Cuba's espionage capability (e.g. p. 151-152). For this reason, despite the sacrifice of a number of US government careers in the 1960s, the false but prevalent mind set in Washington was, and still is to consider Castro's espionage threat insignificant to US security.
The author gives a clarion call on pages 175-179. Perhaps betrayed Green Beret Greg Fronius rests a little easier in his grave.
The author is to be commended for his fine work and his excellent book
It matters not that Cuba is a flacid threat to the US, they are involved in Latin American leftist movements and looking to trade intel for goods and favors from the whose who of dictatorships. The author links Mondes directly to the death of a US military advisor working in Latin America. It is likely that there were more casualties.
One of the great frustrations of the case is the glacial pace of investigations. Again months and months were lost as the FBI agents worked with the DOJ's staff to try to get the required authorizations to bring the case foreward. In the end the events of 9-11 and the probability that Montes would compromise major anti-terror activities lead to her arrest before all the evidence could be gathered.
Just as we wondery why we could not connect the dots at Virginia Tech, one wonders why we keep erasing the dots in the interest of "justice" .
Like so many of these stories it begins with one suspicions person, initially ignored as onbody wants to believe that one of their own have betrayed the trust.
Update 5-10-07
Mr. Cespedes ( see comments) offered the following insightful comments, "What this reviewer neglects to mention is that the damage done to US security by this Cuban spy is tremendous. The fact is that the Cuban dictatorship has close relationships with Iran, Syria, China, Russia and all other terrorist states in the world. The vast amounts of information passed to the Castro regime has found its way to all of them. This damage has been as grave as any done to this nation by any other "famous spies" uncovered previously. Cuba is a threat to America, all of it, be North, Central and most certainly South. I has long been the "aircraft carrier" of communism and terrorism in the Western Hemisphere as evidenced by Chavez, Ortega, Morales and as sponsor, trainer and safe haven for all guerrilla terrorist-movements. This book is a "must read" for all Americans concerned with our safety." I would only add to this the potential additional damage she has probably done by advancing the careers of other Cuban agents in various agencies.
This is one of many examples of where America's very cumbersome laws have affected the effectiveness of our counter intelligence operations with catastrophic results. Too much of the effort is devoted to meet process requirements between DOJ and other organizations.










