Wippl Provides Insider Account of CIA’s Aldrich Ames Investigation in New Journal Publication
In a revealing new article published in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (2024), Joseph Wippl offers unprecedented insights into one of the CIA’s most devastating counterintelligence cases. “Memories of the Aldrich Ames Damage Assessment Team” draws from Wippl’s direct experience as a senior member of the team investigating America’s most damaging spy case.
Wippl details the immediate aftermath of Ames’s arrest:
“The day after President’s Day in 1994, I drove from my home in Northern Virginia to headquarters when a sign at the entrance notified us that the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), R. James Woolsey, would address CIA personnel at 9 AM. Director Woolsey informed CIA personnel that Ames was arrested for espionage.”
The article provides unique observations about Ames’s personality and methods:
“A fascinating question in the interviews about Ames found a surprising answer, if only partially. Why was Ames so sloppy in conducting his espionage? Messages to the KGB were found by the FBI on his computer at home, as well as in his garbage, picked up weekly by FBI special agents posing as garbagemen.”
On Ames’s impact, Wippl writes: “Much of the interviews were about Ames’ career in the DO. In the media and even among the CIA staff, Ames was presented as a mediocre employee, a laggard who should have been terminated years before.” However, Wippl notes that “Ames’ career had its ups as well as downs” and that “he was a good handler of agents. He knew his subject matter and was knowledgeable of the cases he handled.”
The article also explores the broader implications for intelligence operations: “After the Ames arrest, counterintelligence was now dominant. Management direction was above all not to get caught. This required extensive and convoluted tradecraft by case officers in operational environments where it was unnecessary and a waste of time.”
Joseph Wippl is a former CIA officer. He spent a 30-year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service (NCS). On assignments in CIA headquarters, he served as the Deputy Chief of Human Resources, as the Senior NCS representative to the Aldrich Ames Damage Assessment Team, as Chief of Europe Division, and as the CIA’s Director of Congressional Affairs. Prior to his arrival at Boston University, he occupied the Richard Helms Chair for Intelligence Collection in the NCS training program. Wippl has taught at BU since 2006, and speaks and writes widely on issues regarding intelligence. Read more about him on his Pardee School faculty profile.