Mugshots: Robert Hanssen - Hanssen and the KGB | Forensic Files

Next, Robert Hansen, a career FBI agent, a man above suspicion. Robert Hansen is
the most devilishly clever spy in the history of the United States. For more than a decade, the FBI knew there was a
traitor in their midst, a mole. But they never questioned Hansen. He probably enjoyed knowing while he sat in meetings
with his colleagues at the FBI that he was actually working for the other side at the same time they were all together
looking for agents of the other side. Before he was caught, Hansen sold American secrets for cash and diamonds.
I don't think it was the money at all for Hansen. I think it was the thrill of being a triple agent, if you will. Bob
Hansen became Darth Vader without the mask. He was the most powerful counter inelligence official in the US
government. Next, Robert Hansen, the unlikely spy. [Music] [Music] Sunday, February 18th, 2001, in Great
Falls, Virginia, just outside of Washington, Robert Hansen attends Catholic Mass at St. Catherine of
Sienna. His wife Bonnie and his six children are with him. Also attending mass is his boss, FBI Director Louie
Free, also with his wife and family. Outside, a team of Free Special agents were on a mission. David Vise, the
author of the book The Bureau and the Mole, tells the story of that moment based on FBI accounts. Hansen and his
family sit on the left side of the church. Free and his family sit on the right side of the church. Father
Franklin Martin McAfee is speaking and Hansen feels as though the father is speaking directly to him. Are you a
sinner? Father McAfee asked. God still loves you. Have you ever lied to someone? Of course you have. God still
loves you. Have you betrayed someone? God still loves you. Hansen internalizes these words. He feels as though Father
McAfei's message is coming directly to him and for him. David Major was Hansen's boss at the
FBI. He was also one of his friends. But on this day, Major had no idea Hansen had become a target. Most likely the FBI
had actually surveiled him up to the church because by this time the FBI would be very closely monitoring him,
probably technologically surveilling him um as well by putting a beacon in his car and those sort of things. He returns
home with his family. There is Jack Hoser, his best friend. He hands Jack a copy of his favorite
book. It was tattered. It was worn. Bob Hansen passes to Jack Horshower this book called A Man Called Thursday, which
is a story about treason and espionage, which is a very telling story. And he looks at Jack and he says,
"Things are not always the way they seem. Things are not always the way they seem."
Hansen drives his friend to National Airport, says goodbye, and heads back into town, not realizing that he is
being tailed by an FBI van. Hansen drives to a park in Northern Virginia, only minutes from his home. He had
parked his car up around the corner. He had walked into the woods. Taking his last steps as a free man, he pulls a
black, hefty garbage bag out of the trunk of his car. He walks to a foot bridge in the park. places that black
bag underneath the bridge. He turns and he begins to walk out of the park. He then walks out of the site and is
walking up to his car when he was approached by the FBI agency. A group of FBI agents descend upon him. They throw
handcuffs on him. "Freeze!" they shout. "Freeze!" Robert Hansen asked a question that
haunts the FBI to this day. He asked them, "What took you so long?" The FBI did not make public their arrest
of Hansen for nearly 48 hours. There would be no perp walk for the press. Hansen had spied for the Russians under
their noses. One of their own had betrayed them. Still, officially, the government put a positive spin on the
story. Sunday, the FBI successfully concluded an investigation to end a very serious
breach in the security of the United States. The arrest of Robert Hansen for espionage is especially difficult
because the person who was investigated, arrested, and charged is one of our own.
The next day and for years to come, people wondered who was this spy, Robert Hansen.
