State Dept couple spied for 30 years for Cuba

[Evangeline]

These two traitors spied for 30 years and gave Cuba information about our country. 30 years!!! They had a short wave radio where they got coded messages from Cuba and then they passed on State Department information to Cuba in a grocery store by switching grocery carts. WTF?

How can anyone make the decision to spy for another country in the first place, let alone do it for 30 years.

I hope these traitors, if found guilty, never see freedom again for the rest of their lives. They're in their 70s so that can't be too much longer.

WASHINGTON — A former State Department official, with a security clearance above top secret, and his wife have been arrested on charges of spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years, the Justice Department said Friday.

According to the indictment, the couple may have been working on Cuba's behalf as recently as April, when they were assigned to inform on developments at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, were charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents and with passing classified information to the Cuban government. They also were charged with conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to Havana and with wire fraud.

Justice officials said that the FBI arrested the couple, both Washington residents, on Thursday and they made their initial appearances Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They pleaded not guilty.

The indictment charges that an official from Cuba's mission to the United Nations recruited the couple to spy for Cuba in 1979, visiting them at their home in South Dakota. The Cuba intelligence service directed Kendall Myers, who'd worked for the State Department in 1977, to resume his employment with the State Department "or the CIA.''

It says that Myers returned to Washington with his wife and got a job at the State Department in a position that required a top-secret security clearance.

"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,'' said David Kris, the assistant attorney general for national security.

According to the affidavit, the Justice Department said that Kendall Myers told an FBI source "that he typically removed information from the State Department by memory or by taking notes, although he did occasionally take some documents home.''

The department said that Myers had said that he'd received "lots of medals'' from the Cuban government and that he and his wife had met and spent an evening with Fidel Castro in 1995.

The affidavit alleges that the Cuban intelligence service often had "communicated with its clandestine agents in the United States by broadcasting encrypted radio messages from Cuba on shortwave radio frequencies'' and that the couple have "an operable shortwave radio in their apartment and they told an FBI source that they have used it to receive messages.''

The Justice Department said the spy episode began to unravel in April, when the FBI launched an undercover operation "to convince the couple that they had been contacted by a Cuban intelligence officer and to ascertain the scope of their activities" for Cuba's intelligence service
It said an undercover FBI source posing as a Cuban intelligence officer approached Kendall Myers, saying that he'd been sent by a Cuban intelligence official.

"We have been very cautious, careful with our moves and, uh, trying to be alert to any surveillance,'' the Justice Department quotes Kendall Myers as saying to the FBI source.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/69583.html

[Dominick]

I don't have any issues with the act of treason, but with the concept itself. It implies totalitarianism. I can't see any reason why it would be mandatory, in fact legally enforced, for everyone that happens to be born in a certain region to have to adhere to the ideology that happens to be in the majority, or merely in power, at that time in that region.

[Michael]

I'd be more inclined to predicate the 'crime' of international espionage upon the theoretical damage done - or the context of the situation.

In this case, its not like the US has lost anything valuable here and Cuba hasn't really gained anything of use to them. No harm, no foul as it were.

Heck, Cuba would be nuts not to have spied on US government to keep tabs on any American plans to militarily invade Cuba. Cuba has rational reasons to fear being invaded by US Government. US Government has no rational reasons to fear military aggression from Cuba.

In the case of the Soviet spies in the US (past cases) this was a different story since the Soviets certainly did try to benefit and use such espionage and did pose a threat of military aggression to the USA (and vice versa of course).

Or to put it another way, Cuba poses zero threat to the USA, ergo, Cuban spying on America is inconsequential to America - but rational and necessary policy for Cuba.

[Michael]

I don't have any issues with the act of treason, but with the concept itself. It implies totalitarianism. I can't see any reason why it would be mandatory, in fact legally enforced, for everyone that happens to be born in a certain region to have to adhere to the ideology that happens to be in the majority, or merely in power, at that time in that region.
That's an interesting question. ;)

Essentially, you are asking about the justification of the rule by a defined majority, but the key predicate of your argument seems to question the validity of sovereign states as jurisdictional areas for defining majorities.

As such, you are implying that any form of government at all is, by definition, totalitarianism.

That's rather heavy-loaded isn't it? :D

[Dominick]

That's an interesting question. ;)

Essentially, you are asking about the justification of the rule by a defined majority, but the key predicate of your argument seems to question the validity of sovereign states as jurisdictional areas for defining majorities.

As such, you are implying that any form of government at all is, by definition, totalitarianism.

That's rather heavy-loaded isn't it? :D
I don't know about heavy-loaded but that is indeed the ultimate, and inevitable, conclusion. If the state or nation or whatever can forcibly deny someone, anyone, the right to have a preference for another state or nation or whatever, then that person's, and therefore everyone's, freedom is nihil.

And the argument that any person could move to its preferred nation or state or whatever is neither true -it's entirely dependent upon one's economical circumstances which in turn are to a deciding extent predicated upon conformism to the authority of that state (etc,..) in the first place- nor very useful in arguing against totalitarianism since it amounts to the choice between compliance or implicit deportation.

It is indeed the very existence of the state (nation, etc.) and its unsubstantiated claim on a geographical location that nullifies actual and true freedom.

[Evangeline]

Even if Cuba can't harm the USA with any of the information they got from these two spies over the course of 30 years, it's still such a selfish and low character thing to do. To have a State Department security clearance and use that to get money and travel by selling information to another country, especially one that has been antagonistic towards us in the past, is IMHO so despicable.To me, it's an honor to have security clearance. And to use that to enrich yourself by spying? I'm just so thoroughly disgusted by people that do this.

