Aldrich Ames Betrayal

The ultimate betrayal of Aldrich Ames, a trusted CIA agent of over 30 years, was one that had more than just one consequence(Kubic, 2017). Throughout many years he gave up secrets and names that involved undercover operations. These secrets were worth large amounts of money to enemy contacts in the KGB. Ames is a unique kind of traidor; for he is not only motivated by money and opportunity but also pleasure and satisfaction of being able to give out “confidential” information(Kubic,2017). Ames showed on many accounts that he had very few regrets about giving up secrets that cost people their lives(Kubic, 2017)(Carr, 2017). He did however cooperate after being arrested. He gave a full statement telling his motives and personal Vendetta's

If he gave up the names of agents that knew who he was he could bring down some risk of being found out by the CIA(Kubic,2017). The victims and their stories vary heavily. Not all of the agents that were given up by ames were executed. Many were sent to prison or prison camps for many years and endured countless hours of torture and some were released after a new russian president took over and they got to live out the rest of their lives happily in the US. Some were not so fortunate, and were investigated and killed by the KGB after ames gave up their names. One victim is Valeri Martynov. He was arrested and imprisoned for two years while he was investigated and they questioned his family. After two years and only seeing his wife four times in that span, he was executed at the age of 41. Another account of tragedy caused by Ames is Dimitri Polyakov. He was by far the most significant and highest ranked agent that the CIA had in place at the KGB. He had worked his way up in the military to become a high ranking officer and fed the CIA information for over 20 years even though he didn’t have to. He wanted to help and give as much info as he could but was betrayed by one of his own. When he was found out in 1988, he was executed and the CIA felt a deep personal loss. One other victim who happen to be one of the “lucky” ones perse, Vladimir Potashov. Vladimir was one of the ones sent to a prison camp to endure tortures such as being beaten repeatedly and made to live in absolutely toxic conditions for five years and seven months. After he was released he got to live a normal life(Wise,