Aldrich Ames Quotes

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a machinery that is supposed to resolve its reliability, and to present a finished product.
Aldrich Ames

Present, Finished, Resolve

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive means. Consistency regarding the technique is not important; inducing anxiety and fear is the point.
Aldrich Ames

Fear, Important, Means

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal of what we were doing, in terms of the CIA's overall charter.
Aldrich Ames

Great, Question, Point

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task.
Aldrich Ames

Trust, Person, Whether

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust.
Aldrich Ames

Trust, Betrayal, Person

Foreign Ministry guys don't become agents. Party officials, the Foreign Ministry nerds, tend not to volunteer to Western intelligence agencies.
Aldrich Ames

Become, Guys, Party

Historians don't really like to carry on speculative debates, but you could certainly argue that the likelihood of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was extremely, extremely low.
Aldrich Ames

Europe, Carry, Western

I came into the Agency with a set of ideas and attitudes that were quite typical of people coming into the Agency at that time. You could call it liberal anti-communism.
Aldrich Ames

Time, Ideas, Call

I could have stopped it after they paid me the $50,000. I wouldn't even have had to go on to do more than I already had: just the double agents' names that I gave.
Aldrich Ames

After, Gave, Paid

I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union.
Aldrich Ames

Political, Union, Found

I handed over names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet Union.
Aldrich Ames

Union, Names, Soviet

I knew quite well, when I gave the names of our agents in the Soviet Union, that I was exposing them to the full machinery of counterespionage and the law, and then prosecution and capital punishment.
Aldrich Ames

Law, Union, Knew

I said in court a long time ago that I didn't see that the Soviet Union was significantly helped by the information I gave them, nor that the United States was significantly harmed.
Aldrich Ames

Time, Long, Said

I saw a limit to what I was giving as kind of a scam I was running on the KGB, by giving them people that I knew were their double agents fed to us.
Aldrich Ames

Giving, Knew, Running

I'm a traitor, but I don't consider myself a traitor.
Aldrich Ames

Consider, Traitor

In my professional work with the Agency, by the late '70s, I had come to question the value of a great deal of what we were doing, in terms of the intelligence agency's impact on American policy.
Aldrich Ames

Work, Great, American

Let's say a Soviet exchange student back in the '70s would go back and tell the KGB about people and places and things that he'd seen and done and been involved with. This is not really espionage; there's no betrayal of trust.
Aldrich Ames

Trust, Betrayal, Done

My little scam in April '85 went like this: Give me $50,000; here's some names of some people we've recruited.
Aldrich Ames

Give, Here, April

No one's interested really in knowing what policies or diplomatic initiatives or arms negotiations might have been compromised by me.
Aldrich Ames

Knowing, Might, Interested

Our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union.
Aldrich Ames

Political, Union, Economic

Perhaps my information hurt the Soviet Union more than it helped. I have no idea. It was not something I ever discussed with the KGB officers that I was dealing with.
Aldrich Ames

Hurt, Idea, Union

The betrayal of trust carries a heavy taboo.
Aldrich Ames

Trust, Betrayal, Heavy

The difficulties of conducting espionage against the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union were such that historically the Agency had backed away from the task.
Aldrich Ames

Away, Against, Union

The FBI, to its credit in a self-serving sort of way, rejects the routine use of the polygraph on its own people.
Aldrich Ames

Credit, Routine, Fbi

The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent.
Aldrich Ames

Human, American, Effort

Share with your Friends

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Biography

Nationality: American

Born: June 19, 1941

Links

Find on Amazon: Aldrich Ames

Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Related Authors

Al Capone
Charles Manson
John Gotti
Jesse James
Lee Harvey Oswald
Paul Castellano
John Dillinger
Jack Abramoff
More

Get Social with BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote of the Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

Syndication

Funny Quote Feed

Love Quote Feed

Nature Quote Feed

About Us