Song for Ana Belen Montes

Twenty-five years was what the judge said
Then he banged his gavel and shook his head
You’ve done wrong, you broke our trust
Now we caught you and this is a bust

Now you’ll spend these decades behind bars of steel
You thought you could play with us, but this is for real
He said you gave away secrets to the enemy
Now you’ll live in prison in the land of the free

But here beneath this Cuban sun
I’d just like to thank you for all you’ve done
My heart today is torn apart
Ana Belen Montes, you are a spy after my own heart

“I obeyed my conscience rather than the law,” so you said at your secret trial
You took no money for your work, so says your declassified file
You warned the Cubans of the plans of the assassins from the US
Just what other good deeds you did, they may never tell us

Chorus

High up in the ranks of the DoD you served the common good
Working alone, night and day, you did just what you should
Of all the great people I have known, there are few that I’d call greater
Than one woman who obeyed a higher law, who the judge called traitor

Chorus

Sheet music for this song may be found in Songbook Vol I (1997-2004).

“Song for Ana Belen Montes” appears on the 2003 CD, The Return.

Ana Belen Montes was convicted and sentenced for spying for Cuba.  She had risen to a very high level of the Department of Defense in the US, and was married to a high-ranking military general.  I was of course very impressed when I read about her case in a newspaper, and I wrote this song.  In later years, my good friend Marius Mason would be imprisoned in the same cell block as Ana Belen Montes at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.  (You can see on Wikipedia who else is in the cell block.  Among others, the Pakistani scientist, Aafia Siddiqui.)