Speaking yesterday to a capacity crowd, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist David Vise detailed the deleterious career of Russian spy Robert Phillip Hanssen, framing it within the context of challenges facing the intelligence community in the war on terror.
Vise covered Hanssen's exposure in early 2001 while working the FBI and Justice Department beat for The Washington Post. He turned the story into a book, "The Bureau and the Mole," and has sold the motion picture rights -- Vise is now working on a screenplay adaptation.
During 20 years of espionage, Hanssen worked as a consummate professional. He convinced the KGB to play by his own rules: he refused repeated requests to visit Russia, handpicked his Russian handler (who he shared with CIA mole Aldrich Ames) and gave his name to no one in Russian intelligence.
Among the national secrets Hanssen left taped underneath a northern Virginia park bench were the names of multiple KGB operatives spying for the CIA, the existence of a clandestine tunnel beneath the Russian embassy and the "continuity of government" plan. The last item outlined the proposed locations of the president and other major government officials in the event of nuclear war.
Delving into the psychology of a spy, Vise explained that Hanssen could live with "unbelievable conflict in life" by compartmentalizing the various aspects of his personality. He was devoted in his time as both the church-going, flag-waving, husband, father and G-man and as the national traitor who put a spy camera in his own bedroom and posted erotic stories about his wife on the internet.
Vise noted that Hanssen's treachery had little to do with cash and even less with political ideology. The future spy was abused and dismissed by his father, who once bribed testers at the Department of Motor Vehicles to fail his son. Hanssen's sense of alienation grew as he developed ire at the FBI for his stagnating career.
For a man Vise described as a "fractured ego seeking recognition," KGB letters that began with "dear friend" brought a sense of vitality and acceptance.
Colleagues privately referred to Hanssen as "Dr. Death" and "the mortician" because of his lack of interpersonal skills and tendency to dress in black like J. Edgar Hoover (whom he idolized). But none suspected anything more sinister.
That changed in 1991 when Hanssen's brother-in-law, also an FBI agent, expressed apprehension to his superiors about thousands of unexplained dollars in the Hanssen home and suggested an investigation. Yet the Bureau did not take action.
When authorities did apprehend Hanssen, the mole of 20 years replied, "What took you so long?"
Indeed, in a 25-year career with the FBI, agents never asked Hanssen to take a polygraph test. While the CIA made this procedure standard for employees following Ames' exposure as a Russian mole in the mid-1990s, the FBI resisted such policies because they conflict with the Bureau's "culture of trust."
Vise noted that while many flaws persist in the administration of polygraph testing, the threat of their use does function as an effective deterrent to espionage.
Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered an investigation of the FBI's delayed exposure of the mole after "The Bureau and the Mole" hit bookstores, but as of yet, no one within the FBI faces disciplinary action.
Vise pointed to parallels between the causes of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, calling both incidents "colossal intelligence failures on the part of the United States of America."
The journalist pointed out, however, that Congress responded to Pearl Harbor by rapidly initiating a series of hearings to uncover the nation's security failings, yet a hesitancy to raise such questions publicly has characterized the Bush administration.
Vise encouraged the audience to send in casting suggestions for his movie, which will be produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer of "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon" fame, at www.the bureauandthemole.com.
Vise's speech was the third of six lectures in the Montgomery Fellowship's "Intelligence: The Need to Know" series.
