“Welcome to the United States,” one of them said. Moscow, August 3, 1985: It was 2 a.m. when Andrei Poleshchuk got home. A Portrait of Anne of Cleves or Catherine Howard? Ames’ mother, Rachel Aldrich Ames, taught in the Fairfax County public schools until retiring in 1969 and moving to North Carolina. Aldrich Ames was the oldest of three children and the only son. He stayed in safe houses in Virginia at first, then lived half a year in California to learn English, moved back East and consulted for the CIA and some U.S. companies. He walked down the steps and shook hands with the waiting CIA officers. When the driver turned off the engine, Gordievsky could hear dogs close by—Alsatians, he later learned. “That the KGB ran a ‘fourth mole’ is undeniable,” Victor Cherkashin, a wily KGB counterintelligence officer, has written. Aldrich Ames was born on May 26, 1941 in River Falls, Wisconsin to Carleton Cecil Ames and Rachel Ames. “Your father’s been arrested,” the man said. I could sense he had been tortured.” Leonid was executed on July 30. Gordievsky was told his London posting was over, but he would be allowed to remain in a non-sensitive KGB department in Moscow. Bokhan put them on as Reiser drove to a safe house. He tried again, following the fallback plan, and this time a man carrying a dark-green bag from Harrods, the upscale London department store, walked by eating a candy bar. Maria, then 16, was carrying the patatuff. With Timothy Hutton, Joan Plowright, Elizabeth Peña, C. David Johnson. Although Gordievsky has written that he climbed into the trunk of one of the cars, a former CIA officer says he actually crawled into a space in a specially modified Land Rover. Through the windows of the ground-floor apartment he shared with his parents, he could see strangers moving about. In the history of U.S. intelligence, only three major moles—men whose betrayals had lethal results—have been identified. The CIA would want to debrief him at length to try to determine the full extent of his treachery. They began to date. After his father was executed, Andrei kept working for Novosti. He underwent a debriefing by MI6 and cooperated with it and other Western intelligence services. Wife of CIA Double Agent Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison : Espionage: Rosario Ames asks for leniency, portraying herself as a victim. Bokhan’s son, Alex, also made it to the U.S., in 1995. Ames’ mother, Rachel Aldrich Ames, taught in the Fairfax County public schools until retiring in 1969 and moving to North Carolina. “No,” he was told, “they’re here for you.”. They have two children, and he works as an independent research analyst for business and government contractors in Northern Virginia. It is possible that Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk fell under KGB suspicion through some operational error or communications intercept. He drove around Athens in his BMW for close to an hour to make certain he wasn’t being followed, then walked into a 100-foot pedestrian tunnel under a highway. Aldrich was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. But if he returned home, he could be shot. Andrei Poleshchuk told me his father’s arrest was a disaster for his mother. He is currently serving a sentence, without the possibility of parole, in the high-security Allenwood U.S Penitentiary. “That’s when they showed me a piece of paper with the words, ‘I met Joe,’” Andrei told me. Hanssen, who was convicted of espionage, is serving a life sentence in the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. “Because I knew it was a death sentence.”. ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Rosario Ames, wife of convicted spy Aldrich Ames, was sentenced to 63 months in prison today, after begging a federal judge for mercy… It has to be small. 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. But it was only a matter of time. Aldrich Ames was born in River Falls, Washington in 1941, the son of a CIA employee. Inside the CIA, Howard was blamed for Tolkachev’s unmasking and subsequent execution, although Ames, too, had betrayed the researcher’s identity. He might be dead, or he’s living in his dacha now. 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. He was the eldest in the family of three children, being the only son. In addition to Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk, more than a dozen other sources were exposed. [Long pause.] He was about to be married, and his debts were mounting. For those who are betrayed, the damage persists long after the initial shock passes. Soon there was a plan for an “exfiltration,” the CIA’s term for spiriting an agent in danger out of a foreign country. He was free. Clearly the KGB had searched his flat. “I was 18 years old.” He sees that episode differently now. An Exclusive Look at James Turrell's Visionary Artwork in the Arizona Desert, An Epic Monarch Migration Faces New Threats. His fear mounted. By 1993 their marriage was over. 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. Gordievsky decided to risk his life and go. