Wow, amazing to have the tale told by the Russians. Respect, Sir! Ames sounds like a nasty piece of work- as I understand it, his motivation was purely mercenary rather than ideological.
Great story Michael. You even had a full head of hair, back then. I was in college, so you definitely have a few years on me. Moreover, you definitely looked the part of spy; the “trench” coat was a sure giveaway. I thought was only used in the movies; way too obvious.
That said, although Ames was definitely detrimental to the CIA during his decade of treason, he never would have existed, if not for the stupidity of everyone’s favorite spymaster, James Angleton.
Furthermore, Angleton, as head of the CIA’s counterintelligence unit, saw treason at every turn. Angelton was to the CIA, as Senator Joe McCarthy was to the State Department, and US government. A man obsessed with Soviet moles; ultimately doing more harm than good; see Kim Philby.
Furthermore, the CIA was still doing decades of damage control from Angelton, when Ames came on to the scene. Otherwise, he never would have been as successful, for so long.
Either way, people died, and missions and agents were compromised; putting all our espionage and counterintelligence operations in jeopardy.
If anything, the entire affair should serve as a harbinger of bad things to come. Trump firing an entire class of new agents, whose only crime is that they we’re on probation, while we’re stuck with the Manchurian President, hell bent on turning America into Russia; the worlds largest gas station with nukes.
Or in our case; our National Security Apparatus has been completely neutered, and incapable of even an original thought. IMHO..:)
i agree completely. it's going to be incredibly difficult to rebuild the pipeline after this. I came in right after the famed 'Halloween massacre' under Stansfield Turner where I think 200 case officers got the axe and then they had to really scramble to fill that void. Re Ames it's really hard to understand about him. He really stood out as a 'different' kind of guy for CIA even in 85-86 and it took 9 more years for them to catch him. I spent most of those years wondering if my arrest had been a result of soe f--kup on my part, which weighed pretty heavily. Was greatly relieved to find out he was the author of my arrest -- but appalled at how many cases/agents he compromised.
I bet it must have been a nightmare, not only because you were outed, and had idea if you were somehow responsible, but also because you must have also been under investigation as well. Did this debacle end your career, or were you able to recover?
That said, as for rebuilding the pipeline; I think Mark Twain said it best: “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes!”…:)
CIA always made sure that people who got booted out of Moscow were treated well when they returned -- otherwise nobody would have wanted to take an assignment where you had a 10% chance of having your career ruined by an expulsion. In my case being outed in the media meant i couldn't besent back out in a deep cover role, but they came up with a great, challenging job where i would be "declared' to the host government and work with them -- special liaison to the new president of the philippines, Corazon Aquino and her VP Salvador laurel. It was a great assignment at a really exciting time as the philippines was trying to restart democracy after 13 years of martial law ad in the face of a vigorous communist insurgency. So CIA was good and fair to me each step of the way -- no complaints.
The Philippines must have been awesome. Although from my limited knowledge, I understand Russia was most prestigious posting back in the 80’s, before the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 89’. So you must have been a rock-star back then.
Were you in the Philippines when the Marco’s were deposed in 86’, or did you get assigned after Aquino came to power?
In his 2014 article, "Ghosts of the Spy Wars," Tennent H. Bagley points out that "a KGB veteran (Aleksandr Kouzminov, in his 2005 book, "Biological Espionage: Special Operations in the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West") even thought that 'most' of the CIA spies inside the KGB who were betrayed by CIA traitor Aldrich Ames in 1985 were in fact loyal staffers pretending to help the CIA."
Angleton was probably duped not only by Kim Philby, but also by his confidant, mentor, and mole-hunting superior, Bruce Leonard Solie, in the mole-hunting Office of Security.
SOS: Why won’t our U.S. government agencies and military protect We the People!?! Were they already that compromised (before Russian asset Trump was installed) after our incredible win in Nov. 2020 for President Biden & Harris despite the odds against us from traitors? Biden was our Commander-in-Chief & now President Harris should be & only isn’t in that position due to election 2024 voting manipulation! How are we the people supposed to want to volunteer, donate & sacrifice all our time & efforts when elections are now RIGGED?! Loyal Americans in office & outside it must fight back against Russia & their American pawns NOW & get our REAL President in office!
I took a good hard look at "the election was rigged" -- i read all the things Spoonamore was saying, and did independent checking. It looked to me like the initial claims that the 'bullet ballots' were off turned out to note be the case -- Spoonamore withrew those accusations and apologized. I still wonder if something could have happened. If you want to share some info or links pls do, I'm not denying there could be something there -- but as I said, I looked and didn't find a smoking gun of any type.
