Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Ames was a counterintelligence specialist in the CIA. During the course of his career in US intelligence, Ames spied for the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation, compromising more US assets than any Soviet spy who preceded him. In 1985, Ames approached the Soviet Union by walking through the doors of their Embassy, motivated by the desire to acquire money to pay off some of his burgeoning debts from an expensive divorce and an equally expensive mistress. He was paid $50,000 on his first contact with the Soviets, in which he established his credentials as a CIA and FBI insider, but according to his own statement provided them little of actual value.
Ames began to reveal to the Soviets CIA and other intelligence agencies assets in place which were providing intelligence on the Soviets to American and British organizations. The CIA was quickly aware that many of their assets were suddenly missing – in Soviet prisons or dead – and that something was wrong which was compromising them to the Soviets.
CIA investigations focused on possible data breaches through wiretaps and bugs, followed by investigations into possible broken or otherwise compromised communication codes. The CIA attempted to blame the losses on another agent who had been suspected of selling information to the Soviets but soon the loss of assets unknown to the second traitor increased CIA suspicion of Ames.
It was Ames’ reckless spending beyond the means of his CIA salary which finally led to his undoing. The CIA increased their monitoring of him through electronic and financial surveillance, old fashioned examination of his household trash, and the use of car monitors which followed his travel. Ames made frequent visits to the Soviet embassy and just prior to a scheduled visit to Moscow in 1994 he was arrested along with his second wife.
Initially, he protested his innocence but later entered a guilty plea to espionage and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Ames stated his actions working for the Soviet and Russian governments led to the compromising of “…virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA and other American and foreign services known to me…”. Ames also allowed the Soviets to feed false information to American agents which was eventually viewed by three different American presidents. At least ten assets he identified were executed by the Soviets or Russian services.