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tv   Declassified  CNN  November 18, 2023 8:00pm-9:01pm PST

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to c capture sadaddam hussssein? >> i get thatat question n m ththan any queuestion in t the . i don'n't care. i don'n't need to o see him. he is not t a relic. it w wasn't my jobob to see him.
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>> isis a former r fbi agent t chairmanan of the hohouse intetelligence committttee had overersight of a all 16 of o ou nation's's intelligegence agenc. my n name is mikike rogers.. i had d access to o classisifie infoformation gathereded by our operatatives. pepeople who r risked everytyth for ththe united s states and d families.. you don'n't know theheir facese theieir names s and you dodon't the e real s stories frorom the people whoho lived t the fear a the prpressure untntil now. >> there e was a cuban asian with access to classified infoformation leasasing our ene nation's f future at risk.k. the spspy was certainly y in ou buildiding. i ththink is thehe trail thahat me like hohow dare you. >> is a since of time because we were launching a war. our boys and girls in uniform are going to die b because youo stop them.
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>> almostst every n nation in world d spieies. most natioions in the e world'd
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fight t against ththe united states. we are thehe number 1 1 tatarge ththere are atat least 7 70 giv take 10. 1010 nations spying g on the u . if youou were to b believe that there arare probabably in excec 100,00000 foreign n agents woro inin this country ththat is not pararanoia that t is a good d g. my name e is chris simmonsns an was a carereer intelliligence officer ththe defense e intelligigence agencncy where i cocounterintelelligence ananaly for the amamericas teaeam. the e defense inintelligencece is the penentagon's intetellige apparatus.s. they arere focused o on the nanational sececurity struructu every nanation in ththe worlrld. the way y we became e enengaged ththis case,e, a woman w who le of t the fbi invnvestigationon the e initiativeve to set upup memeeting. ththe fbi explplained that w we you and yoyour team arare the b
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ththat there a are in humaman intelligigence and w we are par an f fbi spy casase ththat invo kekey but whicich had beenen d on for t three y years. wewe are f frustrated,d, can yo usus? i was s so concernrned abobout damamage that ththis mole cocou haveve inflictcted and wilill contininue to inflflict that i immedidiately calllled scott carmichaelel. he wasas head of o our investigatation siside. >> i love b being a spypy hu. i i love the chase. nothing would mamake you hapapp than for s someone to o say wel scott wewe k know espiononage i occurrining we have e thisis tw of infnformation w will you u h out? i esespecially loved w what was unsolvlved i investigatitions. those are e invevestigationsns yoyou have gooood reason t to b that espioionage is occurrining yoyou have absbsolutely nono i might be d doing it.t. the fbi i was tryingng to ident a a cuban spy y who was possssi
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the dc arerea and they knew ifi you wewere to it's's about theh bubut they hadad no idea o or w thisis person wawas or wherere person worork. wiwill that isis a problemem be what thehey were t talking abob a a possibilitity thatat there cuban agenent with c classified infoformation. cuba does s not pose a a credid mililitary threaeat to the u un stateses. the rereal danger r of cuban intetelligence operatitions is the intelligence is shared by cuba with other countries. he shares s informatioion with iran, chinina, russia a even venenezuela, nororth k korea. > what makes cububa imimpor is that t it is the e woworld's bibiggest intetelligence traffickerer. and i i say that i in the cocon of the salale of our s secrets one of t the cenentral agentnts the cuban econonomy whether r i polilitical secrcrets economomi secrcrets militatary s secrets
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countrtry has ininterest in n t united statates and cucuba, the abilility to steteal s secrets outperformrm almost evevery nat in thehe w world. ththe cucubans are s so good f seveveral reasonons. at thehe start of f the cold wa the russiaians and allll of the allies s saw the cubans as usef partnersrs that woululd not dra atattention lilike they would. ththe russssians. evevery servrvice in thehe w wo trained the cucubans. cucuba exploitited the perercep that thehey are not t a ththrea bebecause it l lowers the e cos espionage e and it gets the mor clientnts because sisituations woululd be hard d for chinesese russiaians to do cuban agegents coululd do easily.y. building a a nonstop c cases l putttting a pupuzzle togetether. the challelenge is you don't't
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whatat the puzzlzle looks lilik you dodon't know h how many pip there are.e. the fbi'i's case thehey had thr veryry distinct t pieces of f t puzzle as s they s share theiri puzzlele pieces s it turns o ou hahad the foururth puzzle e pie. that onene piece o of informati fit t perfectltly into what t t hahad just shahared and whwhen it all together r i told thehem thatat the fbi i is looking g i wrong place. becacause the e unsaid doioing threree things y you just shsha cocoupled withth the fourtrth p of the puzuzzle there e are probably 4 40 or 50 pepeople th could dodo what your u unsaid c do andnd in all likekelihood is woworking withthin the confines the dedefense inintelligencece evenen more narrrrowly the s sp momost certaininly in our buili. > what w was the i informat ththat the fbibi had? whwhat did it t show you?
