Aldrich Ames, the senior CIA counterintelligence officer whose betrayal caused catastrophic, unparalleled damage to U.S. intelligence and led to the execution of 10–12 U.S. intelligence assets, has died at 84. Ames, who was in federal custody serving a life sentence, received roughly $2.7 million from the KGB (later the SVR) in exchange for betraying U.S. intelligence networks and crippling America’s ability to understand Soviet and Russian decision-making at a critical moment in history.