25. The CIA Turns A Blind Eye to Aldrich Ames’ Activities
When suspicions were belatedly aroused, it still took years – until 1993 – before Aldrich Ames’ employers took a serious look. In the meantime, he had passed two polygraphs while spying. Ames needed no high tech means or complicated capers: he simply stuffed whatever documents he wanted to give his KGB and FSB handlers in a briefcase or in trash bags, and brazenly carried them out of the CIA headquarters at the end of the workday, without anybody questioning him.
As a result, at least 12 CIA spies in the Soviet Union were captured, of whom 10 were executed. By the time Ames was finally unmasked, he and his wife had revealed to the Soviets and Russians the identity of every CIA spy operating in their country. After his arrest in 1994, he cut a deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty, and ensured that his wife got no more than five years behind bars. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
