The KGB... had set aside for me $2 million in gratitude for the information CIA double agent Aldrich Ames

The former head of the CIA's Soviet operations, Ames is the highest-ranking CIA official ever to be exposed as a double-agent.

His arrest in February sent shockwaves through the US intelligence community, and the CIA's director, R James Woolsey, admitted last week that a number of other CIA officials have been placed under investigation.

In an eight-page statement he read to the court, Ames said he began providing the KGB with the names of CIA spies in April 1985, seeking money to pay debts.

He received an initial payment of $50,000.

A few months later, he said, he volunteered information to the KGB identifying virtually all the CIA's spies in the Soviet Union.

"To my enduring surprise," he went on, "the KGB replied that it had set aside for me $2 million in gratitude for the information."

Lavish lifestyle

Mr Ames admitted to receiving a total of about $2.5 million from the Soviet Union during the nine years he acted as double agent.

He spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, including a new Jaguar car, foreign holidays and a new $540,000 house.

He never attempted to hide his spending, although his CIA salary was never higher than $70,000 a year.

In his statement, Ames expressed his bitter regret at what he had done. "No punishment by this court can balance or ease the profound shame and guilt I bear," he said.

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