Descendant of inventor Bell is spy

THE great-grandson of Scots inventor Alexander Graham Bell has been sentenced to life in prison for spying for Cuba.

US District Judge Reggie Walton said Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn betrayed the United States for three decades and should receive heavy punishment for having done so.

In a 10-minute explanation to the judge of his conduct, Kendall Myers said he stole secrets with no intent to harm the United States and that his goal was to pass along information about US policies toward Cuba, a nation that he said feared the United States because of its opposition to the Cuban government.

The judge said he was "perplexed" at how Myers, 73, could believe that he was not hurting the US, given the level of antagonism between the two countries.

"The Cuban people feel threatened" and "they have good reason to feel threatened" because the US has pursued a policy of regime change in Cuba, Myers replied.

"Part of our motivation," Myers said of himself and his wife, was to report as accurately as possible about what he thought US policy was toward Cuba, to warn Cuba and to try to assess the nature of the threat.

Prosecutors said Myers, a descendant of Bell, who is credited with the invention of the first practical telephone, was a child of wealth and privilege and could have been anything he wanted to be, but instead chose to spy for Cuba for 30 years from inside the State Department.