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I did not anticipate when I traveled
to Cuba for research in March 2006 that the trip would be of
interest or concern to the FBI. The purpose of my trip was both
transparent and legal. As a full time graduate student conducting
research for my thesis, and directly related to my program of
study, I'm legally authorized to travel to Cuba under the existing
travel restrictions placed on United States Citizens prohibiting
their travel to and from Cuba.
In light of the legality of
travels, I assumed the call was a prank when a woman claiming
to be from the FBI telephoned me at American University in Washington,
DC in May 2006. Offering to call her back, I guessed that the
number was likely to belong to Chinese take-out restaurant. In
fact it was the number for the main FBI switchboard where they
quickly connected me to Special Agent Alexandra Montiga. She
was warm and friendly, saying she'd like to meet with me regarding
my work and travel to Cuba. "This is standard," she
claimed. "Something we do with everyone who travels to Cuba."
I've traveled to Cuba several
times over the past four years and never heard anything about
this. People I know travel to Cuba all the time, and are rarely
if ever contacted by the FBI. This is not a "standard"
I was aware of.
During a second conversation,
the FBI agent asked me why I was hesitant to talk with her, and
said that this was "very low-key" and "no big
deal," she just wanted to ask me some questions about Cuba.
She offered to take me out for lunch or dinner at a restaurant
of my choice, stressing repeatedly that this was "informal"
and "just the two of us meeting for lunch."
During our third conversation
the following day, I told the agent I didn't feel comfortable
meeting with her without first discussing it with university
officials and having a third party present. She asked who I had
been talking to about this. Could I give her specific names?
I declined.
The FBI agent acted personally
offended, claiming I was making things more complicated than
they needed to be by involving people from my university.
I responded that since I was
contacted on campus, regarding my travel to Cuba on the university's
license, and being asked questions about other university faculty,
I felt obligated to let the university know what was going on.
I said I would be happy to cooperate, but would like more specific
information on exactly why she wanted to talk to me and what
she wanted to talk about.
The agent said she'd rather
not go into it over the phone, but that basically, she wanted
to help me. She informed me that the Cuban government had been
known to target "certain types" of academics, and she'd
like to warn me about things to watch out for, and find out from
me if I had experienced any of the "targeting activities"
while working in and on Cuba. She told me the meeting was "preventative"
so I'd know what to look out for. She assured me, the meeting
would be of more use to me, than her or the FBI. She said the
FBI did this with all students traveling to Cuba. Again, this
was news to me, and all the other people I know who travel frequently
to Cuba.
I was encouraged by university
officials to be cooperative and meet with the FBI, but with a
lawyer from the university present and not down at the FBI offices,
as had been requested. It turned out that the "informal"
lunch invitation I received from Alexandra (just call me Alex),
to "chat about Cuba," wasn't extended to a third party.
I received a call from Special Agent Montiga (no longer so friendly),
confirming that she and her boss in the Counter Intelligence
Unit, would meet with me in a conference room at the university
with an attorney present.
What Agent Montiga claimed
over and over again was just a talk between the two of us "more
as friends really," to give me information, and help me
out, quickly turned into two and a half hours of mostly being
questioned by her boss, Fred Buckley. Special Agent Buckley,
they made sure to tell me a number of times throughout the conversation,
had been involved in the investigation and eventual prosecution
of Ana Belen Montes, a Cuban spy who'd infiltrated the U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. They
didn't want to see anything like that happen to me, they claimed.
Not that they were suspecting me of anything, they just wanted
to warn me what my work on Cuba could lead to if I wasn't careful
about who I worked with. The agents told me that students like
myself, were exactly what the Cuban government was looking for.
They gave me a detailed step
by step account of how a "recruitment effort" takes
place between Cuban officials and cooperative or "sympathetic"
American citizens. An agent might befriend me for example, maybe
ask me out for lunch, or offer to take me to a restaurant of
my choice, very "low-key" of course. Then the Cuban
Intelligence agent would ask me seemingly innocent questions
about my work in Cuba, to try to get a feel for my views and
contacts. The Cuban official would try to play things off, they
claimed, as though they were just trying to be my friend, trying
to help me out and give me information.
"Has any of this happened to you or anyone you know?"
they asked.
The early warning signs they
claimed would help me "spot a recruitment effort" by
the Cuban government, had been followed almost exactly by Special
Agent Alexandra Montiga, during our initial conversations over
the phone. Other than that potential "recruitment effort"
or "targeting," no, nothing like that had ever happened
to me before.
Their questions continued, ranging from the very basic to the
more personal.
Could this be called a "fishing
operation"?
Why do I go to Cuba?
How do I get there?
Who first got me interested
in Cuba?
What are their names?
Who do I stay with when I'm
there?
Am I followed or monitored?
Who is responsible for me in
Cuba? Who do I report to?
Do I meet with members of the
Cuban government?
Have I ever met Fidel Castro?
Would I like to?
How much contact do I have
with the people at the Cuban Interest Section in DC?
Do I ever see them outside
of the Interest Section, or invite them to campus?
What are their names?
Do I recognize any of the photos
they have of Cuban Intelligence agents operating in DC and Havana?
Do other professors on campus
work on Cuba?
Do they meet with people in
the Cuban government?
What are their names?
Before the meeting ended they
gave me a binder containing information on Cuban counterintelligence
operations, articles on people convicted of spying for the Cuban
government, the recruitment process used by Cuban intelligence,
and a list of "helpful sources" for further reading
about the "terrorist activities" conducted by Cuba
targeting the United States.
In a final attempt to get names
of people I was "involved with" who also do Cuba work,
Agent Montiga, reiterated how "low-key" this was, and
that she didn't see why it was "such a big deal" for
me to give them names, and that other students she'd spoken to
had been significantly more helpful than I. I apologized but
still refused to provide names without knowing the reason I was
being asked. Regardless of this fact, they thanked me for my
time, said to contact them if I remembered anything I might want
to tell them in case something had "slipped" my mind,
and that they would be in touch.
This was my first encounter
with the FBI since I started focusing on Cuba several years ago.
I assume it won't be my last. I promise though, that it will
be both the first and the last time I allow myself to be intimidated
into staying quiet and being "cooperative" when my
civil liberties are so blatantly challenged.
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