I left that memo in your inbox, ONeill replied. A turning point came in 2000, when the FBI and CIA were able to secure original Russian documentation of an American spy who appeared to be Hanssen. The purloined PalmPilot gave the FBI the final piece of the puzzle: Hanssens next meeting with the Russians was scheduled for the following weekend. Why are we still having these debates? The underling had 15 minutes to arrange for a car from the FBI who, this time, didnt blow its shot. Blood rushed to my face. 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. Hanssen had a reputation for being wildly arrogant and dour. John Cusack plays the villain in the movie, and if youre curious to know, let me tell you that the story is inspired by the serial killer Robert Hansen. The investigation that led to these charges is the direct result of the longstanding FBI/CIA efforts, ongoing since the Aldrich Ames case, to identify additional foreign penetrations of the United States Intelligence Community. She agreed to describe the results, Ms. Brookner said, because they exonerated Mrs. Hanssen. Home; Features; Services; About; Contact; Login; Get Free Demo Before Hanssen left the position, Sullivan went to learn his new role at the Department of State. He later wrote to his KGB handler, speaking about the severity with which U.S. laws punishes his alleged actions, and acknowledging I know far better than most what minefields are laid and the risks.. ''Most of the people who think ill of me don't know me. officer based in Washington. 2000 - The FBI identifies Hanssen from a fingerprint and from a tape recording supplied by a disgruntled Russian intelligence operative. In 1985 he approached the Soviets again and offered valuable secrets. 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. In January 2001, Hanssen moved into a small office in FBI Headquarters secretly outfitted with surveillance cameras and microphones. As a result of these assignments within the FBI, Hanssen gained access to some of the most sensitive and highly classified information in the United States Government. May 10, 2002 Posted: 11:59 AM EDT (1559 GMT) Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen. In short, the trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection. While Darla suspected that he had been frequenting prostitutes, she had no idea of the literal manhunt he conducted. He didnt see the PalmPilot, but there was a messenger bag and it was a jackpot: full of data disks, financial statements, a passport and a second cellphone. But while the FBI could have arrested Hanssen on the spot, they would have had him only on a conspiracy charge. There is insanity in all the answers.. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and to avoid the death penalty, Hanssen confessed and agreed to be debriefed by American intelligence officials. This is particularly timely as we move to the next generation of automation to support the FBIs information infrastructure. '', ''I have very supportive friends, who have been tremendous,'' Mrs. Hanssen said. After being released, he met his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, and the pair got married in 1963. Hanssen was finally discovered when a former KGB agent contacted American intelligence agents. As an agency, we lived up to our responsibility, regardless of how painful it might be. Under Mr. Hanssen's plea bargain, she. 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. '', See the article in its original context from. Hanssen subsequently was assigned to a variety of national security posts that legitimately provided him access to classified information relating to the former Soviet Union and Russia. But from the vantage of the media, "happens to be" applies only to Pollard: Hanssen is fast-becoming known as "the Catholic spy.". Lesley Stahl has learned that Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who betrayed his country, also betrayed his church and his wife. Hanssen had freely expressed his views on marriage before, once telling ONeill: Your genetic code demands that you make money and provide for the family. Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John "Jack," Sue and Jane. Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 18, 1944 to a family of German and Polish origins. Yet some investigators believed anger about how his father treated him as a child triggered a need to rebel against authority. Bokhan. The data-some 6000 pages of highly classified documents-revealed . He married Bernadette Wauck in 1968 and, influenced by his devout Catholic wife, he converted to Catholicism. The Justice Department's inspector general has been examining the F.B.I. Posted in . FBI and CIA personnel who debriefed Hanssen about his 21 years as a spy for Moscow found him a prickly, uncooperative character and won't be sorry to see him pulling hard time in a distant lock-up. For many years, the CIA and FBI have been aggressively engaged in a sustained analytical effort to identify foreign penetrations of the Intelligence Community. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Today hes a national-security strategist for the cyber-security company Carbon Black and runs his own investigative and security-services firm. When the news media reported that alleged spy Robert Hanssen was a member of Opus Dei back in 2001, many wondered how Hanssen could provide sensitive information to communists, when Opus Dei has always seemed to be so vehemently opposed to communism. Literally, Hanssens colleagues and coworkers at the FBI conducted this investigation and did so quietly, securely and without hesitation. This story has been shared 149,018 times. To get the ball rolling, Hanssen was promoted from a desk job at the State Department and ONeill was given a role as Hanssens assistant. Robert Hanssen is a former FBI agent notorious for committing treason and selling state secrets to the Soviets (later the Russians). For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. Most of all, he betrayed himself. Investigators learned that Hanssen was set to make a dead drop on February 18, 2001. Hanssens espionage activities began in 1985. He happens to be Catholic. Darla, who had a masters degree in Education, would earn her own income by teaching learning disabled kids. They were deported and arrested. "She and the children clearly are innocent victims." Advertisement Robert Hanssen, 57, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, pleaded guilty last week to 15 counts of spying for Moscow. Minutes later, ONeill extracted it from the mans bag, along with a floppy disc and a flash drive, running everything downstairs for a tech team to copy. Hanssen pled guilty to 15 counts of espionage on July 6, 2001. The FBI entrusted him with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States Government and instead of being humbled by this honor, Hanssen has allegedly abused and betrayed that trust. After five years working at the bureau as a ghost following suspects for a living he would be stepping out of the shadows: spying on someone in plain sight. Here was ONeills opportunity to push Hanssen to his limits. His assistant, Eric ONeill, was tasked with keeping investigators apprised of Hanssens movements. ''He never said he was spying. February 18 marks the 20th anniversary of the arrest of Robert Hanssen, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history. Judge Webster and anyone he selects to assist him will have complete access and whatever resources are necessary to complete this task. 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, 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. Mrs. Hanssen acknowledged in the interview that in about 1980, she discovered that her husband was having unauthorized dealings with the Russians, but said she never knew the extent of his actions. The complaint alleges that Hanssen, using the code name Ramon, engaged in espionage by providing highly classified information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR, using encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine techniques. He looked the quintessential suburban dad, devoted to his wife and six kids, working a government job to. Darla was an extremely religious woman, and she felt that faith could be his way out. His growing family would need space, and Hanssen's vision of himself required that he provide for them while Bonnie managed the home and raised their children. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. ThoughtCo. Robert Hanssen is a former FBI agent who sold highly classified material to Russian intelligence agents for decades before he was finally arrested in 2001. Hanssen wanted to be posted to Allenwood in hopes that he might be visited frequently by his wife Bonnie and their six children. You know hes armed and Im not. Without the current unprecedented level of trust and cooperation between the CIA and FBI, making this case would not have been possible. In 1978, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI office in New York City and was assigned to a counterintelligence post. As a devout Catholic, Bonnie Hanssen feels that he needs time [in prison] to pray for forgiveness and be redeemed in some way, the wifes attorney, Janine Brookner, said in an interview. While the risk that an employee of the United States Government will betray his country can never be eliminated, there must be more that the FBI can do to protect itself from such an occurrence. I hate silence . She said she told the bureau the same thing immediately after her husband's arrest last year. 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