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. I left that memo in your inbox, ONeill replied. All Rights Reserved. In 1985 he approached the Soviets again and offered valuable secrets. A feature film called Breach was released in 2007. For decades, the quirky but respected counterintelligence expert, religious family man, and father of six, sold top secret information to agents of the Soviet Union and Russia. But while agents moved and searched Hanssens car, he unexpectedly cut the meeting short, stalking out and leaving ONeill no time to notify Alleman. I told him I thought it was insane.''. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832. At the time, he was assigned to counterintelligence in the F.B.I. I dont think there was anybody more shocked by all this, Brookner said. The purloined PalmPilot gave the FBI the final piece of the puzzle: Hanssens next meeting with the Russians was scheduled for the following weekend. In short, the trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection. This story has been shared 106,031 times. By the time O'Neill slipped into the car on that fateful Sunday morning in 2001, an FBI operation was already underway to . ''I never knew about anything else after that first time,'' Mrs. Hanssen said in the interview. On the drive back, ONeill tried to play it cool even though he was riddled with fear that Hanssens car would not be at the office when they returned. As Hanssen grew up, his father was reportedly verbally abusive to him, often ranting that he would never succeed in life. children: Greg Hanssen, Jane Hanssen, John Hanssen, Lisa Hanssen, Mark Hanssen, Sue Hanssen Born Country: United States Spies American Men City: Chicago, Illinois Notable Alumni: Knox College (Illinois) U.S. State: Illinois More Facts Recommended Lists: American People Kellogg School Of Management Male Spies American Spies Aries Men Robert Philip Hanssen, a 27 year veteran of the FBI, was a double agent. The underling had 15 minutes to arrange for a car from the FBI who, this time, didnt blow its shot. While other spies were still chasing after paper files, Hanssen had entered the digital world. Senior FBI officials described him as . The ensuing investigation confirmed this suspicion. Furthermore, she supported her husband when he was first incarcerated for theft, and then for abducting and sexually abusing a housewife and a prostitute (although the rape charge concerning the latter was dropped when he pleaded guilty.) Clearly she doesnt approve of what hes done, and there was a whole part of this man she doesnt know, but I think with her deep religious convictions, he will, at least in mind and in spirit, continue to be her husband and the father of her children., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Caregiver accused in Manhattan Beach child sexual abuse case believed to be in Philippines, Prosecution presents closing arguments in Alex Murdaugh murder trial, Intel agencies say theres no sign adversaries were behind Havana syndrome, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Yet more rain expected to hit California in March. Caught off guard, he grabbed his guns but not his PalmPilot. 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. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. She said she repeatedly questioned her husband to ensure that he was making the payments, and each time he insisted that he was. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. (AP Photo/Doug Mills) In all, by the time he was arrested in February 2001, Hanssen collected an estimated $1.4 million for giving lists of American undercover agents abroad, the identities of Russian double agents, documents showing the U.S. was intercepting Soviet satellite transmission and the methods by which the U.S . Hanssen, a disgruntled senior FBI computer geek who spied intermittently for the Russians from 1979 until his arrest following a dead drop in the snowy woods of Virginia in 2001, produced. He was sentenced to life in prison. After work each day, ONeill would secretly meet with his actual boss, Special Agent Kate Alleman, recalling everything Hanssen said and did which, as it turned out, would be nothing pleasant. Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Who Became a Soviet Mole. Each time, her lawyer said Mrs. Hanssen told investigators during the polygraph test, he would deny it and act as if he was hurt that she did not trust him. Troubled by the incident, Bonnie Hanssen made her husband speak with a Catholic priest, who directed him to contribute money to Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who ran a Calcutta charitable organization, as a form of penance, Brookner said. He began to make small payments over several years to a charity affiliated with Mother Teresa's Catholic organization, moving the family close to bankruptcy, Mrs. Hanssen told the Justice Department investigators. Anyone can read what you share. By the time Hanssen and ONeill returned to the office, things seemed normal. Therefore, after he was given a 461-year sentence for his crimes, she chose to divorce him. He was en route to a third spot to pick up his payment of $50,000 when he was stopped by screeching FBI vans and a slew of armed agents. NOTE: The following is an excerpt from an article by Lee Penn, "Opus Dei & the Da Vinci Code, part II", published in the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP] (Vol. 2:02 PM EDT, Thu April 14, 2022, FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen is shown in this undated file photo, released by the FBI February 20, 2001. By February 2001, about 300 personnel were working the investigation and monitoring Hanssen. Hanssen pled guilty to 15 counts of