Investigators trying to understand why this man turned on his country went to a Chicago suburban neighborhood called
Norwood Park, where Hansen was born and raised. This is not the place you'd think the greatest spy in American
history would ever start. We went out there and looked at the house and it's very very you know middle class lower
middle class house in Norwood. You know it's a union bluecollar police firemen kind of community wave the flag kind of
place. That was the roots that Bob grew up with. Hansen's dad was on the police department and he was a high ranking
police officer. It would seem to me that when you when you're raised in a cop family you you it rubs off. you've got
some immunity from all kinds of people looking at you because even as a kid, the kids would say, "Hey, my my dad's a
cop." All of a sudden, you leave him alone. The roots of one of the most important people in the Bob Hansen case
start in this high school. If you were to look at his yearbook, there's one picture of Bob Hansen, and there's very
few things said about Bob. He was kind of a gray guy. He was not a a dater of lots of different women. He was seen as
sort of a shadow guy, not in any particular click. But his best friend, Jack Horshower, who's taller, better
looking, more of a ladies man, became his best friend. Eventually, Hansen will expose the dark
side of his life to horser. It starts with his father, Howard Hansen, who was openly critical. He thought his son was
a wimp, and he was going to make his son a man, and he was, as a result of doing
that, turns out that he was very, very hard on Bob. uh very critical of him, thought he was a loser. Howard Hansen
had decided his son was going to be a dentist. While attending dental school, Hansen meets his future wife, Bonnie.
She is a naturally beautiful woman. Hansen's father didn't understand what she saw in his son. He actually said to
Bob Henson's uh wife um when before they got married when they announced their engagement, "Why do you want to marry my
uh son? He's a loser." Now, can you imagine what that would make you feel? That's what your father said about you.
Hansen defies his father and joins the Chicago Police Department. He never walks a beat, however. He is assigned to
a special squad where he meets another Chicago cop, Ernie Rizzo. I saw Hansen when I was a cop and he was assigned to
C5. Um C5 was an elite Chicago unit that was to uh root out corrupt cops, politicians. It was the elite of the
elite. Hansen went straight out of the academy in the C5. I would imagine with some pull from his father. Hansen was a
mystery guy. If I had to to give an impression of Hansen, it would be a guy who you never want to put anything past.
Uh, quiet guys scare me. Hansen was a scary guy. Bob and Bonnie Hansen were devout
Catholics. They would join Opus Day, a fundamentalist Catholic group. Many police officers joined Opus Day, even
Louis Free, Hansen's soon-to-be FBI leader. he became a true believer whether it was opus day which is really
kind of an extreme form of Catholicism extreme adherence to it. It requires a certain kind of personality uh to want
to u basically torture your own body sacrifice your own body in achieving some kind of religious objective. He was
a virilent anti-communist. He would say that the Soviet Union will fail because it's run by godless communists and mean
it. This was a man who I would never gone to have a drink with. I would never have asked him to go to a strip club
with. I mean, he wasn't a guy guy. What was interesting is he had this dark side
of him where he almost was addicted to betrayal. I think Hansen was all for Hansen. You know, most cops are a bunch
of guys getting together. That's, you know, a brother thing. That wasn't Hansen. Hansen was his own one-man
situation. He uh he didn't pal up or party up to anybody. Hansen rejected the Chicago PD. He
turned in his Windy City badge for an FBI jacket. After a short stay in Gary, Indiana, he is transferred to New York
City. At the time, the FBI headquarters was located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a short distance from the UN
and close to the Soviet mission to the UN. Coming up, Hansen walks into a nest of
spies looking to sell secrets. [Music] New York City, East 67th Street, 1981. The Russian mission to the United
Nations, across the street from an NYPD precinct and two blocks from FBI offices
where Robert Hansen was assigned to monitor the comingings and goings at the Russian mission known as the Nest of
Spies. The rents and the living expenses in New York were uh stupendously higher than
Gary, Indiana. Hansen is given access to sensitive information for the first time
and he's feeling some financial pressure. He had a young growing family and a wife and he needed money. They
bought a house in Scarsdale, which is an upscale suburb of New York, and the house was over his head
financially, and the uh credit card bills were mounting up and and he was he was in trouble. So, one day he did
something unlike his his later uh activities where he was very cautious. As far as I know, he walked right into
the office of the Soviet Trade Company on 753rd Avenue known as AMTOR and volunteered his services. One Russian
who knows his way around the mission at 67th Street is Ole Kugan, a former KGB agent. Kugan's colleagues in Moscow
informed him that someone with access to American secrets was offering them for sale. Kugan in an exclusive interview
recalls that moment in 1981. Hansen had access to the national security issues. He had access to some of the most
sensitive secrets of the United States government. The information he provided was so valuable from the very beginning
that we had no just other opinions. He was a genuine one. At that time, we all already had someone in the United States
CIA, Rick Ames. We immediately realized that that man's access to truly secret information was
perhaps even far better than that of Rick Hayes. Hansen had just walked into the Russian office. He caught their
security people by surprise. No one got a picture of him. And when he demanded payment, he had it delivered in cash to
a post office box with his identity hidden. Author David Weise, who penned the story
of Hansen's life in the book Spy, says Hansen's information led to the death of a high-ranking Soviet double agent. He
gave them the identity of uh a Soviet uh officer who military officer who was cenamed top hat by the FBI and was an
important very important source for American intelligence for something like 20 years.
Well, for that and some other material that he turned over a list of uh of KGB or GRU personnel in New York that were
known to the FBI, he received a total of $30,000. Hansen may have been shrewd in his
dealings with the Russians, but he was careless with the payoff. Bonnie Hansen one night walks in on her husband in New
York and he hurriedly covers up some papers. She thinks he's writing a love letter to another woman. She says, "What
are you doing?" He says, "I'm tricking the Russians." She said, "What do you mean?" He said, 'Well,
I've sold information to the Russian military intelligence, but it's completely worthless
information, and I've done it to trick the Russians and fool them. They've paid me thousands
of dollars. Bonnie becomes distraught because she's fears that he may not be telling the truth.
She worries that his career could be over, that their family life could blow apart. And so her reaction, her
immediate reaction was, "We've got to go see a priest." Hansen confesses to his pastor in a car by the Russian mission.
The priest tells him to give the money to charity and never spy again. Hansen was surprised by the priest's advice.
There is no evidence he ever gave the money to charity, but he did stop spying for a while. Unlike most spies, he had
the self-control to stop. That occurred in 1981, and he didn't spy again until 1985. In the
spring of 1985, Hansen is transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington. He moves his
family to an upscale Virginia neighborhood to impress his wife. When he finds he cannot afford the home on
his salary, Hansen decides to resume his spying for money. only this time he works out a scheme based on spycraft.
He dropped a letter in a mailbox from Prince George's County outside of Washington. The letter was addressed to
a Russian Victor Chakashin. Now Victor Chashen was a very important KGB agent in Washington. It was his job
to recruit Americans. And so Hansen knew that if he offered him his services to Tracen, it was the top guy. This would
that would get their attention and it did. That was the beginning. It was serendipity for the KGB. He fell into
their lap. He uh took the initiative as you know. But from the point of view of getting a spy in the US intelligence
community, they could not have done better than to get Hansen because Hansen was the keeper of the counter espionage
secrets. He was in the inner sanctum. He was on top of all of the FBI's counter inelligence operations, particularly
against the Soviets. So from the Soviet point of view, he was someone who could protect them and protect their
operations in Washington and in the United States because he knew what the counter espionage techniques were. David
Major sat next to Hansen at FBI headquarters. He says Hansen never volunteered to work field cases, never
indicated in any way that he liked adventure or courted danger. Major says Hansen sat at his desk
content as an agent analyst. Nothing suggested he was leading a double life. Bob Hansen never really was a
fullfledged FBI counter inelligence street agent. He never met a Russian in his entire life. He never was
undercover. He never ran a double agent case. He never ran an espionage case. But what he did do is he sat in judgment
on other people in the FBI that conducted counter intelligence. And he did that on the fourth floor FBI
headquarters. In fact, that's when the intelligence division is located. What made Hansen so valuable to the Russians
was that he sat where the counter intelligence files were kept. My office when I was his boss was right
down in the corner here or right over here. And Bob Hansen was just down the hall back in this area when he was the
deputy chief of the Soviet analytical section. And that gave him access to almost everything. In fact, of all the
people in the world that would know what the FBI knew about the KGB, Bob Hansen was probably one of 15 people during the
period of 19 um 87 to 1990 that literally knew everything. And that's when he was sitting in uh this actually
cubicle at FBI headquarters. Coming up, how Robert Hansen stole secrets from under the noses of his
colleagues at FBI headquarters. So he was perfectly placed to know everything we knew about the KGB and what the FBI
was doing against the KGB. That made him almost the perfect spy. [Music] Winter 1985 at FBI headquarters in
Washington. Robert Hansen resumes his traitorous activities. It begins with a letter written to the Russian chief of
counter intelligence in Washington. He hides that letter inside a large envelope he sends to another Russian, a
clerk. He knows the FBI is not likely to intercept a letter written to a clerk. It is a simple trick, the kind of trick
Hansen will perfect over the next two decades. That envelope had information in it of considerable value.
