Aldrich Hazen Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames

CIA officer who worked for Russian intelligence
Date of Birth: 26.05.1941
Country: USA

Content:
  1. Biography of Aldrich Hazen Ames
  2. The Betrayal and Exposure of Spies
  3. The Cortship Operation and Arrest
  4. The International Fallout
  5. Imprisonment and Depiction in Media

Biography of Aldrich Hazen Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames is a former CIA employee who worked for the Russian intelligence. He served as the chief of the Counterintelligence Branch of the CIA and was also the head of the Soviet Division of the CIA's Directorate of Operations. In 1985, he was recruited by the Soviet intelligence and spent nearly 10 years working for the USSR and Russia.

The Betrayal and Exposure of Spies

With the information provided by Ames, a number of traitors within the ranks of the KGB and GRU were arrested. Various sources attribute him with exposing anywhere between 12 to 25 CIA agents, including Major General Dmitry Polyakov of the GRU. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence recognized in its report that Ames' activities "led to the loss of virtually all valuable sources of information in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War."

The Cortship Operation and Arrest

In 1993, a joint committee of the CIA and FBI known as the "Cortship" operation concluded that there was an agent infiltration within the CIA. The committee found that after returning from a business trip to Rome, CIA employee Ames purchased a house near Washington for $540,000 in cash. He also acquired a farm, two apartments, a Jaguar car, and luxury items worth $455,000. Additionally, he invested $165,000 in stocks. On February 21, 1994, Aldrich Ames was arrested by FBI agents in Arlington. The "Ames case" caused a major political scandal in the United States, leading to the resignation of his supervisor, James Woolsey, amid numerous accusations against the CIA.

The International Fallout

The scandal surrounding Aldrich Ames caused tensions in the public relations between Russia and the United States. On February 26, 1994, President Bill Clinton declared the Russian resident in Washington, A.I. Lysenko, persona non grata. In response, on February 28, Russian President Boris Yeltsin had to take similar action against the CIA resident in Moscow, D. Morris. Seeking to ease the tension between the two countries, Yeltsin stated to journalists that he personally had no knowledge of Ames' activities.

Imprisonment and Depiction in Media

On April 28, 1994, Aldrich Ames was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently serving his sentence in the high-security Allenwood prison in Pennsylvania. His biography was featured in Frederick Forsyth's novel "Icon" (1996), where Ames is portrayed as a negative character who collaborated with the KGB solely for money. In 1998, a film titled "Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within" was released, highlighting the primary motive behind Ames' cooperation with the KGB as financial gain.

© BIOGRAPHS