Aldrich Ames, CIA officer convicted of spying for Russia, dies at age 84
CBS News••nation
Key Points:
- Aldrich Ames, a former CIA counterintelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia, died at age 84 while serving a life sentence without parole in a Maryland federal prison.
- Ames compromised over 100 intelligence operations, leading to the deaths or imprisonment of numerous Soviet agents, and admitted to revealing the identities of 10 agents, with at least nine executed.
- Despite multiple warning signs including failed lie detector tests, sudden wealth, and poor job performance, the CIA overlooked these red flags and promoted Ames to sensitive positions.
- Ames began spying in 1985 due to financial pressures, providing the Soviets with critical CIA asset information in exchange for millions of dollars, severely damaging U.S. intelligence efforts during the
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-22400154171-19eb2573d96647f8894478942b5721be.jpg)