For example, Robert Hansen chose a man in Moscow station he knew could go to the very top of the KGB so that no one
else in Washington and for that matter no one up the ladder would know that he had provided the information. Author
Robert Vise has seen the federal documents that detail Hansen's spycraft. In those documents, the Soviet spy chief
contacted by Hansen is identified as Victor Chashen. Chashian was the number two ranking Russian official in
Washington. He was the go-to guy if you wanted to be a spy. He sent that big envelope to a lower ranking official.
That individual opened the envelope, found another envelope inside. On the envelope, Hansen had written, "Do not
open. Deliver immediately to Victor Chashin." And that's exactly what happened. That envelope went immediately
to Trashion. That information went immediately to the top of the KGB and Chashian knew
immediately that Hansen was the real deal. So clearly he enjoyed the hunt and he enjoyed the hunt within the hunt
because at the same time he was supposed to be hunting out Soviet spies. He was actually a Soviet spy. So he had a war
within a war going. And that was a battle of wits that he probably enjoyed immensely. and he probably enjoyed
knowing while he sat in meetings with his colleagues at the FBI that he was actually working for the other side at
the same time they were all together looking for agents of the other side. So right from the start Hansen spycraft was
brilliant. He didn't screw around. He provided them with information that was verifiable. He requested cash and he
made it clear in that very first letter that he would never meet them face to face. that he had to be anonymous. He
used an alias typically in his correspondence. He never used his name Robert Hansen. Most
of the time he referred to himself by the name Raone Garcia. [Music] Hansen established so-called dead drops,
secret locations in Washington Parks where he would drop off the secrets and the Russians would pick them up and drop
off the cash. He would pack the secrets in black garbage bags and leave white tape on trees to let the Russians know
when the goods had been delivered. The Russians would clear the site, pick up the documents,
signal to Hansen that the money was there waiting for him, and he would return, pick up the cash undetected. He could
say to his wife and kids, "I'm going to the grocery store down the street. I know we need milk. What else
do we need? Nobody suspected anything. He made it clear to the Russians that he wouldn't
journey far. No one ever thinks to look in somebody's backyard because no one spies five
minutes from their home. He lived right here on White Cedar Road. He selected a dead drop which he could see from his
back porch. Now people say that doesn't make a lot of sense. Actually, it's brilliant because Bob Hansen knows that
the only way the FBI would know that this bridge could be used by the KGB, the FBI would stake it out. And to stake
it out, where would they use? They would look at everybody who lives in the neighborhood and they would say, "Oh,
look, this particular house right across the street can actually see the dead drop." And that was Bob Hansen's house.
And he knows the FBI would come to him. He set up his own trip wire. He knew that the FBI got onto the case, they
would come and tell him about it and he would be able to preempt it or go quiet or not fill the dead drop. Now, can you
imagine what we in the United States would do if we left cash under a bridge for someone? We would hide behind a
tree. We would want to take his picture. We would have someone tailing him. We could never ever avoid our sense of
curiosity and place it aside. But the Russians, they are different. The Russians care more about the value of
the information than they did about the identity of this Ramon Garcia. And so they resisted the normal temptation to
try to figure out who he was because they knew Anson had made very clear he was going to be in charge. he was going
to be in control and if he ever saw them not playing by his rules, the flow of information would stop and the game
would be over. Hansen worked in in a way that was traditional to Soviet espionage
methods uh and to CIA methodologies in the Soviet Union. For more than 17 years, Hansen hid his spying from his
supervisors. During that period, both the CIA and FBI knew that several American traders were selling secrets.
Hansen was never suspected. From Budapest to Moscow and around the world capitals, teams of counter
intelligence agents looked for spies. Word was circulating in the intelligence community that a dangerous leak was
threatening America. Well, they formed a Molehunt team. Obviously, they they knew they had lost
the two agents that, as it turned out, Hansen had betrayed who were working. They were KGB agents in Washington,
working for the FBI. They called back to Moscow and they were executed. Hansen kept filling the black bags with
secrets. He'd received nearly $600,000 in cash. He then turned over what was referred to
as the family jewels, our most important secrets. Robert Hansen provided information which covered issues related
to the United States internal security. I mean related to the survival of the United States. Investigators who've
studied Hansen don't believe he gave away America's most important secrets for money alone. Hansen's life as a
suburban family man and good Catholic pald in comparison to the life he fantasized.
