This is a working page where I’m trying to sort out the different versions of what Aldrich Ames gave up and when.

The Basic Story

The basic story is that he had three key meetings at the beginning.  The first was in April 1985, where he dropped of an envelope asking for $50,000 and providing supposedly not very damaging info. Then on May 19, he returned, and met in a secure room with Cherkashin, and supposedly gave them three agents, all of whom he would later claim were known double agents.  Then finally on June 13, he met them again and gave what he would call the “big dump” which included info on all the cases he knew.

Variations

There are a number of variations on the foregoing. In some versions, he gives up the three supposed double agents in the first approach in April.  Sometimes these three are supposed to “in Moscow” . . . other times that’s not specified.  In other versions, it’s 5 agents and he gave them up in May.

Meanwhile, from a historical perspective, it’s interesting to try and figure out exactly which agents were given up at what point.  In particular, I’m interested in Vorontsov, because  met Vorontsov in April 1985, and he gave spy dust at that meeting. The Russians say they didn’t learn about the spy dust until we went public with it in August, but I’m sure Ames knew about spy dust in April 1985, so why would he have not told them about it.

Etc, etc . . . .

So, I’m going to just start listing books here, and clarify what they say, starting with the English books.

Circle of Treason

SPY HANDLER

CONFESSIONS OF A SPY