I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. "Once he got caught, the only thing he cared about was trying to provide for his wife and his children," who visit him regularly in prison, Brookner said. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year. Later, he hid a video camera in the bedroom connected via a closed-circuit television line so that Hoschouer could observe the Hanssens from his guest bedroom. To be very clear on this issue, at no time was he authorized to communicate information to agents of the KGB/SVR. In early February 2001, he asked his friend at a computer technology company for a job. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. As alleged, he did so using a variety of sophisticated means of communication, encryption, and dead drops. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. The following year he was shifted to counter-intelligence division where he was delegated the job of organising data of Soviet intelligence. Mislock has since theorized that Hanssen probably went onto his computer to see if his superiors were investigating him for espionage and invented the document story to cover his tracks. Even without knowing who he was or where he worked, Hanssens value to the Russians was clear both by the substantial sums of money paid and the prestigious awards given to their own agents for Hanssens operation. Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. According to her, Hanssen never slept with her. Wikimedia Commons Robert Hanssen made over $1 million spying for the Soviets until he was caught in 2001. Many of them were agents of the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB, or its military counterpart, the GRU. Hanssen was recalled yet again to Washington, D.C., in 1987. The couple went on to have two children. To the residents of the quiet suburb of Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen was the perfect neighbor. Through our cooperative efforts, the FBI and CIA were able to learn the true identity of Ramon and the FBI was able to conduct a solid investigation. Hanssen received payments of $1.4 million in cash and diamonds from the information he gave the Soviet Union and Russia. Realizing the importance of the material, the United States paid $7 million for it. For more information:- Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage- Affidavit- Statement ofFBI Director Louis J. Freeh on the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen (see below), Statement of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh On the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 20, 2001Washington D.C.FBI National Press Office. [54], With the representation of Washington lawyer Plato Cacheris, Hanssen negotiated a plea bargain that enabled him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with authorities. Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States. Under Mr. Hanssen's plea bargain, she. Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, retired from teaching theology at Oakcrest in 2020. 1980 - Begins working for the counterintelligence unit, focusing on the Soviet Union. Hanssen was detailed to the Office of Foreign Missions at the Department of State from 1995 to 2000. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. Further, the complaint alleges that Hanssen, using his training and experience to protect himself from discovery by the FBI, never met face-to-face with his Russian handlers, never revealed to them his true identity or where he worked, constantly checked FBI records for signs he and the drop sites he was using were being investigated, refused any foreign travel to meet with the Russians, and even declined to accept any trade craft. Hanssen never displayed outward signs that he was receiving large amounts of unexplained cash. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. It would seem as though Hansen's children want their privacy respected, and who could blame them? Robert Hanssen moments after being arrested. Hanssen ensured that he did not reveal himself with his study, but in addition, he gave the entire studyincluding the list of all Soviets who had contacted the FBI about FBI molesto the KGB in 1988. Hanssen reportedly lavished cash and gifts on a Washington stripper whom he befriended. He was born on April 18, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, to Howard and Vivian Hanssen. He then followed his usual routine, taking a package consisting of a sealed garbage bag of classified material and taping it to the bottom side of a wooden footbridge over a creek. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. Sullivan noted that Hanssen spent a lot of time trolling ACS for information. He had been married twice, and fathered children. A feature film called Breach was released in 2007. Hanssen refused. He used encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. By February 2001, about 300 personnel were working the investigation and monitoring Hanssen. He compromised information about Americas plan of forming Measurement and Signature Intelligence, its bugging plan over the Soviets by digging a tunnel under the decoding room of the Soviets new embassy and data on double agents of the US. [7][8] He was sentenced to 15 life terms without the possibility of parole. WASHINGTON - Convicted FBI spy Robert Hanssen, who's set to be sentenced to life in prison tomorrow, asked his best friend to drug and have sex with . The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. Desk: FBI and CIA Counterintelligence As Seen From My Cubicle Dog Ear Publishing 2010, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America, "USA v. Robert Philip Hanssen: Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, Arrest Warrant and Search Warrant", "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator", "A Review of FBI Security Programs (Webster Report)", "A Review of the FBI's Performance in Deterring, Detecting, and Investigating the Espionage Activities of Robert Philip Hanssen", Thompson Statement Regarding Hanssen Guilty Plea, "Spy's Wife Speaks, After Taking a Lie Test", "Riddle Resolved: Who Dimed Out American Traitor and Super-Spy, Robert Hanssen? [53] Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" [75], The American Court TV (now TruTV) television series Mugshots released an episode on the Robert Hanssen case titled "Robert Hanssen Hanssen and the KGB".[76]. In his office, Hanssen had full access to the FBIs Automated Case Support (ACS) system and the State Departments computer systems. [25] That same year, Hanssen, according to a government report, committed a "serious security breach" by revealing secret information to a Soviet defector during a debriefing. Special Agent Don Sullivan, a squad supervisor at the FBIs Washington Field Office at the time, volunteered to replace Hanssen. Their goal was to catch Hanssen red handed in espionage. The Hanssen case was regarded as a low point for the FBI, especially as Hanssen had been so trusted and had committed such betrayals for so many years. On January 12 that year he was posted in FBIs field office in Gary, Indiana, and in 1978 he was again transferred to its field office in New York. The investigation was not fruitful and the FBI was unable to charge Bloch on any account. May 31, 2001 - Pleads not guilty to all charges. He wrote to them anonymously. He did well in his elective, Russian. The failure of the Bloch investigation and the FBI's investigation of how the KGB learned that they were investigating Bloch caused the mole hunt that eventually resulted in the arrest of Hanssen. In his communications with the Russians (some of which were eventually made public after his arrest) he insisted on setting the terms of how he would communicate, pass information, and pick up money. An FBI arrest team moved into position at Foxstone Park, a location where Hanssen had been spotted before by FBI surveillance. Hansen was convicted of just four of the murders in a deal that spared him . [35] Three years later, convicted FBI mole Earl Edwin Pitts told the FBI that he suspected Hanssen due to the Mislock incident. