Transcript

3.13.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is radioi's History Show and I'm
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your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt, so happy
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to be with you for this time. And as you know,
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before we begin any program, we just need to remind
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means if you have any thoughts or comments or suggestions,
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please call us and the number to call would be
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and let us know what you are thinking. And as
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you know, RADIOI is a reading service that's intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
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it difficult to read printed material. I'll cite the sources
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of as we go along, as I usually do, and
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today I thought we would focus on an individual that
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you may have heard of before that recently died. His
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name was Aldrich Ames. So let's get to reading about
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mister Ames and see what he was all about. Lee
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Wiser snapped awake in a rush of adrenaline. His watch,
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the one he had bought in Berlin with the red
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star and the letter CCCP on the dial, said three
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a m. He showered quickly dressed in a pale gray suit,
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left his wife and two sleeping kids in bed, and
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drove swiftly from his home in the Maryland suburbs toward Washington.
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The roads were in empty on this Monday President's Day,
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February twenty one, nineteen ninety four. The federal government was
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closed and the people who made it run were still asleep.
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He steered his nineteen ninety one black Ford Taurus through
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the deserted side streets of the Capitol and into the
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garage of the FBI's Washington Metropolitan Field Office. Wiser was
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a tall man of thirty nine years old, bespeckled, his
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mustache flecked with gray. Wiser was an FBI supervisory special
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agent who had joined the bureau in nineteen eighty three
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after working as a Navy lawyer for nine months. Wiser
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had worked out of his cramped cocoon of an office
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twelve hours a day. Wiser was working on the biggest
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case of his life. It was an espionage case code
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named night Mover. Everyone worked, everyone working rather on this case. Wiser,
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his agents, the surveillance team had all taken a light
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detector test and abandoned the idea of time off. He
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and his squad had found a mole inside the Central
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Intelligence Agency. The mole had burned almost every Soviet agent
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who was secretly working for the United States. At least
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nineteen of them had been arrested and executed. It had
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been a disaster without parallel for the CIA wiser and
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his agents. The listeners who had tapped telephones and planted
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bugs in the mole's house. The accountants who sifted his
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American Express bills, the watchers who trailed him around the clock,
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the black bag agents who stole his trash and surreptitiously
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searched his house. The pilots who flew the light plane
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that secretly tailed his car. All of them had amassed
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a mountain of circumstantial evidence against their target. They had
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come to be on intimate terms with him, calling him
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by his first name, and listening to the chatter and
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babble of his telephone conversations with his wife. They shattered
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him when he took his five year old son to
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the movies, and reacted with disgust when he paid nine
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thousand dollars in cash one day at the Nieman Marcus
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department store to settle his bills. More than that, they
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knew his mind. He was arrogant, he was book smart
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but not street wise, and he was one of the sloppiest,
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most brazen, and least savvy spies imaginable. But Wiser had
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been careful not to underestimate him. The man was, after all,
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a trained intelligence officer. And though the FBI knew their
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man was in touch with the Russians, and though they
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had tracked more than one and a half million dollars
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he had mysteriously deposited into his bank accounts, they never
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had caught him in the act of slipping c i
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A documents into a cash or pocketing a payoff from Moscow.
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Six o'clock, Wiser waited in the dismal squat office as
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the day downed gray and dreary over the Capitol. His
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surveillance crew had spent the night at checkpoints throughout the
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mole's neighborhood across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, a
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fancy suburb, a lot fancier than Wiser or his squad
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could afford. The mole was scheduled to leave tomorrow on
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an official trip to Moscow. The idea that he might
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defect was on every one's mind. A few minutes after seven,
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Wiser gave the order to proceed as planned. Nearly one
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hundred f b I agents and other personnel quietly converged
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on the neighborhood. The men who were going to arrest
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the target drove to their forward staging base, the parking
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lot of an Italian delicatessen. Wiser waited until nearly eight
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o'clock to drive across the Potomac to the US Attorney's office.
