On 22 February 1994, the residents of a quiet street in Arlington, a residential city in Virginia, were awoken by unprecedented police activity: not just police, but federal agents. Under the lenses of the television cameras, the FBI searched a well-to-do house in Randolph Street and emerged with a couple in handcuffs: Aldrich Ames and his wife, Maria del Rosario. The neighbourhood was stunned. As far as the residents were concerned, Ames was a State Department official and a nobody, they did not know he was one of the most important men in the CIA, not to mention the head of counterintelligence and the man responsible for protecting the agency against any outside interference.
The first announcement from the FBI spokesperson revealed that this spy hunter was actually a spy himself and had been an agent for the Soviets and now the Russians. The ‘bastard', as he was labelled in the press, had been responsible for handing over US agents, who were later arrested and shot after being denounced to the enemy.
The revelation of the affair could not fail to cause alarm as it was rare to give so much publicity to the arrest of such a character: as far is possible, discretion is always the preferred method by the secret services. You keep your dirty laundry within the family before sending the person in question to prison, especially if the matter risked smearing the agencies' reputation.
The second astonishing moment came with the intervention of the FBI. The logical step would have been for the CIA agents to confront Ames first and conduct an internal investigation before possibly entrusting the mole to the federal police. There had always been a rivalry between the two services and this was a question of jurisdiction. In principle, the CIA only handles foreign affairs, with the FBI responsible for internal security. Yet this has not always been the case and the CIA often waded into cases that it had no initial involvement in, such as Watergate. Likewise, the FBI never gave up on the opportunity to encroach on the CIA's business.
Information on Ames' treachery soon began to filter trough from the FBI. He had become a Soviet agent in 1985. But how? Very simply, he was short of money and basically just knocked on the door of the USSR's embassy in Washington and offered his services in return for payment.
Ames was already working for the CIA at the time, but did not yet hold the prestigious position of head of counterintelligence. However, he was still a key CIA agent and it is hard to imagine that a US spy would present himself like that at the Soviet embassy: a diplomatic building that was under constant surveillance by the Americans. They knew who went in and who came out, so his actions certainly demonstrate a senseless lack of judgement. Not to mention the fact that there were other ways of contacting the enemy: there was always a Soviet diplomat or representative from an eastern country present at diplomatic receptions, inaugurations, film premieres etc. As at least half of these individuals were agents, it was easy to engage in the most mundane conversations without attracting attention.
What is also astonishing is the curious picture painted ofAldrich Ames by the American press, after using the information supplied by the CIA and FBI. He was described as a lazy man who thought only of money and drank like a fish. It was true that some spies were not always sober: the famous Cambridge Spies, for example, were known to drink more than their fair share! Ames was presented as a pathetic character and almost incompetent. Under such conditions, it was hard to see how he had achieved such a level of high office, which was incredibly sensitive in nature. Naturally, the institution's bureaucracy, the incompetence of some officials, or just an ‘I don't give a damn' attitude can also be called into question. However, this would not stick for long, after all, the CIA's head of counterintelligence was not just a minor figure!
[L’Evenement du Jeudi:
[From a Pentagon report in early 1996]
The life ofAldrich Ames, the son of an alcoholic CIA agent stationed in Rangoon (Burma), was nothing but one long blunder. After studying history and expressing a vague interest in comedy, his father forced him to enter the CIA as a junior employee. In his first post to Ankara in 1971, his boss described him as being ‘ lazy, scatter-brained and not fit for the life of an operative stationed abroad’, adding ‘he needs a quiet position, far from the front line of the Cold War.’ Ames was also an alcoholic and was often being picked up from out of the gutter. He sometime lost confidential documents and missed important secret meetings. In 1981 he was sent to Mexico: a nest of KGB spies. It was there he met and fell in love with Maria del Rosario, a 29-year-old, penniless, middle-class Columbian.
In 1983 he was appointed the CIA’s head of Soviet counterintelligence, which was an incredibly sensitive post and completely above his level. However, he did speak fluent Russian and after the endorsement of Professor Tournesol, his superiors were convinced that he was actually a hidden genius.
So who was Ames exactly? He was born in the early 1940s and his father, as well as being a teacher, also worked for the secret services. He wanted his son to join the CIA after completing his studies in 1963, although Ames had only managed two years in a history department where he had hardly shone. However, this perfectly average American was to become one of the greatest spies of the century.
Aldrich Ames initially held several junior positions, including an international one in Ankara. After a calamitous beginning, he quickly returned to Langley, near Washington, where the CIA's headquarters are located. His private life was not much better: he had made a good marriage to the heiress of a large East Coast family, but
