Last Updated on May 21, 2023
Ed Appel will review Code Name Blue Wren:The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy-And the Sister She Betrayed by Jim Popkin [New York: HarperCollins, 2023] on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.
This nonfiction book by journalist Jim Popkin is an incredible American spy story. The author presents a readable espionage biography about Ana Belén Montes. She was considered the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s senior analyst on Cuba until she was arrested by the FBI on September 21, 2001, at the age of 44. Accused of spying for Cuba since 1984, she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage.
Sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, Montes, now 65, was released from solitary confinement at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Ft. Worth, Texas in January 2023, her sentence reduced for good behavior. She remains under federal parole for five years and said she would live in Puerto Rico.
Why did Montes become the highest-ranking American woman arrested for espionage? How was she caught? What secrets did she betray? How could she be so different from her patriotic family of government servants?
Author Jim Popkin has been an investigative journalist whose work has been published in many newspapers, including USA Today, Newsweek, the Washington Post and the Guardian.
Resident Ed Appel, who specialized in counterintelligence during 28 years as an FBI Special Agent, will review this book, dissect the Montes case and reveal related information.