CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. His espionage of more than two decades had earned him cash of over 1.4 million USD and diamonds. On May 10, 2002, he was given sentence of fifteen life terms without a chance of parole. A reader replied to the blog, claiming to have been roommates with Hansen's daughter in the early 1990s, but this has yet to be substantiated. Nor would many other intelligence and counterintelligence accomplishments that routinely but quietly contribute to the security of this Nation. For a while he was in contact with Priscilla Sue Galey, a stripper in Washington, who received cash, jewelry and other benefits from Hanssen. After one teenage victim was able to escape, authorities were able to learn her abductor's identity. Hanssen gave them the name of a Russian general, Dimitri Polyakov, who had been providing information to the Americans. Marriage: Bernadette Bonnie (Wauck) Hanssen (August 10, 1968-present), Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John Jack, Sue and Jane, Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. Hanssen wanted to be posted to Allenwood in hopes that he might be visited frequently by his wife Bonnie and their six children. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $55,000 payment the next month, equivalent to $120,232 in 2021. Both Ames and Hanssen compromised the names of KGB agents working secretly for the U.S., some of whom were executed for their betrayal. He emerged as one of the most damaging spies to have infiltrated the FBI resulting in probably the worst intelligence disaster in the history of the US. He had opportunity. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. The ensuing investigation confirmed this suspicion. Please be aware how deeply Mrs. Hanssen regrets the damage that her husband, Robert Hanssen, has caused to our country and to their family, the statement said. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. He was tasked with studying all known and rumored penetrations of the FBI to find the man who had betrayed Martynov and Motorin; this meant, in effect, that he was charged with searching for himself. Robert Phillip Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 18, 1944. During the early 1990s, KGB veterans began to approach western intelligence agencies and provide information. Robert Hansen was actually married twice. This is particularly timely as we move to the next generation of automation to support the FBIs information infrastructure. Some promising suspects were cleared, and the mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer Harold James Nicholson. Thereafter he enrolled in Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and in 1966 completed his bachelor degree with Chemistry as major. This California farm kingdom holds a key, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater. The premise of The Frozen Ground is that a state trooper, played by Nicolas Cage, teams up with a surviving victim of a serial killerto bring him down. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch this movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. Before Hanssen left the position, Sullivan went to learn his new role at the Department of State. In 1980, after his first interactions with the Soviets, Hanssen told his wife what he had done, and she suggested they meet with a Catholic priest. Hanssen made the donation to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa, and cut off contact with the Soviets for the next few years. Director Tenet and I have briefed the intelligence committees of Congress because of the clear national security implications. "I apologize for my behavior. Hanssen pled guilty to 15 counts of espionage on July 6, 2001. This innocent looking house in Vienna used to belong to Russian spy Robert Hanssen before he was caught by the Feds. December 2000 - The FBI begins surveillance of Hanssen. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the Rule of Law. 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. 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. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." Wikimedia Commons Robert Hanssen made over $1 million spying for the Soviets until he was caught in 2001. He began providing the Soviets with highly valuable material. 1972 - Joins the Chicago Police Department. He was indiscreet enough to type his name into FBI search engines. Robert Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family who lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. 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? [34], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. The couple, however, did not have a great relationship. His new job in the FBI's budget office gave him access to information involving many different FBI operations. The FBI believes that the Russians never knew the name of their source. Hanssen, a former counterintelligence supervisor for the FBI, pleaded guilty last week to 15 espionage-related charges and admitted that he had sold the Russians thousands of pages of national security secrets in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. The pension was an important consideration for Hanssen in his plea negotiations, Brookner said. 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]. [7][8] He was sentenced to 15 life terms without the possibility of parole. The actions alleged date back as far as 1985 and, with the possible exception of several years in the 1990s, continued until his arrest on Sunday. children: Greg Hanssen, Jane Hanssen, John Hanssen, Lisa Hanssen, Mark Hanssen, Sue Hanssen, education: Kellogg School Of Management, Knox College (Illinois), See the events in life of Robert Hanssen in Chronological Order, (Former FBI Double Agent Who Spied for Russian Intelligence Services Against the United States from 1979 to 2001), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Hanssen.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert-Philip-Hanssen.jpg. His twenty two years of espionage against the US began in 1979. When told that he would have to take a lie detector test to join, Hanssen changed his mind. Hansen would force some of these women into the small plane that he owned and fly them to a remote location in the Alaskan wilderness. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested and charged with committing espionage on behalf of Russia and the former Soviet Union. The crimes alleged are an affront not only to his fellow FBI employees but to the American people, not to mention the pain and suffering he has brought upon his family. [70] Hanssen gave her money, jewels, and a used Mercedes-Benz but ended contact with her before his arrest when she began abusing drugs and doing sex work. The plea bargain allows Bonnie Hanssen to receive about 55% of Hanssens pension, which will total an estimated $39,000 per year. [4] The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. The attorney estimated that Hanssen contributed $10,000 to $20,000 to Mother Teresa in small installments over the years, although the FBI has not been able to verify the payments. Hanssens espionage activities began in 1985. His father served on the police force in Chicago and was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II when Hanssen was born. The level of support and expertise from Acting Deputy Attorney General Robert Mueller, Counsel for Intelligence Policy Frances Fragos Townsend, U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey and Assistant United States Attorney Randy Bellows is superb. He was delegated to probe police officers who were suspected of corruption. The one thing the father and son would eventually have in common is their interest in hunting. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. After confirmation by the FBI CART Unit, Sullivan filed a report with the Office of Professional Responsibility requesting the further investigation of Hanssen's attempted hack. Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole. "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. Hanssen also revealed a multimillion-dollar eavesdropping tunnel built by the FBI under the Soviet Embassy. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. [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. In his office, Hanssen had full access to the FBIs Automated Case Support (ACS) system and the State Departments computer systems. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and to avoid the death penalty, Hanssen confessed and agreed to be debriefed by American intelligence officials. After a few years working as an accountant, he decided to enter law enforcement. Robert was described as a loner and a quiet person, and he had a strained relationship as well with his strict and dominating father. The information he is alleged to have provided compromised numerous human sources, technical operations, counterintelligence techniques, sources and methods, and investigations, including the Felix Bloch investigation. We dont know at this point what happened to that money, she said. [49][50][51], During his final days with the FBI, Hanssen began to suspect something was wrong. Hanssen appeared to be a devoted anti-communist. Hanssen was finally discovered when a former KGB agent contacted American intelligence agents. His job was to help assemble a database of foreign officials posted in New York who, while posing as diplomats, were actually intelligence officers spying on the United States. His most important leak was the betrayal of Dmitri Polyakov, a CIA informant who passed enormous amounts of information to U.S. intelligence while rising to the rank of general in the Soviet Army. In the last letter he wrote to the Russians, which was found by the FBI when he was arrested, Hanssen said that he had been promoted to a "do-nothing job outside of regular access to information," and that, "Something has aroused the sleeping tiger". For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. The complaint, however, does not allege any compromises by him at the State Department. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. The affidavit alleges that Hanssen voluntarily became an agent of the KGB in 1985 while assigned to the intelligence division at the FBI field office in New York City as supervisor of a foreign counterintelligence squad. Its difficult, but its better than seeing him put to death.. Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women, mostly dancers and prostitutes, during a 12-year span. Waguespack listened to the tape again and recognized the voice as belonging to Hanssen. 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. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. Kelley instead reported the incident to the FBI. Though the Russians made an official protest, he managed to get away with it as FBIs probe in this matter did not make any progress. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. The complaint alleges that he received over $600,000. We particularly appreciate the unhesitating leadership and support of Attorney General Ashcroft from the moment he took office. Hanssen later joined the Catholic organization Opus Dei[13] with like-minded individuals. [6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 14 counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. This wedded bliss was short-lived, however. A digital investigation found that an attempted hacking had occurred using a password cracking program installed by Hanssen, which caused a security alert and lockup. Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. She would then use this money to run her house and support her children. Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would . (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). With the mole finally identified, locations, dates, and cases were matched with Hanssen's activities during the period. As an agency, we lived up to our responsibility, regardless of how painful it might be. [66] Opus Dei member C. John McCloskey said he also occasionally attended the daily noontime Mass at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington. Brookner said that the only time Bonnie Hanssen harbored any suspicions about her husbands activities came around 1979 or 1980, when they lived in Scarsdale, N.Y. She walked in on him and he covered up some papers, so she got suspicious, Brookner said. , . Their goal was to catch Hanssen red handed in espionage. 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? Hansen was convicted of just four of the murders in a deal that spared him . 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. [53] Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" But police also found an aviation map Hansen had marked with various X's, later revealed to be his kill map (via Murderpedia). 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