Catching A Russian Spy

The FBI and CIA suspected Russia had a dangerous spy working in the US in the early 1990s. But who was it? The newest book in Bryan Denson’s “FBI Files” series for younger readers Catching a Russian Spy: Agent Leslie G. Wiser Jr. and the Case of Aldrich Ames explores the race to uncover the traitor.

Denson will be joined by Leslie Wiser, Jr., the agent who ran the Ames operation out of the Washington Metropolitan Field Office, and Sandy Grimes, a CIA officer who was determined to find the evidence that Ames was spying. Together they will explain how Ames betrayed his country, caused US assets to be killed, and ultimately was brought to justice.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Follow us:

The International Spy Museum® is an independent nonprofit organization. Generous support from viewers like you fuel our nonprofit mission and make our collection, exhibits, and educational programs like this possible.

[NefariousEnough]

It's amazing that an organization can intercept high quality audio surveillance from space but a museum can't replicate what a simple Amazon sourced microphone can do from 3 feet away.

[byroncurrin]

Sandy has the PERFECT personality for working with many groups/individuals...and has a VERY high IQ....she is so good at her job that she can poke fun at herself and the CIA...

[gallaxy]

At 33:35 the audio becomes impossible to understand. Have followed this story and am disappointed I have missed what they experienced during that time.

[PFworth]

THANK YOU for fixing the audio on this! I listened to the first half this morning, I'm glad I can finish it off on my drive home today.

[synewparadigm]

It was in the old glory days when the FBI was really working for protecting the people.

[jeff]

The FBI's Special Surveillance Group (SSG) or G's have some of the best surveillance teams in the world. They also cross-train with the CIA.

[jackbarsky]

They are missing Dell Spry who was deeply involved in the Ames case and put the handcuffs on that traitor

[ColinBunston]

Great presentation, mics need to be much closer to speakers to capture audio properly. Perhaps lapel mics would have been better or have speakers sit closer to mics. Appreciate these presentations outside of this challenge.

[michelletrimbornCapeTown]

Fascinating story! Pity how the sound when awry just before changing to Les

[Jumbo]

Fancy taking a new born there😂.. worse than a plane

[DuckDuck]

Sandy Grimes is National Treasure 🙏🙏🙏😎😎😎🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[gypsies]

Ames starting getting people killed in 1985, if not sooner. He was arrested in 1994. I cannot figure out when he came back from Italy -- she said it was the early 1990s? How many people had access to all of the case files of the agents he had killed? I just cannot understand why they didn't catch him sooner -- he was sloppy and extremely careless -- he was buying houses for $500, 000 cash and Jaguars for cash . . . and supposedly he was dirt poor. Why was he so poor? Imagine the damage he did our country over those 9 years (he may have started earlier.) After the first agents were killed -- why did they allow him to kill at least 8 more? There may be good reasons, but they aren't giving us any in their video, or in Sandy's other video I watched. Why did they assign a junior and inexperienced person to run this "Catch the Mole" operation on the FBI side and a woman who didn't even have an office to run it on the CIA side? Wasn't this the single most important operation at that time? Why did the first FBI report NOT report that Ames was the mole, even though Jeanne and her team had decided he was? How come they aren't talking about this? Doesn't it seem like someone -- very high up -- was doing everything possible to protect Ames and sabotage this operation? (Maybe the same person or people who also protected Hansen for 20 years?)

[noth]

The audio mix goes bad at 33:03 about, the actual mic closest to the female speaker cuts out completely and the capture is from a camera mounted shotgun or some other far away mic, hard to say which but it's not capturing the mic closest to her anymore. You can hear the difference plain as day. Whomever was shooting this or his/her audio guy/gal screwed the pooch there. Could be the cable fell out or something else but something obviously bad happened, it would have been immediately detectable looking at the mixer audio level indicators. A lot of it should have been fixable to a good degree in post running some filters(NR) first and then compression on the capture. Why was this not done? I can understand the lack of a separate recorder on the table to a degree since it is a live event primarily - but a lot of this would have been fixable in post for the upload. The Oops seems corrected 39:14, but it really *should* have been caught before then. Someone should be wearing headphones playing the mix that is being captured.
I'll shut my virtual pizzatrap about it but yeah, considering the subject I do find it sloppy to have left it like this. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it being here to watch, I just think it could have and still can be fixed or made a lot more intelligible than it is now. Even without any additional recording tracks than what is in the uploaded video as-is.

[philipcoleman]

Who notified Aimes about all the Russian assets and did he have a right and the need to know about each and every one of them in is line of work and what' information did he need. Was there an offering of surplus information.
Was the CIA sloppy in offering the links to Aimes?

[paulmanoli]

All deposits to banks in U.S. are covered by the FDIC. The Internal Revenue Service can monitor any bank account and deposits regardless of amount at will and without bank's consent.

[rodbutler]

I haven’t heard the possible set up of Ames by his new wife who came from the Columbia embassy as a trophy wife who encouraged his ability to obtain great compensation by feeding the KGB inside CIA information which he had great knowledge of CIA assets within the highest level of the Soviet Union. What was her connection to Russian operatives???

[davewielhouwer]

Can we not get better audio for the guest? She is leaning into mic. Clearing her throat. I feel bad for her. She is a great story teller

[kathleenwooldridge]

Why would someone bring a baby to this?

[calebswanson]

Say uhhh one more time and it might be a world record

[joeblow]

Audio issues marred this otherwise fine presentation