Spies Like Us
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History April 22 - 28.
We are back on this lovely Monday, Okay History, friends. Thanks for being here.
It’s Anonymous week! I’m here to write about the most important person in my life, my wife. Her parents named her Anonymous because they didn’t want people to know that they were her parents. I don’t think that is the official story, but that’s what I’m going with.
Anonymous has many beautiful qualities, ones that I don’t even know about. How can that be? Well, she’s a spy, that’s why. I’m not sure Anonymous is her real name.
I love spies. I can’t get enough of the stories surrounding them. Have you seen the movie Breach? It’s about Federal Bureau of Investigation spy Robert Hanssen, who spied for the Russians and was caught by a junior FBI agent, Eric O’Neil. Eric got the gig because he was Catholic and Jesuit-educated, and that impressed Robert, who was Catholic and hated those who were Jesuit-educated. I’m Catholic and Jesuit-educated, and I would be a terrible spy.
But Anonymous is a tremendous spy. If you ever meet her, she will tell you tales of what she wants to know about her job. She will tell you about the magical places she travels to and the interesting people she works with. She’ll tell you how she works from home a few days a week and then goes into the office and how nice that setup is. You will be convinced that she isn’t a spy.
Don’t let her fool you. She’s totally a spy.
Speaking of spies, this week in United States history, we caught another spy who fooled our government for a long time and helped our Russian adversaries during the Cold War.
On April 28, 1994, Central Intelligence Officer Alrich Ames and his wife Rosario pled guilty to espionage charges after they were arrested that February in their house in Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, DC.
As part of the plea agreement, Ames was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today, in Teraue Hute, Indiana – a proper place where I would imagine you don’t need bars because the place is so unpleasant.
Ames admitted accepting almost $1M from his Russian handlers in exchange for compromising every American CIA agent and foreign service officer that he knew of. What began as an opportunity to assess potential Russian assets turned into full-out treason that cost the lives of numerous Russians who worked for the United States.
For years, the CIA wouldn’t admit it had a mole in its midst, which allowed Ames to continue his betrayal. Years later, when the FBI was looking for their mole, they put Hannsen in charge of finding himself. He referenced Ames throughout the process and how terrible the CIA handled trying to catch him. What a jerk.
Maybe I wouldn’t be a terrible spy.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
Hank Aaron hit his 775th home run on April 23, 1954. Twenty years after he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record of 715 and his mom hugged him on the basepaths, Hammering Hank kept the record until the late 1990s when it was broken by guys who used a lot of enhancement drugs.
AIDS was discovered on April 23, 1984. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus that came into human existence in the 1960s and spread throughout the United States in the 1970s and early 80s. The Center for Disease Control published an article in 1981 about a rare lung disease affecting young, healthy gay men in Los Angeles, and three years the Department of Human Services announced the discovery of HTLV-III, the retrovirus that causes AIDS.
The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal story broke on April 28, 2004. Television news shows 60 Minutes broadcast photographs of Iraqi prisons being tortured by United States military personnel in Abu Ghraib prison, just west of Bagbad. It was one of the most embarrassing and disgusting acts we committed. Thirty-six prisoners died.
Anonymous's celebrations will kick off later this week when she is awarded the title of one of the best spies in Washington, DC. It seems weird that the government would hold such a public event, although I credit them for not blatantly calling it Our Best Spies of the Past Year. It’s a black tie affair, and part of the fun in preparing for the evening is finding out if my tux still fits.
My Ask Me Anything segment last week generated a lot of likes and engagement. Thank you for that; I appreciate the likes and attention. It’s challenging to write about the current situation with the upcoming election. There is plenty of other, more popular content out there that speaks to the daily ridiculousness that Trump is putting us through. But last week really upset me, especially Bill Barr, another one of these Catholic leaders who continues to disappoint.
Here's a quick story about Billy: One time, I was in the airport heading out for another week of work out of town, and Billy was standing right in front of me. I’m not someone who gets starstruck at all, and seeing Barr certainly isn’t intimidating. But I noticed the liner in his suit jacket was torn and sticking out. It looked terrible.
I said nothing. I hope everyone noticed his raggy attire. Take that minster.
One last thing—I’m playing around with the idea of providing a voice recording of my election rankings. Would that be interesting to you? Please let me know in the comments.
I hope you have a great week. I have a big work presentation on Thursday. I’ll see you on Friday. Thanks for reading.
Okay,
Chris
Correction: I keep calling Bill Barr, Bob Barr. I think I want to refer to him as Boob Barr.
THanks to the dedicated reader, who really needs to be my editor, for the catch.