13. Aldrich Ames Demonstrated That It Was Shockingly Easy to Smuggle Secrets Out of CIA Headquarters
Aldrich Ames passed two polygraphs while he was selling the CIA’s secrets to the Russians. It was discovered after he was finally unmasked that he had needed no high-tech means or complicated Oceans Eleven type capers to smuggle out secrets from his workplace. Instead, he simply stuffed whatever documents he wanted to give his KGB and FSB handlers in his briefcase or in trash bags, and brazenly carried them out of the CIA headquarters at the end of the workday. Nobody questioned him.
Because of Ames’ treachery, at least 12 CIA spies within the USSR were captured, of whom 10 were eventually executed. By the time they were caught, Ames and his wife had revealed to the Soviets and Russians the identity of every CIA spy operating in their country. After he was arrested in 1994, he cut a deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty, and ensured that his wife got no more than a five-year sentence. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.