Robert Ames (agent)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Clayton "Bob" Ames ( March 6, 1934 in Philadelphia - April 18, 1983 in Beirut ) was a US intelligence officer and the director of the CIA's Middle East division .

Education and career

Ames grew up as the son of steel worker Albert Ames and his wife Helen in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia. Because of his athletic achievements as a basketball player, among other things, he received a scholarship to study at the Catholic La Salle University in his hometown. In 1957 he was sent as an analyst by the US Army to Kagnew Station in Ethiopia , where he was responsible for monitoring radio communications. There Ames learned Arabic and began to study the Arab world and the Middle East more intensively . At that time Ames was already working for the CIA. This was followed by stations in Aden in what was then South Yemen, Lebanon and Kuwait.

effect

As Middle East director and CIA resident at the US embassy in Beirut , Ames had personal relationships with Ali Hassan Salameh , one of the leading figures in the PLO's armed group . Ames managed to establish contacts with the management of the organization. According to his biographer Kai Bird, Ames tried unsuccessfully to save Salameh from an assassination attempt by commands from the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad .

Ames was seen as an important advisor to Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George P. Shultz in his efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict. In his tribute to Ames' service in the Middle East, CIA Director William Casey called him an "almost irreplaceable man".

Ames died in the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983 . He was buried in the US Army National Cemetery in Arlington .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kai Bird: The Life and Death of Robert Ames . Broadway Books, New York 2014, pp. 210 .
  2. ^ William Quandt: US Policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict . In: William Quandt (Ed.): The Middle East: Ten Years After Cam David . Brookings, Washington DC 1988, p. 367 .
  3. ↑ Guest Contributor: The Irreplaceable Spy. June 11, 2014, accessed November 13, 2019 .
  4. ^ Robert C. Ames, Station Chief, Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ames, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ames, Robert Clayton (full name); Ames, Bob (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American intelligence officer and the director of the CIA's Middle East division
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1983
Place of death Beirut