-Caveat Lector-
So wasn't it Louis Freeh who sat and broke bread with KGB and came home
to say golly gee, to think I was sitting with a real KGB agent....listen
asshole, you have KGB in your local Chamber of Commerce let alone the
FBI....
Since when are FBI this deeply involved that they hold such secrets?
This purely investigative branch that now acts like a bunch of crazed
sickos butchering innocents at WACO is the image of your modern day FBI
playing rambo with children - incinerating and shooting not only the
pets but the children as well.
And Madeline Albright visiting the great asshole of othe year Putin -
oh, Mr. Putin can we build up our defenses, golly gee - can't you
visualize this Shirley Temple routine ......and remember litle Shirley
has been with UN for years and you wonder what is wrong with America?
So gee, golly gee Mr. Freeh a real live KGB agent sitting next to you
for over 16 years.....paid with diamonds? Need a 6 foot fence for
those diamonds - by their rings you shall know them.
Wonder Mr. Freeh - why you permitted ADL and Souther Poverty Stricken
Law Center Dees to place our Militias, Christians and Moslems on FBI
Hate alist....and I wonder too how quick the FBI was to point out that
this moron was not only a double Eagle but a Catholic? No masons
involved here, but had he been a Jew - heaven forbid - the turkies
really have come home to roost?
What a pack of crap - A Day of Remembrance for the USS Cole and the
Walker Spies, Navy people - the KGB formed a KKK just for them?
Maybe more than just a few moles and sleepers waking up here now?
Saba
yes no only if you're caught
FBI fears spy caused 'grave' harm
FBI agents haul computers from the home of FBI agent Robert Philip
Hanssen, in Vienna, Va., Tuesday, after Hanssen's arrest on espionage
charges.
Feb. 21 -- According to the FBI, Robert Philip Hanssen wanted to be a
spy from the age of 14. NBC News' Pete Williams reports on the
investigation.
NBC NEWS AND WIRE REPORTS WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 —
While it will likely take months for investigators to calculate the
national security damage allegedly wrought by FBI Agent Robert Philip
Hanssen, FBI Director Louis Freeh already is predicting the toll will be
"exceptionally grave." Freeh and other national security officials are
basing their prediction on the sheer quantity of documents he is accused
of passing to the Russians over 15 years — 6,000 pages worth,
according to the government — and his access to the highest level of
U.S. counterintelligence secrets.
February 20 — Feb. 20 -- FBI Director Louis Freeh discusses the
espionage case with NBC's Tom Brokaw.
INTELLIGENCE INSIDERS say they expect that Hanssen will
emerge as the most damaging spy since CIA "mole" Aldrich Ames, who was
arrested in 1994 after spying for Moscow for nine years.
"This could be a very, very, very serious case of
espionage," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee. "Here's an agent who is a veteran of the FBI,
who's been doing counterintelligence for a long time. He knows a lot. He
could have given them a lot."
The sheer volume of documents that Hanssen, a senior FBI
counterintelligence expert, provided to the Russians indicates that his
contibutions to Moscow were prolific, according to the government. In an
affidavit filed in federal court Tuesday at Hanssen's arraignment, the
FBI charged that he passed 6,000 pages worth of classified information
to his handlers, who worked out of the Russian Embassy in Washington.
MYSTERIES OF AMES CASE EXPLAINED?
Hanssen's arrest also may explain some remaining
mysteries of the Ames case.
"There were things that we thought might have been done
by Ames, but we always thought that it was a stretch for Ames to have
known about certain (intelligence) programs," the New York Times quoted
one former U.S. intelligence official as saying.
Reports that KGB documents led investigators to the suspect
Describes the ways investigators believe Hanssen damaged U.S.
security
Hanssen was charged Tuesday with espionage and conspiracy
to commit espionage while spying for Moscow for at least 15 years.
The career of Hanssen, who faces the death penalty if
convicted, reads like a cloak-and-dagger spy novel complete with
executed double-agents, package drops along park footbridges and
payments in diamonds.
"The trusted insider betrayed his trust without
detection," a grim Freeh said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference
called to discuss the case.
Hanssen, 56, was arrested Sunday night at a park in
suburban Virginia after dropping a package of documents for his Russian
contacts, authorities said. Investigators seized $50,000 that was left
for Hanssen by his Russian handlers.
