ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Ames Espionage CaseThe CIA and FBI significantly delayed the detection of CIA turncoatAldrich Ames, shown handcuffed, by failing for five years to mount aserious, joint investigation into their loss of Russian agents from 1956 to1986. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.The CIA transferred Ames to Rome in 1986, where hestayed until 1988 working for the CIA’s Soviet CounterintelligenceDivision, at the same time selling secrets tothe KGB. Although Ames’s job was allegedly to recruitSoviet agents (from the embassy in Rome) into the CIA, hefailed to successfully recruit a single Soviet agent. Hiswork, however, provided him with the names of Sovietinformants and it was this information he sold to the KGB.By 1989, after his return to the United States, he had madeenough money to pay cash for a $540,000 home in Arlington,Virginia, an exclusive suburb of Washington, D.C.,and another $100,000 for improvements on the house. Hetold friends and acquaintances he and his wife had inheritedmoney from her family in Colombia.In 1991, Ames was transferred to the CIA’s CounternarcoticsDivision. Although he no longer had authorizedaccess to information his Russian handlers might want, hemanaged to stay on the payroll by stealing computer filesand other sensitive material.The CIA had suspected the presence of a mole in theagency since 1986, when the first two of the Soviet agentsAmes betrayed were executed. Suspicions grew with everyexecution and disappearance of Soviet agents in the late1980s. The CIA was aware of Ames’s extravagant spendingas early as 1990. Ames passed inquiry lie-detectortests in 1986 and 1991. However, In 1993, a joint investigationbetween the Federal Bureau of Investigation and theCIA narrowed a list of 200 suspects down to fewer than40, and then down to Aldrich Ames. In May, 1993, theylaunched project ”Nightmover,“ a criminal investigationunder the FBI’s jurisdiction charged with gathering evidenceagainst Ames.Compiling enough evidence to arrest Ames and hiswife on conspiracy charges took nearly a year. Over onehundred FBI agents, some of them elite members ofthe Special Services Group, tapped Ames’s phone wires,rooted through his garbage, planted a wire in his Jaguar,installed a video camera across from his house, shadowedhim disguised as trash collectors and lawn maintenanceworkers, and kept his home under nearly constantsurveillance.The big break in the case occurred in early September,1993. Ames was overheard talking on his cell phonewith his wife. The conversation included details about apending deal with Russian agents. A few days later, hewas seen near what was assumed to be the signal or deaddrop site used by Ames and his Russian contacts. OnSeptember 15, the FBI found a note in Ames’s garbage canindicating he was arranging a meeting for October. TheFBI then obtained a warrant to enter Ames’s house. WhileAmes and his family were away for a weekend in earlyOctober, the FBI searched his home, finding in his personalcomputer detailed information about drop sites andmeeting places along with files of classified CIA informationAmes had no business taking home. They followedhim to Bogota where he was to meet with his handler, YuriKaretkin, but failed to catch him in the act. Ames returnedhome $125,000 richer.Nothing happened for four months. Ames appearedto be laying low. Finally, after detecting an unusual numberof Russian intelligence officers lurking around Ames’sneighborhood, the FBI became worried that the Russianshad guessed Ames was under investigation. Ames wasscheduled to go to Moscow and the FBI feared he mightdefect. The FBI decided to act, even though they had notbeen able to catch Ames actually meeting with his Russianhandler. Aldrich and Rosario Ames were arrested on February21, 1994, and charged with espionage. To preventthem from fleeing the country, the couple were heldwithout bail.The Ames espionage case, called a ”calamity“ by theSenate Intelligence Committee, remains one of the mostremarkable cases of double-dealing in the history of theUnited States. The case is remarkable not only becauseAmes made so much money selling CIA secrets and becauseof the huge amount of information he sold, allegedlycompromising over a hundred covert operations, butalso because Ames remained undetected for so long. Thecase prompted an investigation by the Senate into counterintelligenceprocedures at the CIA and calls from Congressand the public for sweeping reform of the agency.32 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security