Aldrich Ames

I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic read more

I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union.

I came into the Agency with a set of ideas and attitudes that were quite typical of people coming into read more

I came into the Agency with a set of ideas and attitudes that were quite typical of people coming into the Agency at that time. You could call it liberal anti-communism.

I could have stopped it after they paid me the $50,000. I wouldn't even have had to go on to read more

I could have stopped it after they paid me the $50,000. I wouldn't even have had to go on to do more than I already had: just the double agents' names that I gave.

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a machinery that is supposed to read more

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a machinery that is supposed to resolve its reliability, and to present a finished product.

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them read more

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust.