Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much 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. If the device wasnt in Hanssens hand or on the desk in front of him, it was always in his left back pocket. To be very clear on this issue, at no time was he authorized to communicate information to agents of the KGB/SVR. By ABC News. Robert Phillip Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 18, 1944. A TV movie called Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story was released in 2002. Among the files was a letter from Hanssen to the Russians arranging to meet. Although his name was not specifically mentioned, evidence in the file pointed to Hanssen, who was put under close surveillance. In that case, Hanssen would immediately know why no one stole cars from the FBI garage and there was no telling how the almost certainly armed Hanssen would react. Now 74, he is serving time at ADX Florence, the federal supermax prison in Colorado. 1981 - Hanssens wife catches him with classified documents and convinces him to stop spying. Polyakov was carefully watched by the Russians from that point on, and was eventually arrested as a spy and executed in 1988. in Chemistry, 1966; Attended Northwestern University Dental School, 1966-1968;. Instead, the 57-year-old defendant will be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he honors his pledge to tell the government all the secrets behind his two-decade career as a Russian spy. Guilty plea would mean life term, money for family By Naftali Bendavid . The next day he ordered ONeill to drive him to a meeting. Only David Wise could tell the astonishing, full story, and he does so, in masterly style, in Spy. [Your wifes genetic code] demands she stay home and nurture the children. ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Apologizing before a U.S. federal judge, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced Friday to . ONeill rushed everything he found to Alleman, who had all of it copied, and then quickly returned the contents to Hanssens bag. FBI agents outside Robert Hanssen's home in Virginia, Feb. 20, 2001. If he gave the money from the Soviets to charity, and promised not to spy again, he would have the priest's blessing not to report the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Just then the door buzzed, indicating Hanssens return. The Justice Department's inspector general has been examining the F.B.I. Many of the questions centered on assertions made by Mrs. Hanssen's brother, Mark Wauck, an F.B.I. 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 . Robert was described as a loner and a quiet person, and he had a strained relationship as well with his strict and dominating father. ONeill needed to stall, but without arousing further suspicion. Hanssen took an oath 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, but he decided to violate that oath. He betrayed his children. 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. 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. She supports the plea agreement and agrees that the sentence of life in prison without parole, rather than the death penalty, is appropriate in these circumstances.. Authorities say Hanssen was driven by greed, but Brookner rejected that assertion. In order to put the double-crosser away forever, ONeill would need to put his life on the line again. After graduating from a public high school, Hanssen attended Knox College in Illinois, studying chemistry and Russian. 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. "Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole." None of the internal information or personnel security measures in place alerted those charged with internal security to his activities. The FBI also obtains the complete original KGB dossier on Hanssen. He began providing the Soviets with highly valuable material. The parents of six children, Bob and Bonnie "were the picture of a perfect family. 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? So Alleman instead asked ONeill to drive Hanssen to a meeting at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in an FBI vehicle that way, she could have someone search Hanssens car while he was out of the office. As a young man, he seemed to be seeking a way out of the blue-collar life represented by his boyhood neighborhood. He was, after all, a trained counterintelligence specialist. Finally, he warned: The US can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated. Couldnt this have waited till Monday? he asked. Interestingly, Hansen got married twice. Expert interviews recount Hanssen's life, how he stayed hidden for over 20 years, and the events leading to his arrest. Joining the FBI in the height of the Cold War, Robert Hanssen dreamed of the exciting life of a spy. The first time around, his wife divorced him after a mere half-year because of his incarceration for arson in Iowa. Or, rather, one person does. Hanssen became alarmed that a Russian with knowledge of his activities would tip off the Americans that a highly placed mole was operating within the FBI and the resultant investigation would lead to him. He visited an office of the Russian government's trading company and offered to spy. ''But he told me he was just tricking the Russians and feeding them false information,'' she said. [14] She is also challenging some of her husbands credit card bills. This time, Mrs. Hanssen insisted that they find a cheaper place to live than Scarsdale. By the time Hanssen and ONeill returned to the office, things seemed normal. Russian operatives left signals for Hanssen at Foxstone Park in Vienna, Va. One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. His father served on the police force in Chicago and was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II when Hanssen was born. During his second round of dealing with Russian agents, Hanssen was much more cautious. I slammed the door behind me and slid to a halt in Hanssens office.. According to . As difficult as this moment is for the FBI and for the country, I am immensely proud of the men and women who conducted this investigation. 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But in 1999, while assigned as an FBI liaison with the State Department, he once again began selling American secrets. Written by on 27 febrero, 2023. She said she repeatedly questioned her husband to ensure that he was making the payments, and each time he insisted that he was. They were finishing just as Hanssen texted that he was on his way back. 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. I imagined I could smell gunpowder on his breath, ONeill writes. He wanted to interview Hanssen for the book but was refused. Timeline. Robert Philip Hansen thought he was smarter than the system. Thanks for contacting us. 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. After being released, he met his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, and the pair got married in 1963. Nor can there be any doubt that he was keenly aware of the gravity of his traitorous actions. 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 Posted in . I scooped the devices into my arms and sprinted for the stairway, writes ONeill, who refers to this as his one true James Bond moment. She would then use this money to run her house and support her children. The plea bargain allows Bonnie Hanssen to receive about 55% of Hanssens pension, which will total an estimated $39,000 per year. Still, he was not identified as a spy. ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Apologizing before a U.S. federal judge, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for spying for the Soviet Union and. Gallagher also told Hanssen that then-Director Louis Freeh had approved a two-year extension on his service and a promotion to the Senior Executive Service. Hanssen appeared to be a devoted anti-communist. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Playing to Hanssens ego, the underling, a newlywed, said he needed relationship advice about his wife wanting to wait to have children. 42-67.) Anything different goes against biology.. January 12, 1976 - Joins the FBI as a special agent. 29:4-30:1, 2006, pp. A feature film called "Breach" was released in 2007. 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. But, she said, she was determined to hold her husband to the deal. 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 . 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. July 6, 2001 - Pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. I always liked writing privately in journals, but writing publicly is new. The tension would not lessen over the next few days, with Hanssen telling ONeill he was a worthless clerk.. The test lasted several hours. On February 18, 2001, Hanssen was arrested at a park in northern Virginia after he had placed a package at a dead drop location. had too readily accepted Mrs. Hanssen's version of events. Who were Robert Hansen's wives and children? But dont be fooled by that appearance. May 10, 2002. You know hes armed and Im not. Nor would many other intelligence and counterintelligence accomplishments that routinely but quietly contribute to the security of this Nation. 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. 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. Without the current unprecedented level of trust and cooperation between the CIA and FBI, making this case would not have been possible. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. His Father, Howard Hanssen, was an officer with the Chicago police department and his mother, Vivian Hanssen, was a . At the end of the Cold War, Hanssen sold classified secrets to the Soviet and Russian intelligence services. 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