Montes was educated at the University of Virginia and has a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University.
''She doesn't fit the profile,'' said the U.S. investigator. ``She wasn't flashy.''
She held a low-level job handling freedom of information requests at the Department of Justice from 1979 until 1985, where she obtained a security clearance.
Her recruitment may have occurred in New York City, the investigator said, where the Cuban mission to the United Nations handles intelligence matters.
She entered the DIA as an intelligence research specialist and rose to become a senior analyst on Cuba in 1992. She refused ''promotion and career advancement opportunities'' at DIA in order to keep her hands on valuable intelligence on Cuba, the indictment said.
She traveled to Cuba at least four times while working at DIA, according to a still-secret court document, and handled information deemed ''secret'' and ``top secret.''
Her recruitment, when she was in her late 20s and still a graduate student, and her climb to senior ranks of the DIA, where she helped draft a 1999 finding that Cuba no longer presents a military threat to the United States, revealed the meticulous tradecraft of Cuban intelligence in directing her, experts said. Still unanswered is how she could have remained undetected so long as a spy in the DIA.
After the arrest last year of FBI Robert Hanssen -- who gave intelligence to the Soviet Union, and Russia, while running U.S. counter-intelligence operations at the bureau -- FBI investigators were chagrined to learn that he had never been given a polygraph test.
The FBI is now seeking about $7 million from Congress to hire more polygraph test experts, and require every FBI employee granted a security clearance to take one.
Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Montes' ''traitorous act'' shows that Cuba remains a threat to U.S. citizens.
''The very fact that sensitive national security information belonging to the United States was compromised is an indication of Fidel Castro's continuing desire to undermine the U.S. government and the security of our people,'' Graham said. [End Excerpt]