The book both confused and enlightened me.
Hanssen was essentially insane. One part of his personality was that of a conservative, Christian, patriotic family man. Another part of his personality was that of a treasonous, grasping porn addict.
It's a disturbingly common phenomenon: Ted Haggard, Eliot Spitzer, etc. - people who secretly do the exact opposite of what they apparently believe and are committed to.
It's upsetting to me - since I consider myself to be a conservative, Christian, patriotic family man just like Hanssen's public face. That's the confusing part: it seems like Hanssen was actually sincere about his beliefs, that it wasn't just a front - he really was that guy, and yet he was also another guy.
And it clearly wasn't just the money - he got paid only $500,000 over 25 years. $20,000 per year to risk his family, his life and his freedom? $20,000 per year to live for a quarter century in constant fear of detection?
Normally the kind of personality that does this - the kind of person who betrays his nearest and dearest in exchange for money - negotiates a better deal. He gave the Soviets material they probably would have happily paid $100 million dollars for - he basically gave them information for free.
He clearly wasn't in it for the money alone, yet he clearly had no real attachment to Soviet ideology either - and that's the most frightening part.
He did evil for evil's sake.
The book was also enlightening - it shows that the CIA and FBI (and the KGB and GRU) have the exact same stupid office politics and managerial squabbles as any other office - the mistakes that were made in catching Ames and Hanssen were due to the exact same moronic territorialism and siloing that happens at every job.
Also he was not a Christian so much as a fanatical "traditional" Catholic, going to a church where the congregation remains kneeling for the entire service, for instance. A friend of mine who is Catholic thought the movie was anti-Catholic. Not so. It was anti-something--something more abstract than that. Empty worship while betraying your fellow human beings.