Skip to main content /US
CNN.com /US
CNN TV
SERVICES
CNN TV
EDITIONS

Spy suspect 'a key player' at State Department


In this story:

Intelligence losses 'exceptionally grave'

Ames connection

FBI says spy betrayed Russian agents

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators turned their attention to the U.S. State Department on Wednesday as they tried to piece together the damage they believe was done by alleged spy Robert Philip Hanssen, an FBI agent who had worked at the State Department since 1995.

Hanssen has been charged with handing over classified documents to Soviet agents and with revealing the names of double agents working in first the Soviet Union and now Russia. He is being held without bond.

RESOURCES

Title 18 : Part I : Chapter 37 : Section 794
Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government (FindLaw)




 
 VIDEO
CNN's Kathleen Koch visits the park where Hanssen allegedly made "dead drops"

Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

CNN's Kelli Arena says 25-year veteran Philip Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for the last 15 years

Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)
 
IN-DEPTH
 
ALSO
 

Hanssen, a 25-year FBI veteran, was the bureau's liaison to the State Department Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) and was primarily responsible for keeping track of intelligence agents assigned to work in the United States "under diplomatic auspices."

"He was a key player here," one department official told CNN. "He was able to move around the building easily."

Senior department officials said FBI agents planned to interview at least a dozen officials in the OFM and the head of the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, David Carpenter.

A State Department official said there is "no reason to think (Hanssen) was involved" in the disappearance of a highly classified laptop computer last year. But, court papers filed Tuesday said that Hanssen had also been the FBI's liaison to State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research -- the office from which the laptop disappeared.

Intelligence losses 'exceptionally grave'

U.S. officials said on Tuesday that their intelligence agencies took an "exceptionally grave" hit as the latest spy scandal unraveled.

FBI Director Louis Freeh said that Hanssen had been a spy for the Soviet-era KGB and its successor, the SVR, since 1985. President Bush called the allegations against Hanssen, who was arrested Sunday at a park near his home outside Washington, "extremely serious and deeply disturbing."

The FBI is still trying to assess the extent of the secrets lost in the case -- something that could not be done while Hanssen was under investigation.

A blue-ribbon panel led by William Webster, a former director of both the FBI and the CIA, will review the FBI's internal security procedures.

"Judge Webster and anyone he selects to assist him will have complete access and whatever resources are necessary to complete the task," Freeh said. "He will report directly to the attorney general and I, and we will share his report with the National Security Council and the Congress. I intend to act swiftly on any of his recommendations."

Ames connection

A former law enforcement official told CNN on Tuesday that the damage to U.S. national security could rival the case of Aldrich Ames, the former CIA officer unmasked as a Russian spy in 1994.

"This ranks with some of our worst intelligence losses in our history," he said. "Rick Ames is still No. 1, probably, but this guy is a not-far-off No. 2."

Indeed, Hanssen is suspected of having confirmed some of the information Ames provided the Russians.

Hanssen spent most of his FBI career in counterintelligence, helping U.S. authorities find other countries' spies. David Isby, a writer for Jane's Intelligence Review, said having a spy in that position was "one of the crown jewels of human intelligence."

"Because he's in counterintelligence, he had access to the information we were getting from our agents inside first the Soviet intelligence -- later Russian intelligence -- telling us who their agents were in the United States," Isby said.

Freeh said Hanssen, 56, of Vienna, Virginia, passed "substantial volumes of highly classified information" to Moscow. Hanssen had been "trusted with some of this country's most sensitive information and has betrayed that trust."

FBI says spy betrayed Russian agents

FBI officials filed a 110-page affidavit with a federal court on Tuesday, accusing Hanssen of dropping off intelligence information for the Russians on more than 20 occasions. The material included more than two dozen computer diskettes and thousands of pages of U.S. documents, the bureau charged.

He also is accused of giving Moscow the names of three Soviet intelligence officers who were themselves spying for the United States. Two of the three were executed. In return for his service, Freeh said, Hanssen was paid more than $1.4 million in cash and diamonds during his 15 years as a spy.

Freeh said that Hanssen used the skills he learned as an FBI agent to cover his tracks and that even his Russian controllers did not know the identity of the spy who called himself "Ramon."

Russian officials have made no comment on the charges against Hanssen.

Only two other FBI agents have faced spy charges, and Ron Kessler, author of a history of the FBI, said Hanssen was much more highly placed.

"The other two previous FBI agents who've been charged with espionage just don't compare in terms of the access that this person had," Kessler said, calling Hanssen a "craftsman."

"To outsmart the FBI in this way for 15 years, to not even let the Russians know who he was, is an incredible feat."

CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor, White House Correspondent Major Garrett and State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and contributed to this report.



RELATED STORIES:
FBI agent charged as Russian spy
February 20, 2001
Sources: Deal in the works in case of accused Navy spy
February 6, 2001
Pardoned spy plans trip home
December 16, 2000
FBI director Louis Freeh testifies on Wen Ho Lee case
September 26, 2000
FBI's Freeh expected to defend handling of Wen Ho Lee case
September 25, 2000
CIA spy hunter talks to CNN
May 29, 2000

RELATED SITES:
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Central Intelligence Agency
US Department of State
U.S. Department of Justice
Embassy of the Russian Federation
Russian FSB (former KGB, in Russian)

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.


 Search   


Back to the top