Las implicaciones pedagógicas de un modelo dialogante.

❚ A D R I E N N E W I L M O T H L E R N E R

A 31-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, Aldrich ”Rick“ Hazen Ames became famous in 1994 as the highest paid ”mole“ (double agent) in United States history. Ames made millions of (US) dollars for information he provided to the Soviet KGB, and later Russian intelligence, while a mid-level employee of the CIA. The information he sold to the KGB included the names of Russian double agents and operatives working for the U.S. within the Soviet intelli- gence community, ultimately leading to their capture, imprisonment, or execution by Soviet authorities. Ames was thus, one of the most destructive double agents to compromise the security of the United States intelligence services.

A decade after Ames was born in 1941, his father, a college professor, gained employment as a CIA analyst. Ames attended college at George Washington University, majoring in history. He began working for the CIA in 1959 while still a student, largely because of his father’s posi- tion there.

Ames’s performance throughout his career at the CIA was marked by mediocrity. He continued to be promoted, but never attained routine access to the highest level of classified materials. Ames made his first deal with the Soviets in April, 1985, selling CIA secrets for an initial payment of $50,000. Later that year, Ames was sent to Mexico City to recruit new agents. One of his first recruits was a woman with whom he was having an affair, Colom- bian cultural attaché Maria Del Rosario Casas. Ames mar- ried Casas later that year. She aided Ames in his illegal activities.

Ames Espionage Case

The CIA and FBI significantly delayed the detection of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, shown handcuffed, by failing for five years to mount a serious, joint investigation into their loss of Russian agents from 1956 to 1986. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.

The CIA transferred Ames to Rome in 1986, where he stayed until 1988 working for the CIA’s Soviet Counter- intelligence Division, at the same time selling secrets to the KGB. Although Ames’s job was allegedly to recruit Soviet agents (from the embassy in Rome) into the CIA, he failed to successfully recruit a single Soviet agent. His work, however, provided him with the names of Soviet informants and it was this information he sold to the KGB. By 1989, after his return to the United States, he had made enough money to pay cash for a $540,000 home in Arling- ton, Virginia, an exclusive suburb of Washington, D.C., and another $100,000 for improvements on the house. He told friends and acquaintances he and his wife had inher- ited money from her family in Colombia.

In 1991, Ames was transferred to the CIA’s Counter- narcotics Division. Although he no longer had authorized access to information his Russian handlers might want, he managed to stay on the payroll by stealing computer files and other sensitive material.

The CIA had suspected the presence of a mole in the agency since 1986, when the first two of the Soviet agents Ames betrayed were executed. Suspicions grew with every execution and disappearance of Soviet agents in the late 1980s. The CIA was aware of Ames’s extravagant spend- ing as early as 1990. Ames passed inquiry lie-detector

tests in 1986 and 1991. However, In 1993, a joint investiga- tion between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA narrowed a list of 200 suspects down to fewer than 40, and then down to Aldrich Ames. In May, 1993, they launched project ”Nightmover,“ a criminal investigation under the FBI’s jurisdiction charged with gathering evi- dence against Ames.

Compiling enough evidence to arrest Ames and his wife on conspiracy charges took nearly a year. Over one hundred FBI agents, some of them elite members of the Special Services Group, tapped Ames’s phone wires, rooted through his garbage, planted a wire in his Jaguar, installed a video camera across from his house, shad- owed him disguised as trash collectors and lawn mainte- nance workers, and kept his home under nearly constant surveillance.

The big break in the case occurred in early Septem- ber, 1993. Ames was overheard talking on his cell phone with his wife. The conversation included details about a pending deal with Russian agents. A few days later, he was seen near what was assumed to be the signal or dead drop site used by Ames and his Russian contacts. On September 15, the FBI found a note in Ames’s garbage can indicating he was arranging a meeting for October. The FBI then obtained a warrant to enter Ames’s house. While Ames and his family were away for a weekend in early October, the FBI searched his home, finding in his per- sonal computer detailed information about drop sites and meeting places along with files of classified CIA informa- tion Ames had no business taking home. They followed him to Bogota where he was to meet with his handler, Yuri Karetkin, but failed to catch him in the act. Ames returned home $125,000 richer.

Nothing happened for four months. Ames appeared to be laying low. Finally, after detecting an unusual num- ber of Russian intelligence officers lurking around Ames’s neighborhood, the FBI became worried that the Russians had guessed Ames was under investigation. Ames was scheduled to go to Moscow and the FBI feared he might defect. The FBI decided to act, even though they had not been able to catch Ames actually meeting with his Russian handler. Aldrich and Rosario Ames were arrested on Feb- ruary 21, 1994, and charged with espionage. To prevent them from fleeing the country, the couple were held without bail.

The Ames espionage case, called a ”calamity“ by the Senate Intelligence Committee, remains one of the most remarkable cases of double-dealing in the history of the United States. The case is remarkable not only because Ames made so much money selling CIA secrets and be- cause of the huge amount of information he sold, alleg- edly compromising over a hundred covert operations, but also because Ames remained undetected for so long. The case prompted an investigation by the Senate into coun- terintelligence procedures at the CIA and calls from Con- gress and the public for sweeping reform of the agency.

Anthrax

Following the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, some minor reforms were instituted to guard against the possi- bility of another security breech.

Ames was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. To gain leniency for his wife, Ames plead guilty to all charges levied against him.

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F U R T H E R R E A D I N G :

BOOKS:

Nash, Jay Robert.Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Deeds and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today.

M.Evans, 1997.

SEE ALSO

CIA (United States Central Intelligence Agency)

KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti, USSR Com-

mittee of State Security) Russia, Intelligence and Security Hanssen (Robert) Espionage Case

Anthrax

❚ B R I A N H O Y L E

In the 1990s, the use of biological weapons by terrorists became a serious threat to the security of countries around

A microscopic view of the anthrax bacteria is seen in this photo from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. AP/ WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.

the globe, and the United States in particular. During the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991, and in subsequent United Nations inspection efforts, the government of Iraq’s devel- opment of advanced anthrax based bioweapons was revealed.

Although the incidents have not been directly linked, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., anthrax was used as a bioterrorist weapon. Letters containing a powdered form of Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, were mailed to representatives of government and the media, among others. Multiple attacks eventually killed five people.

Anthrax refers to a disease that is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The bacterium can enter the body via a wound in the skin (cutaneous anthrax), via contaminated food or liquid (gastrointestinal anthrax), or can be inhaled (inhalation anthrax). The latter in particular can cause a very serious, even lethal, infection.

The disease has been present throughout recorded history. Its use as a weapon stretches back centuries. Hundreds of years ago, bodies of anthrax victims were dumped into wells, or were catapulted into enemy en- campments. Development of anthrax-based weapons was pursued by various governments in World Wars I and II, including those of the United States, Canada, and Britain. Humans naturally acquire anthrax from exposure to livestock such as sheep or cattle or wild animals. The animals are reservoirs of the anthrax bacterium.