Aldrich Ames obituary

"Aldrich Ames, who has died in prison aged 84, was the most senior CIA officer ever to be exposed as a Russian spy. Ames betrayed more than 30 allied agents, at least 10 of whom were executed by the classic KGB punishment of a bullet in the back of the head, and more than 100 clandestine US and British espionage operations."

"The US and British agents betrayed by Ames included Maj Gen Dmitri Polyakov, a senior member of the GRU, Soviet military intelligence, who supplied top level information to the CIA, the US foreign intelligence agency, for more than a quarter of a century, and Oleg Gordievsky, an MI6 agent inside the KGB, who, when he was outed by Ames, was the KGB rezident or head of station, in London."

Aldrich Ames was recruited into the CIA in 1967 and served in overseas postings including Ankara and Mexico before being assigned to Langley. He advanced to a position responsible for the security of the CIA's Soviet agents. Personal failings included failed marriages, an affair with Maria del Rosario Casas Dupuy, and mounting debts that led him to accept payments from the KGB. Beginning in April 1985 he sold classified information to the Soviet embassy in Washington. Ames betrayed more than 30 allied agents, including Maj Gen Dmitri Polyakov and Oleg Gordievsky, and compromised over 100 US and British clandestine operations, contributing to multiple executions.

Read at www.theguardian.com