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he works in Washington, New York and Turkey. O.J. The Ames Spy Case Table of Contents CIA intelligence officer Aldrich Hazen Ames and his wife, Rosario Ames, were arrested 21 February 1994. If there is a fourth mole, and he is still alive, the FBI would surely want to catch him and prosecute him. 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 … Fact-based story about a 1990s espionage case that was chronicled as the worst case of espionage in U.S. history. John F. Lewis Jr., a former FBI counterintelligence agent who was chief of the national security division, believes there is a fourth mole. As soon as Gordievsky landed in Moscow, he picked up signs that he had gambled wrong. Aldrich Ames is the CIA Chief of Soviet Counter-Intelligence for a long time, without having any promotion. Within two weeks after his flight to the United States, he had a new name, a fake background, a Social Security number and a 9-millimeter Beretta. The Soviets had arranged for the apparent good news to reach his wife through a friend and former co-worker in Moscow, who wrote to her in Lagos. In Athens, Bokhan called an emergency telephone number that rang in the CIA station inside the American Embassy. |, (FBI / LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images), (John Hallisey / FBI / LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images). But the CIA and FBI debriefers soon recognized a glaring anomaly in Ames’ account: It was clear that those three agents had fallen under suspicion in May 1985—before Ames insists he handed over the documents. On September 21, 1985, Howard eluded FBI surveillance and escaped into the New Mexico desert with the help of his wife, Mary, and a pop-up dummy in his car’s passenger seat (a technique he had learned in CIA training). Simpson and Lorena Bobbitt, move over, and make room for Rosario Ames. But Ames always insisted to the FBI, the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee that he revealed no significant sources before his meeting at Chadwicks. “He had lost a lot of weight. 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. Privacy Statement “Joe said to his people, ‘Keep the watch, I want to give it to his son.’” At a reception after the church ceremony, Joe gave Andrei the watch. 1962: Aldrich Hazen Ames joins the CIA as a clerk and works his way up to counterintelligence officer. In April 1985, he has said, he told a Soviet contact in Washington the names of two or three double agents who had approached the CIA but who were actually working for the KGB—“dangles,” in intelligence parlance. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. “Confess again!” the general roared. But some highly experienced U.S. counterintelligence experts doubt it. The 23-year-old journalist had been working late for Novosti, the Soviet press agency. “I was angry because I was dropped from military school and sent to the Army, far off, near Vladivostok,” he said. Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $12, Rare Owl With Bright Orange Eyes Seen for the First Time in More Than 125 Years, Rarely Seen Portrait of Renaissance Queen Catherine de' Medici to Go on View, The True Story of Amazon's 'Underground Railroad', Biologists Catch Enormous 'Real Life River Monster' in Michigan, Why Cats Love to Sit in Boxes—Even Fake Ones, According to Science, Melting Glacier in the Italian Alps Reveals Trove of World War I Artifacts, Vesuvius Victim Identified as Elite Roman Soldier Sent on Failed Rescue Mission, Thirteenth-Century Angkor Was Home to More People Than Modern Boston, A Jet-Black, Bioluminescent 'Football Fish' Washed Up on a California Beach, Why Historians Should Reevaluate Mary Todd Lincoln's Oft-Misunderstood Grief. Andrei was allowed to visit him in prison only once, after he was sentenced to death. The coded exchange triggered a meeting that night with his CIA case officer, Dick Reiser, who cabled headquarters in Langley that BLIZZARD was in trouble. The first of two broadcasts (see also 2/18/97) of taped segments with Ted Koppel (ABC), author Pete Earley, former USSR diplomat Sergey Fedorenko, convicted spy Aldrich Ames, former KGB spy Oleg Gordievsky, and Ames' wife Rosario re: Ames' … Before Leonid Poleshchuk left Lagos, he had asked the CIA for $20,000 to buy the apartment that was supposedly waiting for him. “It shortened her life,” he said. From the day they talked, Wiser told me, “we believed it was important for us to consider the strong possibility that Gordievsky was compromised by someone within the U.S. intelligence community.”, Wiser acknowledges that Ames may have lied or been mistaken about the date—Ames has conceded that he drank heavily before his meetings with the KGB. 