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>> the informrmation that our colleaeagues sharered with u us remainins clclassified t to thi. becacause it wouould r reveal s our methodods that thehe cubana yeyet aware of. >> some of ththe methods and sysystems thatat the dia empmpl to colollect inforormation abou other r coununtries actitivitie so s sophisticatated and t that why esespionage isis so dadange bebecause if y you tell otother cocountries hehey, the uninited statates is ablele to do t this will then guarard against t tha. and of coursrse that degrarades abilility to colollect infororm that ourur war fighthters need the evevent go to o war with t cocountry and d that is a a pro. >> for mostst of the wordrdy workrked foror d di if anyonone engaging in esespionage inin th agency a and my watctch that wa affront t to me.
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i hahate that. i think k it is the e betrayal getsts me like h how dare you. >> one investstigative leave ththat the fbibi had was thahat spspying queuestion had d trava the navaval ststation at guanant?namo, cuba dururing a specifific time frame. ththat was the best t investiga leads.s. i knew people e that traveleled required p permission n to do s and ththey submit t their submisission by message e and i searchchable by keyword.d. it only y took me e moments tot submbmit my query and the syste producuced a hit f file a lists messssages aboutut 100 of f the mamatch the parametersrs of my search. so i startrted hittingng my funcnction key v very quicickly to see i if i would d recocogni nanames and d the 20th one -
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[laughter]r] how does s this so? it wasas very emototional. ththe momoment i sawaw her name knknew.
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> the e second i s saw her
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said oh. i knew that anna at that time was the queen of cuba.a. the sesenior analylyst in the e entirere u us and she e had mor invevested in ththe study ofof politicacal literaryry affairs regardining cuba t than anyonen else. honestly. her r clearance e was top-secre with accesess to specicial intetelligence.. this stutuff is so extraordrdinarily sesensitive t onlyly a handfulul of peoplele giveven access t to it. someone inin her pososition cou cacause exceptptionally grgrave damage t to our collectiveve securirity and shehe could do o in a momenent which means a a greater r possibibility that ou war fifighters whoho a are our and gigirls club will die. and that i is why ththis is not game.. i acactually wenent into shohoc. at t that moment i r realized t i amam the only y guy outsidide
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havanana that knew that ththis a major r spot. now, this s was nonot the firsr titime that i i have s seen thi name. i i hahad other interactions wi anna a and during g the course the inteteractions with her i i developed d a gut feeling ththa therere was someme wrong and sususpicious about this woman. so when i saw her name again i knew.. she was s the spy ththat they w lookoking for. fofour years earlierer in april 1996 o one of our r employees s toto me exprpressing concerns s ananna. he s said her acactions duririn specific incncident causused me grgreat concern. ladies a and gentlemenen i have just b been briefefed by the nanational sececurity advivisor the shooooting dowown today ofo
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american c civilian aiairplanes cuban mililitary airircraft. >> on februarary 24, 199696 militaryry s shutdown toto a ai opoperated by y a cuban imimmig group p called brotherers to th rescue. two civilian aircraft collated by a total of three amererican citizens w were shot down inin internatational airspapace. >> do you havave relativeves? >> our son. he w was in one e of the airplp. > it was t the murder r of americanan citizens. and in response e to the shootdown n the uniteded states governmentnt scramble e to figu out what had happened and how we might respond.. one of the firstst people that ththe pentagonon called inin as expertrt to advisese them was s montes.. and in that circumstance when the pentagon calls you in you must stay in place until you arare dismissed. it doeoesn't matteter how long.
