• Aldrich Ames, a former CIA officer and double agent, died at age 84 while serving life in prison.
• He admitted to receiving $2.5 million from the Soviets for U.S. secrets, compromising over 100 operations.
• Ames' actions led to the deaths of at least 10 intelligence assets and significant setbacks for U.S. intelligence.

Aldrich Ames, a notorious CIA officer who became one of America's most damaging double agents, has died at age 84 while incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, according to CBS News. Ames was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after admitting to selling U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia. Over the course of his espionage career, he compromised more than 100 intelligence operations, revealing the identities of over 30 agents, including those involved with the CIA and the FBI, contributing to the executions of several intelligence assets.

In 1985, Ames began providing the KGB with the names of CIA operatives, receiving an initial payment of $50,000 and a total of approximately $2.5 million for his cooperation. He relished a lavish lifestyle funded by his betrayals, including purchasing luxury items like a Jaguar and a $540,000 house, as reported by Los Angeles Times and NPR.

Ames maintained that his espionage was motivated by financial issues rather than ideological beliefs. Despite expressing "profound shame and guilt" for his actions, he downplayed their impact, stating in court that he did not believe he had "noticeably damaged" the United States. This perspective came under scrutiny as his actions were linked to the executions of U.S. agents operating in hostile environments during the Cold War, according to BBC and Los Angeles Times.

Ames' espionage career spanned nearly a decade before his arrest on February 21, 1994, in Arlington, Virginia, following an intensive investigation. His wife, Rosario, played an accomplice role and was sentenced to a lesser term of five years after pleading guilty to related charges, which highlights the collaborative nature of his betrayal, as noted by CBS News and Los Angeles Times.