He worked as an Investigative Specialist with the Special Surveillance Group and played a major role in the arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of FBI agent Robert Hanssen for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia. ThoughtCo. Hanssen took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, but he decided to violate that oath. On February 18, 2001, he was arrested by the FBI when he was keeping a waste bag full of classified information in a pre-planned place from where his Russian handler could collect it. [7][8] On May 10, 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. It would seem as though Hansen's children want their privacy respected, and who could blame them? Darla fled the state to Arkansas, where she had family. Agents find a bag nearby containing $50,000 that they believe is Hanssens payment for the documents. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." At some point in 1979, Hanssen made a decision to sell American secrets to the Soviets. House Belonging To Former Spy Robert Hanssen Won't Sell. The FBI also obtains the complete original KGB dossier on Hanssen. Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. After the transfer, while on a business visit back to Washington, D.C., he resumed his espionage career. 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. Robert was described as a loner and a quiet person, and he had a strained relationship as well with his strict and dominating father. As Director of the FBI, I am proud of the courageous men and women of the FBI who each day make enormous sacrifices in serving their country. 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. On July 6, 2001, he was tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on fifteen counts for his espionage. Hanssenusing the alias Ramon Garcia with his Russian handlershad provided highly classified national security information to the Russians in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, and diamonds. Robert Christian Boes Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa, at Coleman Hospital on February 15, 1939, the elder of two children to an American mother and a Danish father. [36], IT personnel from the National Security Division's IIS Unit were sent to investigate Hanssen's desktop computer after a reported failure. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much In this assignment, however, Hanssen did continue to have access to sensitive FBI information as he remained assigned to the FBIs National Security Division and routinely dealt with sensitive and classified matters. [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. He was delegated to probe police officers who were suspected of corruption. 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. 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? I am shamed by it," Hanssen told U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. The FBI planned to use it for eavesdropping but never did for fear of being caught. 1980 - Begins working for the counterintelligence unit, focusing on the Soviet Union. Hanssen's children returned to school within days of his arrest, family and friends said, to maintain their routines. Galey claims that although she offered to have sex with him, Hanssen declined, saying he was trying to convert her to Catholicism. In 1991, he discontinued selling classified information to KGB after the collapse of Soviet Union and also probably because the FBI was on the lookout for a probable defector. [27][28] When the Soviets began construction on a new embassy during 1977, the FBI dug a tunnel beneath their decoding room. He also paid visits to various sex workers, two of whom filed complaints to the police about Hansen and his strange and terrifying behaviors. [4] The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. His espionage of more than two decades had earned him cash of over 1.4 million USD and diamonds. [14] The next year, Hanssen was transferred to counterintelligence and given the task of compiling a database of Soviet intelligence for the FBI. [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. She supports the plea agreement and agrees that the sentence of life in prison without parole, rather than the death penalty, is appropriate in these circumstances.. Authorities said they are convinced that Bonnie Hanssen--unlike the wives of several other notorious U.S. spies who helped their husbands--was not involved in Hanssens spying. Our hearts go out to them. Breaking her five-month silence, the wife of FBI spy Robert Philip Hanssen said Thursday that she deeply regrets the damage her husband has caused the United States and believes it is appropriate that he spend the rest of his life in prison. 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. Hanssen applied for a cryptographer job in the National Security Agency but was rebuffed due to budget setbacks. This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance, which were Hanssen's responsibility. The full extent of the damage done is yet unknown because no accurate damage assessment could be conducted without jeopardizing the investigation. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. 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. McNamara, Robert. Did you encounter any technical issues? He was arrested while in the process of using a dead drop to clandestinely provide numerous classified documents to his Russian handler. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen. 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. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. He urged fellow Catholics in the FBI to attend Mass more often and denounced the Russians as "godless", even though he had been spying for them. On January 12, 1976, Robert Philip Hanssen swore an oath to enforce the law and protect the nation as a newly minted FBI special agent. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. "I apologize for my behavior. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. 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. To be very clear on this issue, at no time was he authorized to communicate information to agents of the KGB/SVR. At least two movies have been made about Hanssen. Martynov and Motorin were condemned to death and executed via a gunshot to the back of the head. 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". . Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would be revealed that it was Darla who was supporting the household. For unknown reasons[dubious discuss], the Soviets did not act against Polyakov until he was betrayed a second time by CIA mole Aldrich Ames in 1985. He became known in the FBI as an expert on computers.[19]. Christian owned a bakery and would make his son work for long hours as a kid. Each time, I share the pride and sanctity of those words when new agents swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.. To get Hanssen back to FBI Headquarters where he could be closely monitored, Neil Gallagher, assistant director of the National Security Division at the time, called Hanssen to inform him of a bogus assignment to serve on his staff as a special assistant for a technology project. The fact that the KGB became aware of the probe triggered the FBI to look for the leak. He began providing the Soviets with highly valuable material. Their goal was to catch Hanssen red handed in espionage. Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released by a general amnesty to political prisoners, and subsequently emigrated to the U.S..[24] Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was neither suspected nor investigated. 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. [53] Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" May 16, 2001 - Is indicted on 21 counts of spying for the Soviet Union/Russia and passing top secret material to the Soviet Union/Russia. 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. He could sit in his office and shut the door. In what is now considered the largest intelligence breach in FBI history, Robert Hanssen's scandal made him millions in diamonds and cash, but cost the FBI $7 million and the lives of three informants. But in 1999, while assigned as an FBI liaison with the State Department, he once again began selling American secrets. The prolonged abuse that he endured not only made his childhood challenging, but also chased him throughout his life. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Robert Hansen was a reputed baker and a married man with two children living in Anchorage, Alaska. [35] Three years later, convicted FBI mole Earl Edwin Pitts told the FBI that he suspected Hanssen due to the Mislock incident. Robert Hanssen moments after being arrested. Hanssen's superiors were not amused and began an investigation. 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. At present he is serving his fifteen successive life terms at a federal supermax prison, the ADX Florence. [66] Opus Dei member C. John McCloskey said he also occasionally attended the daily noontime Mass at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington. 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. Some promising suspects were cleared, and the mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer Harold James Nicholson. ", "Eric O'Neill and Billy Ray Discuss 'Breach', "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Uproar Over CIA Operative; Iraq Weapons Hunt: Congress to be Briefed", "FBI Spy Robert Hanssen Gets Life Sentence", "Faculty and Staff Directory for Oakcrest School for Girls", Ex-stripper describes her time with accused spy, "MUGSHOTS: ROBERT HANSSEN HANSSEN AND THE KGB", "Smithsonian Channel: It's Brighter Here", FBI application for arrest warrant for Hanssen, "The Movie Breach and Hollywood's Take on Espionage; Peter interviews Eric O'Neill, the FBI investigator who went undercover as Robert Hanssen's clerk during the final months before Hanssen was arrested for espionage", "This FBI Agent Sold Secrets to the KGB for Years", "Curator's Corner: Robert Hanssen - An Inside View with Eric O'Neill", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Hanssen&oldid=1134276656, Ramon Garcia, Jim Baker, G. Robertson, Graysuit, "B", This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 21:42. 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