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if you are in there for two months you stay there until our senior m military leaders s no longer h have a need foror your expertise. >> brown c called the pentagon shortly after 8 pm that ninight justst to ask ananna a question she left. and he thohought well l that is odd.d. reggie t thought thahat her act and leleaving the e pentagon e wawas suspicioious. so, ththe first ththing i did w took a a look atat our own reco. evererything thahat di has a personnel l insecuririty file.e. i reviewed our files on anna and what i found was an absolutely model employee. she had been working at dia sisince 1985 and she hadad neve committed a security violation. she rose through the rananks quicickly lived d modestly.. she was the kind of employee that supervisors hold up for
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others to emulate. so the assessmsment that s she mighght be a spy jusust didn't a lot of sense. nevertheless, , i decideded to interview her and shshe gave me great answers to most of my ququestions. then when i started d quesestio her abouout going homeme and di anybodody see you u her entirer dememeanor c changed. one e minute w we are joking a laugughing and h having a gogoo and ththe next mininute she isi scscared to death h that i knon sosomething ththat she did. and i hahad no idea a what it w. i had no i idea what w was goin but i i walked awaway from thah situation n with a g gut feelin that she wasas hiding sosome th from m me that wasas very impop to her and that gut feeling played a major role four yeaear later in s september 2 2000 100 name popopped up on n that scre.
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and so i i contactcted the fbib. i met with thehem and i totold look i havave an emploloyee who think is y your suspecect and t fbi had d additionalal data tha they were employing to measure suspects new infnformation w wh i i had not prpreviously pososs anand refer toto it as a templp. she did not match up against that template at all. the e fbi told m me that on n t basis s of this information alo i can eleliminate oror employee a sususpect in t the o obviousl a lolot of confifidence and d validity o of this n new infoformation. use it as s a trump cacard on m. from thehe time i left t the meeting g until the e time i to the elevator ridide downwnstair and i found myselflf lititerall out on the curb i knewew that ananna was at t work 3 mililes in o our heaeadquarters s buili. i i could pictcture her inin my
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eyeye because e that w woman wa my buildining pulling g this cr on my y watch placing our entir nation's f future at r risk. she e was going g to get thehe ouout of thehere. i neneeded the f fbi to makeke happen.. so what i did as i i said werer goining to persusuade the di th anna monontes was s the spy y t were l looking for. and i knew i had to attack the trump card. >> the e next morningng on a
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satuturday octoberer 14, 2000 0 could d not slsleep very w well. i wawas so u upset aboutut the card bececause what t i knew ab ananna did not matchch up agaga ththat new informatition at ala. but i i knew that shshe was the agent t they were e lolooking f. it was herer. i i never doububted my intntuit. the nenext day i spentnt most o the day y examinining the trtru card.. and i didiscover sometething. i i discoverered a pattern t th rerecognized f from sosomething i lelearned inin eighth grgrade statisticscs math class. i math i instructor r told us i you evever see thihis pattern n needed to undersrstand that the
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is i in.someone e is manipulula ththe data in n order to get th outcome yoyou are lookoking at i saw w a pattern ththat i knew could nenever occur r in a rana worlrld. it canannot happenen. it hadad to be thehe cububans. the e fbi was ususing the trtru card that t was being g manipulalated. and theyey didn't know it. and so, atat that t moment i realized t that i had d crackek trtrump card. i i wrote up an n eight pagege and the e next mornining i faxe that e eight page e memo over r the e fbi and anan hour later t guy case agent s steve mccoy, called me in the first thing he said was scott, i think we've gotten off on the wrong foot. i i think we a are going t to b working g together f for a whil and i i was relieveded. the ononly way we e were goingn bebe successfuful was to work totogether andnd it was atat th moment t that i knew that t we woululd be okay.y.
