Aldrich Ames - The Ultimate Double Agent, Part 1/2: Selling Secrets | CIA

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

SPYSCAPE

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The CIA is only as strong as it's weakest link. And in the waning years of the Cold War, weak links were in ready supply. A number of trusted Agency officers were caught selling secrets to the Russian regime. And the most notorious traitor? Aldrich Hazen Ames. In the first episode of a 2-part True Spies story, Sophia Di Martino joins journalist and spy chronicler Bryan Denson to uncover the inglorious origins of Ames' betrayal - and the beginnings of his downfall. From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Max Bower. Music by Nick Ryan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Incoming transmission.
0:02.0	Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.
0:06.0	This is True Spies.
0:09.0	The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
0:15.0	Week by week you'll hear the true stories behind the operations that have shaped the world we live in.
0:22.0	True Spies.
0:23.0	You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
0:27.0	What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position?
0:35.0	This is True Spies.
0:38.0	Even the best biogencies in the world are going to have people who flip and work for the other guys and gals.
0:45.0	And at that particular point there were a slew of CIA officers who had either already flipped or were about to.
0:55.0	I'm Sophia DiMartina and this is True Spies from Spicecape Studios.
1:03.0	Ultra-Ains, the ultimate double agent, part one, selling secrets.
1:12.0	The CIA is a paranoid place at the best of times. Information is its currency and it's heavily guarded.
1:21.0	But in the 1980s that paranoia was at fever pitch.
1:27.0	Spying only requires two people to be able to communicate. And the trick is for those two people to never be seen anywhere near each other.
1:36.0	And you have to assume there are multiple penetrations.
1:39.0	There were just a slew of them in that late 80s or early 90s era that who fell under investigation and ultimately were caught.
1:49.0	With the Cold War still raging, the CIA and the KGB were locked in a battle, a battle to outwit and out maneuver each other.
1:59.0	Both were desperate to recruit people from the other side, sending agents out to meet with potential assets.
2:06.0	They have an authorized meeting where they're supposed to be doing the good work of the intelligence agency in trying to recruit them, right?
2:14.0	To try and get them to switch teams.
	...

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