Bail Denied For Alleged CIA Spy, Wife

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal magistrate yesterday refused bail for accused CIA spy Aldrich Ames and his wife after an FBI agent said Rosario Ames had admitted her husband told her in 1991 that he was a spy for Russia.

The damaging admission was disclosed by FBI counterintelligence supervising agent Leslie Wiser, who directed the investigation that resulted in the couple's arrests last week.

Wiser also raised the estimate of how much Ames allegedly received during the nine years he is accused of having spied for the Soviet Union and later Russia. Wiser told Magistrate Barry Poretz that the Ameses had been paid "at least twice as much as any (other known) spy or spy network" had ever received from the KGB, which he described as "notoriously thrifty with respect to payments to agents."

A purported letter from the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service, introduced at yesterday's hearing states that Ames' "balance sheet" showed $2,705,000 had been appropriated to him as of May 1, 1989.

As of that date, Ames had received $1.9 million of the total, according to the accounting statement, which also indicated some funds had been used to buy bonds.

The Ameses are charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. If convicted, they could face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Wiser, the only government witness at the hearing, testified that shortly after her arrest Feb. 21, Rosario Ames told FBI agents that her husband had admitted to her in 1991 that "he had been a spy on behalf of the Russians."

Wiser said she had also admitted that the large amounts of cash they had received last year had come "from the Russians."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Hulkower, who argued for no bail, portrayed Rosario Ames as "very supportive" of her husband's alleged spying, even to the point of urging him to be more imaginative in his dealings with the KGB.

Testimony from a spouse cannot be used against her husband unless he agrees. But it can be damaging to her case.

Wiser said that a nine-page letter from Ames' alleged Soviet handlers - a letter he reportedly received while stationed in Rome in the late '80s - discloses that the CIA officer had betrayed the identity of a Warsaw Pact intelligence officer recruited by the CIA. The agent, code-named "GT Motorboat," had met Ames in Rome and provided classified intelligence, Wiser said. He said that the CIA had made "many attempts to locate him but failed. He disappeared."

"GT Motorboat" is the second agent the government claims Ames betrayed. The first was a KGB counterintelligence officer who reportedly was executed.

Wiser said that the letter, found in Ames' Arlington, Va., home, allegedly identified his primary role for the KGB as one of disclosing Soviet agents working for the CIA. He said that Ames' second priority was to identify double agents, who were recruited by the KGB but in fact reported back to the CIA.

Wiser said many of the incriminating documents were retrieved from boxes in a closet in Ames' study and computer diskettes.

Material from Associated Press is included in this report.

------------------------- PURPORTED LETTER FROM KGB -------------------------

In this document, submitted as evidence against Aldrich Ames, the style on monetary figures, capitalized words and misspellings are as they appear. In dollar figures, the lowercase `c' denotes cents. Dear Friend,

this is Your balance sheet as on the May 1, 1989.

-- All in all You have been apprpriated ---- 2,705,000$

-- From the time of oppening of Your account in our Bank (December 26, 1986) Your profit is ----- 385,077$ 28c (including 14,468$ 9 1/4c as profit on bonds, which we bought for You on the sum of 250,000$)

-- Since December 1986 Your salary is ---- 300,000$

-- All in all we have delivered to You ---- 1,881,811$ 51c

-- On the above date You have on Your account (including 250,000$ in bonds) ---- 1,535,077$ 28c

P.S. We believe that these pictures would give You some idea about the beautiful piece of land on the river bank, which from now belongs to You forever. We decided not to take pictures of housing in this area with the understanding that You have much better idea of how Your country house (dacha) should look like.

Good Luck.

Associated Press