I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union. – Aldrich Ames

In my professional work with the Agency, by the late 70s, I had come to question the value of a great deal of what we were doing, in terms of the intelligence agencys impact on American policy. – Aldrich Ames

Foreign Ministry guys dont become agents. Party officials, the Foreign Ministry nerds, tend not to volunteer to Western intelligence agencies. – Aldrich Ames