Aldrich Ames, CIA Spy, Dies in Prison at 84

Aldrich Ames, the former CIA officer whose espionage for the Soviet Union and Russia led to one of the most severe intelligence breaches in U.S. history, died Monday in a federal prison in Maryland. He was 84 years old, according to a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons.

Ames, who worked as a counterintelligence officer at the CIA, began betraying U.S. secrets in 1985 and continued until his arrest in 1994. He admitted to receiving approximately $2.5 million from Moscow in exchange for classified information. Among the materials he provided were the identities of at least 10 Russian officials and one East European operative who were secretly working for the United States or Britain. Those disclosures resulted in the execution of several Western agents operating behind the Iron Curtain during the final years of the Cold War, officials have said. The betrayals crippled CIA operations in the region and deprived the United States of critical intelligence for nearly a decade, according to prosecutors at the time.

Ames pleaded guilty to charges of espionage and tax evasion, avoiding a full trial. In April 1994, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole....