He was at the heart of one of America’s most disastrous spy cases. Double agent Robert Hanssen died Monday at the age of 79 in the prison where he had been held since 2002, the US prison services announced. In charge of counterintelligence within the federal police, he had sold himself to the Soviets during the Cold War and delivered to Moscow some of the best kept American secrets of the 1980s and 1990s in exchange for 1.4 million dollars. and diamonds.
Robert Hanssen was “the most harmful spy in the history of the FBI”, according to the site of the federal police. He was found unconscious on Monday morning in his cell at the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence. Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful, according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
6,000 pages of documents delivered to the Russians
After starting out with the Chicago police, Robert Hanssen was recruited by the FBI in 1976. A few years later, he joined the counterintelligence section of the New York bureau, responsible for tracking down Russian spies on the American soil and to recruit Soviet diplomats to the United Nations. Taking advantage of this key position, he had quickly offered his help to the intelligence services of the USSR, operating discreetly under the alias “Ramon Garcia” without his dealing officers knowing his true identity.
Alternating posts in New York and Washington, he delivered to the Soviets and then to the Russians some 6,000 pages of documents, including military plans, counterintelligence software and the names of several double agents operating for the United States.
Implicated by a Russian
Although the FBI quickly became aware of the existence of a mole in its services, it remained unsuspected for a long time. Married, father of six children, he lived without being noticed, while maintaining close ties with the Catholic elite of the capital. He was finally implicated in 2000 by a defected Russian. Placed under surveillance, he was arrested in 2001 as he prepared to file secret documents for Russian agents in a park in Virginia.
Robert Hanssen avoided the death penalty by agreeing to cooperate with investigators. Admitting to having acted out of greed, he underwent 200 hours of interrogation. In 2002, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of early release.