Ex-State Department Official and Wife Accused of Espionage
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The FBI has arrested a former State Department analyst and his wife on suspicion of spying for the Cuban government, Reuters reports.
Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, collaborated to pass secret information to Fidel Castro’s Communist government, according to Department of Justice officials.
As far back as 1979, before Myers began working at the State Department, the Cuban government recruited the couple. He eventually became a senior intelligence analyst whose work focused largely on European affairs, and used his Top Secret security clearance to obtain a variety of documents for the Cuban government.
Gwendolyn Myers, meanwhile, was primarily involved in the process of actually passing the information to Cuban operatives. The couple operated a shortwave radio in their Washington, D.C. apartment for the purpose of communicating with their handlers.
The Huffington Post reports that Walter and Gwendolyn Myers are being charged with wire fraud, serving as illegal agents of a foreign government, and conspiracy, if found guilty on all counts, the couple could serve as many as 35 years in prison.
The Cuban government has not commented on the charges as of yet. The Obama administration recently suggested that it is considering a more open relationship with the island nation.