He was spying during the mid80s and 90s when a fictional London secret agent by the name of Bond. James Bond was
thrilling audiences around the world. If you carry a double O number, it means you're licensed to kill, not get killed.
He was always the guy off to the side, but there was also this excitement, you know, here he is doing something really
exciting, spying for the Russians. So, there was this other element as well, aside from the money and his father and
sense of being an outsider of of James Bond. And he carried a machine gun in his car trunk, for example. And one of
his friends knew him, called him as a joke, machine gun Bob. Of course, if machine gun Bob Hansen was really going
to play James Bond, then he needed to add some key elements to his suburban life.
He needed to travel to exotic locations. And most of all, he needed to be in the
company of beautiful women. Well, I'll tell you something, Colony. You're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever
seen. Next, Hansen and the Stripper. A real life spies dangerous game with a fem
fatal [Music] in Washington. The strip clubs near FBI headquarters are somewhat discreet.
Hansen would often spend afternoons and nights in these spots while he told his wife he was on special assignment.
Robert Hansen. He sees a woman dancing on the stage and he is captivated by her. He thinks she is a beautiful dancer
and he wants to get to know her. And so he writes her a note, tells her that she
is the most beautiful dancer he's ever seen. She's graceful. And he sends it to the back so that
someone can give her the note and a few dollars. And as he's walking out of Joanna's 1819 club, this woman,
Priscilla Gaye, once named Ohio stripper of the year, catches up to Bob Hansen. She says to
him, "Thank you for that beautiful note that you wrote me. It's the nicest thing
anyone has ever said to me." And he says, "I'll be back to see you here. You have
a grace and a beauty I've never encountered before. [Music] He rolled through official Washington
like a big-time player, not an obscure bureaucrat in the FBI. He moved around Washington in an Italian raincoat,
flashing dark glasses, often in rented limousines with his stripper friend waiting inside the fancy car.
Hansen loved having someone to spend time with like Priscilla Gaye. They took trips, one to Manhattan and
eventually a wild fling in Hong Kong where he showed her the sights and bought her lavish presents.
He enjoyed going to Hong Kong with this beautiful girl on his arm cuz she was very pretty and um she had a great body
dancing in a strip club and they would go to nightclubs in Hong Kong after his work was over for the FBI and he would
always ask uh at the piano bar that the that the pianist pay play uh as time goes by. So, here's looking at you, kid.
You know, I mean, this was maybe a little combination of uh of Shan Connory and Humphrey Bogart and a little Walter
Mitti thrown in. There was a fantasy life here as well as uh a real life. Hansen started taking nude photos of his
wife Bonnie. He shared them with his friend Jack Horshower, who was on duty in the military.
Bonnie asked him, "Why? Why are you doing this? What is this about?" "Oh, you're so beautiful." He told her, "I
love you so much. This is just something for us." Jack Hoser gets an envelope in
the mail from Bob Hansen, his childhood buddy. He opens it up. He's shocked. He finds naked photographs of Bonnie
inside. Jack says to Bob, "Bob, there must be some mistake. I I have photographs of your wife here in the
nude. What's going on? Must be a mistake." Hansen says, "No, no, Jack. You're a real man. You're serving our
country. You're making the ultimate sacrifice by being in Vietnam. I want you to share in the joy and the pleasure
of seeing just how beautiful Bonnie is. Not only did he photograph Bonnie nude, but he put a small video camera inside
their bedroom. Bob Hansen said to Jack, "I have a special treat for you. I want you to watch tonight." Hansen beamed
live sex scenes from his bedroom. He and his wife via closed circuit video within
the house, sitting in the den of their home, Jackho Shower, watched the nightly sex scene. It didn't stop there. Hansen
and his pal Jack visited various pornographic websites together, including one that went by the name
myhotwife.com. But Hansen did something even Jack didn't know about. Robert Hansen
posted on the internet erotic stories about himself and his wife Bonnie. Some of them true, some of them imagined,
some of them fantasy, some of them embellished. Hansen's sexual fantasies went undetected at the bureau. A massive spy
hunt was underway, but his colleagues were not looking at him. He would sit in a meeting with us and we would talk
about catching spies. And in his mind, he has to know he's the most powerful man in the room. Even though he's
sitting as a wall sitter, he would never sit at the desk. He would never be a leader. But in essence, he was the
ultimate leader. Clearly, he deceived everyone around him. He deceived his wife and his family. Worst of all, not
to speak of his colleagues, but you know, he may have deceived himself. and he's he may have been his own ultimate