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Wiser met Mark J. Hulkauer, the federal prosecutor whom he
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had asked to handle the case in court. The two
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men drove to the office building that housed the courtrooms
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of federal magistrates. Weiser carried papers, including a thirty five
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page affidavit he had written outlining the evidence amassed from
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electronic eavesdropping, breaking ends and thefts. Wiser handed Berry Poorts
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u S Magistrate Judge the papers and left him alone
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in his office. The agent and the prosecutor waited in
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an outer office. After what seemed like an eternity, Porits
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summoned the men to his chambers, and at five minutes
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to ten he began signing warrants for the arrest of
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the mole and his wife. The trap was baited, one
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of the f b I agents telephoned the c i
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a's headquarters in Langley, Virginia and talked to the target's boss.
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The c i A official then called the target at
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home and gave him a carefully scripted message. Rick. He said,
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something important has just turned up. It has a direct
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bearing on the Moscow trip. You had better come into
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the office. I think you need to see it now.
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Rick Eames put down the phone and told his wife
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Rosario that he was going over to the CIA for
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an hour or so. Whatever this was, he needed to
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get it out of the way. He had been looking
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forward to this trip for months. Wearing brown slacks and
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a dark green shirt, he walked out of the house,
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leaving Rosario inside with their son Paul and Rosario's mother, Cecilia.
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He got into his nineteen ninety two Jaguar and rolled
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down the driveway. He turned right on North Randolph Street
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and right again on Quebec. It was then he saw
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two pairs of tail lights directly ahead of him, two
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cars side by side blocking the two lane street. Ames
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braked to a stop, waiting for the car in the
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right hand lane to turn. It didn't move. Two more
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cars swung up behind Aames. Mike Donner, a Hawking swat
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Team agent who along with Wiser, had designed the arrest scenario,
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pulled up close behind the Jaguar and stopped the Honor
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placed a red flasher light on his dashboard. Eight FBI
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agents jumped from the four car surrounding Ames at the
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same time. Back at Ames's home, Yolando Larsen, a Spanish
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speaking FBI agent, rang the doorbell. Rosario dressed in a
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bath robe and hurried to the door. Missus Eames, Larsen said.
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The agent told her her husband was being arrested for
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espionage and she should come with them. Rosario stared and
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went slock with shock. Uncle beck Street, Donner, and a
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fellow agent, Dell Spry, stood at the window of the Jaguar.
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Eames looked up bewildered. Spry ordered them to keep his
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hands in sight and step out of the car. What
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said Eames, lowering the window, get out of the car,
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Donor said. Donner flung open the door and pulled Eames
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to his feet. Put your hands on the car, he said,
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you are under arrest for espionage. Eames's expression from confusion
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to terror. Spry told Ames to put his hands behind
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his head. The agent yanked his arms down one at
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a time and handcuffed him. What is this all about,
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Ames shouted, You're making a big mistake. You must have
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the wrong man. Lots of people want more money, But
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what links would you go to to get it? Would
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you sell your country secrets or information that could lead
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to people's deaths? For Aldrich Ames, the answer was yes.
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A CIA agent who became a Soviet spy. Ames's betrayal
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proved devastating for American assets in the USSR. Between nineteen
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eighty five and his arrest in nineteen ninety four, almost
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ten years, Ames revealed the names of every intelligence agent
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he knew of, leading to the deaths of at least
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ten people. Unlike other double agents throughout history, Ames was
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not motivated by politics or philosophy, but by the millions
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of dollars offered by his Soviet handlers. Money was the motivation,
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He later affirmed. This is the story of Aldrich Ames,
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the CIA double agent who compromised more CIA assets than
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almost any other in American history. Born on May twenty sixth,
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nineteen forty one Aldridge Hazen Rick Ames grew up with
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the CIA all around him. His father worked as a
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CIA analyst, and Ames's peers at school often had parents
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working for the CIA. Also. Shortly after graduating high school,
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Ames started his own CIA career as a summer intern.
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According to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Ames continued
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to work for the CIA while completing his bachelor's degree
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at George Washington University. In nineteen sixty two, he started
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working for the CIA full time, and by nineteen sixty
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nine Ames was sent abroad to work under cover in Ankara, Turkey.
