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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The resistance of policy-makers to intelligence is not just founded on an ideological presupposition. They distrust intelligence sources and intelligence officials because they don't understand what the real problems are.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
When I handed over the names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet Union, I had come to the conclusion that the loss of these sources to the U.S. would not compromise significant national defense, political, diplomatic interests.
quote by Aldrich Ames
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!