Infamous CIA Double-Agent Aldrich Ames Dies At 84

Aldrich Ames, one of the most consequential double agents in the history of U.S. intelligence, has died while serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Maryland, according to a report by The Associated Press. Ames, a former senior official at the Central Intelligence Agency, was convicted in 1994 of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia in what remains one of the most damaging intelligence breaches ever suffered by the United States.

Former senior Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Hazen Ames is being taken from federal court in Alexandria on February 22, 1994, after being charged with spying for the former Soviet Union. Ames' wife, Mari del Rosario Casas Ames, has been charged with the same crime. (LUKE FRAZZA/AFP via Getty Images)

Ames was arrested in February 1994 and, two months later, pleaded guilty to espionage charges. A U.S. court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, concluding a counterintelligence case that had shaken the CIA and exposed deep institutional failures in internal security.

From Career Officer to Double Agent

Ames joined the CIA in 1962 and spent much of his career focused on Soviet and Eastern Bloc intelligence operations. By the early 1980s, he had risen to a senior position with access to some of the agency’s most sensitive counterintelligence information, including the identities of U.S. sources inside the Soviet Union.

In April 1985, Ames began voluntarily providing classified information to Moscow. While he later cited dissatisfaction with his professional standing and frustration with U.S. institutions, investigators determined that financial motives were primary. At the time he began spying, Ames was experiencing serious personal debt, exacerbated by alcohol abuse and an expensive lifestyle.

Over more than eight years, Soviet and later Russian intelligence services paid Ames in excess of $2.5 million in cash and deposits - making him one of the highest-paid spies in modern intelligence history.

Devastating Consequences

The damage caused by Ames’s espionage was extraordinary. According to U.S. officials and historians, information he provided compromised approximately 30 CIA and FBI intelligence operations. Most devastatingly, he revealed the identities of more than 20 covert sources working for the United States inside the Soviet Union.

At least ten of those exposed agents were executed during the final years of the Soviet state. Among them was Dmitry Polyakov, a highly placed general in the Soviet military intelligence service, the GRU. Polyakov had secretly provided intelligence to the United States for more than 25 years and was widely regarded as one of the most valuable human intelligence assets ever recruited by U.S. agencies. He was arrested by Soviet authorities in 1986 and executed two years later.

The sudden collapse of U.S. intelligence networks in Moscow during the mid-1980s initially baffled American officials. Multiple agents were arrested in rapid succession, raising suspicions of a major internal breach - though it would take nearly a decade for Ames to be identified as the source.

Exposure and Arrest

Ames’s downfall ultimately came through financial scrutiny rather than direct intelligence leads. Despite his modest government salary, he made large cash purchases, paid off debts, and lived far beyond his means. By the early 1990s, counterintelligence investigators began closely examining unexplained wealth among CIA personnel with access to compromised operations.

In February 1994, Ames and his wife, Rosario, were arrested outside their home in Arlington, Virginia. Rosario Ames later pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

Institutional Fallout

The Ames case had profound consequences for the CIA. The agency faced intense congressional scrutiny over lax internal controls, insufficient financial monitoring of employees, and failures in counterintelligence oversight. The scandal prompted widespread reforms, including enhanced background checks, financial disclosure requirements, and more aggressive internal security programs.

Then-CIA Director James Woolsey resigned in 1995 amid ongoing criticism related to the agency’s handling of the case, though multiple reviews acknowledged that the failures spanned several administrations and leadership teams.

Tyler Durden Thu, 01/08/2026 - 06:55

Military Spending Is On The Rise In Asia

Over the past five years, military expenditure in Asia has climbed sharply, reflecting escalating regional tensions and global security concerns. According to the most recent SIPRI data, major military spenders in the region, such as China, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Taiwan, have significantly boosted their defense budgets.

As Statista's Tristan Gaudiat details below, China remains the region's top spender: according to SIPRI estimates, its military budget has grown by more than 20 percent between 2020 and 2024, reaching around 320 billion dollars (constant 2023 prices and exchange rates). Chinese military expenditure is driven by the country's armed forces modernization and territorial ambitions.

You will find more infographics at Statista

India, facing border disputes and maritime challenges, has increased its spending by 8 percent over the same period. Prioritizing technological advancement and self-reliance, the Indian army's budget reached 84 billion dollars in 2024.

Just behind, with a budget of 79 billion dollars, Saudi Arabia has increased its spending by 13 percent since 2020, amid growing instability in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, in East Asia, Japan has accelerated defense investments by over 40 percent between 2020 and 2024. Its military budget, 58 billion dollars, now surpasses that of its Western neighbor, South Korea (48 billion dollars in 2024, +4 percent from 2020), amid North Korea's missile threats and China's military assertiveness.

