Glossary

This is a compilation of terms used in and related to the Hanssen case that deal with espionage and the methods used in the field.

Accommodation address: A "safe" address -- not overtly associated with intelligence activities -- used by an agent to communicate with the intelligence service.

Agent-in-play or recruitment-in-play: Someone who remains in the current position while acting under the direction of a hostile intelligence service in order to obtain information.

Aldrich Ames: Former CIA employee who was arrested in 1994 for having committed espionage as an agent of the KGB and SVR from 1985-1994. Ames eventually pleaded guilty to the charges. Ames worked in the CIA's office that handled clandestine operations around the word.

"B:" One of the aliases Robert Philip Hanssen allegedly used with Soviet and Russian intelligence officers.

Felix Bloch: A former Foreign Service officer in the State Department that the FBI investigated for spying in 1989. Hanssen is suspected by the FBI of tipping off the Soviets to the FBI's investigation of Bloch, who was videotaped passing a briefcase to a Soviet official in Paris but was never charged with spying. Bloch was fired and stripped of his pension in 1990 on grounds that he lied to FBI investigators.

Call-out signal: A method for triggering contact between the intelligence officer and the agent.

Classified: Classified information is defined as materials owned by, and produced by or for or under the control of the U.S. government that fall within one or more of the following categories: Intelligence sources or methods, cryptology, military plans, and vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects or plans relating to national security.

The classification is made by a classification authority who determines that its unauthorized disclosure reasonable could be expected to result in damage to national security. Levels of classification include:

A. Top Secret: Information that the unauthorized disclosure of could reasonable result in "exceptionally grave" damage. B. Secret: Information that the unauthorized disclosure of could reasonable result in "serious" damage. C. Confidential: Information that the unauthorized disclosure of could cause damage to national security.

Access to classified information at any level also may be restricted by caveats like material that is not releaseable to foreign nationals or not releaseable to contractors or contractors/consultants.

Counterintelligence: Information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage or assassination conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers.

Dead drop: A prearranged hidden location used for secret exchanges of packages, messages and payments. A dead drop prevents the intelligence officer and the agent from being present at the same time.

Double agent: An agent engaged in secret activities for two or more intelligence services, providing information about one service to another.

FSB (Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti or Federal Security Service): This is one of the successors to the KGB and handles matters of internal security and counterintelligence for the Russian Federation.

GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie or Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff): The military intelligence agency for both the former Soviet Union and now the Russian Federation.

Handler: The case officer responsible for active agent. According to the FBI affidavit, Hanssen chose his handler to be Viktor I. Cherkashin, an KGB officer at the Soviet Embassy in Washington who also acted as the contact for Aldrich Ames. Hanssen admired Cherkashin and admired his professional abilities.

Illegal: An intelligence officer or agent who operates in a foreign country in the guise of a private person, often under a false identity.

KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvenoy Bezopasnosti or Committee for State Security): The intelligence service of the former Soviet Union. The KGB's First Chief Directorate (FCD) was the branch responsible for intelligence, active measures, and counterintelligence outside of the Soviet Union. The Second Chief Directorate (SCD) was the KGB branch responsible counterintelligence within the Soviet Union.

Mole: This is the name given to an intelligence agent working for the enemy. The most-high profile mole in recent years was Aldrich Ames, a longtime CIA employee who was arrested in 1994 and convicted of spying for the Russians. In the Cold War, moles inside the Soviet Union who spied for the West included Soviet agents Col. Oleg Penkovsky and Lt. Gen Dmitri Polyakov.

Ramon Garcia: Another alias Robert Philip Hanssen allegedly used with Soviet and Russian intelligence officers.

Signal site: A prearranged fixed location -- usually a public place -- where an agent or intelligence officer can place a predetermined mark in order to alert the other to operational activities. The mark made at the signal site -- such as chalk marking or a piece of tape -- may let the one of the parties know, for example, that the dead drop has been loaded.

SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki Rossii or Russian Foreign Intelligence Service): The Russian Federation's successor to the KGB's foreign intelligence service.

Tradecraft: The methods used by the intelligence community to carry out clandestine operations. Hanssen used his knowledge of tradecraft to take precautions against capture, according to the FBI affidavit.

Sources: U.S. affidavit on alleged crimes , Federation of American Scientists