First, please see the urgent and current top March 3 video (9 min.) about their new 2-week sprint for paper trail audits in key places to discover more "smoking guns" of election manipulation with lawsuits to be filed if necessary. (Everyone, PLEASE donate any amount you can or volunteer to help them; I gave $100 which is what I myself can afford right now. It will all add up if we help them NOW, and there are few things more urgent because fair elections matter for EVERYTHING. We must GET MAD at possible manipulation in addition to ongoing voter suppression, and GET EVEN through accountability for all who could have been involved!)
Secondly, to see and hear many of the key NUTS AND BOLTS of the 2024 election manipulation they suspect and have been continuing to see multiple signs of, please also watch the very eye-opening interview on the Mark Thompson Show (40 min.) from Feb. 27 on ETA's Videos page & also at youtube.com/watch?v=AWSWqn7UHYM (see the 24:30 mark where they discuss what Spoonamore got right and wrong).
Thirdly, also watch the longer important presentation (90 min.) that Election Truth Alliance did with Smart Elections on Jan. 18 with subsequent research since. It is the 5th video down currently with light blue title screen on ETA's own site. It is also on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXOkfVVtbk); and also at the 9:30 min. mark, they do briefly discuss Spoonamore's initial work (in which he later corrected some mistakes due to doing analysis too early while votes were still coming in, I believe) and then Smart Elections and ETA continue discussing their vote manipulation research, especially starting at the 16 min. mark, watch it ALL as soon as you have time!
I think the alleged efficacy of Metka and Neptune 80 was a ruse to hide the fact that a KGB mole in the CIA had betrayed some of our agents to the Soviets.
Tennent H. Bagley wrote in his 2007 book, "Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games," that half of the (dated) documents that comprised the 1963 Cherepanov Papers explained how Pyotr Popov was uncovered due to "superior KGB surveillance" when in fact he'd been betrayed by a CIA mole (Bagley says recently-fired-by-CIA Edward Ellis Smith; John M. Newman says Bruce Leonard Solie, with logistical help from Smith and James McCord) in Washington, D.C., movie houses in early 1957. Do you happen to know whether or not the KGB claimed "spy dust" played a role in the uncovering of Popov after it watched George Winters mail a letter to him in Moscow?
Wow, amazing to have the tale told by the Russians. Respect, Sir! Ames sounds like a nasty piece of work- as I understand it, his motivation was purely mercenary rather than ideological.
Great story Michael. You even had a full head of hair, back then. I was in college, so you definitely have a few years on me. Moreover, you definitely looked the part of spy; the “trench” coat was a sure giveaway. I thought was only used in the movies; way too obvious.
That said, although Ames was definitely detrimental to the CIA during his decade of treason, he never would have existed, if not for the stupidity of everyone’s favorite spymaster, James Angleton.
Furthermore, Angleton, as head of the CIA’s counterintelligence unit, saw treason at every turn. Angelton was to the CIA, as Senator Joe McCarthy was to the State Department, and US government. A man obsessed with Soviet moles; ultimately doing more harm than good; see Kim Philby.
Furthermore, the CIA was still doing decades of damage control from Angelton, when Ames came on to the scene. Otherwise, he never would have been as successful, for so long.
Either way, people died, and missions and agents were compromised; putting all our espionage and counterintelligence operations in jeopardy.
If anything, the entire affair should serve as a harbinger of bad things to come. Trump firing an entire class of new agents, whose only crime is that they we’re on probation, while we’re stuck with the Manchurian President, hell bent on turning America into Russia; the worlds largest gas station with nukes.
Or in our case; our National Security Apparatus has been completely neutered, and incapable of even an original thought. IMHO..:)
i agree completely. it's going to be incredibly difficult to rebuild the pipeline after this. I came in right after the famed 'Halloween massacre' under Stansfield Turner where I think 200 case officers got the axe and then they had to really scramble to fill that void. Re Ames it's really hard to understand about him. He really stood out as a 'different' kind of guy for CIA even in 85-86 and it took 9 more years for them to catch him. I spent most of those years wondering if my arrest had been a result of soe f--kup on my part, which weighed pretty heavily. Was greatly relieved to find out he was the author of my arrest -- but appalled at how many cases/agents he compromised.
I bet it must have been a nightmare, not only because you were outed, and had idea if you were somehow responsible, but also because you must have also been under investigation as well. Did this debacle end your career, or were you able to recover?
