Ames Mole Hunt

REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime, History

4.3 • 668 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1985, Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko revealed a chilling secret to the CIA: a high-ranking mole was leaking American intelligence to the KGB. As it turned out, the mole was Aldrich Ames, the CIA’s own Chief of Soviet Counterintelligence. The disgruntled agent turned traitor operated undetected for nearly a decade, exposing the CIA’s missteps and blind spots along the way.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love unsettling stories.
0:02.4	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries,
0:06.4	early and ad-free, as well as another twisted tale from Bollin Studios and Wondry called Wartime Stories,
0:12.8	also hosted by me, Early and Ad-Free on Wondry Plus.
0:16.7	Start your free trial today.
0:36.6	On the morning of August 1, 1985, Vatale Yerchenko walked out of the Soviet embassy and into the bustling streets of Rome. The blonde-haired Russian told his embassy
0:39.3	co-workers that he wanted to visit the Vatican Museum. But that was a lie. Instead, he walked in the
0:48.2	direction of the American embassy in the Palazzo Margarita. When he reached the ornate three-story building,
0:55.3	Yerchenko looked around,
0:57.1	wondering if he was being watched.
0:59.6	Then he took a deep breath,
1:02.2	walked over to a pay phone just outside the embassy,
1:05.1	and dialed the CIA.
1:08.3	An officer picked up.
1:12.6	Yerchenko told him two things. First, he said he was a senior officer in the KGB, and second, he wanted to defect to America.
1:21.6	If the CIA could help him get there, he was willing to spill Soviet secrets.
1:28.5	The officer's breath caught in his throat, and Yerchenko smiled.
1:33.3	He'd put himself in danger, but he was pretty sure he'd made this agent's day.
1:38.2	In the waning years of the Cold War, Yerchenko knew he'd be a hot commodity.
1:45.5	The officer told Yerchenko to head into the embassy.
1:49.6	Once he got there, everything happened fast.
1:53.0	He was questioned by CIA officers who immediately wanted to know why he was defecting.
	...

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