Our hearts go out to them. Its difficult, but its better than seeing him put to death.. 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. Though both Hansen and his wife earned respectable incomes, it would be revealed that it was Darla who was supporting the household. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. 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. Updated [4][42], FBI investigators later made progress during an operation where they paid disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. He received $5,00,000 and jewellery for this work. Hanssen was recalled yet again to Washington, D.C., in 1987. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. She left her children, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric well taken care of, but she didn't leave . Hanssen restarted communications the next year and continued until his arrest. According to her, Hanssen never slept with her. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. Children: Lisa, Greg, Mark, John "Jack," Sue and Jane Education: Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, A.B. [6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 14 counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. In 1995 he was designated as a liaison between the Office of Foreign Missions of the Department of State and the FBI. As alleged, he did so using a variety of sophisticated means of communication, encryption, and dead drops. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. His job was to help assemble a database of foreign officials posted in New York who, while posing as diplomats, were actually intelligence officers spying on the United States. At some point in 1979, Hanssen made a decision to sell American secrets to the Soviets. He continued to perform incriminating searches of FBI files for his name and address. December 2000 - The FBI begins surveillance of Hanssen. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. [68] He also explicitly described the sexual details of his marriage on Internet chat rooms, giving information sufficient for those who knew them to recognize the couple. Hanssen applied for a cryptographer job in the National Security Agency but was rebuffed due to budget setbacks. Instead, he ultimately became the most damaging spy in. 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. Throughout his spying, Hanssen remained anonymous to the Russians. Hansen and Darla set down roots. "I apologize for my behavior. "[55], Hanssen is Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner #48551-083. "[3] Hanssen is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. However, two cases- the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel- remained unsolved. He married his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, within a few months of being released, in 1963. [33], Hanssen continued to take risks in 1993 when he hacked into the computer of a fellow FBI agent, Ray Mislock, printed out a classified document from Mislock's computer and took the document to Mislock, saying, "You didn't believe me that the system was insecure." In 1962 he completed his graduation from William Howard Taft High School. Still, he was not identified as a spy. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a Palm III PDA to store his information. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much I take solace and satisfaction, however, that the FBI succeeded in this investigation. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/robert-hanssen-6997.php. In 1979 he contacted the Soviet military intelligence, GRU, to offer his espionage. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $55,000 payment the next month, equivalent to $120,232 in 2021. 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. The agencies initially focused primarilyand incorrectlyon a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years. 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. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." McNamara, Robert. May 10 Robert Hanssen, FBI agent turned Russian spy, is sentenced to life in prison On May 10, 2002, Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent who intermittently sold state secrets to Russia over. The money Hansen generated from his bakery went elsewhere. All denied everything. [34], In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in a transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center, which coordinated counterintelligence activities. He is a public speaker and security 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. 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. To the residents of the quiet suburb of Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen was the perfect neighbor. Further, the complaint alleges that Hanssen, using his training and experience to protect himself from discovery by the FBI, never met face-to-face with his Russian handlers, never revealed to them his true identity or where he worked, constantly checked FBI records for signs he and the drop sites he was using were being investigated, refused any foreign travel to meet with the Russians, and even declined to accept any trade craft. Hanssen never displayed outward signs that he was receiving large amounts of unexplained cash. He also believed he heard noises on his car radio that indicated it was bugged, although the FBI was later unable to reproduce the noises Hanssen claimed to have heard. [36], IT personnel from the National Security Division's IIS Unit were sent to investigate Hanssen's desktop computer after a reported failure. In 1978, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI office in New York City and was assigned to a counterintelligence post. 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. 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. She is also challenging some of her husbands credit card bills. In her statement, Bonnie Hanssen thanked government officials for allowing her to retain the pension and for recognizing that she and the children clearly are innocent victims.. All Rights Reserved. He enrolled in dental school at Northwestern University[11] but switched his focus to business after three years. The Hanssens were associated with the Catholic fraternal order Opus Dei. Hanssen is a Special Agent of the FBI with a long career in counterintelligence. She would then use this money to run her house and support her children. (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). [71], The Hanssen spy case is told in Ronald Kessler's book The Secrets of the FBI in chapter 15, "Catching Hanssen," chapter 16, "Breach", and chapter 17, "Unexplained Cash", based in part on interviews with Michael Rochford, who directed the FBI team that eventually caught Hanssen after initially wrongly assuming a CIA officer was the master spy. [60] He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin, suggested and instead chose his own. Hanssen's story is the subject of the 2021 documentary A Spy in the FBI. Please be aware how deeply Mrs. Hanssen regrets the damage that her husband, Robert Hanssen, has caused to our country and to their family, the statement 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? [4][10] He graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1962 and then attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966. After being imprisoned, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in confession. 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. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. 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. Our joint efforts over the last several years and specifically in this case should give pause to those contemplating betrayal of the Nations trust. [37], During the same period, Hanssen searched the FBI's internal computer case record to see if he was being investigated. Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and spoke with his supervisor, who took no action. Hanssen would later claim that his goal was simply to make some extra money, as living in New York City was putting a financial squeeze on his growing family. The FBI and CIA formed a joint mole-hunting team in 1994 to find the suspected second intelligence leak. The couple's relationship was fraught, and Darla, who had a master's degree in Education and taught children with learning disabilities, supported herself. In early February 2001, he asked his friend at a computer technology company for a job. Realizing the importance of the material, the United States paid $7 million for it. At least three Russian agents he identified had been executed, and it was suspected that he compromised dozens of intelligence operations. 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. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women, mostly dancers and prostitutes, during a 12-year span. 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. Aside from a few brushes with the law, Hansen led a fairly ordinary life. 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. history. 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. He did well in his elective, Russian. [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. In 1980, after his first interactions with the Soviets, Hanssen told his wife what he had done, and she suggested they meet with a Catholic priest. Since he held key counterintelligence positions, he had authorized access to classified information. When O'Neill could briefly obtain Hanssen's PDA and have agents download and decode its encrypted contents, the FBI had decisive evidence. He worked as a policeman in Chicago for three years and was placed on an elite unit that investigated corruption. The FBI waited two more days to see if any of Hanssen's SVR handlers would show up at Foxstone Park. Leland Hale and Walter Gilmour co-authored the 1991 book "Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer," chronicling the life and crimes of Robert Hansen. 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. He was indiscreet enough to type his name into FBI search engines. What makes Hansen seem even more grisly than other serial killers was the way that many of his victims were murdered. We particularly appreciate the unhesitating leadership and support of Attorney General Ashcroft from the moment he took office. [4][31], When the USSR disbanded in December 1991, Hanssen, possibly worried that he could be exposed during the ensuing political upheaval, ended communications with his handlers for a time. 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