Aldrich Ames, the Cold War’s Darkest Turncoat

For nearly a decade, Aldrich Ames operated inside the CIA’s counterintelligence core while feeding Moscow the identities of American human sources. His death in federal custody closes the final chapter on a betrayal that reshaped U.S. intelligence.

by Jose Campos

He didn’t die in a firefight or under interrogation lights. Aldrich Hazen Ames died on January 5 in a federal prison cell at age 84; old, isolated, and remembered chiefly inside classified archives and counterintelligence briefings.

For nearly a decade, Ames sat inside the CIA’s counterintelligence core while operating as one of Moscow’s most valuable agents. He wasn’t recruited. He volunteered.

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In 1985, assigned to the CIA’s Soviet and East European Division, Ames walked into the Soviet embassy in Washington and offered his services. The KGB paid him $50,000 almost immediately. Over the next four years, he collected nearly $1.9 million more.

What he delivered was not ideology. It was destruction.

Ames exposed between 12 and 25 CIA and FBI human sources operating inside the USSR and Russia. Some were imprisoned. Some were executed. All were burned. While American analysts scrambled to locate a mole, Ames bought homes, drove luxury cars, and lived far beyond his salary.

Russian intelligence later called him their most valuable Cold War asset. They protected him aggressively, diverting suspicion while he ran dead drops across Washington, Rome, and Bogota.

Ames understood tradecraft. He spoke Russian. He had hunted Soviet intelligence officers earlier in his career. He knew exactly what would happen when he handed over a source name — and he handed them over anyway.

By 1989, U.S. intelligence operations inside the Soviet system were collapsing. Assets were disappearing. The agency knew it had been penetrated. It just didn’t know the penetration sat inside its own counterintelligence branch.

The FBI finally moved in 1993 after analysts noticed Ames’ unexplained wealth. Ten months of surveillance followed. Chalk marks on mailboxes. Dead drops. Bogota meetings. Rome handoffs.

Aldrich Ames mugshot. (Bureau of Prisons photo)

On February 21, 1994, Ames and his wife Rosario were arrested in Arlington, Virginia. Both pled guilty. Ames received life without parole. Rosario received 63 months.

During debriefings, Ames calmly described how he had compromised identities that led to arrests and executions. He did not describe remorse.

Russian intelligence once hoped to trade for him. That never happened.

On January 5, Ames died in custody.

He leaves behind no legacy of courage, no justification of belief. Only a permanent scar in American counterintelligence history.

Jose Campos covers security for Soldier of Fortune.