Hanssen is accused of betraying three Russian undercover
agents to Moscow and disclosing volumes of U.S. secrets in return for
diamonds and up to $1.4 million.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows said Hanssen could
face the death penalty if convicted and could be fined up to $2.8
million — twice his alleged personal gain from the alleged espionage.
The government indicated it would move to seize his assets, including
his $300,000 home in Vienna, Va.
The investigation into Hanssen's activities was conducted
by the FBI, the CIA, the State Department and the Justice Department.
A CAREER SPY
According to the 103-page affidavit, Hanssen's spying
began with an Oct. 1, 1985, letter to a KGB official in the United
States.
The alleged operation • Anonymity
• The dead drop
• Checking records
• Trust
• No money trail
Source: FBI affidavit
Printable version
"Soon I will send a box of documents. ... They are from
certain of the most sensitive and highly compartmented projects of the
U.S. intelligence community," wrote the man the Russians knew as "B."
"I believe they are sufficient to justify a $100,000
payment to me," Hanssen allegedly said in the letter included in the
affidavit. At the time, Hanssen was assigned to the intelligence
division of the FBI field office in New York City as supervisor of a
foreign counterintelligence squad.
STINT AT STATE DEPARTMENT
From February 1995 until January, Hanssen was the FBI's
senior representative to the State Department's Office of Foreign
Missions, where he oversaw an interagency counterintelligence group.
More on spy case•Latest on arrest•Cloak-and-dagger
operation•Read the allegations•WashPost: Hanssen aided by inside
knowledge•Seen as "regular guy"•Moscow's spy spigot•Video
gallery•Sound off on BBSHe was returned to FBI headquarters last month
in a newly created position designed so that the bureau could monitor
his daily activities without alerting him to its investigation.
Sources told NBC News that agency officials had been
aware of the spying for several months. They said an internal audit
initially disclosed the existence of a "mole" at the FBI, but they were
only able to focus on Hanssen after obtaining a trove of KGB documents
that included information on the informant's activities.
'TRAITOROUS ACTIONS'
Sources told NBC News, which broke the story of his
arrest early Tuesday, that Hanssen slipped secrets to the Russians while
he was supposedly spying on them.
Hanssen provided the KGB and its successor agency, SVR,
with information on top secret U.S. intelligence and counterintelligence
activities, including investigative techniques, sources, technical
operations, double agents and targets of U.S. intelligence, according to
the affidavit.
The charges against HanssenThe government's
affidavit•Read the 103-page filing
(156k PDF file)•Download the free browser plug-in Adobe Acrobat needed
to view the file.•Read excerpts in plain textHanssen also checked his
agency's own security systems to see whether authorities had any
suspicions about him — which they apparently did not until late last
year.
"He was, after all, a trained counterintelligence
specialist," Freeh said.
One of the most serious charges against Hanssen is that
he independently disclosed the identity of two KGB officials who had
been recruited by the U.S. government to serve as double agents while
working at the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
According to the affidavit, the double agents had been
compromised months earlier by Ames, the Russian spy working for the CIA.
When the KGB agents returned to Moscow, they were tried
on espionage charges and executed. A third Russian intelligence agent
fingered by both Ames and Hanssen was imprisoned and ultimately
released, according to the affidavit.
Hanssen also tipped off the KGB to the FBI's secret
investigation of Felix Bloch, a foreign service agent suspected of
spying for Moscow in 1989, the FBI said. The KGB was then able to warn
Bloch, the agency said. Justice Department prosecutors were never able
to find key evidence that Bloch passed secret documents.
Intelligence sources told NBC News 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.
'WE LIVE IN A DANGEROUS WORLD'
February 20 — NBC's Pete Williams reports on the latest in the FBI spy
case, which is shaping up as one of the most damaging incidents of
espionage in recent American history.
President Bush, in a statement that he read to reporters
on Air Force One, said that even in the post-Cold War era, espionage is
a serious threat to U.S. national security.
"Allegations of espionage are a reminder that we live in
a dangerous world, a world that sometimes does not share American
values," said Bush. "To anyone who would betray its trust, I warn you,
we'll find you and we'll bring you to justice."
Attorney General John Ashcroft echoed the warning,
saying, "The espionage operations designed to steal vital secrets of the
United States are as intense today as they have ever been."
Underscoring the gravity of the case, former FBI Director
William Webster was named to lead a blue-ribbon panel that will assess
the impact of the alleged espionage, Ashcroft announced.
