Profile: Hanssen's double life

Little sign of wealth in Hanssen's suburban house

Robert Philip Hanssen, the FBI agent who has admitted to spying for Moscow, was just a few years off retirement at the time of his arrest.

He may have felt reasonably confident that he had successfully fooled the intelligence organ of the most powerful country in the world.

What took you so long?

Hanssen to the FBI agents who came to arrest him

According to the FBI, over the years he received more than $1.4m in cash, diamonds, and money paid into Russian accounts - enough for him and his family to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of his days.

But after many years of working as a double agent, there were few signs of this cloak-and-dagger existence.

Mr Hanssen was a regular church-goer and father of six

He lived in a modest four-bedroom house in a suburb of Virginia with his wife and six children.

The family attended Sunday mass every week, driving to church in a 10-year-old van.

Friends and neighbours were shocked by his arrest, describing him as quiet and unassuming.

"I never saw them flaunt anything, any kind of wealth," one neighbour, Nancy Powell, told the Washington Post.

Sexual obsession

In a new book called Into the Mirror, author Larry Schiller explores the agent's mind and finds psychology, not money, was Hanssen's motive.

There's absolutely no doubt that I'm a better person for having known Bob Hanssen

Former FBI colleague Paul Moore

"He wanted to succeed. He wanted to become an important person. That wasn't going to happen in the FBI. Spying, being the best spy in the world did satisfy some of his desires and needs of being the best," Mr Schiller says.

An orthodox Catholic who raised six children in the faith, he hid an obsession with sex.

He picked up a stripper in a Washington club and lavished her with gifts. He secretly filmed pornographic videos of his wife and showed them to a friend.

But one former FBI colleague, Paul Moore, still feels some affection.

"This was a man who had a lot of compartments in his life. I was not his naughty friend, I was his nice friend, and we had a relationship where it was very good. It was very positive for both of us. There's absolutely no doubt that I'm a better person for having known Bob Hanssen."

'Arrogant'

In prison, Hanssen has been co-operating with authorities to avoid the death penalty. He told his interrogators that FBI security was pathetic and said he could have been a far more devastating spy.

British double agent Kim Philby's book fascinated Hanssen

Former KGB general Oleg Kalugin says that sense of arrogance was Hanssen's undoing.

"He would show a kind of a superiority. He believed that he could handle his case better than the Russians because he knew the Russian pattern of behaviour and he thought that if he succumbed to the Russian ways, he may be exposed earlier," General Kalugin says.

"He thought he was a better protector of himself and I think that's why he made the mistake. He thought he would know better and he was wrong."

"What took you so long?" Hanssen asked when he was finally arrested by FBI agents.

Secret life

In a letter contained in an FBI affidavit, Hanssen apparently reveals that he had been attracted to a life of espionage since he was a teenager, and was inspired by the British spy, Kim Philby.

"I decided on this course when I was 14 years old," he wrote to his Russian handlers, according to the affidavit.

Hanssen grew up in Chicago, and went on to study chemistry, maths and Russian at Knox College in Illinois.

His acquaintances described him as aloof, but otherwise a "regular guy".

He was said to be a strict father, who limited his children's television watching.

He was also said to be a member of the Opus Dei, a secretive and conservative Roman Catholic order.

Hanssen joined the FBI in 1976, rapidly moving up the ranks until he became a supervisory special agent in the Soviet Analytical Unit at the agency's Washington headquarters in 1987.

But he always took great care not to reveal his identity - and, according to court documents, never met his Russian handlers - showing he did not take risks lightly.

US officials said it was that kind of caution and inside knowledge that allowed Hanssen to operate as a mole.