Robert Hanssen | 60 Minutes Archive

60 Minutes rewind who knew him at the FBI thought Robert Hansen was a quiet unassuming computer nerd but it turns out this FBI agent gave away more secrets than any spy in the history of the Bureau for six hundred thousand dollars in cash and diamonds from the Russians Hanson compromised among other things the existence of a top secret surveillance tunnel under the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C secret U.S war plans and the identity of Russians working as spies for the U.S for over 22 years he went undetected as he worked his way up to chief of the Soviet analytical unit which has been described as a supermarket of classified information on U.S operations against the Russians what's more he not only betrayed his country he also betrayed his church and his wife in an almost unimaginable way betrayal was at the very core of his soul Pulitzer prize-winning author Norman mailer and filmmaker Lauren Schiller have spent the last 10 months investigating the Hanson case for an upcoming CBS Television movie and a book called into the mirror here he is with one of his sons teaching him how to shoot James Bond for their research Schiller and mailer have gone through a family album that depicts an image of your normal healthy middle class All-American family man now this is the picture of them getting married look how happy he is and he's tall and handsome and she looks like Natalie Wood this is the perfect couple here's the whole family look at that just gorgeous all six uh members of his family by all outward appearances Hanson was devoted to his kids and Bonnie his wife of 33 years they sent their children to private religious schools so they could be instilled with solid Christian values but this was all an illusion Bob Hansen wasn't just a double agent he had multiple secret lives at the office and at home just right after being married he started to photograph his wife he started taking pictures of her nude pictures a little more risque uh pretty strong pictures that may not sound all that strange but what was even stranger was that he was sending those nude pictures unbeknownst to his wife to his best friend now retired U.S army officer Jack horschauer and if that's not enough Hanson showed his best friend even more he had immense knowledge of technology so he was able to put a closed circuit television camera in his bedroom hidden away behind a photograph with a little hole in the photograph and it was piped into a television set someplace else in the house and when Jack Kershaw would visit he'd say just turn on the television if you want to watch something interesting let me know and he would watch Robert Hansen making love to his wife his wife didn't know about it you're telling this in the most matter-of-fact tone of voice as if hey he set up a camera and let his friend watch him in bed with his wife but this is over the top it's not only over the top but then he would ask uh Jack Kershaw or would you like to see me do something else in bed what else would you like what do you call that is that what I call it Wicked to the nth degree and there's even more incredible as it sounds Hanson published stories about his sexual life with his wife on adult-oriented websites and used his own name he lived a life of treachery and betrayal and he betrayed everyone nobody knows more about spies and their peccadillos than John Martin he oversaw the investigations and prosecutions of some 76 spies when he was a senior official at the justice department out of government now he has followed the Hanson case closely do you know that Hanson wrote pornographic stories on the internet I did not know that until recently if the bureau had found out about that would that have wrong about he would have been removed from access and an investigation would have been conducted now he used his own name and the name of his wife how come that wasn't caught they just weren't looking or I don't know if the FBI is surfing the pornographic net looking for spies they may be doing it after this case Hanson began feeding the Soviets valuable information in 1979 just three years after joining the FBI he communicated with the Russians in writing this is a copy of one of his actual letters sent in 1985 to his Handler Victor chikashin soon I will send a box of documents to Mr digtr they are from certain of the most sensitive and highly compartmented projects of the U.S intelligence community in his letters he gave up the identity of Soviet Spies Like Top Hat a high-ranking and highly productive Soviet officer who was on the CIA payroll when you give up the names of live sources you're doing the maximum damage that you can were they really the top of the lines they were top of the line sources and they were pulled back and two of the three sources were executed after he gave them up do you think that was deliberate that he knew exactly who he was absolutely he was getting rid of his competition treachery of it the treachery but Martin tips his hat to Hanson for his shrewdness and covering his tracks he was as much a mystery to the KGB as he was to the FBI never allowing his Russian handlers to meet him he communicated with them only in writing they didn't know he was with the FBI and they assumed probably assumed that he was with the CIA that's because he threw them off his Track by often signing his message with the pen name Ramon Garcia which ends quite deliberately with the letters CIA and the information he gave up concerned the CIA as well as other intelligence agencies but never the FBI where he worked so what kind of man would betray his country so secretly and his wife so publicly Jonah Curry could not write a novel about Hanson Graham green you couldn't even Norman mayor couldn't it takes Dostoevsky no he's the most complex um probably the most complex real character that I've ever had to contend with he says the contradictions involving his wife alone were extraordinary by the way he had to order he worshiped her he loved her you can't imagine how much he loved her but he's a man of parts so not only did he love her and