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All the while he continuously received subpar valuations from his superiors.
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One colleague told The New York Times that Ames exuded
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this feeling of superiority to everyone else, though he was
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in his supervisor's opinion on a rubber rung a career ladder.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee. On the Senate Select Committee on
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Intelligence additionally found that ames personnel file was full of
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red flags, including run ins with law enforcement, alcoholism, inattention
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to detail, and procrastination. Ames once even left a case
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of classified documents on a New York subway along the way.
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Ames's personal life suffered as well. His wife divorced him
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on grounds of mental cruelty, and Ames soon found himself
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with thousands of dollars in debt. While living with his girlfriend,
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Maria del Rosario Cassis de Puy, whom Ames had met
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while on an assignment in Mexico City, he began to
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agonize about the state of his finance. I felt a
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great deal of financial pressure, which in retrospect I was
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clearly overreacting to. Ames later explained, according to the Senate
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Select Committee on Intelligence, I had incurred a certain amount
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of personal debt in terms of buying furniture for an apartment,
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and my divorce settlement had left me with no property. Essentially,
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Rosario was living with me at the time. I was
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contemplating the future. I had no house, and we had
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strong plans to have a family, and so I was
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thinking in the longer term. Then Aldrich Ames seemed to
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find a solution to his financial woes, and in nineteen
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eighty five he starts selling CIA secrets to the Soviet Union.
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As the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reports, Aldridge Aimes
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approached Soviet officials in April of nineteen eighty five with
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an offer of classified information in exchange for money. The
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Soviets agreed and paid Aimes fifty thousand dollars. The relationship
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was sealed over a long, boozy lunch at an elegant
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hotel near the White House. I'm still puzzled as to
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what took me to the next steps, Aames later admitted.
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The main factor on balance, I think was the realization
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after I had received the fifty thousand dollars was a
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sense of the enormity of what I'd done, with fear
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that I had crossed the line that I had not
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clearly considered before. That I crossed the line I could
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never step back. Having crossed that line, Ames plunged further
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into his life as a double agent. As The New
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York Times reports, he readily provided the names of every
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Soviet intelligence official and military officer working for the US,
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as well as information he had about CIA operations against
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the US s R. During one meeting with the Soviets,
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the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that Ames provided
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the largest amount of sensitive documents and critical information that
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we know that have ever been passed to the KGB.
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In one particular meeting, he simply carried plastic bags stuffed
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with documents out of the CIA and gave them to
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the KGB. No matter where he went, Ames tended to
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his Soviet connections from Bogataw, Columbia, to Rome, Italy. Ames
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continued to pass on state secrets, and he was handsomely
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rewarded for his efforts. By nineteen eighty nine, the Federal
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Bureau of Investigations reported that Ames had received one point
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eight eight million dollars. In nineteen eighty nine, a CIA
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officer reported that Aimes, upon returning to Washington, was unexplicably wealthy.
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He had paid five hundred and forty thousand dollars in
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cash for a new home near the agency's headquarters and
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was driving a new Jaguar. Yet this set off only
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the faintest of alarms. But Aldridge Ames' work had not
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gone unnoticed. CIA officials had begun to detect a disturbing
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trend as many of their assets were being compromised, arrested,
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and killed. Before long, they began to suspect that someone
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was trading information to the Soviets from within the CIA itself.
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At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a team of investigators
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led by Sandra Grimes and Janine Vertefee spent years working
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to determine the identity of the mole leaking secrets to
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the Soviets. In their book Circle of Treason, a CIA
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account of trader Aldrich Ames in The Men He Betrayed,
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Grimes and Vertefe wrote that Aldrich initially struck them as
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an unlikely candidate. He seemed like an absent minded professor
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who was frequently disheveled, unkept, and late. But as Grimes
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noted in a nineteen or rather twenty thirteen video from
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the International Spy Museum in Washington, d C. Aldridg Aims
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seemed like a different person when he returned to Washington,
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d C. From Rome in nineteen eighty nine. I saw
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a totally different Rick Aimes, she said. I saw someone
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who was one of the most confident people I had
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ever seen in my life, and Rick was never confident.
