Agent recruitment, Ames came to believe, depended on “the ability to assess a person’s vulnerability.” Once you knew a man’s weakness, you could snare and manipulate him. Disloyalty was not a sin, but an operational tool. “The essence of espionage is betrayal of trust,” Ames declared. He was wrong: the essence of successful agent running is the maintenance of trust, the supplanting of one allegiance by another, higher, loyalty.