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one of t the thihings that the did d was to assigign a co-casa agagent by thehe name ofof pete. > the first t time i i he name wasas at a chchristmas pap in 2 2000 and i i knew the guyu gogotten the n name of assesess factct someoeone who migight ha matched onone of thehese cases.. i talkeded to steve e mccoy y t seninior casase agent anand i s hearar you are w working thihis. i i would loveve to work w with on this. he said yeyes sure i w would appreciatete your helplp and fr there wewe worked ththe entitir togegether. itit is importrtant to keeeep i thatat the fbibi has to prprove cases. wewe are the l lead counterintntelligence e agency the united states. the bureauau is going g to be t orgaganization t that bring g c for someonone inin and it's s a of pressssure on us s to get it
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righght knowing g that someoeon guguilty of esespionage is fundamentatally differerent tha provining that someone i is gui of espioionage. soso let's's validate e scott's that s she i is an agentnt of a foreign popower and inin fact t we arere looking f for and theh let's s try to catatch her in n act of c community e espionage.. nationalal security y letters a hugelyly importantnt tools foro fbi and d a nationalal security letter i is a letterer issued b the fbi i that compepels finina institutioions credit t institututions telelephone companies s to relinququish crcritical infnformation and on montes i is identifified as a suspect t we opened d a full investigatation on herer that alallows the o opportunityty to national s security. very sensisitive intelligegence thatat told us thahat the unknk susubject hahad purchasesed a spececific brand, mamake and mo
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computer a at a specifific peri of time e in 1996 frfrom a stor alexanandria no further r informatation. through h national security y letterers i identitified anna'a linene of creditit and frorom t knew that t she had mamake a pupurchase to compusa baback in october r so in april 200101 we servrved a natioional securirit compususa and askeked ththem we ididentify a s specific pupurch made here in o october 1996? anand they saiaid we keep p rec ththat are back k behind thehe and we only keepep them for r a fifive years.. this wasas april 2001 anand the recordrds were almlmost dedestr. so we pupulled out boxes a and ababout 20 mininutes afterer we started d the systemem manager compususa said i is this what y are lookining for and d in fact was the e purchase t that anna and d her nameme for the c comp that we could prprove the cubab
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tasksked her to o purchase b ba 191996. ththe sales rereceipt for r thi cocomputer pururchase provoved she e was in facact the spy. and so, , from aprilil 2001 i h no dououbt that shshe was a cub pipe butut the queststion was w she cucurrently spspying and c wewe catch herer in the act of community espipionage? we are gr
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computer purchase prproved that she e was in fact t the spy. anna montes s officially became the primime suspect t of the ununknown subjbject investstiga and now itit's just a a matter prproving her,r, catatching her the e act for r committingng espionage. >> we h have to getet her on f meeting somemeone uploadading inintelligencece. that i is the ultitimate thresh. coururt where ththe evidencece will cononvict a spy. soso, one of the firstst things did wawas request t physical survrveillance resouources on h. we hadad a lot to o do. the e fbi put cacameras in h he cubicle wiwith micicrophones a topper phohones and ththat sort thining. we started doingng sigignifican physical surveveillance onon mo
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identitifying her r patterns o behahavior, whatat was her r ro? >> so, wawatching annnna monte saw that shehe would leave h he homeme on sundays s at a precis timeme, go to ththe local memet on go o several stops, g get of walk stop p at locatioions wait seseconds go somewhehere else weightht 90 secondnds very methodicalal. things thahat a normalal person doesn't. so from ththis trade s standpoi you knknew somethihing was afoo. and her shoes seseemingly came untieded and she stoppeded to t but was s she really t tying he shshoe or was s she doing g cou survrveillance o or signalaling somemeone? overer the next t several momon ththe surveillllance team m tol we got a pattern. she is leaving work at particular times she is following a route here is the roroute she isis going i into drugugstores. but shshe doesn't come out with bag. so what is she doing in the stores? it turns o out she wasas using
