will send a box of documents to your colleague. They are from cer-
tain of the most sensitive and compartmented projects of the U.S. In-
telligence Community.” In the letter’s concluding sentence, Hanssen
demanded $100,000 for the names of three Soviet intelligence offi-
cers run by the FBI. Two of the three were later arrested and exe-
cuted. In this and later messages, Hanssen adroitly hid any informa-
tion that could be used to identify him. He signed letters “Ramon.”
Hanssen sent the KGB a total of 27 letters and left 22 caches in
dead drops in the Washington area. His tradecraftwas very profes-
sional: dead drops were established where he could leave documents
and pick up his Soviet handlers’ money and instructions. The most
important of these dead drops was located under a bridge in a park
near his home in Vienna, Virginia. The Soviets did not know of his
identity until his arrest.
Hanssen provided much of the same material that Ames did, but he
also provided detailed information on FBI operations against the
KGB rezidenturasin Washington and New York. According to an of-
ficial U.S. government history of the case, Hanssen advised the KGB
as to specific methods of operating that were secure from FBI sur-
veillance. Hanssen also provided the KGB with information about
classified military projects. If Ames was the “bloodiest” spy of the
Cold War, with 10 lives on his conscience, Hanssen may have been
the costliest. He provided the KGB with computer discs with thou-
sands of pages of information on U.S. military and technical intelli-
gence programs. He was betrayed to American counterintelligence by
a Soviet defectorknown only by the code name “Avenger,” who pro-
vided critical intelligence that allowed the FBI to identify him.
In 1979 Hanssen had approached the GRU and received money
in exchange for working for it. When his wife discovered his
treachery, she persuaded him to stop. Hanssen’s later decision to ap-
proach the KGB was motivatedby his contempt for the service he
served, and the need for adventure. A devout Roman Catholic, mar-
ried, with six children, Hanssen lived a double life, apparently see-
ing spying as the ultimate adventure as well as a way to become
rich. Some of the money went to support a platonic affair with a
prostitute; other funds went for camera equipment to photograph
him and his wife having sex (his wife was not aware of the filming).
Hanssen was arrested and in 2001 sentenced to life imprisonment asHANSSEN, ROBERT (1944– )• 11306-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 113