Investigative journalist Jim Popkin takes listeners on an incredible journey through the life of Ana Montes, possibly the most damaging female spy in America’s history. Montes, the government’s top Cuba expert, worked closely with the intelligence community during the Castro years. She had a top-secret clearance and received awards for her dedication even as she passed classified documents to Cuba. In a matter-of-fact delivery, Popkin presents this true account of the damage caused by Montes’s seventeen-year spying career. Her sister, an FBI employee, turned over family documents and personal letters, helping to build the case against her. Throughout, Montes steadfastly believed that she was doing the right thing for Cuba. Her twenty-two year prison sentence ends in January 2023. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy-and the Sister She Betrayed
Narrated by Jim Popkin
Jim PopkinUnabridged — 10 hours, 24 minutes
Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy-and the Sister She Betrayed
Narrated by Jim Popkin
Jim PopkinUnabridged — 10 hours, 24 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.
Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government's top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig.*
Montes didn't just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings.
In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a “Secret” CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana's incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor-a woman labelled “one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history” by America's top counter-intelligence official.
After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023.*Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider's look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editorial Reviews
Code Name Blue Wren might be the most mesmerizing spy story I’ve ever read. It shows how a brilliant manipulator secretly working for the Cubans finagled her way deep into the US military—and the anguish of the friends and family she so easily conned. Jim Popkin captures the brutal realities of modern espionage. I couldn’t stop reading this.” —Mark Leibovich, author of This Town and Thank You for Your Servitude“For espionage devotees, Jim Popkin’s Code Name Blue Wren is a critical read. In great detail, Popkin explores the case of Ana Montes, who became a mole in the Defense Intelligence Agency for Cuban intelligence. A mole who was almost never caught thanks to years of incompetence by the FBI’s counterspies. But thanks to the dogged persistence of a dedicated NSA analyst, who bypassed the FBI at great risk to her career, Montes was arrested shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Left in her wake was the likely death of an American Green Beret killed in action in El Salvador and the pro-American troops fighting alongside him.” —James Bamford, bestselling author of The Puzzle Palace and Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence “Jim Popkin uncovers riveting details about one of the most damaging spy cases in US history, revealing new insights into the highly sensitive secrets that Ana Montes gave to her Cuban handlers. Through remarkably extensive interviews with her relatives and coworkers, he exposes not only what she did but why. This is the definitive history of how one of America’s most highly regarded intelligence analysts betrayed her country, and how she almost got away with it.” —Pete Williams, former NBC News justice correspondent “This spy tale reads like a new season of Homeland – except this Ice Queen’s traitorous double-life was entirely real. Jim Popkin takes us deep into a long-ignored story of an intel officer who went rogue, spilling US secrets to Cuba, endangering US operatives, and tricking presidents and her own sister at the FBI in the process.” —Carol Leonnig, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Washington Post and author of Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service “An entertaining story of cunning espionage.”—Kirkus Reviews “A must-read for espionage fans.”—Publishers Weekly"Code Name Blue Wren earns a prestigious four out of four trench coats."—The Cipher Brief "[A] riveting account of Ana Montes’s double life."—Wall Street Journal
“Popkin keeps the reader hooked until the handcuffs are slapped on, and beyond.”—Star Tribune
This spy tale reads like a new season of Homeland—except this Ice Queen’s traitorous double life was entirely real. Jim Popkin takes us deep into a long-ignored story of an intel officer who went rogue, spilling US secrets to Cuba, endangering US operatives, and tricking presidents and her own sister at the FBI in the process.”
Code Name Blue Wren might be the most mesmerizing spy story I’ve ever read. It shows how a brilliant manipulator secretly working for the Cubans finagled her way deep into the US military—and the anguish of the friends and family she so easily conned. Jim Popkin captures the brutal realities of modern espionage. I couldn’t stop reading this.”
08/01/2022
A high-up at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Ana Montes spent 17 years sharing U.S. intelligence secrets with the Cuban government, who then sold them to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. She was arrested shortly after 9/11, and among those who felt most keenly betrayed was her sister Lucy, a veteran FBI agent who won awards for helping to unmask Cuban spies. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
Investigative journalist Jim Popkin takes listeners on an incredible journey through the life of Ana Montes, possibly the most damaging female spy in America’s history. Montes, the government’s top Cuba expert, worked closely with the intelligence community during the Castro years. She had a top-secret clearance and received awards for her dedication even as she passed classified documents to Cuba. In a matter-of-fact delivery, Popkin presents this true account of the damage caused by Montes’s seventeen-year spying career. Her sister, an FBI employee, turned over family documents and personal letters, helping to build the case against her. Throughout, Montes steadfastly believed that she was doing the right thing for Cuba. Her twenty-two year prison sentence ends in January 2023. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
2022-10-28
The life of “the most important spy you’ve never heard of.”
As Popkin recounts, Ana Montes (b. 1957) was arrested days after 9/11, when Americans were “shell-shocked” by the attack. The New York Times ran a story on Page 7. A high-level operative of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Montes spied for Cuba from 1985 to 2001. Since her family talked freely after her arrest, there is plenty of material for the author to re-create her life and career. They had moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico and prospered, so all her siblings attended college. Ironically, two of her siblings—and their spouses—were “true-blue FBI.” After obtaining a degree in international relations, Montes took a low-level job in the Justice Department, impressed superiors, obtained a top-secret clearance within a year, transferred to the DIA in 1985, and continued to climb the ladder. In a parallel story, Popkin notes that Montes’ sister joined the FBI that same year and enjoyed similar success in Florida. At the time, Castro’s Cuba operated a frugal but efficient intelligence service. Recruited by a college friend, Montes underwent an informal but rigorous course in spycraft and then got to work. Popkin delivers a gripping account of her routine, which lacked the fireworks of a Hollywood spy story but contained plenty of stress—so much so that she sought psychiatric help. Her activities attracted enough concern to produce a frightening 1996 interview with a counterintelligence officer, but they didn’t have enough evidence to bring her to justice. Clues to the presence of a Cuban mole continued to bother security agents, but years passed before investigators focused on Montes. Popkin writes a fascinating account of the months before her arrest, during which her apartment, computer, and purse were searched without her knowledge. Following advice from her lawyers, she confessed, cooperated, and received a long prison term, which ends in January 2023. She has never expressed regret.
An entertaining story of cunning espionage.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940175714785 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 01/03/2023 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