Taiwan, under constant pressure from Beijing, saw a 37 percent increase over the last five years on record, focusing on asymmetric defense capabilities.

Tyler Durden Thu, 01/08/2026 - 05:45

Bus Drivers Arrested For Earning Up To €50k-A-Year Cash Transporting Illegals Between France And Spain

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Spanish police have arrested 15 international bus drivers in Barcelona, accused of transporting illegal migrants between France and Spain in exchange for cash, exploiting their access to regular cross-border routes, according to reports by El País.

The Spanish National Police said the drivers used their positions on international services, particularly the Paris–Barcelona route, to bring “undocumented or visa-less foreigners into the country in exchange for money,” describing the scheme as “a new type of illicit human trafficking in the international land transport sector,” as reported by Le Parisien.

Migrants paid between €20 and €400 to travel without identity documents, without a valid ticket, or using tickets issued in someone else’s name, and bus drivers received payment to turn a blind eye.

According to the police statement, the drivers coordinated with intermediaries operating in bus stations and outside transport companies, who arranged payments and ensured migrants were allowed to board vehicles. Those arrested are being prosecuted on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

The investigation began in March 2025 and uncovered a network involving not only drivers but also auxiliary staff linked to private transport companies. Police said those involved “took advantage of their access to European routes” to facilitate the irregular movement of migrants between Spain and France, earning some drivers as much as €50,000 per year.

Investigators also identified recruiters operating outside transport companies who negotiated payments with drivers and helped migrants board buses using false, manipulated, or no documents at all.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with French authorities, with police checks conducted in La Jonquera, Irún, Madrid, Barcelona, and Murcia.

The dispersal across Europe of migrants residing in Catalonia will be cause for concern to many, in light of recent reports detailing no-go zones for police officers in the region.

In September last year, Torelló, a town in the Osona region of Catalonia, faced growing insecurity after a leaked recording revealed local police officers acknowledging they are unable to control violent migrant groups gathering in certain areas, and have been laughed at and forced to retreat from dispatch calls.

The audio, verified by authorities and reported by ElCaso.cat, captured an officer telling a resident that police cannot act against migrant rioters due to insufficient resources.

“They are laughing at us,” the officer said in the call. “They are throwing us out. If we don’t want to get hurt, we too [must leave],” he added, describing how officers had to withdraw after being met with hostility.

While net migration to Spain and its islands was down last year, according to Frontex, huge numbers have already crossed and are now contributing to integration concerns. Despite numbers being down, Spain’s socialist government remains committed to importing newcomers.

In September, it began the gradual transfer of more than 600 Moroccan minors from the North African enclave of Ceuta to different regions on the mainland.

The decision has reignited debate in Madrid over how to manage unaccompanied minors entering the country, as new figures revealed just 41 of the nearly 30,000 minor arrivals since 2018 have been repatriated.

With an increase in internal illegal migration routes within the European Union itself, keeping tabs on new arrivals will become increasingly more problematic.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Thu, 01/08/2026 - 05:00

US To Withdraw From 66 International Bodies, Treaties

The Trump administration withdrew the United States from 66 international organizations, conventions, and treaties that it said go against the country’s interests, the White House announced on Jan. 7.

According to the presidential memorandum, 31 entities were tied to the United Nations, while 35 others were not.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a statement shortly after the list was revealed.

“President [Donald] Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”

As Jacki Thrapp reports for The Epoch Times,The State Department was ordered to review the international intergovernmental organizations that “no longer serve American interests” in February 2025, per an executive order ​signed by President Donald Trump.

Rubio accused many entities of being “often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests.”

“From DEI mandates to ‘gender equity’ campaigns to climate orthodoxy, many international organizations now serve a globalist project rooted in the discredited fantasy of the ‘End of History.’

“These organizations actively seek to constrain American sovereignty. Their work is advanced by the same elite networks—the multilateral ‘NGO-plex’—that we have begun dismantling through the closure of [the United States Agency for International Development].”

The U.N.-related entities that the Trump administration withdrew from include the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, International Law Commission, International Trade Centre, Peacebuilding Commission, Peacebuilding Fund, U.N. Democracy Fund, U.N. Energy, U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and U.N. University.

The non-U.N. organizations included the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

The memorandum cited over two dozen “hybrid threats,” such as the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories and the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund.

Wednesday’s memorandum came less than a year after Trump withdrew the United States from the UN Human Rights Council.

On Feb. 4, 2025, the same day the White House assigned Rubio to investigate the international organizations, Trump signed an executive order exiting from the U.N. Human Rights Council. At the time, Trump said it “has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations.”

The White House expanded on those issues, such as allowing China and Iran to be in the council despite their violations, and alleged there was bias against Israel.

Tyler Durden Thu, 01/08/2026 - 04:15