Were you in my office? Hanssen leaned over my desk, his face inches from mine. Mrs. Hanssen said she demanded that her husband go with her to see their Roman Catholic priest to confess. We believe it was exceptionally grave. The past few weeks have uncovered many allegations of FBI agent Robert Hanssen's betrayals: unmasking U.S. agents working in Russia and exposing a multimillion dollar American . He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. 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. Heres a look at the life of convicted spy Robert Hanssen. He became an agent in 1976, and spent two years working in the Indianapolis, Indiana, field office. NOTE: The following is an excerpt from an article by Lee Penn, "Opus Dei & the Da Vinci Code, part II", published in the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP] (Vol. One notable example was the information that the Americans had dug a tunnel under the Russian embassy in Washington to install sophisticated listening devices. In short, the trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection. Id say insanely loyal, Hanssen wrote. [14] We dont know at this point what happened to that money, she said. Born in 1939 to a father who forced him to work long hours at the family bakery while subjecting him to ridicule and mockery and a mother who . Hanssen had a reputation for being wildly arrogant and dour. Hanssen was suspected of leaking critical US intelligence. In May 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison. appreciated. 1980 - Begins working for the counterintelligence unit, focusing on the Soviet Union. It wasnt money, thats for sure, she said, noting that the family lived in a modest home with three mortgages and drove older-model cars as they scrimped to send their children to private Catholic schools. February 18 marks the 20th anniversary of the arrest of Robert Hanssen, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history. She sold their house and bakery in Alaska and shifted closer to her family in Arkansas after the children were getting bullied massively at their school. His target would be Robert Hanssen, a 25-year FBI veteran that the bureau suspected might be the most treacherous and damaging double agent in US history. His father, Howard, had reportedly belittled, bullied, and berated the boy from childhood to his college years at Knox College, 200 miles away from his home in Chicago. He wrote to them anonymously. COVID origins? Special Agent Don Sullivan, a squad supervisor at the FBIs Washington Field Office at the time, volunteered to replace Hanssen. One day in February, when Hanssen was away, ONeill took a risk and snuck into his boss office. Today, Mrs. Hanssen is teaching at a Catholic school in suburban Virginia and is living in the house she shared with her husband and their six children. Before her May 7 polygraph test began, Justice Department investigators read Mrs. Hanssen her Miranda rights, her Washington lawyer, Janine Brookner, said. But the government could not prove he had lied, and wishing to avoid a public trial, the government chose not to void his plea agreement. A moment later, a dark shadow crossed his door. On May 10, 2002, Robert Philip Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. In fact, he had already betrayed one of the United States' most important agents: Gen. Dmitri Polyakov of the G.R.U. Read more Print length 352 pages Follow. He also independently disclosed the identity of two KGB officials who, first compromised by Aldrich Ames, had been recruited by the U.S. Government to serve as agents in place at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. When Eric ONeills supervisor turned up unannounced at his Washington, DC-area home early on a Sunday morning, the still-groggy FBI employee was perplexed. Caught off guard, he grabbed his guns but not his PalmPilot. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Robert Philip Hanssen had drifted through several false starts in life before he settled in at the FBI. Still, he was not identified as a spy. 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In the 1990s, after the arrest of Aldrich Ames, the FBI and CIA realized that a mole within the intelligence community was still sharing classified information with the Russians. children: Greg Hanssen, Jane Hanssen, John Hanssen, Lisa Hanssen, Mark Hanssen, Sue Hanssen Born Country: United States Spies American Men City: Chicago, Illinois Notable Alumni: Knox College (Illinois) U.S. State: Illinois More Facts Recommended Lists: American People Kellogg School Of Management Male Spies American Spies Aries Men After working in the FBI division that developed secret listening devices, Hanssen was again placed in a position to track Russian agents operating in the United States. Robert Hanssen's business cards, chalk and thumb tacks, which he used to communicate with his Russian contacts, according to the FBI. Spy's Wife Speaks, After Taking a Lie Test, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/us/spy-s-wife-speaks-after-taking-a-lie-test.html. At work, he often spoke of his religious faith and conservative values, traits which helped him avoid any suspicion during the years that he was in secret communication with Russian spies. Stahl reports that Hanssen invited his best friend to watch him. Christopher Burgess / Feb 18, 2021. (CNN) -- While he acted the patriot and family man, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was selling his country's most classified . Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. The family hopes Mr. Hanssen will be sent to the federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., which would be close enough for Mrs. Hanssen to continue to visit regularly. In one deadly instance in 1985, the FBI believed Hanssen exposed three KGB agents working for the Americans. For instance, a piece of adhesive tape placed on a sign in a park in Virginia would indicate that a package had been placed in a "dead drop" location, which was usually under a small footbridge in the park. 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. and finally hopped out of the car, determined to walk back to the office. 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. January 30, 2003 / 4:50 PM / CBS. 2:02 PM EDT, Thu April 14, 2022, FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen is shown in this undated file photo, released by the FBI February 20, 2001. He also expressed his trademark annoyance. His troubles with the law continued in Anchorage as well. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. Anyone can read what you share. Many of them were agents of the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB, or its military counterpart, the GRU. June 16, 2001 -- Accused FBI spy Robert Hanssen told his wife about his activities as early as 1980, well before prosecutors claim he started passing secrets to Moscow. One eye twitched.. I never want you in my office again, Hanssen said. Troubled by the incident, Bonnie Hanssen made her husband speak with a Catholic priest, who directed him to contribute money to Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who ran a Calcutta charitable organization, as a form of penance, Brookner said. Sun, Feb 12, 2023. . Senior FBI officials described him as . Pressed to explain what he was doing, she said, he acknowledged that he was dealing with the Russians. Most of all, he betrayed himself. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. Twenty years ago today, Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001 when he was . 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. He pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage in July 2001 and was sentenced to prison without the possibility of parole. The investigation of Hanssen was conducted by the FBI in partnership with the CIA, the Department of State, and, of course, the Justice Department. The next day he ordered ONeill to drive him to a meeting. Timeline. had too readily accepted Mrs. Hanssen's version of events. A TV movie called Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story was released in 2002. 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. Playing to Hanssens ego, the underling, a newlywed, said he needed relationship advice about his wife wanting to wait to have children. However, even though Hansen would go to church with his wife, nothing really changed. 's New York field office. In 1976, Robert Hanssen began his career as an FBI agent, but by 1985, he was working for the former Soviet Union, slipping the Russians classified secrets in exchange for more than $1.4 million . Fourth, there is the case of Robert Philip Hanssen, a top-level FBI agent responsible for counterintelligence in the US, who spied for the Russians from 1979 until his arrest in February 2001. By February 2001, about 300 personnel were working the investigation and monitoring Hanssen. I told him I thought it was insane.''. I have asked Judge William H. Webster, and he has graciously agreed, to examine thoroughly the internal security functions and procedures of the FBI and recommend improvements. 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. Hanssen was finally discovered when a former KGB agent contacted American intelligence agents. The wildest part? It said Bokhan's son, Alex, 18, was having trouble in military school and suggested the deputy take his vacation now, three months early, and return to the Soviet Union to deal with him. Did you see it?. He was also tasked with observing and learning as much as he could about Hanssens information technology setup in his office and with keeping an eye out on who Hanssen was meeting and talking with. By the time O'Neill slipped into the car on that fateful Sunday morning in 2001, an FBI operation was already underway to . Without the current unprecedented level of trust and cooperation between the CIA and FBI, making this case would not have been possible. He reportedly told his supervisors in 1990 that he suspected that Robert Hanssen was a spy after his own wife told him that, during a visit to the Hanssen home, Mrs. Hanssen told her she had become alarmed after discovering $5,000. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. The US government took the death penalty off the table in exchange for Hanssens full cooperation. Intelligence. The Hanssens are active members of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group. A feature film called "Breach" was released in 2007. He could sit in his office and shut the door. 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. An official website of the United States government. Authors Lawrence Schiller and Norman Mailer at the Omni Hotel, where they spoke about their new book "Into the Mirror . Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Now she says she has chosen to speak out at last because she wants to answer one question she has heard dozens of times: How could Robert P. Hanssen's wife of 34 years not have known he was a spy? 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. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. 2023 Cable News Network. He turned off the highway onto a side street, trying to persuade Hanssen that it was faster even though, as he writes, anyone who has lived in the DC area for two weeks could call bullst.. He looked the quintessential suburban dad, devoted to his wife and six kids, working a government job to. 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. She told Sergeant Flothe (the man who played a pivotal role in Hansens capture) that their income streams were separate and that Hansen would spend the money from the bakery on his own needs. Hanssen made the donation to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa, and cut off contact with the Soviets for the next few years. On this day in history (February 18), one of the most famous and damaging insiders within the FBI, Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested. This time, Mrs. Hanssen insisted that they find a cheaper place to live than Scarsdale. During his sessions with investigators, Hanssen claimed his motivation had always been financial. Before Hanssen left the position, Sullivan went to learn his new role at the Department of State. 02 victoria warehouse manchester. Discovery Company. But dont be fooled by that appearance. That effort is complemented by substantial FBI proactive investigation of foreign service intelligence officers here and by the critical work done by the CIA. Robert Hanssen is accused of spying for the Soviet Union and is awaiting trial. She said she repeatedly questioned her husband to ensure that he was making the payments, and each time he insisted that he was. Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole. 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