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. While the extent of these ac-tivities was uncertain at that time, it was clear that Ames, an em-ployee of the CIA's Directorate of … Before his father left Lagos, Andrei said, he gave a gold watch to his CIA case officer at the time. Then the car started up again, and the radio, which had been playing pop music, suddenly boomed out Sibelius’ Finlandia. The stories of Oleg Gordievsky, Sergei Bokhan and Leonid Poleshchuk—reported here in extensive new detail and based on interviews with Gordievsky, Bokhan and Andrei Poleshchuk, as well as former FBI and CIA officials—suggest the damage a mole can do. 1985 serves as the backdrop to the final showdown of the Cold War when Sandy and her partner Jeanne Vertefeuille (Harriet Walter) vowed to find the mole that would turn out to be the most notorious traitor in US History, Aldrich Ames (Paul Rhys). Ames was charged with providing classified information to the Soviet KGB and its successor service, the Russian Ministry of Security for the Russian Federation (SVR), over a nine-year period. Aldrich Ames (Timothy Hutton) was a middle class C.I.A. In his fourth-floor office at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he wrapped up five to seven pounds of secret documents and walked out of the building. We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. Bokhan froze. The next thing he knew, he woke up half-dressed in one of the dacha’s bedrooms. It was apparent that Soviet counterintelligence agents did not yet have enough evidence to arrest him. He did so, but nothing happened. 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. promoted Aldrich Hazen Ames, an alcoholic underachiever going through a financially ruinous divorce from a fellow … 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. CIA employee, Aldrich Hazen Ames, and his wife, Maria del Rosario Casas Ames, on charges stemming from espionage activi-ties allegedly undertaken since 1985. Leonid never made it to the rock, his son said. “I could not believe what was happening. He was convicted of espionage in 1994. ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) _ Alleged spy Aldrich Ames and his wife are planning to send their 5-year-old son, Paul, to Colombia, his mother's native country, according to government papers filed in federal court. At Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland he looked out the window and saw several black cars and people on the tarmac. 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.”. Aldrich was the eldest of three children and the only son. He had graduated from school and found a good job, and he wanted to live on his own. Then he kissed his wife and daughter goodbye. “After many years, I understood him. After some months, she was released. and C.I.A. He works as a computer programmer. Aldrich Ames is a former CIA counterintelligence analyst who was committed treason against the U.S. government by spying for the Russians. He started his career in the Central Intelligence Agency, but after a … “The timeline just didn’t work” to explain Gordievsky’s recall to Moscow, FBI Special Agent Leslie Wiser, who ran the Ames case, told me. He dropped it, sensing that he was getting into dangerous territory. 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. And the intelligence culture is not going to let that go. As they walked on the beach that Saturday, he said his career was in trouble. After Ames was arrested and charged with espionage, his attorney, Plato Cacheris, negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors: Ames’ wife, Rosario, an accomplice in his spying, would be spared a long prison sentence if he cooperated fully with the authorities. He was the eldest in the family of three children, being the only son. Aldrich Ames Aldrich Ames (1941 – ) was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official who rose to high rank within the agency’s Soviet and East European division, which afforded him access to Soviet counterintelligence. A few days after Oleg Gordievsky was recalled to Moscow, the KGB flew his wife, Leila, and their two daughters there, and he broke the unwelcome news that they would not be posted back to London. “They expected I would do something stupid,” he told me. For a long time he resented the impact of his father’s CIA spying on his own life. They began to date. In 1997, Andrei and Svetlana emigrated to the United States. He was like a walking dead man. 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. Maybe a fifth. That raised a possibility that remains, even today, a subject of deep concern among counterintelligence agents, a problem privately acknowledged but little discussed publicly: That the three agents may have been betrayed by a mole inside U.S. intelligence whose identity is still unknown. 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 … Ames was convicted of espionage and sentenced to life in prison, and his wife received a five-year sentence for tax evasion and conspiracy to commit espionage. His MI6 handlers assured him they’d picked up no sign anything was wrong. While Ames was in high school he obtained a job at the CIA as a low ranking records analyst. PART ONE: FACTUAL SUMMARY OF THE AMES CASE A. AMESS PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIFE PRIOR To His ESPIONAGE ACTWITIES 1. “Stay calm,” he recalls telling himself. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordiev­sky was at the pinnacle of his career. 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