It’s OK. To be dead or to be alive was the question for my dad. [Long pause.] CIA employee, Aldrich Hazen Ames, and his wife, Maria del Rosario Casas Ames, on charges stemming from espionage activi-ties allegedly undertaken since 1985. When I found a job, the KGB called and they fired me. They flew to New York and, with help from the CIA and the FBI, were reunited with Sergei at a motel near John F. Kennedy International Airport. But if he returned home, he could be shot. Ames, one of the greatest traitors in American history, was arrested on Feb. 21, 1994, nearly a decade after he began selling secret information to the Soviet Union. Aldrich Ames, the man being arrested, looks at one of the agents and though the photo is blurry, you can still make out some surprise. Housing in Moscow was nearly impossible to find, even for a KGB officer, but sometime that May, he’d received a seemingly miraculous letter from his father. You also agree to our Terms of Service. See our, Read a limited number of articles each month, You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads, Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device, Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps, No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. Had the Russians examined the car, they would have seen the hump on the floor where the driveshaft would normally be. Simpson and Lorena Bobbitt, move over, and make room for Rosario Ames. That fall, the KGB rolled up all of the CIA’s assets in the Soviet Union in a lightning strike that sent the agency reeling. He had champagne and flowers waiting, a big basket of fruit, chocolates and a balloon. At Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland he looked out the window and saw several black cars and people on the tarmac. O.J. These things have to be run to ground.”. He underwent a debriefing by MI6 and cooperated with it and other Western intelligence services. Arrested? Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, An Assessment of the Aldrich H. Ames Espionage Case and Its Implications for U.S. Intelligence, November 1, 1994. He didn’t have a choice.” Today, Sergei and Alla live quietly in the Sun Belt under his new identity. Agent, whose problems with alcohol and general ineptness had kept him from rising further in the ranks of the agency. As soon as Gordievsky landed in Moscow, he picked up signs that he had gambled wrong. Born 1941 in River Falls, Wisconsin, the son of Carleton Ames, a teacher at River Falls State Teachers College and grandson of Jesse Ames, the president of the school.His mother was also a teacher. On the appointed day he started proverka, or “dry-cleaning”—walking an elaborate route to throw off anyone who might be watching him. California Do Not Sell My Info Impossible. Give a Gift. Aldrich Ames was born in Wisconsin to Carleton Cecil Ames and Rachel Ames. Joe had become very close to my father and worried that some action by him, some error, had led to his betrayal.”. He started having trouble breathing. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. U.S. counterintelligence agents have established that neither Howard nor Hanssen had access to the identities of all the American intelligence sources who were betrayed in 1985. Would she ever live in the West? Bokhan assumed that both the KGB and the GRU were watching him. Aldrich Ames (born 26 May 1941) was a CIA officer who worked as a KGB double agent during the Cold War.He compromised highly classified CIA assets, leading to many deaths until he was convicted of espionage in 1994. Now, he feared, the KGB’s counterspies had become suspicious and were recalling him to confront him. “That’s when they showed me a piece of paper with the words, ‘I met Joe,’” Andrei told me. His father, Leonid Poleshchuk, was a senior KGB counterintelligence officer, most recently the deputy rezident for counterintelligence in Lagos, Nigeria. Arrested with him was his wife, Rosario Ames, who had aided and abetted his espionage activities. He was the eldest in the family of three children, being the only son. “At first I couldn’t even recognize him,” Andrei said. Ames’ mother, Rachel Aldrich Ames, taught in the Fairfax County public schools until retiring in 1969 and moving to North Carolina. Long after the massive losses in 1985, the lingering questions still gnaw at their counterintelligence experts. Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG (Оле́г Анто́нович Гордие́вский; born 10 October 1938) is a former colonel of the KGB and KGB resident-designate (rezident) and bureau chief in London, who was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret … Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Wise is the author or co-author of 14 books, including The Politics of Lying, Spy Who Got Away and Tiger Trap. If it should turn out that the mole is no longer alive, the intelligence agencies would still run a damage assessment to try to reconstruct what and whom he might have betrayed. 1941-1969 Aldrich Hazen ("Rick") Ames was born in River Falls, Wisconsin on May 26, 1941, to Carleton Ceil Ames and Rachel Aldrich Ames,Aldrich Ames was the oldest of three children and the only son. That happened several times.”. He met with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, wrote a memoir and co-wrote a book on the KGB. Born 1941 in River Falls, Wisconsin, the son of Carleton Ames, a teacher at River Falls State Teachers College and grandson of Jesse Ames, the president of the school.His mother was also a teacher. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. He turned traitor and sold his services to the Soviet KGB as a deep mole within their enemy’s camp, and became […] If I was waiting for the elevator, they went down the stairs. After dark they left for a small airport, where Bokhan boarded a CIA plane. Aldrich Hazen ("Rick") Ames was born in River Falls, Wisconsin on May 26, 1941, to Carleton Cecil Ames and Rachel Aldrich Ames. Then he kissed his wife and daughter goodbye. The FBI declined to comment on whether the search Wiser began is continuing. Of course Cherkashin, who worked in the Soviet Embassy in Washington and handled Ames, may have been unable to resist a chance to taunt the FBI and the CIA. From a Moscow railroad station, he made his way by train, bus and taxi to a point near the Finnish-Soviet border, where he hid in some grass by the roadside until two cars stopped. It said Bokhan’s son, Alex, 18, was having trouble in military school and suggested the deputy take his vacation now, three months early, and return to the Soviet Union to deal with him. He was like a walking dead man. Finally, in 1991, with the KGB in disarray after its chief led the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the authorities let Alla and her daughter leave. He would not say why. By 1993 their marriage was over. There were, however, a number of leaks of information to which Ames was not privy (Ames was a CIA agent and did not have access to … He was free. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. Either one of ours or theirs.”, When the FBI Spent Decades Hunting for a Soviet Spy on Its Staff. Reiser was waiting in a car at the other end. Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Aldrich and Rosario Ames are close to agreement on guilty pleas in the couple's espionage case, sources familiar with the … But some highly experienced U.S. counterintelligence experts doubt it. “Some of it just didn’t add up,” he says. The year 1985 was a catastrophe for U.S. and British intelligence agencies. I will never forget the day when I got home and she was singing songs, melodies, no words, and looking insane. The following May, he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences behind bars with no possibility of parole. An Exclusive Look at James Turrell's Visionary Artwork in the Arizona Desert, An Epic Monarch Migration Faces New Threats. She did, in 1991, but the strain caused by six years of separation proved too much to repair. 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