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. [33], Hanssen continued to take risks in 1993 when he hacked into the computer of a fellow FBI agent, Ray Mislock, printed out a classified document from Mislock's computer and took the document to Mislock, saying, "You didn't believe me that the system was insecure." Its amazing to live with a man for all those years and not know him.. This brief union did not produce any children. In mid-2001 he was tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on fifteen counts as a spy and was given sentence of fifteen life terms without a chance of parole. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. Hanssens espionage activities began in 1985. Hanssen became alarmed that a Russian with knowledge of his activities would tip off the Americans that a highly placed mole was operating within the FBI and the resultant investigation would lead to him. Because of his experience and training as a counterintelligence agent, Hanssen went undetected for years, although some of his unusual activities had aroused suspicion from time to time. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. In the face of worldwide publicity about one of the most damaging espionage breaches in U.S. history, Bonnie Hanssen, 54, has maintained a steadfast silence since her husband of nearly 30 years was arrested in February near their home in suburban Washington. On May 10, 2002, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 1981 he was assigned to the Budget Unit in the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. His job in the suburb of Vienna included electronic surveillance and wiretapping, which gave him more access to different FBI activities. He passed on data related to surveillance activities of FBI and provided the GRU with data of suspected Soviet intelligence spies. His bride left him after six months when Hansen was put in prison for setting fire to the local school district's bus barns. Later he would convert to Catholicism from Lutheranism. On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash, equivalent to $251,949 in 2021. Therefore, after he was given a 461-year sentence for his crimes, she chose to divorce him. Despite having shown his face, disclosed his code name, and revealed his FBI affiliation, Hanssen escaped arrest when the FBI's investigation into the incident did not advance. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. With two children already out of school, the pension money will help Bonnie Hanssen support two children who are in college and two more still in high school, Brookner said. But even as her life regains some sense of normalcy, Bonnie Hanssen struggles to understand the havoc that the last few months have wrought, Brookner said. Hanssen wanted to be posted to Allenwood in hopes that he might be visited frequently by his wife Bonnie and their six children. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a Palm III PDA to store his information. One notable example was the information that the Americans had dug a tunnel under the Russian embassy in Washington to install sophisticated listening devices. He continued with his counter-intelligence work after being shifted to the New York field office in 1985. Hanssen's story was featured in episode 4, under the name of "Perfect Traitor", of Smithsonian Channel's series Spy Wars, aired end of 2019 and narrated by Damian Lewis.[78]. Discovery Company. His exposure explained many of the asset losses U.S. intelligence suffered during the 1980s, including the arrest and execution of Martynov and Motorin. The agencies initially focused primarilyand incorrectlyon a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years. All denied everything. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. Darla, who had a masters degree in Education, would earn her own income by teaching learning disabled kids. Biography of Vladimir Putin: From KGB Agent to Russian President, Biography of Mata Hari, Infamous World War I Spy, Haym Salomon, Spy and Financier of the American Revolution, Biography of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Wanted Spy, Biography of Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party Leader, Biography of Robert Kennedy, US Attorney General, Presidential Candidate, John Dillinger's Life as Public Enemy Number 1, Biography of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War Era Soviet Leader. In 1978, he and his growing family of three children (and eventually six) relocated to New York City when the FBI transferred him to its field office there. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. No one knew Hansen was abducting some of these women and killing them for sport. He will report directly to the Attorney General and me and we will share his report with the National Security Council and Congress. His active and long stint as a Soviet spy began on October 1, 1985, when he sent an unsigned letter to KGB, where he mentioned the names of at least three agents of KGB who were covertly serving FBI. February 18, 2001 - Is arrested in a Virginia park after making a drop of classified documents. While it did not contain Hanssen's name, among the information was an audiotape of a July 21, 1986, conversation between "B" and KGB agent Aleksander Fefelov. Asked what Bonnie Hanssen thinks may have motivated her husband, Brookner said: Who knows? News reports at the time of his sentencing said American intelligence agencies were not entirely satisfied with the extent of his cooperation and believed he was holding back information. Though she named Hansen as the man who held her captive and sexually assaulted her, it wasn't until a more thorough investigation was completed that Hansen was formally charged with crimes. While not identifying himself, he was able to gain their trust by initially providing information which the Soviets found both credible and valuable. There he served as an investigator of internal affairs with specialisation in forensic accounting. [38], The existence of two Russian moles working in the U.S. security and intelligence establishment simultaneouslyAmes at the CIA and Hanssen at the FBIcomplicated counterintelligence efforts during the 1990s. Robert Hansen. [30], In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, recommended to the FBI that Hanssen be investigated for espionage because his sister, Hanssen's wife, told him that her sister, Jeanne Beglis, had found a pile of cash on a dresser in the Hanssens' house. The Hanssens are active members of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group. [4], In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of Felix Bloch, a Department of State official who had become suspected of espionage. His Russian contacts and Hanssen were highly trained in espionage techniques and were able to work together without ever meeting. [60] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead chose his own. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. 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