-Caveat Lector- http://www.msnbc.com/news/533071.asp?cp1=1 Officials say he passed U.S. secrets to Russia for more than a decade Authorities say a veteran FBI agent did "extreme" damage to the United States during the past 10 years, passing secrets to Russia. NBC News' Pete Williams reports. Surveillance of the Russian Embassy in Washington, shown at left, was one of the agent's duties. By Pete Williams NBC NEWS WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — A veteran FBI counterintelligence expert is under arrest and facing charges that he spied for Moscow for more than a decade, sources told NBC News on Tuesday. Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, who was scheduled to be arraigned on spy charges later in the day, was arrested after leaving a package of classified material in a Virginia park, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. HANSSEN, a 27-year agency veteran who spent most of his career as a counterspy, was due to appear in federal court at 11 a.m. ET for arraignment on espionage charges. Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director George Tenet scheduled an early afternoon news conference to discuss the arrest. The sources told NBC News, which broke the story of Hanssen’s arrest early Tuesday, that Hanssen had done “extreme damage” to the United States. They also said agency officials had been aware of the spying for the past several months. SUSPECT ASSIGNED TO SURVEILLANCE Hanssen, 56, was a senior agent assigned to surveillance of the Russian Embassy in Washington and other Moscow missions to the United States, including one in New York. Officials said among the secrets Hanssen allegedly disclosed include methods the United States uses to conduct electronic surveillance. Officials said Hanssen, who also worked for the U.S. State Department in Washington before returning to the FBI, also may have confirmed for the Russians information originally given to them by CIA spy Aldrich Ames about the identity of U.S. intelligence sources overseas, some of whom were then executed. Intelligence sources told NBC News that they believe Hanssen also had a “tangential connection” to the planting of an electronic eavesdropping device discovered in late 1999 in a State Department conference room. February 20 — Intelligence expert David Wise describes the state of Russian espionage in the post-Cold War world on NBC’s “Today” show. Russian officials in Moscow had no immediate comment on the arrest. “As of now, we do not have information about this,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Oshurkov. Officials said Hanssen’s senior status in counterspying put him in an ideal position to uncover information and to make sure his tracks were covered. The sources said investigators believe Hanssen kept his identity secret from his Russian handlers. The four contacts identified in the Washington area knew him only by code name, and recently acquired KGB documents indicate that even senior Russian intelligence officials knew him that way, too, the sources said. HOME IS SEARCHED Agents searched Hanssen’s suburban home in Virginia after his arrest late Sunday. Federal officials indicated they have not been able to determine whether Hanssen acted for political reasons or for personal gain. They say the Russians were paying him, but that he had no obvious debts and hadn’t been on any spending sprees. Underscoring the U.S. espionage timeline MSNBC Interactive • A look at notorious spy cases in the U.S. gravity of the case, former FBI Director William Webster has been named to lead a blue-ribbon panel that will assess the impact of the alleged espionage, an FBI source told The Associated Press. Nancy Cullen, a neighbor, described Hanssen’s neighborhood as being in shock with news of the arrest. “They go to church every Sunday — if that means anything — loading all six kids into the van.” She said the Hanssens were regulars at the Memorial Day block party and called Hanssen “very attractive ... not overly gregarious.” Hanssen is only the third FBI agent ever accused of spying. In 1997, Earl Pitts, who was stationed at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., was sentenced to 27 years in prison after admitting he spied for Moscow during and after the Cold War. The only other FBI agent ever caught spying was Richard W. Miller, a Los Angeles agent who was arrested in 1984 and later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Last year, a former Army officer was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for 25 years. Prosecutors said retired Army Reserve Col. George Trofimoff, who was a civilian intelligence employee, was captured on one tape putting his hand to his heart and telling an undercover agent posing as a Russian agent: “I’m not American in here.” MSNBC.com’s Mike Brunker, NBC News Producer Robert Windrem and The Associated Press contributed to this report. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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