Renegade ex-CIA agent Philip Agee, who created a firestorm by revealing the identities of fellow spies, has come in from the cold – to live in Cuba, where he launched a Web site to promote tourism.
Agee, 65, who was declared a threat to U.S. national security and had his passport revoked in 1979, resurfaced in Havana earlier this week to begin his “www.Cubalinda.com” site.
He said the business – the first independent American enterprise to open shop in Cuba in 40 years – is designed to make it easier for American tourists to visit Cuba despite U.S. government travel restrictions and the 40-year trade ban.
“I would like to see people ignore the law,” Agee, still defiant after decades on the run, told reporters.
“The idea is to disdain this law to the point that our grandfathers disdained Prohibition.”
Agee left the CIA in 1969 after 12 years undercover in Latin America.
In 1975, he created controversy with his book “Inside the Company: CIA Diary,” which included details of operations against leftist movements in Latin America and a 22-page list of undercover agents.
His reputation was further damaged when a former Cuban intelligence operative, who defected to the U.S. in 1992, said Agee received $1 million in payments from Havana. Agee denied the charge.
Also, former First Lady Barbara Bush accused Agee in her autobiography of endangering the life of CIA station Chief Richard Welch, who was killed by terrorists in Athens in 1975.
Agee denied involvement in that killing. He sued Bush for defamation, forcing her to revise the book as part of settling the case.
After living for years in Hamburg, Germany, and other European cities, Agee said he finally settled in February in Havana, where European and local partners helped him launch his Web site.
The site features packages for American tours in Cuba starting at $600 per person, not including airfare.
The tours must be paid for in advance over the Internet to a European company – U.S. law prohibits American money being deposited directly into an account in Cuba.
There was no comment from the CIA or State Department on Agee’s new business venture.