CIA spy hunter talks about notorious turncoats

May 29, 2000
Web posted at: 10:38 a.m. EDT (1438 GMT)

ON TV 8 p.m. EDT -- CNN's David Ensor examines why three spies turned on the United States    VIDEO Former U.S. intelligence official Richard Haver provides insights into the thinking of turncoats gained from his role investigating three high-profile cases. Watch the entire interview with David Ensor. John Walker: Doing ‘the greatest degree of harm’ to U.S. intelligence in 25 years Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K A portrait of Aldrich Ames: Intelligent, arrogant and ‘catastrophic’ to the CIA QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Vitaly Yurchenko: Defector, or disinformation artist? QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Jonathan Pollard: 'Manipulative, intelligent ... very confused' QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Common threads: Intelligence, and a background of borderline behavior QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     CNN Experience: Cold War An interview with Aldrich Ames Profiles: Aldrich Ames Profiles: The Walker family CNN In-Depth Special: Cold War

(CNN) -- Richard Haver knows firsthand the havoc a crafty spy can do to a nation's intelligence network.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the former executive director of the Central Intelligence Agency's Community Management Staff met with and investigated two of the most notorious American spies of the 20th century: retired U.S. Navy warrant officer John Walker and Aldrich Ames, a longtime CIA employee posted to the office that handled clandestine operations around the globe.

For almost 20 years, Walker sold top-secret encryption codes to the Russians that allowed them into the inner sanctum of United States operations and methods. He went even further, recruiting a spy ring that included his own son.

"He opened up windows way beyond just Navy access for extended periods of time," Haver, now vice president for Intelligence Business Development at TRW, told CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor "And when someone compromises your secure communications, they have compromised your entire system."

Haver remembers Ames as arrogant, smart and a professional intelligence officer with perhaps a penchant for drinking too much. But his spying on behalf of the former Soviet Union proved "catastrophic" to the CIA's human intelligence operations.

"In the spy game, when you're penetrated, when someone is working for the other side inside your security world, they then own you," Haver says.

Haver recalls the wiles of Walker and Ames and the lessons they taught America's intelligence community in an in-depth interview with Ensor.

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Central Intelligence Agency
  • The Clandestine Services and Damage Caused by Aldrich Ames
The Clandestine Services and Damage Caused by Aldrich Ames
Defense Security Service: John Anthony Walker

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