ONeill would have no problem achieving that but he did have a major concern. Today's protagonist, Robert Hanssen, was an FBI agent who served his country for 20 years. Caught off guard, he grabbed his guns but not his PalmPilot. January 30, 2003 / 4:50 PM / CBS. Guilty plea would mean life term, money for family By Naftali Bendavid . Midwestern Roots Hanssen was born in April 1944, the only child of a Chicago cop. WASHINGTON -- Robert Hanssen, the longtime FBI agent accused of passing secrets to Moscow over 15 years, has reached a plea deal enabling him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with investigators. When these two KGB officials returned to Moscow, they were tried and convicted on espionage charges and executed. They have committed their lives to public service and to upholding the high standards of the FBI. By the time O'Neill slipped into the car on that fateful Sunday morning in 2001, an FBI operation was already underway to . After being released, he met his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, and the pair got married in 1963. In his new book, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose Americas First Cyber Spy (Crown), ONeill tells his story of risking his life in 2001 to bring down the operative. At least three Russian agents he identified had been executed, and it was suspected that he compromised dozens of intelligence operations. 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 looked the quintessential suburban dad, devoted to his wife and six kids, working a government job to. The astonishing letter gave the FBI what it had long sought definitive proof that Hanssen was the spy who had been betraying them since 1985, doing colossal damage to the USs counterintelligence capabilities by, among other things, revealing the identities of their undercover agents. 1972 - Joins the Chicago Police Department. This would be the first of many heart-stopping requests from Alleman. 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. Hanssen made the donation to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa, and cut off contact with the Soviets for the next few years. 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 then applied and was accepted into the FBI. May 10, 2002 - Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Agents find a bag nearby containing $50,000 that they believe is Hanssens payment for the documents. Under Mr. Hanssen's plea bargain, she. The lawyer, who watched the polygraph session through a one-way mirror, took notes and discussed the results with the Justice Department's polygraphers, she said. 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. A feature film called "Breach" was released in 2007. December 2000 - The FBI begins surveillance of Hanssen. 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. For more information:- Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage- Affidavit- Statement ofFBI Director Louis J. Freeh on the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen (see below), Statement of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh On the Arrestof FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 20, 2001Washington D.C.FBI National Press Office. He betrayed his country. Only David Wise could tell the astonishing, full story, and he does so, in masterly style, in Spy. Robert Hanssen is a family man, devout Catholic, career FBI agent, and the most damaging spy in American history. 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. Under Mr. Hanssen's plea bargain, she will receive the survivor's part of his bureau pension, as well as the right to keep the home. They were finishing just as Hanssen texted that he was on his way back. Chicago Tribune July 4, 2001. Apparently, even though Hansen was naturally a left-handed person, he was always forced to use his right hand, making his speech problems worse. A TV movie called Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story was released in 2002. They were deported and arrested. Mrs. Hanssen acknowledged in the interview that in about 1980, she discovered that her husband was having unauthorized dealings with the Russians, but said she never knew the extent of his actions. Or, rather, one person does. 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. Follow. The agencies initially focused primarilyand incorrectlyon a veteran CIA case officer, who was investigated for nearly two years. In the early 1980s, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. To his colleagues in the bureau he seemed to be a model agent. 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. He wanted to interview Hanssen for the book but was refused. Hanssen, 56, was an FBI agent for 25 . He used encrypted communications, dead drops, and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. 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? After his first wife left him, Hansen was released from prison in late 1962. Robert was described as a loner and a quiet person, and he had a strained relationship as well with his strict and dominating father. 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. 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. Abcarian: Mask mandates? 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. Hanssen would now be ONeills boss. She visits her husband in prison regularly. Stahl reports that Hanssen invited his best friend to watch him. Browse 139 robert hanssen stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. 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.. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested and charged with committing espionage on behalf of Russia and the former Soviet Union. She said she had none, and the polygraph showed no indication of deception, Ms. Brookner said. In one letter to his Russian handlers, Hanssen complains about lost opportunities to alert them that the FBI had discovered the microphone hidden at the State Department, known then by the FBI but apparently not by Hanssen as being monitored by a Russian intelligence officer. Intelligence officials began debriefing Hanssen this week, defense attorney Preston Burton said Thursday. During his second round of dealing with Russian agents, Hanssen was much more cautious. 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. Hes also a sign of Mexicos healthcare crisis, Black residents of Jackson, Miss., blast plans by white-dominated Legislature for more state control, Spain approves menstrual leave, teen abortion and trans laws. Biography of Vladimir Putin: From KGB Agent to Russian President, The Biggest Donald Trump Scandals (So Far), President Truman's Executive Order 9835 Demanded Loyalty, Biography of Louis Armstrong, Expert Trumpeter and Entertainer, Biography of Alger Hiss: Government Official Accused of Spying, Biography of Mata Hari, Infamous World War I Spy, Haym Salomon, Spy and Financier of the American Revolution, Biography of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Wanted Spy, Biography of Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party Leader, Biography of Robert Kennedy, US Attorney General, Presidential Candidate, John Dillinger's Life as Public Enemy Number 1, The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Their actions represent counterintelligence at its very best and under the most difficult and sensitive of circumstances. That fall, Mr. Hanssen was transferred back to New York as a supervisor in charge of a counterintelligence squad. Who were Robert Hansen's wives and children? 