espionage on July 6, 2001. Chicago Tribune July 4, 2001. At least two movies have been made about Hanssen. Hanssen was set to retire, so investigators had to move fast. By Sherri Day. An official website of the United States government. Id answer neither. He had opportunity. (They took Hanssens Ford and the plan to search his car was dropped for the time being.). The Spy Who Loved Spying A good spy needs a good cover, and Hanssen had one of the best. Born in 1939 to a father who forced him to work long hours at the family bakery while subjecting him to ridicule and mockery and a mother who . Today hes a national-security strategist for the cyber-security company Carbon Black and runs his own investigative and security-services firm. He betrayed his wife. The pension was an important consideration for Hanssen in his plea negotiations, Brookner said. I imagined I could smell gunpowder on his breath, ONeill writes. The one thing the father and son would eventually have in common is their interest in hunting. Yet Brookner said Bonnie Hanssen has no intention of divorcing her husband. When the news media reported that alleged spy Robert Hanssen was a member of Opus Dei back in 2001, many wondered how Hanssen could provide sensitive information to communists, when Opus Dei has always seemed to be so vehemently opposed to communism. Another government official confirmed that Mrs. Hanssen was given a polygraph test and said she had passed it. Undated file photo released by the FBI February 20, 2001 shows a package recovered at the 'Lewis' drop site containing $50,000 cash allegedly left by Russians for FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen. The data-some 6000 pages of highly classified documents-revealed . Blood rushed to my face. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 Hanssen became much more wary. Why are we still having these debates? Imbecile! 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.. At one point Hanssen spoke to a Russian agent over a pay phone, but they generally relied on placing signals in public places. This would be the first of many heart-stopping requests from Alleman. 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. Anything different goes against biology.. 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. A few years later, they moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and had two children. Follow. 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. But in her polygraph test, Mrs. Hanssen denied finding any large and unexplained amounts of money in her home, and the polygraph showed that she was not being deceptive, her lawyer said. In the letter, Hanssen revealed that he had dreamed of being a spy against his country since the age of 14, after reading a book about Kim Philby the British intelligence officer who was also a Russian double agent. At some point in 1979, Hanssen made a decision to sell American secrets to the Soviets. His Father, Howard Hanssen, was an officer with the Chicago police department and his mother, Vivian Hanssen, was a . The US government took the death penalty off the table in exchange for Hanssens full cooperation. In 1978, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI office in New York City and was assigned to a counterintelligence post. Authorities say Hanssen was driven by greed, but Brookner rejected that assertion. 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. Robert Hanssen moments after being arrested. A self-taught computer expert, Hansen often encrypted his stolen files on wafer-thin disks. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. Through Attorney General John Ashcroft, I would like to thank the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. appreciated. Lesley Stahl has learned that Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who betrayed his country, also betrayed his church and his wife. Hanssen appeared to be a devoted anti-communist. As a result of these assignments within the FBI, Hanssen gained access to some of the most sensitive and highly classified information in the United States Government. May 31, 2001 - Pleads not guilty to all charges. After being released, he met his second wife, Darla Henrichsen, and the pair got married in 1963. Today in Security. Father Bucciarelli came up with a plan to save Mr. Hanssen from prison, Mrs. Hanssen told investigators during the polygraph test, her lawyer said. 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. Hanssen lived in suburban Virginia, was married, and had six children; he was a devout Catholic who went to Mass every week, sometimes every day. 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. 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. I have hurt so many deeply." Hanssen, who began working with Soviet military intelligence in 1979, was. To get Hanssen back to FBI Headquarters where he could be closely monitored, Neil Gallagher, assistant director of the National Security Division at the time, called Hanssen to inform him of a bogus assignment to serve on his staff as a special assistant for a technology project. A Justice Department spokesman, citing the inspector general's continuing review of the Hanssen case, refused to comment. https://www.thoughtco.com/robert-hanssen-4587832 (accessed March 1, 2023). Hanssen was suspected of leaking critical US intelligence. Bonnie Hanssens first public statements on the case reveal both her anxiety over her husbands actions and her sense of relief over the fact that she and her six children will retain an estimated $39,000 a year from his government pension. COVID origins? 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. 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