Aldrich Ames

We have been writing each other since the mid-90s. I actually feel sympathy for him because I know from experience how someone can get entrapped by Soviet/Russian intelligence.   He’s not the first, nor will he be the last, American intelligence officer to be recruited by a hostile intelligence service.

My latest communication from him is letter dated February 8, 2012. It is in reply to a letter I sent him in  January, 2012. I hadn’t written him in a few years, but I wanted him to know I published ROOFMAN as an ebook. If he had a way to read it, I would send him a free copy.

Here is his letter:

Here is a transcript of his letter:

Dear Roofman,

I was happy to get your (post) card and the news that you’ve got IT published.

The BoP (Bureau of Prisons) so far isn’t into the digital age far enough for me to be able to get it, but progress is underway and who knows what the future may hold? (Most BoP prisoners have access to a form of email now, though I have been barred for no apparent reason. Bernie Madoff has it though.)

Hope your reviewers are happy and asking for more!

Regards,

Rick

P.S. I like your Darwinian T shirt (So do I)

A link to my website http://roofmanthespy.com/ where my first letter to Mr. Ames and his reply can be found. Click on the page “Interesting Stuff” and then on “Letter to a Spy” for my letter to him. Click on “Re: From a Spy” for his reply to me.

I will be sending Mr. Ames another letter soon, enclosing business cards along with a reminder to let me know when BoP finally goes digital.  I do hope his incarceration goes well. Like I said, I really feel for the poor guy.

To purchase ROOFMAN for $9.95 (every transaction safe using Google Checkout®) choose a format:

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• download epub
• download mobi for Kindle

Please remember this content is © 2011

And the Beat Goes On…

Looks like Russia still has ballistic missiles, and they’re still aimed at U.S. Why am I not surprised? And according to this Associated Press article, we are still spying on them — and them on U.S. Again, why am I not surprised?

Speaking only for myself, I miss the good ole days of the cold war, because nothing terrible ever happened. There was certainty: we would never launch against the U.S.S.R and they would never launch against U.S.

The only thing that does surprise me about this story, click on this link   Russian officer convicted of spying, is that Lt. Col. Vladimir Nesterets only got 13 years and not a bullet in the head. But then, people die in American prisons all the time, so I can only assume the same holds true in Lubyanka.

This quote from the article I find particularly intriguing:

“Political scientist Pavel Salin said the case against Lt. Col. Nesterets should be seen in the context of the (Russian) presidential election.

‘The Russian authorities are pushing the idea of Russia as a besieged fortress, and in order to buttress this idea they need big, scandalous cases to show that the Western special services are active on the country’s territory,’ Salin said.”