The buzzing courtroom grew fly quiet as Judge Walton entered at 10:14 a.m. The final moments of this three-year drama were about to come to an end. The Deputy Clerk announced, “Criminal Action Number 09-150, United States of America versus Walter Myers and Gwendolyn Myers.”
The prosecution was first up, and after sharing the pro forma salutation with Judge Walton, the Myerses’ attorney Thomas Green asked for and was granted an eleven-minute recess to address an administrative issue.
When the court reconvened, AUSA Michael Harvey reduced the case to its simplest terms. Starting off with Gwendolyn, he said, “[S]he did it all for thirty years. She feels no remorse about what she did or the harm that she caused to the United States. She, like her husband, is shameless.”
Green saw things differently. He said, “If Your Honor please, we have set forth all the factors, which should inform Your Honor in consideration of the sentence to be imposed on Mrs. Myers in our various submissions, and we have discussed those at length, and so I will not belabor the record with a complete recitation of all of that. But there are certain significant things that need to be said.”
“With respect to the cooperation that was provided to the United States by Mrs. Myers,” he continued, “and for that matter Mr. Myers, when they were apprehended, there was no attempt to deny what they had done, or for that matter to try to avoid the consequences of that….
“They ultimately decided to enter into a plea agreement, save the government the burden of a trial, which in turn, was a process that I think was as protective of National Security as they could be under the circumstances. And what they bargained for basically, the two of them, in return for all of that cooperation, and I should add that that cooperation has been undertaken over hundreds of hours of debriefings with numerous agencies, often at a great personal burden to my clients because of the process associated with bringing them to and from such sessions.”
I almost laughed out loud at this point. I was one of the officers involved in some of the debriefings that took place in WFO. Kendall was very happy to get out of the DC Jail general lock-up, where he was held along with murderers and other violent offenders. As Kendall told me at one point, “There are some real bad people in my jail who want to hurt me.” I always made sure he had a cup of coffee to start the debriefings and, at his request, I bought him a hot pastrami sandwich and carrot cake for lunch (out of my own pocket) from the Market deli around the corner from WFO. He enjoyed every minute of “his burden,” and it is all recorded on video for posterity.
“At this point, I would like to tell you, sir, that Mr. Myers, Kendall Myers, wishes to allocute on behalf of himself and his wife. And I think that before you impose sentence on Mrs. Myers, I would ask that you permit him to provide to the Court those remarks.”
Judge Walton asked, “Does she desire to speak?”
Green responded, “She would ask that her husband speak on her behalf and basically on behalf of both of them. But because you’re going to sentence her first, perhaps—I’m not sure if you’re going to sentence her right now or wait until we move to Kendall. But if you are, I would like you to have the benefit of those remarks.”
Judge Walton said, “Very well.”
“Can they stand together here before you?” Green asked.
“Yes.”
At that point, Judge Walton asked Kendall and Gwendolyn to stand up and approach the bench at the podium, center stage. Kendall appeared chipper as he moved to the lectern as if pleased to be in court with the opportunity to talk. As he stood next to his wife, he faced a stern-looking Judge Walton and spoke for about fifteen minutes.
He commenced by saying: “Good morning, Your Honor. I am Walter Kendall Myers, and this is my wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers. I would like to make a few brief remarks, remarks that will cover our motivation, our relationship, education, and incarceration. First, our motivation. In signing our plea agreement last November, we acknowledged our guilt on the charges brought against us by the government. We wish to add today that we acted as we did for thirty years because of our ideas and beliefs. We did not seek nor receive payment for our work.”
His explanation that followed was simple. “We did not act out of anger toward the United States or from any thought of anti-Americanism. We did not intend to hurt any individual American. We share the ideals and dreams of the Cuban revolution. We are equally committed to helping the struggling people of the world.”
Listening to Kendall, I had the impression that he was on a self-imposed mission to level the international playing field for Castro against the mighty America. According to Kendall, “The Cuban people feel threatened” by the US, and Castro had “good reason to feel threatened.” Kendall continued his statement to the Court. “There are currently people residing in Miami who carried out brutal terrorist acts against Cuba, including the bombing of a Cuban airliner with the loss of seventy-five people. They have maintained an embargo since 1961 to the present. From a Cuban perspective, there is a great deal to fear from the US. On the US side, that’s been noted. Cuba and the US have a longstanding relation of hostility, of mutual misunderstanding, of mutual fear of each other. Part of our motivation was to help alleviate some of those fears, to report as accurately and fairly and objectively as I could about what I thought US policy was. But it was also designed to help protect Cuba, to warn Cuba, to try to assess the nature of the threat to Cuba. This is what I was referring to.”
Judge Walton interrupted Kendall to ask, “At the expense of your government?”