victim because again when you're a true believer what you're doing you believe in absolutely no matter what it is and
you find reasons to justify it and you have to do that to retain your sanity but Hansen would ultimately make a
mistake a little mistake which would lead the FBI mole hunters to him coming up how the feds finally stopped
Hansen and [Music] spring 2000. At the Russian mission to the United Nations, their security
cameras were keenly watching the FBI agents in the neighborhood. from Eastern European listening posts. Rumors were
spreading that a former Russian KGB agent was in New York City looking to sell a file about the mole code name
Ramon Garcia or in reality the Hansen file that he said he could help the FBI more than they realized because he not
only had some information of value, he had the actual file on the mole. When they heard that, I mean, their eyes just
popped out of their head. They had to have that file no matter what it cost. So, the negotiations began and the
Russian was in no hurry to reach any kind of a deal. He asked for a lot of money and the FBI named a lower figure.
Eventually, they settled on $7 million. But there was one catch. The man did not
have the file with him. It was still in Moscow, not at KGB headquarters, but nonetheless in Moscow.
He couldn't go back into the secret KGB headquarters near Moscow and get a file out. He was retired past armed guards. I
mean, he's not Tom Cruz, right? He's not going to be able to do a Mission Impossible. So, they asked him, you
know, how could you possibly have access to this file? And he said, I took it with me. I took it with me and I hid it.
and I'm the only one who knows where it is. News of the potential breakthrough was passed on to the CIA. Hansen, still
operating at FBI headquarters, was unaware he was in danger of being discovered. The defective provided uh
the entire file, which included some of the garbage bags that Hansen had wrapped
some of his secret information in and put in the dead drop. It included all the correspondence between Hansen and
the Russians over many years. It included some uh CDs that Hansen, being very technical,
um sort of a computer geek, had turned over to the Russians. It included uh the names that he had copied down before he
took the file of all the documents that Hansen had turned over because the Russian figured he didn't need to pull
out all the actual documents. The Americans would have the documents. These were copies and all he needed was
to identify them. The file also included an audio tape, a recording of a phone conversation between the mole and the
KGB. Inside an FBI office in Washington, a small group of senior officials gathered to listen. It was hauntingly
familiar. Well, of course it was. And at first, they didn't know who it was. So they went back to the file and they
started looking at it and they found a couple of phrases in the correspondence that Hansen had sent to the KGB and
there was a phrase in there quoting General Patton which they realized they had heard that phrase before and the
phrase was supposedly from Patton's famous speech to the troops just before D-Day in in World War II in which he
referred to let's get this thing over with the Germans so we can go after the purple pissing Japanese.
Well, that's not that's an unusual phrase. So, they listened to the tape again and they all said, "Of course,
it's Bob Hansen." The FBI men were stunned. The mole was one of their own, one they never
suspected. Hansen had made the mistake of leaving a fingerprint and a voice print for the
FBI to discover. Armed with this evidence, they set a trap for Hansen. Hansen at that time was stationed in the
State Department for the FBI. They wanted him back at headquarters so they could put a video camera on him in his
office in the ceiling, unknown to him, and keep an eye on him. And they watched him and for a couple of months and at
one point they saw him actually going by a dead drop and checking out the signs to signals to see, you know. So they
they realized that not only did they have the right person, which they knew by then, but that he was still active,
which they didn't know at that point. Then a forensics team came up with Hansen's fingerprints lifted from a
black bag, the trash bag he'd used for the secrets he had turned over to the Russians. No one knows why he didn't
wear gloves, nor why the Russians kept the bag. But now the FBI had its case and moved against their target. I just
doubled over. I remember distinctly hearing Robert Philip Hansen can't be my Bob because I didn't know his name was
Philip and it was denial. I mean it was just like hearing your son had died. To think that Bob Hansen had been arrested
for espionage. Coming up after the arrest, sober thoughts about a man who deceived his wife, his family, and his
nation. [Music] The news of Robert Hansen's arrest stunned official Washington. People
tried to make sense of the betrayal. Bob Hansen was powerless, or at least he thought he was in the FBI. But by
becoming a spy, he was the most powerful counter inelligence official in the US government because he could totally
control his relationship with the KGB. He could make things happen in the FBI. He clearly was someone who was obsessed.
