Free Paper Sample on Aldrich Ames, a Central Intelligence Agency Spy

Introduction

Born in 1941 in River Falls U.S., Aldrich Ames was an official of the Central Intelligence Agency and a son of an analyst for the same organization. Before joining the C.I.A. as a trainee in 1962, Ames attended the University of Chicago as well as the George Washington University in 1967 (Weiner n.p). Ames was assigned the task of identifying Soviet spies by the C.I.A. but ended up becoming one of the prominent double agents for Russia and the Soviet Union. From 1975 to 1985, Ames was secretly involved in selling C.I.A.'s top secrets to Russia's rivals (Shapira n.p). For an entire decade, Ames' spying activities remained a secret. This paper provides a detailed discussion of the early life of Aldrich Ames, his involvement, and how policies and security measures have changed concerning the protection of classified materials in the United States.

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The Early Life of Aldrich Ames, His Career and Criminal Involvements

In his first major tasks (1969-1972), Ames was assigned to Ankara Turkey, where he hired U.S. spies from Soviet citizens. Having worked as an undercover for three years, he married a fellow C.I.A. agent with whom they stayed together in the '70s in New York and Washington (Weiner n.p). It was during this stay in the U.S. that Ames hen also interacted with the Soviets assigned to the U.S., and he contemplated living a double life. However, the first marriage did not last long, and he got divorced before the '80s. Ames then moved to Mexico City in 1981, where he re-married a Columbian citizen, Maria del Rosario Casas, who also worked for the CIA (Shapira n.p). Though considered mediocre by his seniors, he was promoted to a chief position for the counterintelligence division of the Soviet branch. At this position, his primary task was to oversee the recruitment and operations of foreign agents.

In 1985, Ames recruited himself as one of the Soviet agents and was involved in selling to the Soviet Embassy, two K.G.B. officials who furtively worked for the F.B.I. at $50,000 (Weiner n.p). Later on, Ames sacrificed the names of all Soviet military and intelligence officers he knew were working for the U.S. and information on C.I.A. operations against Russia. After his wedding with Rosario, Ames was awarded a present worth $2 million from the K.G.B. (FBI.gov n.p). The money is considered to be one of the huge sums to have been awarded to an American spy from the Soviets. Ames' spying activities continued for the next years, including in Rome, where had been assigned between 1986- 89 and later in the Agency's headquarters between 1990- 94 (Lukoff and Botelho, 83). During this period, he supervised operations against the Soviets and their satellites in Western Europe and operated spies in Czechoslovakia. Ames also worked with C.I.A.'s Counter-narcotics Center, where he met the Russian handlers where made efforts to stop the heroin trade in Russia. However, in all these involvements, Ames was collecting and selling classified information from the Agency.

The main reason behind Ames’ double life was a desperation for money. Ames would be rewarded huge sums of money by selling the classified information, which he would otherwise not get by being a clean agent. Though the C.I.A had suspected information leak as from 1986, Ames remained managed to get away for quite an extended period (Weiner n.p). Ames flunked the lie detector tests and managed to own the most expensive house and car. One major reason why Ames managed to get away for so long is that the Agency failed to dedicate the appropriate resources to his case promptly.

The ability to identify and apprehend a traitor required intuition, a feeling that something was not just right. Therefore, collecting evidence on a suspected case required gumshoe investigations, human intelligence, and paper details, which were quite hard compared to modern-day use of resources such as G.P.S. and the internet (Lukoff and Botelho, 8). The inconsistency of present-day analytics slowed down the discovery process. According to Shapira (n.p), another reason why Ames managed to get away for so long is that it was believed that a large proportion of his wealth was from his wife’s Colombian kinfolk.