Standing ram-rod straight, Kendall replied: “I find that hard to answer, Your Honor, only because I believe that anyone who feels as I do that the Cuban people and the Cuban revolution deserve their chance to fail or succeed and should not be threatened, should not be treated to constant bombardment of propaganda and hostile acts—that did require me to act illegally in terms of US law. I’m perfectly prepared to acknowledge, as I have already in signing the plea agreement, that I acted illegally in terms of US law. And I did so, as I’ve said in my statement, with an overriding objective of helping protect the Cuban people.”
At one point, I noticed Judge Walton glance up at the courtroom ceiling for a good fifteen seconds before returning his stare to the two defendants.
The only time Kendall’s voice broke during his dissertation was when he talked about his love for Gwendolyn. I knew, on that point, he was absolutely telling the truth. When he was finished, Kendall and Gwendolyn walked back to the defense table and sat down. Their family members, sitting in the front row, had tears in their eyes.
Judge Walton motioned to the prosecution and stated that he was now prepared to hear the government allocution regarding Mr. Myers.
AUSA Harvey walked up to the lectern just vacated by the Myerses and placed papers in front of him before he started his rebuttal. “Thank you, Your Honor. Well, from the government’s perspective, Your Honor, there’s just no polite way to describe Kendall Myers’s crimes against the United States. He’s a traitor. He betrayed his colleagues at the State Department, he betrayed the United States government who trusted him with their secrets, with its secrets, and he betrayed our nation. As you just heard, he feels no remorse at all for what he did. He will not even acknowledge the harm that he caused to the United States.”
A little later on, AUSA Harvey scored an important point when he noted that after Kendall retired from the State Department, he did not choose to live in the people’s paradise of Cuba. As AUSA Harvey explained, “While Kendall may have admired the Cuban revolution, it was always only from a safe, comfortable distance here in the United States.”
AUSA Harvey reminded the court, “Certainly the Cuban regime thought the information he provided was very valuable. For their efforts, for their services, both Gwendolyn and Kendall Myers were given medals by the Cuban intelligence service. And in 1995, the CuIS flew the Myerses to Cuba on a clandestine trip for the purpose of having a private audience with Fidel Castro himself. And th
at’s what happened. And they obviously made an impression because when they were arrested, what Fidel Castro said is that the Myerses were deserving of all the honors in the world.”
AUSA Harvey said that Kendall had told the FBI undercover agent (EK) that he was thinking of getting back into the spy business because “it would be fun.” He continued, “The truth is that Kendall Myers sold out the United States of America every bit as much because he thought it would be thrilling. But today, it’s finally time for him to pay the price of his treachery. He should unquestionably be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.”
AUSA Harvey concluded by asking: “I respectfully request the Court impose as part of his sentence a money judgment in the amount of $1,735,054, which reflects every cent of the salary he received from the United States government while he was, in fact, working for the Cuban regime.”
With that, AUSA Harvey rested the US government’s case. Unfortunately one cannot stand up and cheer in a courtroom.
It was time for Kendall’s and Gwendolyn’s defense team to speak on behalf of their clients.
Mr. Green commenced: “Your Honor, I stand here with a completely different posture with respect to Mr. Myers. Let me say at the outset that despite Mr. Harvey’s description of my clients and the way they led their lives, they actually led a very modest life, not an extravagant life.”
Green continued: “I do want to say that despite the profound consequences which he is about to suffer, and which he is, I say again, acutely aware, he did try diligently and with effort of recall in the course of these hundreds of hours of debriefings, all the information that was germane to the questions that were asked, thousands of questions. And he did that, in part, because of the terms of the agreement but also in recognition that it was the appropriate thing to do at that moment and stage in his life.”
As quickly as he had stood before Judge Walton, Green returned to the defense table—less than five minutes after starting. When your client pleads guilty, get out of town fast.
It was now time for Judge Walton to announce his sentence but not before he gave a few comments. With his elbows comfortably resting on the bench, and with expressive hand motions, Judge Walton told Kendall that he had a few questions for him that he did not have to answer.
“I am very troubled by this case. The United States is not a perfect nation. I, for one, have seen ancestors who were denied basic rights in this country. A great-grandfather who lived all of his life in slavery, a grandfather who was born into slavery and spent a good portion of his early life as a sharecropper making eight dollars a month and two bushels of corn, and having seen my relatives when I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, who were good workers, who worked in the steel mill, never able to rise above the level of a laborer, including my father. I have very intelligent parents, but because of the times and the attitude about race that existed at that time, the opportunity for them to go to college was not available to them.
“But despite that history, I think the United States has a lot to be proud of, something that I think neither one of you appreciates. America is not the devil that you may believe it is. And that’s not to say that America is perfect. I don’t find Cuba to be some oasis of freedom and liberty. All you need to do is look in today’s USA Today and see an article about individuals who had fortunately been released from prison in Cuba.
“So the suggestion that somehow it was pristine on the part of the two of you to harm your own country in order to try and help the Cuban people. . . . I don’t see disseminating information to the Cuban government as necessarily helping the Cuban people. I would totally agree with you; I’m sure there are some very good people in Cuba who would like to live a different type of life, but the regime in Cuba does not make that possible. And I just don’t see how improving the plight of those good people is in some way enhanced by undermining and betraying your own country. If you believed in the revolution and wanted to do the things that you said, I think the government is correct, you should have defected and you should have gone there and engaged in your life’s work in trying to help the Cuban people.
