Dark Star

The American Spectator: Biden and the Tale of Aldrich Ames

In spite of a warning from his Republican predecessor, one of Senator Joseph Biden's first acts as the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987 was to abolish the Committee's Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism. Biden's action came just as one of the most famous spies in American history had begun leaking secrets to the Soviet Union. The spy -- Soviet CIA mole Aldrich Ames -- went undiscovered for nine years, almost the entire period of Biden's chairmanship of the Committee. Biden relinquished his post after Republicans re-captured the Senate in 1994. Ames was finally arrested that year.

[More]