That said, as for rebuilding the pipeline; I think Mark Twain said it best: “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes!”…:)
CIA always made sure that people who got booted out of Moscow were treated well when they returned -- otherwise nobody would have wanted to take an assignment where you had a 10% chance of having your career ruined by an expulsion. In my case being outed in the media meant i couldn't besent back out in a deep cover role, but they came up with a great, challenging job where i would be "declared' to the host government and work with them -- special liaison to the new president of the philippines, Corazon Aquino and her VP Salvador laurel. It was a great assignment at a really exciting time as the philippines was trying to restart democracy after 13 years of martial law ad in the face of a vigorous communist insurgency. So CIA was good and fair to me each step of the way -- no complaints.
The Philippines must have been awesome. Although from my limited knowledge, I understand Russia was most prestigious posting back in the 80’s, before the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 89’. So you must have been a rock-star back then.
Were you in the Philippines when the Marco’s were deposed in 86’, or did you get assigned after Aquino came to power?
In his 2014 article, "Ghosts of the Spy Wars," Tennent H. Bagley points out that "a KGB veteran (Aleksandr Kouzminov, in his 2005 book, "Biological Espionage: Special Operations in the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West") even thought that 'most' of the CIA spies inside the KGB who were betrayed by CIA traitor Aldrich Ames in 1985 were in fact loyal staffers pretending to help the CIA."
Angleton was probably duped not only by Kim Philby, but also by his confidant, mentor, and mole-hunting superior, Bruce Leonard Solie, in the mole-hunting Office of Security.
F’n amazing!
SOS: Why won’t our U.S. government agencies and military protect We the People!?! Were they already that compromised (before Russian asset Trump was installed) after our incredible win in Nov. 2020 for President Biden & Harris despite the odds against us from traitors? Biden was our Commander-in-Chief & now President Harris should be & only isn’t in that position due to election 2024 voting manipulation! How are we the people supposed to want to volunteer, donate & sacrifice all our time & efforts when elections are now RIGGED?! Loyal Americans in office & outside it must fight back against Russia & their American pawns NOW & get our REAL President in office!
I took a good hard look at "the election was rigged" -- i read all the things Spoonamore was saying, and did independent checking. It looked to me like the initial claims that the 'bullet ballots' were off turned out to note be the case -- Spoonamore withrew those accusations and apologized. I still wonder if something could have happened. If you want to share some info or links pls do, I'm not denying there could be something there -- but as I said, I looked and didn't find a smoking gun of any type.
Hi Michael, Here is some new data with links related to suspected 2024 U.S. Election manipulation.
Please go to Election Truth Alliance's (ETA) website at electiontruthalliance.org/videos (they are also on social media).
First, please see the urgent and current top March 3 video (9 min.) about their new 2-week sprint for paper trail audits in key places to discover more "smoking guns" of election manipulation with lawsuits to be filed if necessary. (Everyone, PLEASE donate any amount you can or volunteer to help them; I gave $100 which is what I myself can afford right now. It will all add up if we help them NOW, and there are few things more urgent because fair elections matter for EVERYTHING. We must GET MAD at possible manipulation in addition to ongoing voter suppression, and GET EVEN through accountability for all who could have been involved!)
Secondly, to see and hear many of the key NUTS AND BOLTS of the 2024 election manipulation they suspect and have been continuing to see multiple signs of, please also watch the very eye-opening interview on the Mark Thompson Show (40 min.) from Feb. 27 on ETA's Videos page & also at youtube.com/watch?v=AWSWqn7UHYM (see the 24:30 mark where they discuss what Spoonamore got right and wrong).
Thirdly, also watch the longer important presentation (90 min.) that Election Truth Alliance did with Smart Elections on Jan. 18 with subsequent research since. It is the 5th video down currently with light blue title screen on ETA's own site. It is also on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXOkfVVtbk); and also at the 9:30 min. mark, they do briefly discuss Spoonamore's initial work (in which he later corrected some mistakes due to doing analysis too early while votes were still coming in, I believe) and then Smart Elections and ETA continue discussing their vote manipulation research, especially starting at the 16 min. mark, watch it ALL as soon as you have time!
I think the alleged efficacy of Metka and Neptune 80 was a ruse to hide the fact that a KGB mole in the CIA had betrayed some of our agents to the Soviets.
Michael,
Tennent H. Bagley wrote in his 2007 book, "Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games," that half of the (dated) documents that comprised the 1963 Cherepanov Papers explained how Pyotr Popov was uncovered due to "superior KGB surveillance" when in fact he'd been betrayed by a CIA mole (Bagley says recently-fired-by-CIA Edward Ellis Smith; John M. Newman says Bruce Leonard Solie, with logistical help from Smith and James McCord) in Washington, D.C., movie houses in early 1957. Do you happen to know whether or not the KGB claimed "spy dust" played a role in the uncovering of Popov after it watched George Winters mail a letter to him in Moscow?
-- Tom
Did the Cherepanov Papers say Pyotr Popov was uncovered with the help of "spy dust"?