(Trends Wide) — Spy Robert Philip Hanssen, who was paid $1.4 million in cash and diamonds for information he provided to the Soviet Union and Russia, has died at age 79, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Monday.
Hanssen had been incarcerated at Usp Florence Admax in Colorado since July 17, 2002.
“On Monday, June 5, 2023, at approximately 6:55 a.m., inmate Robert Hanssen was found unconscious at the United States Penitentiary (USP) Florence ADMAX, in Florence, Colorado,” reads a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. “Responders immediately initiated life-saving measures. Staff requested Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and life-saving efforts continued.”
“Subsequently, emergency medical services personnel pronounced Mr. Hanssen dead,” the statement said.
In 2001, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Investigators accused him of compromising dozens of Soviet personnel working for the United States, some of whom were executed. Hanssen shared details of various US technical operations, including wiretapping, surveillance and interception of communications. In addition, he provided the Soviets with US plans for how to react to a Soviet nuclear attack, both to protect senior government officials and to retaliate in the event of an attack.
The Hanssen case rocked the US Intelligence Community, exposing major flaws in the way the FBI and other agencies investigate those with access to the nation’s secrets.
After Hanssen’s betrayal was exposed, investigators discovered that he had full access to the FBI and State Department computer systems and spent hours searching for classified information without being detected. In his 25 years at the FBI, with access to highly sensitive sources and methods on US intelligence activities directed against the Soviet Union and Russia, Hanssen has never been subjected to a polygraph test.
In the aftermath of the Hanssen case, the FBI beefed up its insider threat programs aimed at safeguarding the nation’s secrets, closely scrutinizing the finances and travel of personnel with access to classified information and increasing the use of polygraphs to routinely test loyalty. and suitability of employees.
Before the Hanssen case came to light, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller claimed that “security was not a top priority. There was no security division. The FBI did not have enough experience. We moved to address that. “.
More than a decade of espionage
Hanssen began spying for the Soviet Union in 1979, three years after joining the FBI as a special agent.
The counterintelligence agent worked as a spy for nearly 15 years, at some of the most important moments in US-Russia relations, and even after the end of the Cold War. In the 1980s he stopped spying for four years, convinced by his wife, Bonnie.
In a letter supposedly written by Hanssen to the Russians, he said that he had been inspired as a teenager by the memoirs of British double agent Kim Philby.
“I decided on this path when I was 14 years old,” says the letter cited in the FBI affidavit. “I had read Philby’s book. Now that’s crazy.”
The FBI began monitoring Hanssen in 2000 after he was identified from a fingerprint and a recording provided by a disgruntled Russian intelligence agent.
After being captured in 2001, Hanssen told his American interrogators: “I could have been a devastating spy, I think, but I didn’t want to be. I wanted to get a little money and get out of it.”
Hanssen apologized for his actions during his sentencing in 2002. “I feel ashamed of it. Beyond its illegality, I have broken the trust of many. Worse still, I have opened the door to slander against my totally innocent wife, and our children. I have hurt them so much. I have deeply hurt so many,” he said.
