FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: When Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia after leaking National Security Agency documents to the media, I began getting telephone calls. Reporters wanted to know if I thought the Kremlin would welcome Snowden or turn him over to American authorities. I predicted Moscow would protect him. If Russia would have refused him asylum, spies currently working for Russia would have become alarmed — even though Snowden never worked for Russian intelligence. The following blog describes how important image and reputations are in the spy game, so much so, that the Russians tried to interest me in helping deliver $2 million to CIA traitor Aldrich Ames several months after he was arrested.
A Spy Story: Ames, Blood Money and Me, published Nov. 15, 2010
If you’ve read my book, Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, you already know that I was able to interview the CIA traitor, Aldrich Ames, for eleven days without government censors listening to our conversations. This is because federal prosecutors had notified everyone – Ames’ defense attorneys, the FBI, the CIA, and Justice Department – that Ames was not to be interviewed by the media, except for the officials who mattered the most — the deputies in charge of the Alexandria jail.