The FBI: Collusion Within

Source-History.com- One of the most damaging double agents in modern American history Robert Hanssen gave the Soviets and later the Russians thousands of pages of classified material that revealed such sensitive national security secrets as the identities of Soviets spying for the U.S. specifics about Americas nuclear operations and the existence of an FBI-built tunnel underneath the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Hanssens double life began in 1979 and ended in 2001 when he was arrested after the FBI discovered thanks to help from an ex-KGB officer that Hanssen was a mole. A church-going father of six Hanssen is thought to have been motivated by money rather than ideological beliefs. While covertly working for Moscow on and off over the years he was paid $600000 in cash and diamonds with another $800000 supposedly held for him in a Russian bank. Hanssen was only the third agent in FBI history charged with spying. Born in 1944 Hanssen was a Chicago native and son of a police officer. He graduated from Knox College in 1966 then attended dental school at Northwestern University before quitting the program to earn an MBA. He went on to work as an investigator for the Chicago Police Department then joined the FBI in 1976. He worked for the agency in Indiana and later New York City. Hanssens deceit began in 1979 when he volunteered to spy for GRU the Soviet military intelligence agency. He soon informed the Soviets that one of their generals Dmitri Polyakov was in fact a CIA informant whod been spying for America since the 1960s. The Soviets eventually executed Polyakov. In 1980 after Hanssens wife reportedly caught him with some suspicious-looking papers he admitted to selling secrets to the Soviets but claimed the information hed given them was worthless. At his wifes insistence Hanssen promised to sever ties with the Soviets and confessed to a priest who told him to donate the dirty money to charity. However in 1985 Hanssen resumed his espionage activities this time for the KGB. He gave the KGB the names of three Soviet officers collaborating with the CIA and FBI. The three spies were arrested and executed. Meanwhile Hanssen continued to rise through the FBIs ranks eventually working in senior counterintelligence roles. In 1991 with the Soviet Union breaking apart he stopped spying possibly due to fears that hed be found out. But In 1999 while serving as the FBI liaison to the U.S. State Department he once again resumed his double-agent career this time for the SVR a post- Soviet Russian intelligence service. Hanssens downfall came in 2000 when the FBI which by then suspected there was a mole in its ranks paid $7 million to an ex-KGB officer to procure information from SVR headquarters that helped identify Hanssen as the turncoat. The FBI put Hanssen under surveillance in late 2000 and on February 18 2001 he was arrested at a park in Vienna Virginia after making a drop of classified documents in a plastic garbage bag for the Russians. Nearby FBI agents discovered a bag with $50000 in cash intended as Hanssens payment. When he was arrested Hanssen reportedly exclaimed What took you so long?"