Jim Popkin

Author of Code Name Blue Wren, about Cuban spy Ana Montes. And:

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

The paperback version of CODE NAME BLUE WREN is out today, with new material on spy Ana Montes and her post-prison life. Stunning that some treat Ana like a hero, given her slavish devotion to Cuba. Big thanks to @Hanover_Square, @HarperCollins, and ace editor @peterajoseph!

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

Wanna learn the real story of Cuba as a national security threat to the US and how we have underestimated their spy services for so long? Check out this excellent interview with Ean Forsythe. Shoutout to Andrew Hammond at the Intl Spy Museum.

https://t.co/1PRjSSlepZ

[Criminal @CriminalShow]

For 17 years, Ana Montes lived a double life. Every day, she went to work as an intelligence analyst for the US government and then, at night, she would type up everything she could remember and pass it off to her Cuban handlers. New today: https://t.co/GxWk6iYJEF

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

@SusanMacNeal Thank you Susan! Hoping to see you soon in NY!

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

Excited to appear tonight 9pm ET on @NewsNation with my old NBC pal @danabrams talking about Cuban spy and former U.S. Ambassador Manuel Rocha. He got 15 years in prison for spying for Cuba and now blames radicalization at Yale for his very disloyal actions.

[Evan Smith @evanasmith]

Terrific program on trust, news and democracy at @LBJLibrary April 9-10 with @karaswisher @larrywilmore @realBobWoodward @carlbernstein @brianstelter @JudyWoodruff @jmpalmieri @SusanPage @vivian @SarabethBerman @jpalfrey @stevenwaldman + yours truly https://t.co/npkpHhe19a #txlege

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

https://t.co/mzj0DjkX2b

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

https://t.co/WeDhPiXZKX

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

The FBI has known for a decade that former US Amb. Manuel Rocha was a suspected Cuban spy, I just reported in the @MiamiHerald. Veteran State Dep't spy catcher Robert Booth got onto Rocha in 2010. Check out the Herald article or here: https://t.co/rW2B2lSSkC

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

From thrilling betrayals to intelligence disasters, these books kept me on the edge of my seat. Check out my recs for the best #SpyBooks on @shepherd_books. These are “The best nonfiction spy books that I read in one day.”

https://t.co/0d6FUgnF4C

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

Look what just arrived… the latest by @JEBlount, Mr Jimmy from Around the Way. Can’t wait to dig in! Jeffrey is an incredible talent, and his last novel Evan Walls was deeply moving. I know what I’m doing this weekend …

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

Excellent new piece on accused Cuban spy Manuel Rocha by @rstait and @guardian

[Guardian Weekly @guardianweekly]

‘Ego and resentment’: what led former US diplomat to spy for Cuba? https://t.co/aF9TzaQaHq

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

Big thank you to @ebazaileimil and @politicomag for going deep on accused Cuban spy and former US Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha. My burning questions: Did the Cubans pay him? Was Rocha's motivation solely ideological? And what national security information did he turn over to Havana in his long career?

[Eric Bazail-Eimil @ebazaileimil]

For @POLITICOMag I spoke with @JimPopkin about the stranger-than-fiction case of Victor Manuel Rocha, the strength of Cuban espionage in the U.S., and more

https://t.co/1Hq2c3gbTM

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

A pleasure to sit down with @mitchellreports to discuss the allegations that a former US Ambassador to Bolivia acted a spy for #Cuba.

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

1/ A new indictment of accused Cuban spy Manuel Rocha is out today, with fresh counts for wire fraud and making false statements (lying to the Feds.) The former US Ambassador reportedly wept in court yday when the original charges were read to him.

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

3/3 Montes spied for 17 years and did enormous harm to US nat'l security, so it's chilling that Rocha thinks she could/should have done more harm. And the implication is that a defector or tipster turned her over to the FBI, when we know that it was the hard work of an NSA analyst I call Elena in "Blue Wren" who unscrambled clues that ultimately led to Ana's identification as a spy. #spy #AnaMontes

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

2/ The new indictment also quotes Amb. Rocha praising convicted spy Ana Montes, who also was a top US official secretly loyal to Cuba. "Unfortunately she was betrayed... a huge betrayal... sadly she would have done much more had she not been betrayed," Rocha told an undercover FBI agent in a recorded conversation in Feb 2023.

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

3/ Rocha was the US Ambassador to Bolivia, and also served from 1995-1997 in Havana as Deputy Principal of the US Interests Section in Cuba, our equivalent of the US Embassy. He even worked for the National Security Council... Cuba's spy service, the DGI, is highly skilled and recruited at least three Americans--Rocha, former DIA analyst Ana Montes, and former State Dep't diplomat Kendall Myers--to secretly spy for Havana for decades. Wow, A huge US intelligence failure.

[Jim Popkin @JimPopkin]

2/ The former Amb. called the US "the enemy," and said on tape: "What we have done... it's enormous... More than a grand slam," referring to his decades of alleged spying on behalf of the Cubans. #spy #AnaMontes