Letter From a Friend
Rating:
5 / 5
Having borrowed a copy from a colleague, whose book contained signatures of all those who took part in this long-lasting investigation on behalf of the CIA, I wrote to a friend, who some thirty years ago occupied the same position as Rick Ames, i.e. he was a CI chief at the SE Division. His answer may be interesting not only to Mr Earley but to many readers of this well written and useful book. My friend permitted me to quote him and I do it with pleasure.
'Hard to know where to begin to comment on the despicable Aldrich Ames. First, his actions. His was the particularly venemous form of treason that doesn't just expose hidden details of science or industry or political planning--which some rationalize as spreading necessary knowledge or
improving the prospects of peace. What he was doing, instead, was destroying the day to day work of his own colleagues and friends, murdering individuals as selectively as if he were aiming a gun at each of their heads, and clearly and directly diminishing the security of his own country (moreover, a democracy no more imperfect than any other). That he did such
a colossal thing simply for money suggests not just disloyalty but an extraordinary, almost inhuman, lack of conscience, decency or morals. In other words, a monster.
By the way, I don't accept justification by comparison with similar revelations from the other side in the Cold War. There was not only the difference in regimes east and west, but especially in punishments. Certain execution (and punishment of families) cannot be compared with a few years in a Western prison.
I suppose one could also comment on the degree of Ames's access. His job was somewhat similar to one I held a generation earlier, and I can testify that he knew, or could find out, just about everything we were doing clandestinely against our principal adversary. Seen from the point of view of the KGB as a counterintelligence organism, he was prettty close to perfectly placed.
A fascinating aspect of the case is the blindness of CIA to this menace despite blatant signs. "No man so blind as him who doesn't want to see"--but in this case, "seeing" was the paid responsibility of many within CIA and the prime mission of some. That they failed, almost willfully, tells you all you need to know about the capacity of Americans in the field of counterintelligence. One old vet told a reporter, "This
couldn't have happened in Bagley's time." Indeed, I would have forced their goddam noses down into the smell of treason that filled the air for nine years before Ames was finally caught--though maybe I wouldn't have succeeded any better than I did under somewhat similar circumstances in my own time (...)."
To this honest and professional comment, which I fully support, I'd only like to add that one crucial element is missing in Mr Earley's narration, and that is the fact, that Ames would probably be never identified as a spy if it were not for a Russian defector, who brought the final evidence to the otherwise dying investigation. So a proud CIA team featured on the photo should not actually be proud, but ashamed.
Flawed man and Flawed System
Rating:
5 / 5
Aldrich Ames' met with the author for several sittings after he was jailed and without the government's permission. That was just one more offense in a career of treason, drunkenness, slough and almost revolting passivity. Yet this man not only sent as many as 25 agents to their execution, he also spared no information to his KGB handlers. At times, he would be rooting for our side by day and by night he would have reversed and treacherously divulged everything he had previously learned.Of course the answer is how? Despite the agency's superiority in resources and technology, they retain a dangerous and imbecilic "he's one of us" mentality. Ames repeatedly failed to follow protocol. He was spending money like a madman and while there were a few who were convinced of his guilt, the amount of time and the ultimate leakage that occured with every day was shameful. Interestingly or not, the CIA has satellites that could zero in on Brezhnev as his dacha while he was being detained-but when it came down to getting the goods on Ames, they were more like the Keystone cops. Stealing trashcans, going door to door as salesmen, til someone called the cops and all of the vaudeville that one associates with those types of blunders. The book is far more flattering to the 'bureau,' who took full honors for the arrest even though there had been an agency team that had first fingered Ames and his wife. The underlying issue for me was a) how the nature of espionage seems to be more about getting moles than about truly gathering intelligence and b) the astonishing lack of effective ways to figure out if someone is working for the other side. All of which, indicts or acquits the nature of being human in a world of frightening homeland security and total information awareness. Getting the info is apparently easier than managing it and logically acting on behalf of the constitution- not an ideology. There has been nothing discovered that has solved that problem. I really enjoyed reading this book and having some insight into diplomacy and superpowers and flawed characters all over.
Even handed, engrossing read
Rating:
5 / 5
Excellent book. Well investigated and written. Once you start, it's hard to put it down.
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