Robert Clayton Ames (March 6, 1934 – April 18, 1983) was an operations officer and Near East Director for the Central Intelligence Agency. He was killed in the 1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut.

Early life

Raised in Philadelphia, the son of a steelworker,^[1] Ames was a 1956 graduate of La Salle University. 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.^[2]

Career

In 1956, he joined the US Army in signals intelligence 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 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), specializing in the Middle East. Over his CIA career, Ames was posted in South Yemen, Beirut, Tehran, and Kuwait.^[1]

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 (PLO) was politically risky, when the PLO was viewed as a terrorist organization in Washington.^[1]

He rose to become the CIA's chief analyst for the Middle East at CIA headquarters, regularly briefing President Ronald Reagan. He was involvement in the development of Operation Eagle Claw, a failed rescue attempt during the Iran hostage crisis.^[1]

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 station chief and his deputy, as well as six other CIA officers and eight other Americans.^[3][4] CIA Director William Casey described the loss of Ames as "the closest thing to an irreplaceable man".^[5]

US President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, attended the ceremony marking the arrival of the victims’ coffins at Andrews Air Force Base.^[6] A memorial service for them, held at Washington National Cathedral, was attended by three thousand people.^[6] Ames is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.^[6]

After his death, Ames was selected as one of CIA's first Trailblazers.^[7]

Personal life

He was married with six children. Only after his death did Ames' children learn he was a spy.^[8][1]

He is the uncle of former Major League Baseball pitcher Mark Gubicza.^[9]