Susan Reimer at the Baltimore Sun wrote an interesting column about an interesting book called Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed (Naval Institute Press).
Jeanne Vertefeuille and Sandra Grimes could be George Smiley's people.
They were recruited on their college campuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the height of the Cold War. Jeanne wanted travel and adventure. Sandy didn't know much about the CIA; she just needed a job.
Jeanne and Sandy. That's how they refer to themselves in the book they co-authored, "Circle of Treason."
It tells the story of these two women — Jeanne worked her way up from the equivalent of the steno pool, while Sandy was immediately in the Soviet division (and over her head) because she could speak Russian — and how they brought down the most devastating traitor in the history of the agency: Aldrich Ames.
Their meticulous investigation and combing of records also revealed losses that could not have come from Mr. Ames. They pointed more to the FBI and eventually led to a traitor in its midst, Robert Hanssen, who spied for the Soviets for 22 years, doing damage that more than rivaled that done by Mr. Ames. Both men are serving life terms for espionage. Those they betrayed were executed.
"Circle of Treason" is the first book about the decade-long mole hunt not written by academics or journalists but by members of the team that uncovered the spying of Messrs. Ames and Hanssen.
You can read the rest of the column via the below link:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-reimer-aldrich-ames-20121217,0,3484978.column
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