“But to betray your own country and to give over information. . . . And whenever classified information is released, whether you intend to have somebody harmed or not, once you release that information, you never know what the effect will be. And it could, in fact, result in somebody who’s involved in the intelligence community having their life taken. And unfortunately, Mr. Myers, and assume since you spoke on behalf of your wife, I see no sense of remorse. None whatsoever. You feel that your conduct was justified for reasons that are beyond my understanding. And I think, as the government says, you’re proud of the things that you did. And that’s, I think, extremely unfortunate. You are aware, you did have privileges that so many people in this country don’t have. And unfortunately you squandered those privileges at the expense of your own government.
“Obviously, in reference to your situation, you have made a decision, and I do give you credit of being honorable in this respect. And that is, that you have accepted the consequences of your behavior, which will result in you being incarcerated for life. And you did that, as I understand, with the hope that at least it would give your wife some opportunity before she departs this world to have the opportunity of being a free person again. And I would agree that there’s some level of honorability that comes with having made that sacrifice and choice.”
Judge Walton then sentenced Kendall to a period of life in prison without the possibility of ever being released. He also sustained the $1.7 million judgment in the government’s favor.
Gwendolyn received an eighty-one-month prison term. Judge Walton did recommend that the two be permitted to serve their sentences in close proximity to each other so that their family would have the opportunity to visit them.
About 11:50 a.m., the doors to Courtroom 16 opened, and the investigators and prosecution exited to shake hands in the hallway one final time. Kate and I hugged and smiled. The Myerses’ family and friends remained behind in the front row of the courtroom and talked with the unrepentant defendants and the defense team. I knew that our victory was short lived. I also knew that CuIS clandestine penetration agents still walked undetected in the halls of the State Department.
Gwendolyn was transferred to the Federal Medical Center, Carswell. Located on the grounds of the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, this facility houses more than fourteen hundred inmates and is the only medical facility for women in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system. Gwendolyn has a heart condition, so this was the only incarceration site possible. Gwendolyn’s fellow inmate is Cuban penetration agent Ana Montes. I wonder what they discuss when seated together for breakfast and dinner.
Kendall is eating his meals alone in “Supermax.” Located on thirty-seven barren and sterile acres about one hundred miles from Denver, this five hundred-bed complex was opened in 1971. Officially known as Administrative Maximum Facility Florence (ADX), it was built to house this country’s most dangerous criminals. Inmates spend twenty-three hours a day in a cell that consists of an immovable concrete bed, stool, and desk. The shower has a timer attached and the toilet will stop running if attempts are made to block it. A physically secured television screen allows inmates to watch closed-circuit religious, prison, and recreational programs. When an inmate leaves his cell for his five hours—one hour at a time—of private recreation a week, he is escorted by two or three corrections officers. Kendall’s fellow foreign intelligence penetration agent inmates include Robert Hanssen (FBI) and Harold Nicholson (CIA), whom he will never meet.
In late 2009, in a modest-sized, windowless room located on the twenty-third floor of DS headquarters, an honors ceremony was hosted by Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, where individual and group awards for distinguished service over the past six months were proudly announced. Every seat was taken, people leaned against the walls, and the main door was propped open a
s late arrivers gathered around the doorframe. Late in the program, special agents Bill Stowell and Karin Terry along with PSS supervisor Barbara Shields were called to the podium, draped on one side by the American flag and the other by the State Department flag, to accept a group Superior Honor Award for their roles in the unmasking of “Vision Quest.” The citation for the award simply read, For superior effort working with the FBI to uncover the identity of the suspect of the “Vision Quest” espionage case.
The initial nomination for the award read,
Drawing upon decades of experience, retired DS Special Agent [and now DS/ICI/CI contractor] Robert Booth carefully analyzed the known information and was able to develop a number of indicators or so called “matrix points” which formed a general outline of the yet unknown perpetrator. Remarkably, the dedicated DS team of Robert Booth, Barbara [Shields], Joseph [“Bill”] Stowell and Karin Terry were able to produce his name (Kendall Myers) from the original list of 2,000 potential people within a time frame of 30 days.
Despite many good efforts by the DS/CI division chief, my name was not included on the award since contractors are ineligible per department regulation. I readily admit that my ego was bruised, but I took strength from an old quip—“no good deed goes unpunished.”
In September 2010, Fidel Castro told the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” and Raúl Castro announced that the Cuban government would lay off at least 500,000 Cuban government workers by March 2011, hopefully to find jobs created by almost nonexistent bourgeois entrepreneurs. I wondered how Kendall took that bit of news about the maximum leader’s explanation of his stewardship of the glorious socialist revolution, something Kendall helped to survive, if he was even allowed to get magazines in his ADX jail.
State Department Counterintelligence: Leaks, Spies, and Lies Page 8