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payphones.s. >> not t too long agogo we had paypyphones evererywhere andnd payphohones was nonot suspicioi but when you h have a cellll p anand you haveve a home phphone when you h have phphones at yoy office t the fact t that you g couplele blocks ofoff your n no route e to and frorom home to o payphonene that is suspicious. >> once we did the legal paperwork to get the rececord fromom the payphone wewe sawaw shshe was cacalling pagegers in york c city and those particicu nunumbers we k knew were assoco with cubanan espspionage. our suspicions were that she was punchihing in codedes three four d digits so we knew she wa communicating with a pager. she was sending signals. that told us she was still activeve. >> soso, we s saw her making a of these payphphone calls s the
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timing of which corresponded with encrypted high-frequency message bebeing transmsmitted t the dcdc area fromom cububa. even b before montntes was identifieded as a suspecect we the cucubans were e commununica to theirir agent viaia high-f-frequency messages s tha wowould have b been pickeded up a shortwavave radio. the cubans would send a message on a tuesday repeat it a again twice on thursdaday twice on sasaturday. we knew ththat communinicating the cucubans via t the highgh-frequencycy messages s requirired encryptption and decrcryption discs.. so, it's's not like they werere sendining a message out in the open airir, they werere encrcry memessages that nono one else e read unlnless you had the e matctching decryryption softftw ththat the cububans gave t to t agents. in order to catch her in the act we knew we needed to get into her home.
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we knew we were trying to find these discs. she lived in a 30 tenant ownershihip buildingng so that a huhuge challenenge to get int her apartment without being detected. our surveillance of her taught us thahat she had a boyfriend a her boyfyfriend liveved out of in f florida.and h her travelil toto visit herer boyfriendnds memoririal day weeeekend 2001 g us a a long opopportunity y to usus an oppoportunity toto get her apapartment covertly. so, when we went into her apartment i was absolutely nervous. it was hot. there was no air conditioning and although it was a small two bedroom apartment there was a lolot to look k through and the risk o of getting g caught doin ththis is trememendous andnd th last thing you want to do is compromise the investigation by someone coming home too early
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or someone watering plants and we you didn't plan on doing that. we started searching her apartmenent. the first thing g we f found wa the sony shortwaveve radio in n box out in the open underneath an open window. and then w we found a toshibiba laptop computer thatat the cuba had tasked h her to purchasese. so ourur computer r experts s m copy of ththe compututer. the hard drive so that we could forensicalally analyzeze i it a what wasas on it. so, , anna montetes as she h ha receceived and s sent reportrts toto the cubanans had trieied w was on herer computer but in th deleteted space ofof her comomp wewe found a almost 11 pagages singnglespaced text inin englis and spananish anand in that t t found natitional d defense
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information ththat montes s gav the cubansns that was s classif. ththat was a h hugely succesess covevert search h but we hadad found the e didiscs. if w we could fifind the disisc the cubansns had g given her w would d be able e to read heher encrypted d messages w while sh was getting g them and t then hopepefully knowow what the e messageses were bebetween her a the cubans. >> wewe had made e a copy a an
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founund the commmmunication n b her and ththe cubans o on the cocomputer. we found t the shortwawave radi saw her r making allll these payphohone calalls. we k knew we hadad a strong g c but we felelt we had t to find ththese discs.s. we r really neededed that concr proof that took away a any shad of dououbt from m anyone t that montntes is guguilty of esespio. >> the fbfbi spspeculated that perhaps s she was kekeeping thi dadata on her r person andnd th reasason we coululdn't find d i bebecause she e was carrrrying around witith her all l the tim perhapaps in her pursese. the objectctive was toto getet purse, seaearch it andnd get th peperson back k wiwithout eieit
