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Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is an American former FBI agent who engaged in spying for the Soviet Union and Russia against the United States for a period of at least 15 years. Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at Foxstone Park near his home in Vienna, Virginia, charged with selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds over a 15-year period. On July 6, 2001, he pled guilty to 15 counts of espionage.[1][2] He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. His activities have been described as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history".[3]
BiographyEarly lifeHanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, a policeman, was emotionally abusive to Hanssen during his childhood.[4] Hanssen attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and studied chemistry and Russian. He enrolled in Northwestern University's dentistry school.[5] He did well academically, but said that he "didn't like spit all that much."[6] He switched to business after three years,[7] receiving an MBA. After graduating, he took a job with an accounting firm but quit to join the Chicago Police Department as an internal corruption investigator. Hanssen left the police department after four years to join the FBI in January 1976.[4] FBI counterintelligence unit and espionage activitiesHanssen was transferred to the Washington, D.C., office in 1981 and moved to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia. Hanssen told investigators that he began spying for the Russians in 1984, when he informed the Soviets that General Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov of the GRU (Russian intelligence agency) was selling Soviet secrets to the USA.
"Hanssen's biggest fear," according to a story in USA Today, was someone like him: "an agent on the Russian side with knowledge of Hanssen's spying who decided to work for the Americans. A former CIA counterintelligence expert, Vincent Cannistraro, suspects that this is what happened."[10] Hanssen took great pains to prevent his Soviet handlers from learning his identity. He used dead drops, aliases and many other methods to avoid having his identity revealed to the Soviets. The depth and breadth of the information that Hanssen passed would automatically raise suspicion that there was more than one person involved, but Hanssen's cautious practices assured that the Soviets knew of only one anonymous spy. Hanssen is often portrayed as a mediocre agent, but in the words of David Major, one of his superiors at CI3, Hanssen was "diabolically brilliant."[11] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead picked his own dead drop sites. He even designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. A "6" was to be added to each part of a drop time (e.g., January 6 (01/06) at 1:00 pm would be July 12 (07/12) at 7:00 pm, that is 01+6=07 for the month, 06+6=12 for the day, and 1+6=7 for the time).[12] In an early letter to Cherkashin, he claims, "[a]s far as the funds are concerned, I have little need or utility for more than the 100,000."[13] Hanssen felt that his skills were underused and sought acceptance and appreciation from his peers which never materialized; therefore, he began to spy for the KGB which recognized his lack of friends and attempted to compensate. For example, his handlers would often make small talk with him.[14] Eventually, Hanssen's payments from his contacts in cash and gems would total more than US$1.4 million. Concurrent with the Hanssen investigation was a sensationalized investigation of a CIA employee (Brian Kelly) living in Vienna, Virginia and suspected of using dead drops along his jogging route through local parks. At the State Department there were two instances of espionage prior to Hanssen's posting there. One involved a microphone in a conference room; the other involved a man in a tweed jacket who walked off with documents and has never officially been identified. Hanssen's involvement in or response to these investigations remains unknown to the public. Likewise, there was even a 1993 incident where an FBI agent appeared at the Russian Embassy and demanded asylum. The Russians refused and complained of such blatant attempts to create diplomatic embarassment on the part of the FBI. Columnist Robert Novak wrote on July 12, 2001, that Hanssen had served as his main source for a 1997 column criticizing Janet Reno, then the United States Attorney General, for allegedly covering up aspects of the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy,[15] which involved allegations that the People's Republic of China attempted to influence U.S. elections by illegally donating money to the Democratic National Committee and President Clinton's campaign. Suspicions, arrest and guilty pleaHanssen's wife, Bonnie, discovered Hanssen's secret life when she caught him writing a secret letter that she believed was to another woman. Hanssen confessed that he had sold some worthless facts to the Soviets for $20,000. Bonnie subsequently made him confess to a priest. Hanssen was a supernumerary member of Opus Dei.[16] The priest was later identified by the New York Times as the Rev. Robert P. Bucciarelli, former head of Opus Dei in the U.S. Hanssen's wife apparently did not inform anyone in the FBI that her husband had confessed his guilt to her. In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, reported to the bureau that Hanssen should be investigated for espionage. Wauck had become suspicious when he discovered Hanssen had excessive amounts of cash in his home.[4]. Hanssen was caught in part due to the efforts of Eric O'Neill, a young FBI employee who was assigned to watch Hanssen, using the position of Hanssen's aide as a cover. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a PDA to store his information; when he was able to obtain Hanssen's PDA briefly and have agents download and decode its encrypted contents, the FBI had its "smoking gun."[17][18][19] Another FBI agent arrested for spying, Earl Edwin Pitts, also said he thought that Hanssen was a spy. Hanssen withdrew his name from consideration for a higher post paying more money when he discovered that a lie detector test would be required, even though he was under serious financial pressure. Hanssen's last deaddrop site was "Ellis". The FBI secretly bought the house across from his to keep a 24/7 watch on him. As he came back from "Ellis", the FBI awaited there to arrest him.[citation needed] Federal authorities were aided by the opening of the KGB archives. In the archives at Yasenevo were found a taped phone conversation and a bag with Hanssen's fingerprints. The archives also contained the entire KGB file on Hanssen.[20] With the representation of famed Washington lawyer Plato Cacheris, Hanssen forged a plea bargain which enabled him to escape the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with authorities.[1] Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His wife, along with their six children, received the survivor's part of Hanssen's pension, $39,000 per year. Hanssen is required to submit to a gag order with respect to public comments. Hanssen is currently serving his sentence at ADX Florence, a Supermax federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, where he spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.[21] Family lifeAccording to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. They attended Mass weekly. His three sons attended The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, an all-boys Preparatory School strongly associated with Opus Dei.[22] His daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls, also a Catholic school associated with Opus Dei. His wife, Bonnie, taught religion there. A priest at the parochial school which Hanssen's children attended said that Hanssen had regularly attended a 6:30 a.m. daily Mass for more than a decade.[23] Father C. John McCloskey III, said Hanssen also occasionally attended the daily noontime Mass at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington, D.C.[24] However, there was a second side to Hanssen's private life. Unbeknownst to his wife, he secretly videotaped them in sexual acts and shared the videotapes with a friend. He also explicitly described their sex life on Internet chat rooms, giving information sufficient for those who knew them to recognize the couple.[25] Hanssen fraternized with a Washington D.C. stripper named Priscilla Sue Galey. The stripper went to Hong Kong with Hanssen on a trip; he gave her money, jewels and a used Mercedes, but cut off contact with her prior to his arrest. Galey states the relationship was strictly platonic and that he was trying to help her get closer to God.[26] Further reading
Notes
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