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Ana Montes, who is regarded as "one of the most damaging spies," has been released from a prison in Texas. Montes, now 65, worked for the US Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, as the top analyst on Cuba during the Cold War. Washington knew her as the "Queen of Cuba" for her insights into Fidel Castro's communist regime.

Far-left Portland city councilwoman accused of stolen valor after military record questioned A recent poll showed that 49 percent of likely voters said they’d vote for Gonzalez, a lawyer, and technology business owner, compared to 22 percent for Hardesty, an anti-police, pro-Antifa, one-term incumbent. In a city council meeting on Thursday, far-left Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who is running for reelection, was accused of stolen valor. Hardesty has also called on her challenger Rene Gonzalez to "denounce" The Post Millennial’s editor-at-large Andy Ngo for his coverage of her. The official Twitter account for Hardesty’s re-election posted on Thursday...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States offered to let a convicted Cuban spy return home in exchange for the release of an imprisoned American, but Cuba rebuffed the offer, U.S. officials said. The U.S. also indicated it would be willing to address other Cuban grievances after Havana had released imprisoned contractor Alan Gross, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitivity of the issue. Cuba rejected the offer, noting that the Cuban, Rene Gonzalez, already had served most of his sentence. It wanted pardons for at least some of the four other Cubans convicted with...

HAVANA (AP) — The first member of a Cuban spy ring to walk free from prison in the United States thanked islanders Friday for their support during his 13 years behind bars and vowed to keep pushing for the release of the other four. Rene Gonzalez, a 55-year-old dual U.S.-Cuban citizen who left a federal lockup in the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 7, spoke through a home video that was broadcast and rebroadcast on Cuban state television and government-run websites. "It is truly difficult to address people who are so loved and who you feel a part of through a...

ATLANTA - Five men convicted in Miami for being unregistered Cuban intelligence agents are not entitled to a new trial, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The five argued on appeal that pervasive community prejudice against the Cuban government and publicity surrounding the case prevented them from receiving a fair trial. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit threw out all the convictions last August, ruling that pretrial publicity combined with pervasive anti-Castro feeling in Miami didn't allow for a fair trial. The government asked the full appeals court to reconsider. The entire 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with...

In April, one week after the former professional football player died in combat, The Daily Collegian, at the University of Massachussetts at Amherst published a graduate student's opinion article under the headline "Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him."By the time the smoke cleared, the paper's web site had crashed under the crush of angry e-mail messages, UMass' president was demanding an apology to Cpl. Tillman's family, and the author Rene Gonzalez - well known on campus for his political views - was receiving death threats.Cpl. Tillman had been lauded for walking away last...

Pat Tillman project

A recent editorial in the University of Massachusetts’ The Daily Collegian exemplifies the great spiritual deficit that has struck many of the youth in our nation. A graduate student named Rene Gonzalez felt it necessary not only to analyze the outpouring of sympathy that has followed Pat Tillman’s death -- perhaps a legitimate exercise if done tastefully -- but also took it upon himself to castigate Tillman as nothing more than a “G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him,” who “should be used as a poster boy for the dangerous consequences of too much 'America is #1',...

Former Arizona Cardinals football player Pat Tillman was an inspiration for almost all Americans. Even on campus, Tillman's death in Afghanistan caused a good deal of grief, soul-searching and pride in our fighting men and women. But not everyone on campus was pro-Tillman. According to University of Massachusetts graduate student Rene Gonzalez, Tillman was a "pendejo," idiot, who died "in vain." In an opinion piece published in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Daily Collegian, Gonzalez wrote: "This was a 'G.I. Joe' guy who got what was coming to him. That was not heroism, it was prophetic idiocy. ... He was acting...

There are two kinds of Americans in this generation. Former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman was one kind; he fully earned the title of American with his life and earned the distinction of hero with his death. Tillman spilt his blood after a gun battle with terrorist fighters along a distant road in Afghanistan. We need only read the vitriol of Pat Tillman's enemies at home to understand that this generation is deeply, intensively divided. In college newspapers and youthful Left-wing internet sites, Pat Tillman is no hero, but a "dumb jock," "Rambo," "baby killer," and an "idiot"...

<p>May 1, 2004 -- A college student called NFL star and war hero Pat Tillman an "idiot" who "got what he deserved," and now he's getting payback.</p> <p>Rene Gonzalez wrote the vicious piece in the University of Massachusetts paper, The Daily Collegian, just after Tillman was killed in action in Afghanistan.</p>

UMass student hiding after death threats Friday, April 30, 2004 By JENNIFER PICARD jpicard@repub.com AMHERST - A University of Massachusetts student is in hiding after reportedly receiving death threats stemming from a column he wrote in Wednesday's Daily Collegian. Rene L. Gonzalez's column in the campus newspaper portrayed former National Football League player Pat Tillman, killed in battle last week, as "an idiot" for leaving football to join the Army Rangers. Gonzalez's column said Tillman was not a hero but a fool for joining the elite Rangers and, consequently, getting shot and killed April 22 in Afghanistan. The column has...

SELF-SERVING PUFFERY [Jonah Goldberg] The Daily Collegian is defending its decision to run the "Pat Tillman got what he deserved" piece by hiding behind the skirt of the First Amendment: Rene Gonzalez is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts who occasionally submits columns to The Collegian. While his views in no way reflect the opinion of our editorial board or staff, we base our decisions not on whether we agree with the opinion of students submitting opinion pieces, but on the backbone of journalism: The First Amendment. As a news organization, The Collegian lists the First Amendment as...

When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected. I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo...