Washington. Aldrick Ames, a former officer of America’s intelligence agency CIA and one of the most notorious spies of the Cold War era, has died at the age of 84. Ames, who was lodged in a Maryland jail, died last Monday. A Jail Bureau spokesperson has confirmed his death. Ames was serving a life sentence for the last several decades. Aldrich Ames served in the American intelligence agency CIA for about 31 years, but during this time he caused serious damage to America’s national security. Ames admitted that he sold American intelligence information to the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1994. In return he received about 2.5 million dollars from Moscow. This case is considered to be one of the biggest espionage scandals that came to light during the Cold War.
In his confession, Ames stated that he had revealed the identities of 10 Russian officers and one Eastern European officer who were spying for the US and Britain. Apart from this, he had also handed over to the Soviet Union very sensitive information related to satellite-based surveillance operations, secret conversations, spying networks and the working methods of intelligence agencies. Due to this information, many intelligence agents of western countries were caught and many of them died. This incident proved to be a major setback for the CIA and its allies.
Aldrich Ames was charged with espionage and tax evasion, which he pleaded guilty to in court. After this he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Prosecutors said that Ames kept important intelligence information from America for a long time and handed it over to the enemy country. In his statement given in the court, Ames had said that he is ashamed of his betrayal and suffers from guilt. He had claimed that he had taken this step to repay his huge debts.
According to the FBI, Ames was posted to the Soviet and Eastern Europe Division at the CIA’s Langley headquarters when he first contacted the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB. He continued to share classified information during his posting in Rome and after his return to Washington. For a long time, American intelligence agencies could not understand how the Soviet Union was able to capture their agents so easily. A dark chapter of the Cold War comes to an end with the death of Aldrich Ames.
