We Do It to Them, They Do It to Us : Shock of all amazing shocks, Russian spy found in nation’s capital

Are we alone in finding a degree of naivete, even implausibility, in the indignation being expressed in some quarters in Washington over what is shaping up as the most damaging spy case in recent years?

Knowledgeable government officials actually profess to be shocked--shocked!--that in the post-Cold War era Russia’s depleted but still obviously very active spying services would continue to conduct operations abroad, specifically against the world’s only remaining superpower, as our political leaders like to say. That is some thumb-in-your-eye thanks after all this country has done for President Boris Yeltsin and his predecessor--the economic aid, the political support, not least the timely warnings we provided (based, of course, on our own intelligence work) about the plots that were hatched against them. Moscow, they say, really ought to apologize and summon home those of its embassy officials who were involved in this disgraceful business.

Let’s get real. The Cold War may be over, but intelligence gathering and spying go on. The Russians and others do it to us and, as former CIA Director Robert Gates noted the other night, we do it to them, because “it’s important that we know what they’re up to.” That the Soviet KGB and its successor agency in Russia were apparently able, beginning in 1985, the first year of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika , to put on the payroll a mid-level but very-well-plugged-in CIA official is plainly a matter of political embarrassment and profound frustration. But any top government officials who were genuinely surprised by what was revealedthis week are guilty of world-class disingenuousness.

For the Clinton Administration, which inherited this scandal, exposure of a 32-year employee of the CIA as an alleged spy adds enormously to the difficulties it already faced in winning even continuing support on Capitol Hill for aid to Russia. Combined with other recent doubt-raising events--the triumph of political extremists in last December’s legislative elections, the virtual abandonment of reforms by Yeltsin’s new government--the case of Aldrich Ames, who was arrested along with his wife on espionage charges, can only be expected to lower expectations that closer ties and greater cooperation with Russia can soon be achieved.

That response is understandable. It also ought quickly to yield to calmer second thoughts. Spying, however odious it may be, remains a fact of international life. It happens sometimes even among the oldest or best of friends, as cases a few years back involving French and Israeli espionage against the United States show. Anger is a warranted reaction. But it would be foolishly self-wounding to let the Ames case deflect Washington from pursuing policies toward Russia that serve U.S. national interests. When all is said and done, it remains vitally important for America and the West to go on doing what they can to encourage the evolution of a Russia based on political pluralism and a free-market economy.

Meanwhile, the mess left by the Ames case has to be cleaned up. The full extent of the harm done to U.S. agents and interests over the seven or eight years when pure-gold information was being sold to the Russians has to be evaluated. So too do the internal security procedures for CIA employees. The second rule in spying, after “Don’t get caught,” is “Don’t draw attention to yourself.” Yet in their spending habits, the Ameses left a trail of glaring obviousness.

Throughout the period of alleged spying, says the government, the Ameses’ expenditures exceeded their income by more than $1 million. Did no one at the CIA whose job it is to take note of such conspicuous consumption--the $540,000 home, the $40,000 car, the $500,000 in credit-card charges--wonder where all the money could be coming from? President Clinton has praised the counterespionage work done to break this case. No doubt the praise is deserved. But still to be explained is why, given the Ameses’ remarkably showy lifestyle, it took so long for the bloodhounds to get on the trail.