Washington — Aldrich Ames, a CIA operative who betrayed Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in US history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84 years old.
A Bureau of Prisons spokesman confirmed Ames’ death on Monday.
Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted that he received $2.5 million from Moscow in exchange for American secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. The information he disclosed included the identities of 10 Russian officials and one Eastern European person who were spying for the United States or Great Britain, along with satellite espionage operations, eavesdropping, and general espionage procedures. His betrayal is blamed for the execution of Western agents operating behind the Iron Curtain, and was a major setback for the CIA during the Cold War.
He pleaded guilty without trial to charges of espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Prosecutors said he deprived the United States of valuable intelligence materials for years.
He declared “extreme shame and guilt” at “this betrayal of trust, done for the lowest motives,” namely money to pay debts. But he downplayed the damage he had caused, telling the court he did not believe he had caused “significant harm” to the United States or “significantly helped Moscow.”
“These spy wars are a sideshow that have had no real impact on our important security interests over the years,” he told the court, questioning the value any country’s leaders derive from vast networks of human spies around the world.
In a prison interview with The Washington Post the day before his sentencing, Ames said the spying was motivated by “financial problems, immediate and ongoing.”
Ames was working in the Soviet Union/Eastern Europe division at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, when he first came into contact with the KGB, according to a case history provided by the FBI. He continued to pass secrets to the Soviets while in Rome for the CIA and after his return to Washington. Meanwhile, the US intelligence community was frantically trying to figure out why Moscow had discovered so many agents.
Ames’ spying coincided with that of FBI agent Robert Hansen, who was arrested in 2001 and charged with taking $1.4 million in cash and diamonds to sell secrets to Moscow. he He died in prison In 2023.
Ames’ wife, Rosario, pleaded guilty to the less serious espionage charges of aiding him in the espionage and was sentenced to 63 months in prison.