Cuba “almost certainly”? has the ability to use weapons of mass destruction against the U.S., a former senior U.S. intelligence official tells NewsMax.

The official responded to a recent NewsMax report by Kenneth R. Timmerman regarding Congress’ closed-door briefing about a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who spied for Cuba for 16 years.

Ana Belen Montes was arrested in September 2001 on spying charges, but until now most of the details of her work as a traitor have remained classified.

The Montes affair “has even bigger strategic significance than generally recognized,”? the intelligence official opined.

“Cuba started an offensive biological weapons program in the 1960s as part of its launch into bio-tech medicine and engineering, where it has long been advanced and energetic.

“In the ’60s or ’70s, they are reported to have run a funny little experiment to see how they might deliver biological weapons via bottles thrown into the Gulf Stream.

“Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, it was common knowledge that Cuba had a biological weapons program. One of the great values of Montes was that she basically instructed Havana on how to conceal it.

“The strategic significance of this is that Cuba almost certainly has a WMD capability against the U.S. in the form of offensive biological weapons configured for swift delivery, or possibly pre-emplacement. Covert delivery — not via MiGs or missiles — would be the best mode.”?

The biggest value of this weapons program for Cuba would be to deter the U.S. “in the event of a confrontation over some scenario of “˜regime change’ or preservation when Castro dies,”? the official continued.

“Many thousands could die if such a scenario escalated.”?

Cuba could also sell or give biological weapons to American adversaries, warned the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“Montes illustrates the great effectiveness of Cuban offensive and defensive [counter] intelligence,”? the official added.

“They learned from the best of the Soviet bloc partners and then improved even on them. This has given them the ability to sell or give all sorts of intelligence goodies to U.S. adversaries around the world.”?

Among other things, Montes, in 1998, authored a National Intelligence Estimate on Cuba that discounted the communist nation’s biological weapons research.

But as recently as February, the Miami Herald reported that a former top Cuban military official was calling for international weapons inspections of a secret underground lab near Havana, where he said Castro’s government was conducting research in offensive biological weapons.