He was obsessed with religion. Uh he he was obsessed with a particular style of living which he assumed was only the was
the only one that was worth living. Robert Hansen was able to somehow be a spy and be an FBI agent at the same time
for 20 years. He was able to be a loyal husband and betray his wife for 20 years. So when he was in church praying,
he was a devout Catholic and he meant every word of it. When he told his wife that he loved her, he meant every word
of it. When he was with the stripper Priscilla Gaye, he enjoyed every minute of it.
And when he was committing espionage, he wanted to be James Bond. And he was better than Bond.
When confronted, Hansen admitted his guilt and offered no explanation publicly for his actions. He agreed to
cooperate in return for his wife's protection. I think she turns out to be a doormat for him. I mean, this is a
woman who did not appreciate nor understand his uh access. They didn't understand his real profession, the kind
of counter intelligence officer he was. I mean, this is a woman who found him spying in 79. And they chose to go to
talk to the priest and he says, "I won't do it anymore." It was always behind the
scenes the great family secret that he had done this. Turns out he did it again starting in 1985. I think Hansen got
away uh with it because of the FBI culture of not wanting to believe, you know what, where there's smoke, there's
fire. Let's look at this guy. You have to look at what he gave away. It was very serious. Uh he gave away
information about our our assessment of Soviet nuclear strength and their assessment of how powerful our weapons
were. I mean this during the Cold War, we all lived in a in a time of of fear that there could be a nuclear
Armageddon. And he was giving away information about that of great value. and he was betraying human beings whose
lives were lost because of him. People were shot because of him. So, you can't feel very sorry for this guy. Hansen's
guilty plea avoided a public trial and release of sensitive documents. He was sentenced to life without parole. At
headquarters, the FBI chief hailed his men for finding Hansen, but nobody in counter intelligence was celebrating. It
had taken too long to catch him. too much damage had been done and there was a continuing fear that Hansen most
certainly would not be the last traitor. It would be rather naive to believe that
this is the end of this story. Espionage will never cease. Even though Russia and the United States
today are on fairly good terms, Russia has its national interests. South Korea has its national interest. Israel has.
Every nation has and the intelligence services they operate uh to provide their governments, their
societies with information which is vital to their national security and their national interests. Robert Hansen
is not the last one. Absolutely not. David Major, Hansen's old boss and one of those who thought they knew him best
had a final thought about the man he misjudged. It's an image he believes most people in
official Washington think of when Hansen's name is mentioned. Bob Hansen has been taken out of the world. Bob
Hansen lives in his cell 23 hours a day with no social contact whatsoever. He has four black and white television
shows to watch. He goes to the bathroom, he sleeps, and he eats in that same room. And he's taken out one hour a day
and put in a room by himself to exercise. He's literally been taken out of the world and he will be there until
he dies. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] heat. Hey. Heat. [Music] Heat.
[Music]

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Brief Summary

Robert Hansen, an FBI agent, became a spy for the Soviets, leading to a major security breach before his arrest in 2001.

Key points

The Unlikely Spy. Robert Hansen, an FBI agent, became one of the most notorious spies in U.S. history.
A Sinner's Confession. During Mass, Hansen feels the priest's words speak directly to him, igniting his internal conflict.
The Arrest. Hansen is arrested by the FBI, questioning why it took so long for them to catch him.
The Dark Side of Hansen. Hansen's troubled relationship with his father and his struggles with identity are revealed.
The Perfect Spy. Hansen's unique position within the FBI made him a valuable asset to the Russians.
The Betrayal of Bob Hansen. Bob Hansen, an FBI agent, was revealed as a mole for the KGB.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

God still loves you.

Father McAfee's message that resonated with Hansen during Mass.

2:31WatchJul 29, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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