PIC No. 36:
• Title: Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy
• Author: Jim Popkin
• Publisher: Hanover Square Press (Jan. 3, 2023, 352 pages)
• Management Bucket #17 of 20: The Operations Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 36 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy!
For my sixth grade class graduation keepsake program, every student was required to go on the record with their career plans. Easy! I had just read a book about the FBI. I wanted to be a G-Man and go after all the bad guys.
Little did I know back then that there were also bad girls! Yikes! You must read this alarming true story (that few know about) of Ana Montes. I’ll give you three options for this remarkable book:
[ ] OPTION #1: Read this page-turning “True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy.”
[ ] OPTION #2. View the video interviews with Jim Popkin, the author and Emmy-winning former senior investigative producer at NBC News.
[ ] OPTION #3. Wait for the movie! (We hope.)
Malcolm Gladwell whetted my interest in this true spy story in his chapter, “The Queen of Cuba,” in the 2019 book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know. He writes, “The issue with spies is not that there is something brilliant about them. It is that there is something wrong with us.” Then I read this Wall Street Journal piece.
Code Name Blue Wren (the FBI named the case) is 352 robust pages. I was stunned, but saddened, when I read the last page. I even devoured the fascinating “Author’s Note” at the end (seven pages). Stunned—to read how the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA did not realize that the DIA’s “Queen of Cuba” (a senior analyst) was a double agent—and a woman! She worked nights and weekends for Cuba—using her remarkable memory to avoid any missteps.
Saddened, frankly, that the book ended. I could have read another 300 pages—it’s that gripping and (did I mention?) page-turning. (Ask my wife—I read dozens and dozens of pages to her.) But I was also saddened to reflect on the loneliness, anxiety, and misappropriated loyalties of one of our top government employees—who had also received numerous awards for meritorious service to our nation. Really?
You can read your own spoiler alerts—or view the videos. For now, just take my TRUE OR FALSE test:
True or False #1. “Ana and Marta were enrolled in a master class in spycraft taught by some of the best in the business [Cuban intelligence], who in turn had been trained by the Soviets.”
True or False #2. “In just a few short years after deciding to spy for Cuba, Ana now had four close relatives in the storied FBI.” (Her brother and his wife, and her sister and her husband—all worked for the FBI! They had no clue about Ana—or her stunning ability to memorize top secret intelligence info.)
T or F #3. “Ana had access to an almost unlimited smorgasbord of secrets prepared by the US Intelligence Community.” Plus, “She is estimated to have read tens of thousands, or perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of classified intelligence memos in her nearly seventeen-year career.”
T or F #4. “As Ana fed ever-more valuable intelligence to Cuba, America’s spymasters could not have been more oblivious. Or appreciative of her cover work.”
T or F #5. “The congratulations reached an absurd peak in 1997, when the Director of Central Intelligence awarded Ana with the National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction. Within the spy community, there are few higher honors…”
T or F #6. According to the author’s research:
• “From 1947 to 1979, only 5 percent of all American spies caught in the U.S. were women…”
• “That figure increased in the 1980s to 12 percent.”
• “From 1990 to 2015, just 9 percent of all American spies were women.”
T or F #7. When Ana was debriefed following her arrest in 2001, just 10 days after 9/11, the CIA analysts concluded that she “had narcissistic and antisocial personality traits that are commonly found in spies.”
T or F #8. On Jan. 8, 2023, Ana Montes was released from prison. She “spent 21 years, three months, and 19 days behind bars. That’s a generous reduction of her 25-year sentence, nearly four years off for good behavior.” (Note: Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who was also arrested for espionage in 2001, received a life sentence.)
T or F #9. One NSA employee, in particular, pushed and pushed for other agencies to investigate Ana Montes—with little result, until this NSA employee did a workaround that could have landed her in jail. Her view of the FBI? “She thought the Bureau was just a bunch of dweebs. She was not impressed.”
T or F #10. How did Ana Montes get hired? “DIA’s security failings were remarkable.” The author adds, “Even more disturbing, DIA’s investigators missed two blatant lies that Ana told during her application process.” (Note: Technically, at the time, she did not have a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies—due to unpaid tuition—but the DIA never checked. Stunning!)
ANSWERS: TRUE OR FALSE? Las diez declaraciones, lamentablemente, son ciertas.
VIDEO (30 minutes): Author Jim Popkin is interviewed on Washington Post Live on Jan. 5, 2023. View here.
VIDEO (59 minutes): Pete Williams, the former NBC News journalist interviews Jim Popkin, author of Code Name Blue Wren, on Jan. 9, 2023, at the Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. (includes audience Q&A). View here.
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Operations Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.
[ ] Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Read my review.)
[ ] Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre. (Read my review.)
[ ] Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy, by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel. (Read my review.)
[ ] Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It, by Kenneth L. Higbee. (Order from Amazon.) Note: After Ana Montes’ arrest, the FBI found this book in her personal library. (Read Code Name Blue Wren to learn why that is so relevant.)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy, by Jim Popkin. Listen on Libro (10 hours, 24 minutes). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
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