How FBI paid $12m to unmask a traitor Robert Hanssen

The New York Times ^ | October 19 2002 | By David Johnston in Washington

[USA21]

How FBI paid $12m to unmask a traitor

The FBI paid $US7 million ($12.7million) to a former Russian intelligence officer to smuggle out of Moscow a secret KGB file that unmasked a veteran FBI agent as a spy for Russia, according to a new book about the case.

Although it was known that the FBI got the file from a Russian source, it was not known just how much it cost the bureau to find the agent, Robert Hanssen, or that the former KGB officer, whose name is not disclosed in the book, was secretly relocated to the United States.

The payment to the former KGB officer and other details about the Hanssen case are disclosed in SPY, The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America, written by David Wise, the author of several espionage books.

Although the FBI would not discuss payment officially, unnamed sources confirmed the amount and the relocation of the former KGB officer to the US.

Hanssen, who held senior counterintelligence posts at the bureau for more than two decades, pleaded guilty in July 2001 to spying for Moscow. Under a plea arrangement, he agreed to co-operate with the authorities, in return for which the death penalty was not sought.

For several years before Hanssen's arrest in February 2001, the FBI and the CIA realised that someone was passing vital secrets to the Russians.

The investigation originally centred on Brian Kelley, a CIA officer, who was cleared when Hanssen was arrested.

Mr Kelley was identified for the first time in Wise's book despite attempts by the CIA to prevent him being named.

Hanssen began a 22-year secret life in 1979, and in an early phase of espionage betrayed one of the most important agents for the US, Dmitri Polyakov of the Soviet military intelligence agency GRU, who was later executed.

The former KGB official who supplied the file was delighted with the deal he struck with the United States. "He was very satisfied with the financial arrangement," Wise quoted a former top FBI official as saying

[VOA]

How FBI paid $12m to unmask a traitor

Too bad Hanssen didn't get what he'd received if he'd been doing his duplicity act
as a Soviet agent...one bullet behind the ear without an announcement.

This is interesting news...coming a few days after the revelation of the lady agent
that betrayed the USA to Cuba...and at the least got four people working for the USA in
Cuba killed.

[Joe 6-pack]

While the expense was necessary, I, as a taxpayer, will continue to feel somewhat short changed until Hansen's body swings in the breeze with a noose around his neck...

...As an active duty Army Officer from 91 - 00, my rage seethes at how this jerk-off jeopardized my life, the lives of my soldiers, peers, and friends.

I suppose his crimes are only minimized by the fact we had a commander in chief who essentially did the same thing.

[Cicero]

$12 million was cheap for the kind of damage Hanssen did. Probably the most despicable spy the U.S. has ever seen.

[July 4th]

It appears that the amount is actually $12 million Australian dollars, $7 million US.

[eno_]

I didn't hear about that one. Will she get the needle for it?

[VOA]

I didn't hear about that one. Will she get the needle for it?

Nope.
IIRC, she gets a fairly long jail sentence, somthing like 25 years and a good bit of
verbal remonstatraion from the judge.

She was unrepetant about having done the right thing in helping Cuba...as our US policy was
too mean.

I wish that her testimony could get lots of airplay.
She sounded like she was a Democrat pimping for Hussaein or the Nuclear North Koreans.

[Barnacle]

Bump.

Spending tax money to keep that scum behind bars makes about as much sense as paying to keep poliovirus alive.

[dighton]

$12 million [Aus.] was cheap for the kind of damage Hanssen did.

Agreed.

Probably the most despicable spy the U.S. has ever seen.

He's got stiff competition from the Walkers and Jerry Whitworth.

[Paul Ross]

Bump.

[battlegearboat]

Money well spent!

[csvset]

I didn't hear about that one.

Here's the story.

Clinton's Cuban Spy

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[GeorgeWashington777]

Interesting! I'm just reading the book now, about halfway through. The FBI were told to investigate in 1990 when a relative of Hansens who was an Agent for the FBI found a bunch of cash in his drawer. But the FBI never followed through on it! Big Mistake!

[Maximum Leader]

No doubt. This is the kind of government welfare program that I like reading about.

[Donald Stone]

BUMP!!!!

[piasa]

Not just cash, Hansen was overheard saying he and his wife would retire in Poland, then still behind the Iron Curtain. An FBI supervisor in Chicago dismissed the concerns so Hanssen just kept on spying.