Thread: D.C. Couple Is Indicted on Charges of Spying for Cuba

D.C. Couple Is Indicted on Charges of Spying for Cuba

By Del Quentin Wilber and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 5, 2009; 4:49 PM

A former State Department official and his wife have been charged with spying for Cuba for nearly three decades, federal prosecutors said today.

Prosecutors said Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, both of the District, were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government. They were arrested yesterday afternoon by FBI agents, prosecutors said.

"The clandestine activity alleged in the charging documents, which spanned nearly three decades, is incredibly serious and should serve as a warning to any others in the U.S. government who would betray America's trust by serving as illegal agents of a foreign government. We remain vigilant in protecting our nation's secrets and in bringing to justice those who compromise them," David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

Kendall Myers saw over 200 intelligence reports on Cuba in his last year at the State Department, the indictment said.

Authorities said that the FBI launched an undercover operation in April to convince the couple that they had been contacted by Cuban intelligence. According to an FBI affidavit, the couple told the undercover agent that they had received coded messages from the Cuban intelligence service in the past on a shortwave radio.

"We have been very cautious, careful with our moves and, uh, trying to be alert to any surveillance," Kendall Myers told the agent, according to the court papers.


They also discussed how they were first recruited by Cuban agents and were given code names to use in messages -- "123" for Gwendolyn Myers and "202" for Kendall Myers, the FBI said.

The Myers also told the FBI agent that they had traveled to meet Cuban agents in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica, New York City and other locations. The FBI said that Kendall Myers usually removed information from the State Department by memory or by taking notes.

"I was always pretty careful. I, I didn't usually take documents out," he told the undercover agent, according to the court documents.

He also told the agent that he had spent an evening with Fidel Castro in 1995.

Kendall Myers began working at the State Department in 1977 and had top secret security clearance. Gwendolyn Myers moved to the District in 1980 and married Myers in May 1982.

No one answered the phone at the Myers residence on Cathedral Avenue NW in Washington.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
June 5, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
District of Columbia
Contact: (202) 514-7566

Former State Department Official and Wife Arrested for Serving as Illegal Agents of Cuba for Nearly 30 Years

Couple Allegedly Conspired to Provide Classified Information to Cuban Government

WASHINGTON—A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government.

The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Ambassador Eric J. Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.

An indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia charge Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a.k.a. “Agent 202,â€