Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994 TAG: 9404290133
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: |Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium
In what U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey appraised as ``the most damaging spy case in the history of the country,'' Ames, 52, admitted that he told KGB spy masters about at least four Russian double agents who later were executed.
In addition, Ames told the KGB of at least seven other Russian agents working for Washington over the last nine years, according to a statement Ames signed as part of his plea bargain. Many of the seven were ``imprisoned or just disappeared,'' said Fahey.
In the most detailed and authoritative - but certainly incomplete - account of his espionage activities, Ames said he had passed along information about U.S. electronic intelligence capabilities; revealed U.S. knowledge of Soviet bugging of the American embassy in Moscow; and exposed U.S. efforts to catch, recruit and work with Russian spies.
The lanky, bespectacled 31-year CIA analyst told a packed federal courtroom that none of these activities ``noticeably damaged'' the United States or ``noticeably aided'' Moscow.
``Frankly, these spy wars are sideshows that have had no real impact on our significant security interests over the years,'' said Ames.
Nonetheless, the former CIA Soviet counterintelligence official, in shackles, expressed ``profound shame and guilt'' for ``this betrayal of trust, done for the basest motives.''
Ames and his wife, Rosario, wearing a cross over a green jail uniform, pleaded guilty to espionage, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. Under the deal struck with prosecutors, Ames will spend his life in the Federal Correctional Institution at Lewisburg, Pa., without possibility of parole.
Rosario Ames will not be sentenced until late August. If her husband continues to cooperate with federal authorities, she could be out in five years, prosecutors say. She hopes to be reunited with the couple's son, Paul, 5, now living in Colombia with relatives.
Code-named ``Kolokol'' by his Russian handlers, which means ``bell,'' Ames sounded alarms that doomed friendly Russian spies in many key positions.
by CNB