Ex-State Dept official, wife held for Cuba spying: US

WASHINGTON: A former State Department official with top secret security clearance and his wife have been arrested for spying for communist Cuba for almost 30 years, US officials said Friday.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, have been charged with conspiracy to hand over classified information to US foe Cuba, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The Washington couple were arrested on Thursday after an undercover FBI sting operation and appeared Friday before a district court after allegedly passing on secrets for years via shortwave radio and in shopping carts.

"The clandestine activity alleged in the charging documents, which spanned nearly three decades, is incredibly serious and should serve as a warning to any others in the US government who would betray America's trust by serving as illegal agents of a foreign government," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security.

"We remain vigilant in protecting our nation's secrets and in bringing to justice those who compromise them."

Myers first began working for the State Department in 1977 as a lecturer at the department's Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. But from 1988 to 1999 he began to work for its bureau of intelligence and research.

In 1985, he was given top-secret security clearance which was then upgraded to a higher level in 1999.

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