Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames (born 16 June 1941 in River Falls, Wisconsin) is a former CIA employee, who in 1994 was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia.

Life and work

Ames ' tenure at the CIA began in 1962. According to various stations in 1985 he was chief of the CIA counter-intelligence department USSR. In this role, he was responsible for the analysis of Soviet intelligence activities.

In the same year Ames offered the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC access to classified information to anti-money payments. Until 1994 he sold countless explosive documents to the Soviet KGB or its successor organization FSB. Among them were the names of agents who spied against the Soviet Union. Ames ' information led to the unmasking and execution of at least ten CIA spies and to detect or to failure of 100 CIA covert operations. For its spying activities he allegedly received nearly 2.5 million dollars.

As early as 1990 there had been internal organizational concerns against Ames for his lavish lifestyle (he had, among other things, a $ 540,000 house and a $ 49,500 Jaguar expensive sports cars acquired cash). In 1994, however, the double agent was unmasked by the FBI and arrested after years of CIA internal investigations had led to no result. During these investigations succeeded Ames twice to pass a lie detector test. Ultimately led his consuming lifestyle that was disproportionate to his official income, the investigators on the trail, and in the house search they found numerous physical evidence.

Ames was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served in the United States Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. CIA Director James Woolsey, who had previously warned recalling the era of James Jesus Angleton of a " witch hunt " in the CIA, resigned after the disclosure of the affair Ames.

The American television network ABC began in 2014 by broadcasting an eight -part television series about Ames and the CIA under the title " The Asset ". Ames was embodied therein by British actor Paul Rhys. Due to low ratings, the series was, however, discontinued after only two sequels.