PrintKendall Myers, 72, who appeared in federal court in Washington on Wednesday charged with spying for Havana for nearly 30 years, had a fascination with Northern Ireland.
The Daily Telegraph has established that as well as seeking the envoy's post, which carried the rank of ambassador, Mr Myers travelled to the British Isles and met British and Irish officials, senior Northern Ireland politicians and intelligence officers.****
The IRA's ties to Cuba were highlighted in 2001 when three of its members were arrested in Bogota on suspicion of training FARC narco-terrorists in the Columbia jungle. One of them, Niall Connolly, was a resident of Havana who had acted as Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba.
Three years ago, Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, met President Fidel Castro in Cuba. The FBI believes that Mr Myers and his wife Gwendolyn, 71, who is also accused of spying and appeared in court with her husband, met Mr Castro in Cuba in 1995.
It appears that for all his demonstrated anti American views, he was beloved at the Department of State where most of the pinstripers shared his views of the prior administration if not his open adoration of Chamberlin and Philby,MacLean and Burgess.
