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A U.S. intelligence analyst defended spying for Cuban President Fidel Castro, as she was sentenced to 25 years in prison. "Our government's policy toward Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it," Ana Belen Montes told a federal judge.

"I obeyed my conscience rather than the law . . . I can only say that I did what I thought right to counter a grave injustice."

Montes, 46, spied for Cuba for 16 years while she was an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington.

Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina, who is of Puerto Rican descent, like the defendant, told Montes she was guilty of "betrayal."

"If you can't love your country, then, at the very least, you should do it no wrong," the judge said.

U.S. Attorney Roscoe Howard Jr. said he was disappointed that Montes didn't apologize, but he noted that she cooperated fully with the probe.

She pleaded guilty in March to espionage charges and admitted giving the Cubans the identities of four undercover agents who were spying for the United States. All are safe.

She communicated with the Cuban Intelligence Agency through encrypted messages, and got instructions over shortwave radio.

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