Robert Clayton Ames (March 6, 1934 – April 18, 1983) was an

operations officer Military operations is a concept and application of military science that involves planning the operations for the projected maneuvering forces' provisions, services, training, and administrative functions—to allow them to commence, insert, t ...

and Near East specialist for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

. He was killed in the

1983 United States embassy bombing The April 18, 1983, United States Embassy bombing was a suicide bombing on the Embassy of the United States, Beirut, Embassy of the United States in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by. The vict ...

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Early life

Raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, the son of a steelworker, Ames was a 1956 graduate of

La Salle University La Salle University () is a private university, private, Catholic university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The university was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and named for St. Jean-Bapt ...

. While at La Salle, he was a member of the La Salle basketball team which won the NCAA championship in 1954 and was runner-up in 1955.

Career

In 1956, he joined the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

and assigned to duty in Ethiopia. On visits to Cairo and Jerusalem, Ames became interested in the Middle East and learned Arabic. In 1960, he joined the

(CIA), specializing in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Over his twenty three year CIA career, Ames was posted in Sana'a,

South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until Yemeni unification, its unification with the Yemen A ...

; Beirut, Lebanon; Tehran, Iran and Kuwait City, Kuwait. According to Ames' biographer Kai Bird, Ames rose to become America's most influential intelligence officer in the Middle East due to his connections with Arab intelligence figures, including Palestinian militant Ali Hassan Salameh, though Ames was criticized by some within CIA for not officially recruiting Salameh as an agent. The backchannel with Yasir Arafat's

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) was politically risky, when the PLO was viewed as a terrorist organization in Washington. He rose to become the CIA's chief analyst for the Middle East at CIA headquarters, regularly briefing President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. He was involved in the development of

Operation Eagle Claw Operation Eagle Claw ( Persian: عملیات پنجه عقاب) was a failed U.S. Department of Defense attempt to rescue 52 embassy staff held captive by Revolutionary Iran on 24 April 1980. It was ordered by US President Jimmy Carter afte ...

, a failed rescue attempt during the

Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

Death

Ames was killed on April 18, 1983, when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the United States embassy in Beirut. A total of 63 people were killed in the explosion, including Ames, the CIA

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

station chief and his deputy, as well as six other CIA officers and eight other Americans. CIA Director

William Casey William Joseph Casey (March 13, 1913 – May 6, 1987) was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the ...

described the loss of Ames as "the closest thing to an irreplaceable man". US President

and his wife,

Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress who was the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in ...

, attended the ceremony marking the arrival of the victims’ coffins at

Andrews Air Force Base Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form ...

. A memorial service for them, held at

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...

, was attended by three thousand people. Ames is buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

. After his death, Ames was selected as one of CIA's first Trailblazers.

Personal life

He and his wife, Yvonne, had six children. Only after his death did Ames' children learn he was a spy. He is the uncle of former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher Mark Gubicza.

References

External links

Ames' gravesite
at