John Douglas's Guide to Careers in the FBI by John Douglas

Author:John Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
Published: 2009-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Letter claiming responsibility for the Sandy Springs and Otherside bombings, from the Atlanta Bombing Case Consolidation, June 9, 1997 (continued on next page) (FBI Photo)

Foreign CounterIntelligence Program

One of the Bureau’s most well-publicized counterespionage cases involved Aldrich Ames, a CIA agent who sold out to the KGB for almost $2 million. The Ames case has been well documented in several books; two of the best are Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, by Pete Earley, and Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI’s Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames, America’s Deadliest Spy, by Peter Maas.

The Mole

Aldrich Ames apparently never was the brightest bulb on the tree. His bosses gave him mediocre performance evaluations; he drank heavily, and was once found passed out in a gutter; he often napped at his desk after a multiple-martini lunch. Still, in September 1983, he was appointed the CIA’s counterintelligence branch chief in Soviet operations. The job gave him access to a wealth of sensitive information, including the identities of Soviets working for the United States.

By early 1985, Rick Ames felt strapped for money. Two years earlier, while posted in Mexico City, he’d become involved with a woman working as a cultural attaché at the Colombian embassy. Rosario Casas Dupuy was an ambitious, forceful woman with a taste for the best—or at least the most expensive—of everything. Ames was in the middle of a divorce, and Rosario had come to live with him in Arlington, Virginia. As a foreign national in the United States on a tourist visa, she couldn’t work. She was bored and restless, and complained constantly. Ames had piled up tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and his $45,000-a-year salary seemed pitifully inadequate. Before he married Rosario, Rick felt he needed a solid chunk of money—something to settle his debts and get a fresh start. He thought about a second job at a 7-11; he considered bank robbery. Then he remembered his most valuable asset, something worth a great deal to certain people—information about U.S. espionage.

On April 16, 1985, Ames set up a lunch appointment with an employee at the Soviet embassy, a man he was trying to recruit for the CIA. Ames prepared a note addressed to the KGB rezident posted at the Soviet embassy; he was offering to sell the Soviets information about the CIA’s spying operations for $50,000 in cash.

Rick Ames got stood up for lunch. But, fortified by several vodka martinis, he decided to forge ahead anyway. He drove straight to the Soviet embassy and handed the security guard an envelope addressed to the KGB rezident, using the man’s KGB code name. Within a month, Ames had his $50,000, and a new career as a spy. He excelled in his career as a mole in a way he never had while working “above ground.”

Over the next five years, Rick Ames sold tremendous amounts of information to the Soviets. He betrayed as many as 20 agents working for the United States; several of these men were promptly executed, leaving their families in the Soviet Union destitute and disgraced.

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