FBI weighs damage of alleged spy activity

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is trying to calculate the national security damage allegedly wrought by one of its own agents, Robert Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. FBI Director Louis Freeh says the intelligence losses appear to be "exceptionally grave."

An FBI affidavit describing Hanssen's alleged spying said he passed along to Soviet and later Russian agents 6,000 pages of documents -- a virtual catalogue of top secret and secret programs.

The case marked the third time that an FBI agent has been accused of espionage, and it brought a quick reaction from President Bush and members of Congress on Tuesday.

"Allegations of espionage are a reminder that we live in a dangerous world, a world that sometimes does not share American values," Bush said in a statement he read to reporters on Air Force One. Declaring that espionage remains a threat to the nation even with the Cold War gone, the president added: "To anyone who would betray its trust, I warn you, we'll find you and we'll bring you to justice."

"This could be a very, very, very serious case of espionage," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Here's an agent who is a veteran of the FBI, who's been doing counterintelligence for a long time. He knows a lot. He could have given them a lot."

Freeh told a news conference: "The full extent of the damage done is yet unknown, because no accurate damage assessment could be done during the course of the covert investigation without jeopardizing it. We believe, however, that it was exceptionally grave. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law."

Freeh said security measures need to be tightened, and he ordered an internal review to be headed by William Webster, a former FBI and CIA director.

"We don't say, at this stage ... that we have a system that can prevent this type of conduct," Freeh said.

Las Vegas FBI officials referred all questions about Hanssen to the FBI's Washington office.

FBI officials in Washington referred questions about Hanssen's job assignments to an affidavit on the bureau's website. The affidavit does not list Las Vegas among Hanssen's assignments.

The FBI's Las Vegas office does have a counterintelligence unit, whose functions include working closely with other intelligence-gathering government agencies such as the CIA and the Defense Department, investigating threats to U.S. national security and the proliferation of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, said Special Agent Daron W. Borst, a spokesman for the FBI Las Vegas office.

Borst would not release the number of agents who work in the FBI's Las Vegas office or the local counterintelligence unit citing operational concerns.

Hanssen, a 25-year FBI agent, was arrested Sunday night at a park in suburban Virginia after dropping a package of documents for his Russian contacts, authorities said. FBI agents confiscated $50,000 hidden for him at a nearby drop site.

An FBI affidavit alleged that Hanssen betrayed his country for about $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

A court hearing was set for March 5 for the father of six, who was charged with espionage and conspiracy to commit espionage. Hanssen, who could face the death penalty, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday to have the charges read and was ordered held without bond.

He was not asked how he pleaded to the charges but outside the courthouse his lawyer, Plato Cacheris, told reporters: "At this point, not guilty."

In one letter cited in the FBI's affidavit, the writer, allegedly Hanssen, said he was encouraged by the memoirs of the notorious British-Soviet double agent Kim Philby.

"I decided on this course when I was 14 years old," the letter stated. "I had read Philby's book."

The FBI affidavit said Hanssen and CIA spy Aldrich Ames identified to the Russians three of their double agents, leading to the execution of two of them.

The document also said Hanssen "compromised dozens of United States government classified documents," including those involving the National Measurement and Signature Intelligence Program, which involves activities and technologies including acoustic intelligence, radar intelligence, nuclear radiation detection, infrared intelligence, radio frequencies and effluent-and-debris sampling. This program is not only classified "top secret" but subject to further restricted handling under a category designated "Sensitive Compartmented Information."

Sun reporter Keith Paul contributed to this report.