Aldrich Ames, CIA agent who sold secrets to the Soviets, dies aged 84

The double agent compromised more than 100 operations and betrayed more than 30 agents spying for the West.

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The former counterintelligence officer, who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, died on Monday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, CBS News, the BBC's media partner in the US, reported.

Ames was jailed on 28 April 1994 after he admitted to selling secret information to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

He compromised more than 100 clandestine operations and divulged the identities of more than 30 agents spying for the West - leading to the deaths of at least 10 CIA intelligence assets.

Seeking money to pay debts, Ames said he began providing the KGB with the names of CIA spies in April 1985, receiving an initial payment of $50,000.