Aldrich Ames read an eight-page apology after his guilty plea. Highlights:
-- On his family: "I bitterly regret the catastrophe which my betrayal of trust has brought upon my wife and son and upon any who have loved or cared for me.
No punishment by this court can balance or ease the profound shame and guilt which I bear. . . .
My wife is being punished by the government far beyond her real culpability and even precedent. . . . To punish her beyond her deserts punishes me. To punish my son indirectly also punishes me."
-- On damage: "For those persons in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere who may have suffered from my actions, I have the deepest sympathy - even empathy. We made similar choices and suffer similar consequences. . . .
"I do not believe that our nation's interests have been noticeably damaged by my acts, or for that matter, those of the Soviet Union or Russia noticeably aided.
-- On why he turned over secrets: "First, I had come to dissent from the decades-long shift to the extreme right in our political spectrum and from our national security and foreign policies.
Second, I had come to believe that the espionage business, as carried out by the CIA and a few other American agencies, was and is a self-serving sham, carried out by careerist bureaucrats who have managed to deceive several generations of American policymakers and the public about both the necessity and the value of their work."
ABOUT HIS WIFE "She pleaded with me to break off the relationship with the Russians. I was able to manipulate her, even to blackmail her, into delaying that."