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. As part of that review, the inspector general asked Mrs. Hanssen to take a polygraph test, just days before the sentencing. In this article, Hansens dynamic with his own family is discussed to give you a better insight into the life of the now-deceased murderer. He lobbied his Russian masters to buy him a newer PalmPilot, with wireless Internet capabilities, which would allow the rapid transmission of encrypted messages. While this arrest represents a counterintelligence investigative success, the complaint alleges that Hanssen located and removed undetected from the FBI substantial quantities of information that he was able to access as a result of his assignments. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and to avoid the death penalty, Hanssen confessed and agreed to be debriefed by American intelligence officials. Robert Hanssen moments after being arrested. Annoyed at ONeills seeming incompetence, Hanssen lashed out, calling him an imbecile and a moron. Finally, he said, Well take my car, and thats final.. For many years, the CIA and FBI have been aggressively engaged in a sustained analytical effort to identify foreign penetrations of the Intelligence Community. robert hanssen children. Were you in my office? Hanssen leaned over my desk, his face inches from mine. He compromised the security of his country and put the lives of colleagues in danger. 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. He visited an office of the Russian government's trading company and offered to spy. 29:4-30:1, 2006, pp. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. Expert interviews recount Hanssen's life, how he stayed hidden for over 20 years, and the events leading to his arrest. Robert Hanssen is accused of spying for the Soviet Union and is awaiting trial. He was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to life without parole in federal prison in 2002 Born: April 14, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois Education: Knox College and Northwestern University, where he received an MBA Spy tells, for the first time, the full, authoritative story of how FBI agent Robert Hanssen, code name grayday, spied for Russia for twenty-two years in what has been called the "worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history"-and how he was finally caught in an incredible gambit by U.S. officer based in Washington. (Photo courtesy of FBI/Newsmakers). 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. Read more Print length 352 pages The wildest part? Realizing the importance of the material, the United States paid $7 million for it. She agreed to describe the results, Ms. Brookner said, because they exonerated Mrs. Hanssen. A self-taught computer expert, Hansen often encrypted his stolen files on wafer-thin disks. Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at Foxstone Park near his home in Vienna, Virginia, charged with selling American secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds over a 22-year period. 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. 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. Finally, he warned: The US can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts of espionage plus two related counts and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. It is alleged that Hanssen provided to the former Soviet Union and subsequently to Russia substantial volumes of highly classified information that he acquired during the course of his job responsibilities in counterintelligence. As it turned out, Hanssen had just been spotted by agents driving at a snails pace past the sign for Foxstone Park in Vienna, Va. Hanssen gave them the name of a Russian general, Dimitri Polyakov, who had been providing information to the Americans. Robert was born in 1939 in Iowa to Danish immigrants Christian and Edna Hansen. But money is tight, she said, and the former housewife has taken a teaching job at her daughters school in Virginia. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Upon becoming a special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's Gary, Indiana, field office. One day, she said, she found her husband scurrying to cover up some papers in the basement of their home in Scarsdale, N.Y. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. On Feb. 18, 2001, Hanssen left a package presumably full of classified documents wrapped in trash bags underneath a bridge in Foxstone Park, then placed a piece of tape at a nearby location, indicating the drop had been made. I hate silence . Playing to Hanssens ego, the underling, a newlywed, said he needed relationship advice about his wife wanting to wait to have children. According to . Special Agent Don Sullivan, a squad supervisor at the FBIs Washington Field Office at the time, volunteered to replace Hanssen. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose Americas First Cyber Spy, My boss records all the conversations in our office, China's secret police are actively hunting people on US soil, Cuomo mocks Biden over China spy balloon debacle, Biden, DOJ scrapping FBI China initiative led to more spying: security experts. 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. Literally, Hanssens colleagues and coworkers at the FBI conducted this investigation and did so quietly, securely and without hesitation. 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. An FBI arrest team moved into position at Foxstone Park, a location where Hanssen had been spotted before by FBI surveillance. July 6, 2001 - Pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. 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. But dont be fooled by that appearance. But, she said, she was determined to hold her husband to the deal. Authorities say Hanssen was driven by greed, but Brookner rejected that assertion. But money is. Director Jenny Chung Writer Jenny Chung Stars Bob Aguilar Jim Babel Jeff Barber He was enrolled in a "children's club" overseen by the organization when he was seven years old, and it wasn't his first experience with Opus Dei. Press Release - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. But from the vantage of the media, "happens to be" applies only to Pollard: Hanssen is fast-becoming known as "the Catholic spy.". Sunday night the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen who has been charged with committing espionage. I would like to ask him why he did it, ONeill told The Post. 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. All Rights Reserved. Mr. Hanssen agreed, and his wife, pregnant with their fourth child, was relieved. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. His tale was also made into the 2007 movie Breach.. A few years later, they moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and had two children. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. She next asked ONeill to retrieve Hanssens keys so the FBI could copy them, but his boss kept his keys on him at all times. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen, America's Most Damaging Russian Spy, Lis Wiehl (Pegasus, 2022), 336 pages. His case is considered one of America's greatest intelligence failures, as Hanssen operated as a mole within the bureau's counterintelligence division, the highly sensitive part of the FBI tasked with tracking foreign spies. '', See the article in its original context from. [14] We've received your submission. I said, No way we are taking your beat-up, boring, outdated old Ford Taurus to the DIA. 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