'The Assets' Explores Real-Life Aldrich Ames Spy Case

My Q & A with former CIA officer Sandra V. Grimes, one of a team of "mole hunters" who brought down CIA officer, tratior and Soviet spy Aldrich Ames, will appear in the upcoming issue of Counterterrorism magaine.

So it was with some interest that I read Andrea Morabito's piece in the New York Post on the upcoming ABC series on the Aldrich Ames spy case.

ABC is offering an antidote for “Scandal” fans missing their weekly rush during the drama’s midseason hiatus — with another story of feisty female DC operatives pursuing the truth and taking names.

The eight-part miniseries “The Assets,” premiering Thursday at 10 p.m., tells the true story of CIA officers Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille as they track down notorious mole Aldrich Ames at the end of the Cold War — an apt subject to capitalize on the popularity of spy dramas playing out on the small screen and in the headlines.

... “This is a true story. What we hope and we thought is if people are interested in ‘Homeland’ and they’re interested in ‘The Americans’ . . . to find out that there’s two real women that were breaking the glass ceiling and doing this stuff for real, that will help drive people to us.”

The bulk of “Assets” takes place in 1985 when Grimes, played by British actress Jodie Whittaker (“Broadchurch”) and Vertefeuille (Harriet Walter) are racing to save Soviet intelligence officers (“the assets”) from being caught and killed based on intel leaked by Ames (Paul Rhys).

It’s adapted from the 2012 book “Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed” by Grimes and Vertefeuille, who started at the CIA as typists and quickly rose through the ranks at a time when the agency was an Ivy League boys club.

“Their persistence is what caught Ames. They went to their bosses and said there is a problem here, there is something going on, you have to believe us,” Hertzan says.

“Even Ames himself said he was ‘glad these two broads are running the back room because they’ll never figure it out,’ ” adds executive producer Rudy Bednar.

You can read he rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2013/12/31/the-assets-how-two-cia-agents-busted-infamous-80s-era-spy/

You can also read my previous post on the Ames spy case via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/12/a-look-back-at-cia-traitor-and-soviet.html