Most destructive Russian spy in US intelligence history dies in prison

Ranked as the most destructive spy in US history, double agent Robert Hanssen, who spied for Moscow for more than two decades, had died in a Colorado prison. The FBI, the US federal agency, used 300 people to track down its agent, who sold the state secrets that cost many lives.

After a long-drawn counterintelligence operation, the FBI arrested the most wanted spy of the time in February 2001. He confessed to his crime on 15 counts and was awarded life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

The curious case of Robert Hanssen began in 1976 when he started working for the FBI after graduating from college, where he studied Russian. After spending a decade as a trusted intelligence asset, he began to double cross, turned into a mole within the US government, and sold secrets to the USSR and Russia after its collapse.


The US intelligence officials suspected a spy amidst them in 1990. They got a recording of a phone call made by Hanssen to his handlers and the fingerprints on the bag that he left for them.

A dragnet was set up to arrest him, he was transferred to the FBI office where a false job was created to monitor him as he was put under surveillance. An undercover operative named Eric O’Neil was deployed as an administrative assistant to Robert Hanssen.

Eric O’Neil won his trust, became his close aide apparently, and kept an eye on him round the clock. The undercover operative once lured Hanssen to a shooting range and copied all the content of his Palm Pilot, a precursor to Blackberries and smartphones.

Hanssen was arrested the next time he tried to drop secrets for his handlers. The arrest of Robert Hanssen affected US-Russia relations at least for the time being as then-President George W Bush expelled many staff members of the Russian embassy and Moscow retaliated by taking a similar step.

After Hanssen died in prison, Eric O Neil regretted his failure to interview him and ask him why he betrayed his country.

FAQs:

1. Who was Robert Hanssen?
   Robert Hanssen was an FBI agent, who became a mole within the establishment and sold secrets to the USSR.
2. What is the FBI?
   The FBI is a domestic intelligence and security service of the US.