Aldrich Ames Espionage Case and Its Implications for U.S. Intelligence
Introduction
Ames, a CIA contractor outside his home in Virginia, was arrested by the FBI agents on the concerns of intrigue to conduct spying on behalf of the former Soviet Union on 21 February 1994. His wife Maria Ames was arrested inside the house on the same charges shortly following the arrest of her husband. During the moment of his arrests, the affidavit also revealed that the details he supplied Ames obtained large payments money which he used years ago to buy a new car and a homespun of $5400,000 (Fischer, 2011). These seemingly high costs for an employee with fewer than an annual income of $70,000 did not appear to raise queries at the CIA.
On the day the arrests were officially announced, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was first briefed on the situation. In reaction to this issue, on 23 February 1994, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee submitted a request for a thorough inquiry into the Ames Incident to Frederick the Inspector General of the CIA. On 1 March, the Committee met with Mr. Hitz in a closed meeting to discuss plans for the Ames case. The charges stemming from his espionage activities were brought against Ames and his wife Rosario on 28 April 1994. A “statement of evidence,” which gave fresh information on the spy activities of Ames, was entered on the record at the time the pleas were made. The first recognition was given to meetings with the Soviets in Washington, D.C., Vienna, Bogota, and Caracas. Ames also admitted that the KGB spent more than $1.8 million by 1 May 1989 and that another $900,000 was set aside.
Summary of the Case
CIA documents suggest that Carleton Ames was particularly pessimistic about this tour and that Elder Ames was heavily dependent on alcohol. After his overseas tour, Carleton Ames returned to the CIA Headquarters and remained in the Operations Directorate at the age of six months, until his retirement in 1967 from the CIA. Five years later, in 1972, Carleton Ames died of cancer.
He returned to work at the CIA as a painter in Virginie in the summer of 1960. In the autumn of 1960, he returned to the University of Chicago, but due to his lack of commitment, the academic year was not over. Later, until February 1962, when he was back in Washington, DC, he served as assistant technical director at a Chicago theater. Area and full-time CIA work as a typist of the GS-4 clerk (Muszynski, 2005). Over these summers in high school, he conducted the same kind of clerical tasks. Originally, Ames viewed his job as a records analyst, according to the IG report, as a stopping point for financing his college passage.
Upon training as an operations officer, the CIA performed a psychosomatic evaluation of Ames, a routine practice for all qualified candidates. As a good executive officer, Ames has put himself at the bottom of the continuum. Ames seemed an intelligent and lonely person instead of a gregarious individual who could meet and attract people from various backgrounds and cultures. However, Amas was assessed as a “solid,” smart, mature, enthusiastic, and hard-working trainee at the end of his training. Ames and his wife got married after meeting in 1969. Ames was promoted to GS-10 after completing his apprenticeship program, in October 1969 and was assigned to Ankara, Turkey, for the first time abroad.
The tour to Ankara
Ames went to Turkey with his wife, where he was working as an operational officer. His wife had to resign from his Office in compliance with CIA policy but continued partial administrative duties at the office of her husband. Ames was rated as a “solid” performer during his first year in Ankara and was promoted to GS-11 in 1970 (Wippl, 2010). His achievements gradually decreased in the third and second years. The overall appraisal of Ames was ‘satisfactory.’ This critical examination of Ames’ work success was highly upset and discouraged.
Assignment to the USA
Ames was recalled to the CIA ‘s office in 1972. For the next four years, he worked in the DO division of Soviet-Eastern Europe (SE). He underwent Russian language training in 1973 and was subsequently given a role to support the CIA activities against Soviet authorities in the United States. Thanks to Ames’ ability to handle paperwork and field planning activities, he generally received positive reviews from his superiors, presumably because he was “in the lead” as an agent’s recruiter. But there was also evident during this time of Ames’ drinking problems. Ames became so drunk during a Christmas party on Dec. 20, 1973, that CIA staff had to assist him in his home (Lukes, 2013). Every incident led to the inclusion of an “eyes-only” security office report in the register, but such events do not seem to have been made clear to its superiors.
Back in June 1976, Ames was a desk officer supporting field operations. After his CIA tour of New York City, Ames was assigned to two important soviet assets for the CIA from 1976 until 1981. Ames’ performance ratings were the best in his career during this time. Ames’s superiors found him to be four of the five years “superior” or “invariably meeting job expectations.” Ames received various promotions and a bonus as a result of these evaluations. He was classified as a top of all operation officials on the GS-13 level at the end of his New York tour in 1981. In May 1982, Ames won what would become his last promotion to the GS-14, largely due to his success in New York.
Ames Meets Rosario
He wanted to survive his marriage during his unaccompanied tour of Mexico, but during the first part of the mission, Ames engaged in at least three non-marital affairs. Ames knew that he didn’t want to save his wedding at the end of 1982. He met Rosario in Mexico City in this period in late 1982. They were launched by a CIA fellow from Ames who hired Rosario as a paid source in October 1982 (Gilbride, 2020). She met diplomats from other embassies in Mexico, including a KGB officer, who served on the same board, thanks to her membership of the board of directors of the local diplomatic organization.
The relationship between Ames and Rosario grew more and more seriously until he finally proposed her marriage. Ames did not disclose his relationship to his superiors with a foreign national amid regulations of the Agency. Some of Ames’ colleagues knew the connection, but that didn’t prompt Ames to send the required report.
Ames’s Drinking Problem:
During the Mexico assignment, Ames’ lackluster performance assessments were in part due to a growing pattern of strong drinks. On his return from Mexico, Ames conducted a therapy session, but no follow-up recovery plan was available. Ames was given a regular blood test and the psychologist declined to have a drinking problem. The study of the IG suggests that, before the therapy session of the Office of Security or the DO, the Medical Office was not aware of and did not seek additional details on Ames’ drinking behavior.
A regular background investigation of Ames was carried out by the CIA security office in February 1983 (Bruce, 2016). Ames was a casual beer drinker who was ready to become a little enthusiastic when overcrowded with alcohol in the investigative study. However, there has been no severe alcohol problem. Moreover, although the CIA Headquarters had been recommended to be counseled for Ames’ drinking problems by Ames’s Mexico City supervisor, this did not become known at that time to his prospective SE Division supervisors, who were not aware of the growing personal problem.
Conclusion
It has become apparent in the months following his arrest that Ames has done more harm than any spy in CIA history to the United States ‘ national security. Everything went horribly wrong. For almost nine years a CIA official who carries out intelligence operations without detection suggests, on his face, that the program has failed. In investigating this weakness, the committee found that a bureaucracy that was overly tolerant of severe personal and professional abuse among its workers was weak and inefficient concerning health.
The case of Ames was many and incredible. While the majority of persons reported by the Inspector General are guilty of omission instead of commission, they can not exaggerate the severity of these omissions. The failure of the persons cited by the Inspector General resulted in the loss of almost the entire CIA intelligence pool targeted at the height of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Five of these officers have been killed.
From the beginning of his CIA career, Ames showed serious problems with suitability that his supervisors should have reevaluated his continued work over the years. Such problems included drunkenness, lack of compliance with safety standards, stagnation in the face of red tape. In the years just before he started spying, his superiors became aware of his personal and professional shortcomings and throughout his entire career did not mention his issues in his official record, nor did they act actively to fix them. Notwithstanding its acknowledged inadequacy, there is little evidence that it is in any way limited in terms of tasks, operations, or access to sensitive information.