Aldrich Ames

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.

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task.

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task.

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal of what we were doing, read more

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal of what we were doing, in terms of the CIA's overall charter.

Historians don't really like to carry on speculative debates, but you could certainly argue that the likelihood of a Soviet read more

Historians don't really like to carry on speculative debates, but you could certainly argue that the likelihood of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was extremely, extremely low.

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive means. Consistency regarding the technique read more

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive means. Consistency regarding the technique is not important; inducing anxiety and fear is the point.