adore he also had a betray her you see what you find there is that next to his most noble and loving emotions are his most evil emotions and they alternate they alternate how does he keep from going insane good question since he was also betraying the church he was seemingly devoted to Hanson was and still is a member of a conservative order within the Roman Catholic Church called Opus day Latin for work of God a group dedicated to fighting communism he attended mass and took communion daily so he'd go to church this very conservative Opus day order and pray and deal with it I got his knees bring those knees right and and incredible so while he was praying are you saying that he didn't he was laughing at it no I think he almost demands that you come up with a new kind of psychology to explain him he has an absolutely devout man prayed with intensity uh brought up his children he was a model father and and he would help them write essays about how good America was and and that and here was a man that was always talking about fighting communism uh which was you know one of the things that Opus day was very much involved in he is at the same time giving the Soviet Union those Secrets which are the most important this is the epitome of the amoral human being you have to find a new word it's sort of dramatically a moral the story will continue after this Dr Alan solarian a psychiatrist hired by Hansen's legal defense team who spent 30 hours interviewing him says Hansen is an amoral he's ill suffering from a severe psychological disorder he is driven by demons he's driven by thoughts unwanted thoughts solarian says Hanson shared his whole secret life with his Opus day priest he tells the priest not only is psychological demons on top of this he tells this a priest that he's also spying and looked the kind of advice he got lousy advice he was told to pray more and to turn the money to Mother Teresa to me that's outrageous they basically said if you give the money to Mother Teresa everything will be okay yes exactly Hansen has told the government that indeed he gave his spy money in the early 80s about twelve thousand dollars up to that time to Mother Teresa and then went on to spy some more with Bob Henson the church dropped the ball they fumbled it the church's position is that a priest cannot reveal what he learns in confidence but solarian thinks the church should have encouraged Hanson to seek psychiatric help and turn himself in instead of using his six hundred thousand dollars in spy money to bail his family out of debt Hanson has three mortgages on the house he spent much of the money on Priscilla galey whom he met at a strip club where she performed because he goes out with this stripper it was beautiful and had won awards for being the best stripper of the year in this city in that City including Washington DC and it was a Charming intelligent woman and um he spent a year with her and spent some like eighty thousand dollars on her in that year which was almost equal to his yearly salary and um never made a pass at her right never she made a pass at him but he never made a pass at her he wanted to convert her even when she rejected her yes there's no question hidey he rejected her uh but you know he still tried to convert her to Catholicism and this was not the only girl that he did it with there were several other strippers one I think he even succeeded in converting he the exhibitionist trying to save an exhibitionist you're right on that but there's another angle Bob Hansen was not trying to say Priscilla Bob Henson was trying to save himself it was maybe it's too much psychobabble but in Sakai we call it projective identification he put himself onto somebody else and tried to help something else Dr solarian believes Hansen did was use his spying as a way to fend off his demons his Espionage was an escape from his sexual demons that when he found himself in an exciting dangerous position such as Espionage and spying he found that his demons slow down they calm down you're not going to be able to dismiss Hanson by speaking of his psychiatric categories he goes beyond that he is crazier than crazy he comes out of the other end because his behavior is so rational you see under immense stress and tension I think you're taking these secrets out of the FBI week after week month after month year after year he gave the Russians you know the average big spy like like Walker or one of those would give two or three drops a year and one year Hanson gave something like 13 or 14 drops and here's what's unheard of the Russians were just going on who is this man he's a genius you said that he liked the game he liked living in the engine she found Adventure in it and he looked upon himself as someone who was smarter than everybody else and he looked down upon his colleagues but eventually the game caught up with him when a Russian spy turned over the entire KGB file on the Man known as Ramon Garcia while the file did not contain Hanson's name it did include a tape recording of his voice and his fingerprints lifted from this plastic garbage bag that he once used to wrap classified documents the perfect spy was not so perfect after all he got a little sloppy and so on February 18 2001 about a month before he was set to retire from the FBI Hanson's whirls all three or four of them Came Crashing Down is this a tragic figure is this somebody we need to reserve just an ounce of pity for or is this just outright pure evil pure criminality how about having the difference oh a little pity and he probably is pretty damn evil Hanson who will be sentenced in May has agreed to plead guilty to Espionage and cooperate with the government in return He avoids the death penalty and assures that his wife Bonnie will collect most of his pension from his 25 years with the FBI and finally what about Bonnie we're told that she still loves him and completely forgives him

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 161,230

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, robert hanssen, fbi agent

Id: FYWZczIUJaI

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023