[Americano]

Even if Cuba can't harm the USA with any of the information they got from these two spies over the course of 30 years, it's still such a selfish and low character thing to do. To have a State Department security clearance and use that to get money and travel by selling information to another country, especially one that has been antagonistic towards us in the past, is IMHO so despicable.To me, it's an honor to have security clearance. And to use that to enrich yourself by spying? I'm just so thoroughly disgusted by people that do this.

More disgusted than by the common occurrence of a politician elected to office who takes lobbyist money for his/her legislative vote?

[The Drunk Guy]

Even if Cuba can't harm the USA with any of the information they got from these two spies over the course of 30 years, it's still such a selfish and low character thing to do. To have a State Department security clearance and use that to get money and travel by selling information to another country, especially one that has been antagonistic towards us in the past, is IMHO so despicable.To me, it's an honor to have security clearance. And to use that to enrich yourself by spying? I'm just so thoroughly disgusted by people that do this.
The American government is supposed to be transparent. That's the "democratic" part of the republic. "Security clearance" sounds clandestine to me and, therefore, deplorable.

I would sell "state secrets" in a heart beat for a box Monte Cristo churchills every month or so. ;)

[Americano]

The American government is supposed to be transparent. That's the "democratic" part of the republic. "Security clearance" sounds clandestine to me and, therefore, deplorable.

I would sell "state secrets" in a heart beat for a box Monte Cristo churchills every month or so. ;)

How about a weekly box of Hav-A-Tampas?

[Michael]

I would sell "state secrets" in a heart beat for a box Monte Cristo churchills every month or so. ;)

How about a weekly box of Hav-A-Tampas?

They sell these products at our corner stores (many corner variety stores have actual 'humidor' cabinets). :D

[Americano]

They sell these products at our corner stores (many corner variety stores have actual 'humidor' cabinets). :D

My retort (Hav-A-Tampa) was a take-off on the old story where a man asks a woman if she'll have sex with him for a million dollars. She replies yes and he asks if she'll do it for $100. She's offended and asks what does he think she is. He replies that's been determined and now they're haggling about price.

[Michael]

My retort (Hav-A-Tampa) was a take-off on the old story where a man asks a woman if she'll have sex with him for a million dollars. She replies yes and he asks if she'll do it for $100. She's offended and asks what does he think she is. He replies that's been determined and now they're haggling about price.
:lol:

I took to be some brand of Cuban cigar. :D

[Birdzeye]

I don't have any issues with the act of treason, but with the concept itself. It implies totalitarianism. I can't see any reason why it would be mandatory, in fact legally enforced, for everyone that happens to be born in a certain region to have to adhere to the ideology that happens to be in the majority, or merely in power, at that time in that region.

Some people have tried to pin the "traitor" label on others whose ideology is different from their own. I saw some of that in forum discussions about the war in Iraq during the Bush years. I got pretty peeved at people for insinuating, or saying outright, that my opposition to the war was a form of treason.

However, passing on state secrets is a whole different matter from disagreeing with the country's leadership.

[Birdzeye]

Is there something seriously wrong with the security clearance procedures that this guy got a top level security clearance?

[Michael]

Some people have tried to pin the "traitor" label on others whose ideology is different from their own. I saw some of that in forum discussions about the war in Iraq during the Bush years. I got pretty peeved at people for insinuating, or saying outright, that my opposition to the war was a form of treason.
I remember that period well. Back in 2003 it was considered "anti-American" by the US media to criticize Bush or Bush Admin policy.

Those were ugly days and I fear they are not entirely in the past.

[Americano]

I remember that period well. Back in 2003 it was considered "anti-American" by the US media to criticize Bush or Bush Admin policy.

Those were ugly days and I fear they are not entirely in the past.

My most vivid memory of forum politics was being banned from a technical forum by the neocon fundie owner due to my outspoken criticism of Bush invading Iraq in the off-topic forum.

Being told by other posters to 'love it or leave it (the US)' regarding US intervention in Iraq on political forums was almost standard rhetoric.

[Birdzeye]

My most vivid memory of forum politics was being banned from a technical forum by the neocon fundie owner due to my outspoken criticism of Bush invading Iraq in the off-topic forum.

Being told by other posters to 'love it or leave it (the US)' regarding US intervention in Iraq on political forums was almost standard rhetoric.

I got banned from one forum by a neocon mod for dissing Bush, and on other occasions, in other forums, had my patriotism called into question for openly saying that I opposed the war in Iraq.

Things were indeed quite ugly at times.

[The Drunk Guy]

Being told by other posters to 'love it or leave it (the US)' regarding US intervention in Iraq on political forums was almost standard rhetoric.
:lol: I vaguely remember replying to someone that I would happily move if they chose to donate the funds for me to do so over on USPO. Ah, good times. :drink:

[Americano]

:lol: I vaguely remember replying to someone that I would happily move if they chose to donate the funds for me to do so over on USPO. Ah, good times. :drink:

Once the blind patriots discovered it sounds like both of us were disgusted to a throw-up in your face level with US leadership policy in their opinions we became instant pond scum for the Christian eternity.

[Evangeline]

More disgusted than by the common occurrence of a politician elected to office who takes lobbyist money for his/her legislative vote?

Disgusted in a different way. But equally disgusted.

[Evangeline]

The American government is supposed to be transparent. That's the "democratic" part of the republic. "Security clearance" sounds clandestine to me and, therefore, deplorable.

I would sell "state secrets" in a heart beat for a box Monte Cristo churchills every month or so. ;)

Well hopefully they don't give drunk guys security clearance. ;)

[Evangeline]

Is there something seriously wrong with the security clearance procedures that this guy got a top level security clearance?

Seriously! 30 years even!

[The Drunk Guy]

Well hopefully they don't give drunk guys security clearance. ;)
Ha! I'll just tell them I'm a Kennedy. ;)