Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. The ensuing investigation confirmed this suspicion. The agencies initially focused primarily-and incorrectly-on a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years.Ī 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. 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. government documents, and technical operations of extraordinary importance and value.īecause 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. The information he delivered compromised numerous human sources, counterintelligence techniques, investigations, dozens of classified U.S. He used encrypted communications, “dead drops,” and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. Since he held key counterintelligence positions, he had authorized access to classified information. Hanssen’s espionage activities began in 1985. Hanssen-using the alias “Ramon Garcia” with his Russian handlers-had provided highly classified national security information to the Russians in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, and diamonds. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested and charged with committing espionage on behalf of Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Instead, he ultimately became the most damaging spy in Bureau history. 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.
0 kommentar(er)
