Ames was booked on espionage charges in Feb. 1994 (FBI photo)

Aldrich Ames, age 84, former CIA officer, died January 6, 2026, in prison, his home of record since shortly after his conviction on espionage charges in 1994. The cited cause was lung cancer. Ames had been a smoker for many years (like most of us) and was still one when I first met him in 1983 and for years after. The federal prison system’s prohibition of tobacco in 2006 probably caused him some distress, which probably no one who knew of him would be sorry to hear. I have a small measure of sympathy for him, very small, but he was a human being.

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