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oror her coworkersrs havining suspicicion thatat somethingng unusual hahad occurrrred. >> we came e up with a a pla separatete herer from the e pur. we hadad insnsider accesess to montes's's life so w what occur to us isis that we c could crea fake meeting that shshe would have to attend.. >> we gave her a major r speakingng a assignment t which that she w would be vivisible t everybybody and psycychological it wouould not looook good foro toto have a person sititting on of her m material soso we sched a brbriefing foror 9 a am. becaususe we w wanted to m make that she w would have e time to settle in n at work by 8:00 ana put heher purse ininto a d draw secure i it anand she did. >> all ththe attendeeees were the meeting attendining to do a good h hour and hahalf discusss
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of t this very i important issu. the dooror was clolosed the fbf technicacal team undnder the gu of b being a maiaintenance c cr went intnto her cubicle anand t surroundnding area to o do rout mainintenance onon the faciliti. and have accesess to her purse. >> whilile she was s at the meeting g we had a s short peri of time to g go through h her pupurse. lookoking for ththe discscs. itit was a typypical womoman's it h had cosmemetic, wallelets lot of p purse type e stuff in there soso we lookeded and we surged in n and we c could not the e discs therere. >> soso, we cououldn't findnd exactltly what we e were lookik for r but wewe did find d somet. insidede anna's pupurse the fbi found a sheet wiwith a matririx whicich was crypypto materiaial
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anna employed when she commmmunicated w with the cucub papagers and t that's exacactly we were e for to d determine wh the memessage was s between heh cuban intelligigence. >> once w we have thohose code was sisimply a matatter of goio a phonone, p punching inin the sasame code and then we e would jujust match i it against t tht messagages that hahad been sent would d be sent t in the fututu knowow exactly w what she wawas tellining new york. it told usus that t she did non perceiveve herself i in danger it w was settingng up fututure meetetings to memeet with heher officecer or spy h handler whih was s every secocond w week. if w we could geget her meeteti with the s spy h handler we e k could get t her coconvicted ana heher imimprisoned.. she hahad the potetential toto of a america's most dangngerous spy.
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will. >> i was s sending bibilly sit in my bosssses office e a mile the e pepentagon whehen 9/11 ococcurred. we riviveted to ththe televivis screen.. we undererstood thisis was a teterrorist atattack and i it w significicant. i sasat in therere for anothere minunutes or so o and i saw w a of smokeke to my rigight and th puff o of smoke persrsisted and then tururned gray and beganan billllow in the e news coverage came outut about an n aircraftf hittining the pentntagon. i i didn't seeee the impact t b knknew what wawas happening.g. we had j just crossesed a ththr and the united states of america a was going g to formul someme sorort of a r response t woululd require e the assisista and d support ofof the defefens intetelligence agencncy.
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>> inin the afterermath of 9/1 dia assembmbled a tasksk fororc the pentntagon's fororthcoming operationsns in afghghanistan a montntes wasas one chosesen to the task forcece. >> onon saturdaday 22 septembm and d i was goining to be berea on the w war plan enenduring freeeedom the efeffort to rerem the tataliban fromom afghahanis. if annnna montes g gained acces informatioion about t our warpl shshe could gigive it to t the who o in turn woululd be happyp trtrade that infnformation o or simplyly share thahat informrma wiwith our adverersaries. popossibly incncluding thehe ta and inin that evenent all of o planans that we e executed d du ththe operatioion freedom m wou hahave been known to t the enem. i knew that our investigation with a anna was coming t to an . we r really wawanted to cacatch in the actct of espiononage wit her hahandler who o was handlin
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and receivining the classififie informatioion that we e knew th it was t too much risk andnd potentiaial damage to keep her dia at such a sensitive time when we were launching a war. it was timime to arresest monte for conspiraracy to commit espionage.
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peoplele who commimit espipiona
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placing g our r collectiveve se at risk. our boys and girlsls in uniform fighting for us are going g to e because sosomeone stababbed the ththe back.. that's whahat esespionage is, ,. that's's why guys s like me wor hahard to findnd these people. huntining for spies is hununtinr a ghost inin the fog. you hahave to believe they're therere, and youou have toto ha drdrive to keep lookoking. ♪

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