Treachery Deep Inside

It will take an extensive investigation before the FBI determines how much damage was done by one of its veteran agents who is alleged to have spied for Russia. Director Louis J. Freeh has already described the potential loss of secrets as “exceptionally grave.”

Court papers accuse Robert Philip Hanssen of disclosing the identities of three KGB officials who were double agents providing information to the United States. Two were executed after being recalled to Moscow. Hanssen, who was a counterintelligence specialist, is also alleged to have compromised “numerous FBI counterintelligence techniques, sources, methods and operations” directed against Russian intelligence agencies, both during and after the Soviet era.

Hansen is alleged to have gotten away with a lot, and for an exceptionally long time. The FBI says he started working for the Russians in 1985 and was still passing classified information as recently as last Sunday night, when he was arrested after leaving a drop site in a Virginia park near his home.

Officials say Hanssen was paid $1.4 million for his activities. It was only a few months ago that he came under suspicion. The bureau says it later got confirming information from secretly obtained Russian documents. So the game goes on, with Moscow penetrating U.S. intelligence agencies and Washington tapping its sources within Russian intelligence services.

Shocking as it may be when Americans are caught selling out their nation’s secrets, there are no real surprises here. Espionage is a never-ending effort and no doubt was already old when God instructed Moses to “spy out” the land of Canaan. For all that high technology can do these days, intelligence services still turn to humans to try to learn things that satellite photos and communications intercepts can’t reveal.

Hanssen allegedly offered his services to the Russians about the same time that Central Intelligence Agency turncoat Aldrich H. Ames went to work for Moscow. Ames, now serving a life sentence, was arrested in 1994, long after his ostentatious lifestyle and chronic drunkenness should have set off alarm bells at the CIA.

Hanssen appears to have led a far less obtrusive personal life, but for more than half of his 27 years with the FBI he is alleged to have worked for Moscow. If convicted, the father of six could face the death penalty; he almost certainly would spend the rest of his life in prison, which at least is a lesser price than was paid by those he is accused of betraying.