in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968;. However, two cases- the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel- remained unsolved. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. Sunday night the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen who has been charged with committing espionage. 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. Although Robert Hanssen forfeited all the money he received from Moscow, his wife and six children get to keep their Vienna, Va., home and three cars, under the plea agreement. Clearly she doesnt approve of what hes done, and there was a whole part of this man she doesnt know, but I think with her deep religious convictions, he will, at least in mind and in spirit, continue to be her husband and the father of her children., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Im afraid for her life: Riverside CC womens coach harassed after Title IX suit, Six people, including mother and baby, killed in Tulare County; drug cartel suspected, Want to solve climate change? May 9, 2002 4:00am. The couple, however, did not have a great relationship. The agencies initially focused primarilyand incorrectlyon a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years. 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. Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. Intelligence officials began debriefing Hanssen this week, defense attorney Preston Burton said Thursday. Bonnie Hanssens first public statements on the case reveal both her anxiety over her husbands actions and her sense of relief over the fact that she and her six children will retain an estimated $39,000 a year from his government pension. In 1971 he earned his Master in Business Administration in accounting and information systems. This wedded bliss was short-lived, however. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". [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. [41] The idea that an FBI agent was the second mole was not considered early enough. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Authorities say Hanssen was driven by greed, but Brookner rejected that assertion. 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. The first marriage lasted only for six months; his wife divorced him while he was serving a 3-year sentence for arson in Iowa. Nor can there be any doubt that he was keenly aware of the gravity of his traitorous actions. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. [16] CIA and FBI officials, including Deputy Director William Sullivan, believed that, at some point, Polyakov was made into a triple agent by the Soviets, who thereby deceived the West with misinformation. Hanssen allegedly began spying for the Soviets in 1985 when, in his first letter to the KGB, he volunteered information that compromised several sensitive techniques. But Brookner said Hanssens family was never the beneficiary of any spy money and that Bonnie Hanssen has no idea what happened to the proceeds from his spying, including $800,000 that authorities say the Russians deposited for him in a Moscow bank. 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. [30], In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, recommended to the FBI that Hanssen be investigated for espionage because his sister, Hanssen's wife, told him that her sister, Jeanne Beglis, had found a pile of cash on a dresser in the Hanssens' house. By February 2001, about 300 personnel were working the investigation and monitoring Hanssen. But Thursday, Bonnie Hanssen issued a statement through her attorney revealing the torment that the case has caused. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. [6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 14 counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. Once when Bonnie caught his espionage, he made a confession to an Opus Dei priest, donated cash to Catholic charity and gave his word of never spying again. She would then use this money to run her house and support her children. A feature film called Breach was released in 2007. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. To bring him back to FBI headquarters, where he could be closely monitored and kept away from sensitive data, they promoted him in December 2000. He then applied and was accepted into the FBI. As the FBI was in the lookout for a turncoat for long, they first suspected a CIA officer but later zeroed in on Hanssen, probably due to a leak from a Russian defector. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field 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. He is serving his sentence at the ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He had been married twice, and fathered children. His espionage of more than two decades had earned him cash of over 1.4 million USD and diamonds. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. Robert was described as a loner and a quiet person, and he had a strained relationship as well with his strict and dominating father. NSD chief Johnnie Sullivan ordered the computer impounded after it seemed to have been tampered with. 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. 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. 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? The Russian officer, who evidently did not recognize the code name, drove away. I have hurt so many deeply. He was the single most devastating mole in US history, and compromised more CIA assets than anyone in history, until Robert Hanssen that is. 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. 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. The couple's relationship was fraught, and Darla, who had a master's degree in Education and taught children with learning disabilities, supported herself. 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. 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. She would use her money to run the household and support the couple's children, while Hansen would spend the money he made at the bakery on "his own needs," according to what she would later tell Sergeant Flothe, who played a pivotal role in his capture. [7] On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage, and one of conspiracy to commit espionage in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. During his second round of dealing with Russian agents, Hanssen was much more cautious. A TV movie called Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story was released in 2002. He continued with his counter-intelligence work after being shifted to the New York field office in 1985. Hanssen restarted communications the next year and continued until his arrest. But police also found an aviation map Hansen had marked with various X's, later revealed to be his kill map (via Murderpedia). Hansen even followed in his fathers footsteps and opened up his own bakery. Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would . [67], At Hanssen's suggestion, and without his wife's knowledge, a friend named Jack Hoschouer, a retired Army officer, would sometimes watch the Hanssens having sex through a bedroom window. For two children, that was devastating. He worked in an accounting firm for a year after which he was selected in the Chicago Police Department. The Hanssen case was regarded as a low point for the FBI, especially as Hanssen had been so trusted and had committed such betrayals for so many years. 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. Once there, he would turn them loose and begin a human hunting expedition. Its difficult, but its better than seeing him put to death.. Hanssen made the donation to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa, and cut off contact with the Soviets for the next few years. Hanssen's superiors were not amused and began an investigation. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. At one point Hanssen spoke to a Russian agent over a pay phone, but they generally relied on placing signals in public places. In 1979, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. [53] Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" [12] Hanssen received an MBA in accounting and information systems in 1971 and took a job with an accounting firm. Judge Webster and anyone he selects to assist him will have complete access and whatever resources are necessary to complete this task. When they failed to appear, the Justice Department announced the arrest on February 20. What Happened To Serial Killer Robert Hansen's Children? He passed on data related to surveillance activities of FBI and provided the GRU with data of suspected Soviet intelligence spies. He went to the Russian embassy in person and physically approached a GRU officer in the parking garage. After her children endured relentless bullying at school, she decided that her best path led out of Alaska (via The Cinemaholic). The agents working for him reported this breach to a supervisor, but no action was taken. 1979 - Begins spying for the Soviet Union. We particularly appreciate the unhesitating leadership and support of Attorney General Ashcroft from the moment he took office. Brian Blomquist. After being imprisoned, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in confession. For years, Hanssen stopped contacting the Russians. Eric Michael O'Neill is an American former FBI counter-terrorism and counterintelligence operative. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968;. That could leave Bonnie Hanssen, who works part time at the Catholic girls' school that her youngest child attends, in dire straits. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Special Agent Don Sullivan, a squad supervisor at the FBIs Washington Field Office at the time, volunteered to replace Hanssen. It would seem as though Hansen's children want their privacy respected, and who could blame them? FBI career and first espionage activities (19761981), FBI counterintelligence unit, further espionage activities (19851991), Later FBI career, continued espionage activities (19922001), Lynch, Christopher, The C.I. He married his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, within a few months of being released, in 1963. 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. July 6, 2001 - Pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. The investigation is covered in O'Neill's memoir Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, published by Penguin Random House in the spring of 2019. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. 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. After being released, he met his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, and the pair got married in 1963. Robert Hansen's Parents. The following year he was shifted to counter-intelligence division where he was delegated the job of organising data of Soviet intelligence. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968; Northwestern University, M.B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems, 1971. 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. Unlike Cold War spies of an earlier era, Hanssen claimed to have no political motivation for selling out his country. 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. 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". She left her children, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric well taken care of, but she didn't leave . [46][47][48], The FBI surveilled Hanssen and soon discovered he was again in contact with the Russians. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Hanssen was incarcerated in a "supermax" federal prison in Colorado which also houses other notorious inmates, including the Unabomber, one of the Boston Marathon bombers, and a number of organized crime figures. To be very clear on this issue, at no time was he authorized to communicate information to agents of the KGB/SVR. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested at a park in northern Virginia after he had placed a package at a dead drop location. [64] His three daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls in Vienna, Virginia, an independent Roman Catholic school. 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