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Ames had fixed his teeth, brought a Jaguar, and started
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wearing six hundred dollars Italian loafers. Though these purchases raised
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some eyebrows, Ames implied that he got his money from
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his wife's rich Columbian family. Suspicious of aimes sudden transformation,
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Grimes and Vertefe made a list of one hundred and
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ninety eight people who had access to the information that
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had been leaked. They then narrowed the list down to three,
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and in nineteen ninety two, Grimes finally found the smoking
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gun that led her to Aldridge Ames. After studying a
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timeline of Ames's bank deposits, she noticed that after each
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lunch Ames had with one Soviet official, he deposited a
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large sum of cash, and all Ames had one point
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three million in deposits from unexplained sources. As Grimes told
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one colleague, that doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell
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what's going on here. Rick is a Russian spy. The
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CIA and FBI surveiled Aldrich Ames, put a tracker on
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his car, tapped his phone, and dug through his garbage.
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Before long, they had enough evidence to arrest both Ames
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and his wife on November twenty one, nineteen ninety four.
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According to Betrayal The Story of Aldrich Ames, an American
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Spy by Tim Weiner, David Johnston, and Neil Lewis, Ames
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initially denied being a double agent's insisting you're making a mistake.
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You've got the wrong man, But Ames soon changes too
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he eventually came clean and admitted to all of his espionage.
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It's not fully clear how much Rosario Ames knew about
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or participated in his crimes, but she signed the couple's
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tax returns and had at least one suspicious phone call
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with Ames. Aldridg Aames pleaded guilty to ever espionage and
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was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As part
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of Ames's plea deal, Rosario Ames pleaded guilty to tax
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of asion and conspiracy to commit espionage and served five
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years in prison. After her release, she moved back to Columbia,
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where her son had been living with her relatives for
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almost a decade. Aldrich Ames had steadily fed information to
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the Soviet Union. Information was compromised American assets in the
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USSR and led to the executions of at least ten people.
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A damage assessment by CIA and FBI officials never got
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to the bottom of the case. Mister Ames, his memory
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damaged by alcohol, could not recall the scope the secrets
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of the secrets he sold. Why did he do it?
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Ames admits that his motivations were purely financial and he
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just wanted a payout. As the then director of the
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Central Intelligence Agency, James Woosley grimly told The New York
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Times the executed assets died because this warped, murdering traitor
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wanted bigger, a bigger house, and a jaguar. An addendum
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to this story, Aldrich Ames, the most murderous turncourt in
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the history of the United of the Central Intelligence Agency,
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whose betrayal in working for the Soviet Union went undetected
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for almost a decade, died on Monday, January five, two
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thousand and twenty six. He was eighty four and had
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been a federal prisoner serving life without paroles since nineteen
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ninety four. His death was recorded in the Federal Bureau
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of Prison's inmate database. A spokesman said he died at
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the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland. Sources for Today's
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program came from The New York Times dot com, an
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article entitled Aldridge ames CIA turncoat who helped the Soviets
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dies at eighty four, written by Tim Weiner in January
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twenty twenty six, and all That's interesting dot com Aldrich
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Ames the notorious double agent who sold CIA's secrets to
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the USSR, written by Lisa Horning, edited by Colleena Fraga
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in November of twenty twenty five. And finally, from the
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book Betrayal, A Storage A Story of Aldrich Ames, an
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American Spy, written by Tim Weiner and David Johnston and
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O'Neil a. Lewis, Random House, New York, nineteen ninety five. Well,
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that about does it for this chapter of RADIOI history.
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I sure hope that you enjoyed today's program as much
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as as I did researching and reading it. Thank you
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forgiving me your time. To day, I'm your host, Joseph Bolt,
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and I'll be back with another chapter of Radio Eye history.
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Until then, happy trails to you,