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ID and business card of former FBI spy Hanssen
Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP
U.S. double agent Robert Hanssen, sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, is dead. The 79-year-old was found lifeless in his cell at the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, federal prison authorities said. Resuscitation measures were therefore unsuccessful. The notorious spy was then pronounced dead.
The agent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was arrested in February 2001 in a suburb of the US capital Washington. The agency's "most damaging spy in history," according to the FBI, was later sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage without the possibility of early release.
Information for diamonds and cash
Hanssen had offered himself to the Soviet military intelligence service in 1985 under the code name "Ramon Garcia". For years, he provided the Soviet Union and then Russia with secret information about the United States, including uncovering the identities of U.S. informants. In return, he received diamonds and cash worth around $1.4 million.
Hanssen had joined the FBI in 1976 and worked most of the time in the intelligence department of the Federal Police. He thus had access to secret information from several US intelligence services on foreign espionage and counterintelligence. Among other things, he is said to have passed on information about satellites and other early warning systems, U.S. weapons developments and defense strategies, as well as reconnaissance and communications facilities.
True, the US authorities knew for years that there was a mole in their ranks. But it took them a long time to track down Hanssen, who outwardly led a simple life with his wife and six children.
In May 2002, Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage as part of an agreement with prosecutors. In doing so, he avoided a possible death penalty. "I apologize for my behavior," he said in court at the time. "I'm ashamed of it."
aeh/AFP/dpa