Tuesday February 20 1:05 PM ET
Agent's Spying Caused 'Grave' Damage, FBI Says

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI veteran was charged on Tuesday with betraying Soviet double agents and selling U.S. secrets to Moscow's KGB security service in the 1980s, causing what U.S. officials called ``exceptionally grave'' damage.

Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested on Sunday at his home outside Washington after he allegedly dropped off a package of classified information at a park in northern Virginia.

In one of most serious espionage incidents in years, prosecutors said Hanssen could face a possible death sentence for each of the two charges.

Hanssen, who has six children, was alleged to have made $1.4 million working for the Russians.

FBI Director Louis Freeh said in a statement: ``Hanssen gained access to the most sensitive and highly classified information in the United States government.''

He said: ``The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law.''

The full extent of the damage was not known as making an accurate assessment could have jeopardized the investigation, Freeh said, but added: ``We believe it was exceptionally grave.''

Freeh said Hanssen's spying dated back as far as 1985 and continued until his arrest in Virginia on Sunday.

Using the code name ``Ramon,'' Freeh said Hanssen provided ''highly classified information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR.'' He said Hanssen used encrypted communication, dead drops and other clandestine techniques.

He said Hanssen independently disclosed the identity of two KGB officials who, first compromised by convicted CIA spy Aldridge Ames, had been recruited by the U.S. government to serve as ``agents in place'' at the Soviet embassy in Washington.

``When these two KGB officials returned to Moscow, they were tried and convicted on espionage charges and executed,'' Freeh said.

The formal charges made public at a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, relate to two incidents toward the end of the Cold War.

Betrayed Double Agents

One claimed Hanssen made available classified documents to the KGB in March, 1989 and the other said that in October 1985 he betrayed three Russian KGB agents who were also working for the United States.

The 27-year FBI veteran, dressed in a black turtle neck, black shirt and gray slacks, was silent and solemn as the charges were read at the federal court.

Defense lawyer Plato Cacheris said Hanssen, 56, planned at this stage to plead not guilty, adding that his client was ''emotional'' and quite ``upset'' by the case against him.

President George W. Bush found the allegations ''disturbing,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on Air Force One as the president flew to Columbus, Ohio.

Freeh, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft discussed the case at a news conference later and announced that former CIA and FBI director William Webster would conduct a full review of the case.

Among the secrets Hanssen, a counter-terrorism expert, allegedly disclosed were methods the United States uses to conduct electronic surveillance, the FBI said.

In Moscow, spokesmen for both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Intelligence Service said they had no details on the case and that they did not comment on matters of this type.

A U.S. official said Hanssen allegedly provided information that confirmed identities of people in the former Soviet embassy in Washington who were spying for the United States, names that Ames had initially provided.

Veteran Agent

Ames was a veteran officer for the CIA who betrayed many U.S. agents in the former Soviet Union.

``He (Hanssen) provided information which corroborated information that Ames had provided,'' giving the Soviets a second confirmation on the identities, the U.S. official said.

``He had access to U.S. information about Soviets who were spying on behalf of the West,'' the official said.

Hanssen was initially suspected of being a spy for Russia several months ago after an internal intelligence audit revealed the presence of a mole in the FBI. The United States then secretly obtained Russian documents that led them to suspect Hanssen, the FBI said.

Hanssen's most recent job has been working out of FBI headquarters in Washington. His previous posts included performing surveillance on Russian government missions to the United States.

He was also assigned to helping the State Department resolve a string of recent security problems, including the discovery of a listening device in a conference room that was monitored by a Russian agent in his car nearby.

It is unclear whether Hanssen was involved in any of the security breaches at the State Department.

A State Department official said: ``He (Hanssen) was involved in the process of vetting and accrediting foreign diplomats,'' but did not comment further.

He becomes the third FBI agent in history to be arrested on charges of spying for the Russians. The others were Richard Miller, in the mid-1980s, and Earl Pitts, a lawyer who was convicted in the late 1990s.

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