
Queen of Cuba
An FBI Agent's Insider Account of the Spy Who Evaded Detection for 17 Years
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Narrated by:
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George Newbern
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Written by:
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Peter J. Lapp
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Kelly Kennedy - contributor
About this listen
As a spy prepared to give away America’s biggest secrets after the 9/11 attacks, an FBI agent raced to catch her.
US government officials knew they had a spy. But it never occurred to them it was a woman—and certainly not a superstar Defense Intelligence Agency employee known as “the Queen of Cuba.”
Ana Montes had spent seventeen years spying for the Cubans. She had been raised in a patriotic Puerto Rican household: Her father, a psychiatrist, was a former colonel in the US Army. Her sister worked as a translator for the FBI and helped break up a ring of Cuban spies in Miami. Her brother was also a loyal FBI agent.
Montes impressed her bosses but in secret spent her breaks memorizing top-secret documents before sending them to the Cuban government. She received no payment, even as one of her missives could have brought her the death penalty.
She also listened to anxiety-relief tapes, took medication, and saw a psychiatrist. She dreamed of a normal life where she could work a job she enjoyed. She dreamed of getting married, and even had a man in mind: a defense analyst on the Cuba account for Southern Command. He had no idea that, three times a week, Montes pulled a short-wave radio from her closet and received encrypted messages from Cuba.
After the 9/11 attacks, Cuba wanted Montes to continue her work. They couldn’t know the FBI was already on to her. Retired FBI agent Peter J. Lapp explains the clues—including never-released information—that led their team to catch one of the United States’ most dangerous spies.
©2023 Peter J. Lapp (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingYou may also enjoy...
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What listeners say about Queen of Cuba
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Cindy
- 2024-04-02
Great story, great narrator
A wonderful account of a long hunt for an American spy. The narrator is fabulous and really brings the story to life. I hope the author brings more of these stories to light.
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Overall
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- annette
- 2024-04-22
didn’t need to know the author’s story too
although this is an interesting story about a spy, the author can’t resist making it about himself as well. As the story continued, this became burdensome and boring - it didn’t contribute. The author was doing his job when he drilled down to uncover the spy.
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