CHAPTER TWELVE
Damage Assessment
One major case that has negatively affected the CIA in the last quarter-century is the treason of Aldrich Ames. “Rick” Ames began spying in 1985 and was arrested by the FBI in February 1994. The effect of this mole’s actions has rippled through the agency and the U.S. government. The body count attributed to his betrayal includes Major General Dmitri Polyakov, then the highest-ranking official in the Russian military intelligence group GRU, who was providing intelligence to the United States during the 1980s. The Soviets executed him in 1988, after Rick Ames exposed him.
Anyone who worked with Ames after he turned would have to wonder: Did I ever see anything that, in retrospect, seemed questionable? Certainly ...
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