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As chief of the counterintelligence branch of the C.I.A.\u2019s Soviet division, he had access to some of the nation\u2019s deepest secrets. He had been serving a life sentence since 1994.<\/em> Aldrich Ames, the most murderous turncoat in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose betrayal in working for the Soviet Union went undetected for almost a decade, died on Monday. He was 84 and had been a federal prisoner, serving life without parole, since 1994.<\/p>\n The death was recorded in the federal Bureau of Prisons inmate database. A spokesman said he died at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md.<\/p>\n The son of an alcoholic C.I.A. officer, Mr. Ames failed upward through the agency ranks for 17 years until he attained a headquarters post of extraordinary sensitivity.<\/p>\n He became the chief of the counterintelligence branch of the C.I.A.\u2019s Soviet division in September 1983. He had access to some of the nation\u2019s deepest secrets: in particular, its clandestine liaisons with the Soviets, who worked in secret with American intelligence. These were a small cadre, barely a dozen all told, who were cultivated over the course of two decades and well-placed in Soviet government agencies and embassies around the world.<\/p>\n As the Cold War was cresting, Mr. Ames decided that he would change the course of history by upending a long-running game of nations, the contest of spy versus spy. He saw it as a charade. By his own account, he was fueled by a toxic cocktail of vodka, arrogance, delusions of grandeur and naked greed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nBy Tim Weiner<\/strong><\/p>\n