You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.

Quote by Aldrich Ames

Topics: Aldrich Ames Quotes

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal...

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal...

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something...

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something...

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a...

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a...

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

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

The use of the polygraph has done little more than create confusion, ambiguity and mistakes.

The use of the polygraph has done little more than create confusion, ambiguity and mistakes.

I came into the Agency with a set of ideas and attitudes that were quite...

I came into the Agency with a set of ideas and attitudes that were quite...

Our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political...

Our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political...

The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate...

The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate...

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

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

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive...

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive...

When Reagan was elected, I felt that the Agency had gone much more into the...

When Reagan was elected, I felt that the Agency had gone much more into the...

I saw a limit to what I was giving as kind of a scam I...

I saw a limit to what I was giving as kind of a scam I...

In my professional work with the Agency, by the late '70s, I had come to...

In my professional work with the Agency, by the late '70s, I had come to...

Foreign Ministry guys don't become agents. Party officials, the Foreign Ministry nerds, tend not to...

Foreign Ministry guys don't become agents. Party officials, the Foreign Ministry nerds, tend not to...

When I got the money, the whole burden descended on me, and the realization of...

When I got the money, the whole burden descended on me, and the realization of...

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

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

Perhaps my information hurt the Soviet Union more than it helped. I have no idea....

Perhaps my information hurt the Soviet Union more than it helped. I have no idea....

When I handed over the names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet...

When I handed over the names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet...

Let's say a Soviet exchange student back in the '70s would go back and tell...

Let's say a Soviet exchange student back in the '70s would go back and tell...

The only thing I ever withheld from the KGB were the names of two agents...

The only thing I ever withheld from the KGB were the names of two agents...