Aldrich Ames spied for the Soviet Union and Russia from 1985 until his 1994 arrest. He had pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, admitting he received $2.5m from Moscow for betraying the identities of at least ten Western intelligence assets, at least nine of whom were executed.
This Judas Iscariot compromised more than 100 US intelligence operations in one of the most damaging breaches in American history, sending numerous US assets in the USSR to their deaths and crippling CIA operations.
Despite repeated red flags including failed polygraph examinations, unexplained wealth, and alcohol problems, CIA promoted Ames to increasingly sensitive positions, representing a major institutional failure with long-term consequences for counterintelligence practices.
Nota Bene: From 1985 to 1990, Vladimir Putin served as a KGB foreign intelligence officer in Dresden, East Germany. Aldrich Ames' Soviet handlers were primarily in Moscow and other locations, not in Dresden.
The 1980s saw other spies betray the US, like Clayton Lonetree, the first US Marine ever court-martialed for espionage. He was eventually released because the damage to the USIC was not significant, his motivation was loneliness, and he would serve as an expert witness in the trial of a more significant catch named George Trofimoff.
The other notorious Benedict Arnold in the USIC from that era who caused grave damage to the US is Jonathan Pollard. He spied for Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy. Pollard disclosed the names of thousands of people who had cooperated with US intelligence agencies and he shopped his services successfully to other countries as well. This Judas Iscariot was paroled on 20 Nov 2015 and then he moved to Israel where he was greeted as a national hero by PM Benjamin Netanyahu: Benjamin Netanyahu Greets American Traitor
The late CIA traitor Aldrich Ames (USMS #40087-083):