How Policy and Security Measures Changed Due To the Ames’ Case

The Ames situation revealed the gaps in the protection of classified information. Due to these gaps, Ames managed to walk out of the C.I.A. offices in Rome and Langley with envelops and bags filled with classified materials and documents. Most of the documents he sold to the K.G.B. handlers were information copies that did not have any form of accountability to such an extent that the traitor did not have to make their copies (Central Intelligence Agency n.p). In his last assignment in the Counter-narcotics branch, Ames would download different classified documents to computer floppies and take them home. At one point at a forum in Turkey, Ames carried a laptop to his hotel room, a move that never raised security alarm among those aware of the happening. Ames also visited offices out of his bound and gained access to classified information, which was not meant for him.

In efforts to prevent the occurrence of a similar case in the future, John Deutch, the Director of Central Intelligence, issued some corrective measures to improve the Agency's functionality and provide more protection to classified information. Deutch developed policies that emphasized quality in the recruitment of agents and agent handling compared to recruitments quantity (Central Intelligence Agency n.p). The measure established new criteria and standards for personnel assessment and focused on quality over quantity in the recruitment of agents. The Ames' case also saw the establishment of an exhilarated system in the Directorate of Operations, which was meant to certify assets and develop a team approach that involved counterintelligence officers and analysts from the start of cases.

Deutch also made efforts to establish component-level accountability boards in several departments within the Agency. The measure was meant to ensure that all departments played a significant role in ensuring that all agents were accountable for their actions. The boards were also tasked with ensuring a high level of integrity among the agents through continuous monitoring and reporting. Another measure adopted by the C.I.A included the institution of the National Counterintelligence Center, which would be led by a high-ranking F.B.I. Official. The C.I.A. also increased the counterintelligence solicitation that emphasized training and counterintelligence awareness. The continuous training focused on improving the agents' management skills to ensure career development at all levels by inculcating values and goals.

John Deutch instituted new procedures for the agency managers regarding employee sustainability and reinforcement of internal disciplinary measures. The C.I.A. set guidelines concerning the type of information that should be accessed by senior managers within the Agency. Therefore, the CIA developed an all-inclusive review of internal management that helped identify and break down the information that ought to be passed up the ladder (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence 115). As a result, information was filtered such that only the concerned parties would access the classified information rather than availing it to all agents within the Agency.

Another measure involved the rotation of case officers to other departments and other assignments to avoid domination in one position, which could lead to the creation of connections with rival forces. Constant rotation ensures that incompetent officers and agents are transferred to other departments and tasks where they were less prone to making mistakes (Weiner n.p). On the higher end, the CIA paid more attention to matters concerning the identification and promotion of agents or officers. Only those individuals who demonstrated better management skills and accountability would be promoted to senior officers and managers positions. The above changes played a huge role in improving physical and personal security in safeguarding classified information within the CIA.

Conclusion

Though the CIA has made progress in avoiding information leaks, and the Agency could still institute some tough measures to guarantee maximum protection of classified information. One of the primary recommendations would be the implementation of I.T. security measures to hinder staff from accessing or downloading any classified information through computers. Secondly, the Agency should institute policies that subject the staff to random searches, especially when leaving the offices. The searches could also be conducted unexpectedly and intermittently at selected places. Finally, the Agency needs to continually review and update its security protocols concerning how classified information is handled.

Works Cited

Central Intelligence Agency. "DCI Statement on the Ames Damage Assessment — Central Intelligence Agency." Central Intelligence Agency, 31 Oct. 1995, www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-1995/ps103195.html

FBI.gov. "Aldrich Ames." Federal Bureau of Investigation, 18 May 2016, www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/aldrich-amesLukoff, Lee, and Victoria Botelho. "Ames, Aldrich." Encyclopedia of U.S. Intelligence, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1081/E-EUSI-140000516

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "An Assessment of the Aldrich H. Ames Espionage Case and Its Implications for U.S. Intelligence." U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994, pp. 1-129.

Shapira, Ian. "'Rick is a goddamn Russian spy': Does the C.I.A. have a new Aldrich Ames on its hands?" The Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/26/rick-is-a-goddamn-russian-spy-does-the-cia-have-a-new-aldrich-ames-on-its-hands/

Weiner, Tim. "Why I spied; Aldrich Ames." The New York Times, 31 July 1994, www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/magazine/why-i-spied-aldrich-ames.html.