Freeh credited the government for catching Hanssen
"red-handed," but could not explain how the agent was able to work for
the Russians undetected for 15 years.
"We don't say at this stage that we have a system that
can prevent this kind of conduct," he said, adding that the bureau must
rely on the integrity of people who take the oath of public service.
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.
Russia proposes its own missile defense
COVERT ACTIVITIES
Investigators said that since 1986, Hanssen used nearly a
dozen area parks for dead-drops, leaving his packages under footbridges
and an outdoor stage.
U.S. espionage timeline MSNBC Interactive•A look at notorious
spy cases in the U.S.
In an early note, Hanssen set up a coded system to
conceal the scheduling of communications. "I will add six (you subtract
six) from stated months, days and times in both directions of future
communications," he wrote. Under this system, Feb. 20 would become
August 26, and 6 p.m. would become midnight.
Later that month, Hanssen allegedly offered signals using
white adhesive tape on a signpost near his home in northern Virginia
just outside Washington. A horizontal line of tape would mean he was
ready to get a KGB package; a vertical piece of tape would mean the drop
had occurred; a subsequent horizontal piece of tape would mean the
package was received.
Such dead drops — in which the two sides never saw each
other — were the norm, the affidavit alleged, and documents said the
Russians never knew who their contact was.
Hanssen initially signed off simply as "B," but later
used the aliases "Ramon Garcia," "Jim Baker" and "G. Robertson." He
sometimes hinted at changes in his life, such as promotions or travel or
family obligations. But he never used his real name.
'NOTHING LASTS FOREVER'
Hanssen was paid about $1.4 million for his years of
spying, according to the affidavit. Overall, Freeh said, Hanssen had
received more than $650,000 in cash, as well as diamonds, and an
additional $800,000 had been set aside for him in an overseas escrow
account.
"This was his bread and butter for many, many years,"
said Freeh.
Cash payments of tens of thousands of dollars were
sometimes included in the KGB drops, the affidavit said, and while
Hanssen found these welcome, he was wary.
"I have little need or utility for more than the 100,000
(dollars)," he allegedly wrote. "It merely provides a difficulty since I
cannot spend it, store it or invest it easily without tripping 'drug
warning' bells. Perhaps some diamonds as security to my children and
some good will so that when the time comes, you will accept my senior
services as a guest lecturer. Eventually, I would appreciate an escape
plan. Nothing lasts forever."
The FBI said that by last March, a letter from Hanssen to
the Russians showed a man in despair.
"I have come about as close as I ever want to come to
sacrificing myself to help you and I get silence," Hanssen allegedly
wrote. "I hate silence. ... Conclusion: One might propose that I am
either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say,
insanely loyal."
In another letter quoted in the FBI affidavit, Hanssen
was alleged to have written to his Russian handlers on Nov. 17, 2000, of
his possible fate if caught. "Recent changes in U.S. law now attach the
death penalty to my help to you as you know, so I do take some risk."
SUSPECT DESCRIBED AS 'QUITE UPSET'
Agents who arrested Hanssen said he seemed "shocked and
surprised" when he was caught because he thought he had been so careful,
Freeh said.
At his arraignment in federal court, Hanssen, dressed in
a black turtle neck, black shirt and gray slacks and looking weary, was
silent and solemn as the charges against him were read.
Hanssen's attorney, Plato Cacheris, described his client,
who is married and has six children, as "quite upset" and "emotional."
Cacheris said Hanssen's wife, who hired him, attended the hearing before
U.S. District Judge Theresa C. Buchanan, who scheduled a preliminary
hearing for March 5.
Cacheris said federal authorities "always talk like they
have a great case, but we'll see."
Cacheris, asked if Hanssen's case was related to that of
Ames, replied, "There's not a connection but there is some relevant
material."
NEIGHBORS IN SHOCK
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."
Cullen said Hanssen's wife, Bernadette, teaches religion
classes part time at a Catholic high school.
The Hanssens' split-level home of brown brick and cedar
was encircled by yellow police tape Tuesday. A dozen FBI agents wandered
in and out, carrying in electronic equipment. Neighbors briefly filled
the cul-de-sac to watch the activity.
Hanssen was just the third FBI agent ever arrested on
espionage charges.
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."
NBC News Correspondent Pete Williams and NBC News
Producer Robert Windrem, MSNBC.com's Mike Brunker and The Associated
Press contributed to this report.
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