Correspondent: The Near-Perfect Spy Tx Date: 17th June 2001 This script was made from audio tape - any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 00.00.00 Music 00.00.08 Tom Mangold He was sworn in to protect his country but tonight he sits in a Washington prison cell facing the death penalty for betraying a nation's most coveted secrets. 00.00.19 Tom Mangold He hated Communism but spied for the Soviets. He loved his wife but spent his spare time with a stripper. 00.00.25 Tom Mangold He confessed everything to his priest but still he couldn't stop spying. 00.00.30 Tom Mangold And in the end he wished his own destruction upon himself. 00.00.35 Tom Mangold Tonight we probe the psychological mystery and reveal the paradox of Robert Philip Hanssen - the centre of the biggest spy scandal since Kim Philby. 00.00.46 Tom Mangold He's the man America now calls - The Near-Perfect Spy. 00.00.51 Correspondent Theme Music 00.00.59 Title Page THE NEAR-PERFECT S P Y 00.01.08 Music 00.01.18 Tom Mangold October the 4th, 1985. The postman was making a delivery to the home of a diplomat stationed at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. 00.01.27 Music 00.01.33 Tom Mangold The diplomat was a KGB officer and the letter crucial evidence in an espionage case that has stunned the West. 00.01.39 Music 00.01.49 Tom Mangold Some of this correspondence is now available and the contents of the letter are the very stuff of spying. And for the Soviets in Washington a dream come true. 00.02.07 Robert Hanssen voice over Soon I will send a box of documents. They are from certain of the most sensitive projects of the United States intelligence community. I believe they are sufficient to justify a one hundred thousand dollar payment to me. 00.02.23 Tom Mangold The Soviets never normally paid that kind of money but this time they did. The author promptly named three Soviet KGB officers working in Washington who'd been recruited as double agents, including Valery Martynov. 00.02.36 Tom Mangold He and the other two were immediately summoned back to Moscow. 00.02.44 Tom Mangold The Soviet Union had one simple treatment for traitors. After a secret hearing, two of them including Martynov were promptly executed - chilling evidence of the high stakes double agents play for. 00.02.57 Tom Mangold Death for the Russian but under United States laws the death penalty for Hanssen too if he's found guilty of betraying him. 00.03.06 Music 00.03.11 Tom Mangold The man with Martynov's blood on his hands comes from a middle-class suburban environment, the template of the American dream. 00.03.18 Tom Mangold This is Vienna, near Washington. 00.03.19 Music 00.03.22 Tom Mangold Robert Hanssen lived in a cul-de-sac with manicured lawns and varnished clapperboard homes and mum's apple pie in the fridge. 00.03.28 Music 00.03.31 Tom Mangold Talisman Drive - the heart of America. A god-fearing and churchgoing community. Neighbourly, generous, secure and above all superficially normal. 00.03.40 Music 00.03.42 Aston NANCY CULLEN Neighbour Robert Hanssen is the kind of man that you would not take major notice of unless there was some reason. He's a very average man. But disengaged. When we would have our neighbourhood gatherings down here in the street he was kind of there but not there. He's the kind of man that you wouldn't recoil from or embrace but he's just disengaged. Nice but disengaged. 00.04.10 Tom Mangold Washington, 1979. The date we now know Hanssen actually started spying. 00.04.16 Tom Mangold The Soviets paid him thirteen thousand dollars but he felt so guilty at what he had done that he confessed to his wife and his priest and donated all the money to Mother Theresa. 00.04.26 Tom Mangold An act of contrition he didn't repeat six years later when he began spying again. 00.04.32 Tom Mangold Hanssen is a devout Christian. A Catholic who worships at this church and who rose to the heights of the elite and disciplined fraternity of Opus Dei - the work of God. 00.04.44 Tom Mangold His faith wasn't a cover. Indeed it's a genuine and overwhelming passion but it seemed to offer as much pain as pleasure and guilt hung from him like a shroud. 00.04.55 Tom Mangold History may yet conclude that he would have been a better priest than spy. 00.04.59 Tom Mangold So how does Opus Dei now feel about the man who betrayed his beliefs to the anti-Christ of Soviet Communism? 00.05.06 Aston Father JOHN McCLOSKEY If indeed this is true this man not only deceived the FBI for fifteen years and evidently, I don't know the particulars there, deceived his family but also deceived his organisation to which he had, to which he joined. So I mean the, the, the level in terms of deception and all, it's extraordinary, which is, I guess, why we're having this interview. 00.05.29 Tom Mangold And yet did he, he must have derived a great deal of comfort from the Church. And how, I just wonder how you can do that. Can you... 00.05.38 Father John McCloskey There's no possibility other than, as I mentioned, having fallen into a double life of deception with an incredible, do not want to say diabolical content almost, but it borders on that because it's impossible for any of us that I'm aware of in my pastoral experience to live that type of double life to that extreme for that number of years without there being something extraordinary on the temptation side and or some type of mental psychological disorder which allowed him to do that. 00.06.11 Tom Mangold And it was precisely because of possible mental disorders that Hanssen's defence team called in a highly skilled expert to probe deep into Hanssen's troubled psyche. 00.06.24 Tom Mangold Doctor Alen Salerian, for five years he was the FBI's psychiatrist in charge of emergency cases involving agents with psychological problems. 00.06.34 Tom Mangold Because Hanssen faces the death penalty his mental condition will matter to the court. Salerian's expertise in this field is unique. 00.06.43 Aston Dr ALEN SALERIAN Former FBI Psychiatrist His reasons for spying had very little to do with spying and much more to do with his emotional pain, with emotional wounds and all the demons in his own mind that he's been fighting for, for many, many years. 00.06.58 Tom Mangold We see this as a spy story. You're saying it's not a spy story. 00.07.02 Dr Alen Salerian I say that it's not a spy story. If, when we know all the facts, people will understand that this is not a spy story. 00.07.11 Music 00.07.13 Tom Mangold In fact Hanssen's story is a mixture of psychological mystery and espionage at a global level. 00.07.21 Tom Mangold In the early eighties the Soviet Union was still a world super power, missile armed to the teeth and more than prepared to face nuclear Armageddon if necessary. 00.07.30 Tom Mangold Soviet and western spies were crucial to establish political intentions and war fighting capabilities. 00.07.39 Tom Mangold To add menace to the mix a dangerous new military philosophy had begun to germinate. The possibility that either side could fight and win a nuclear war. 00.07.52 Tom Mangold During this Cold War freeze the demand for strategic intelligence was insatiable and both sides mounted complex intelligence gathering operations. 00.08.04 Tom Mangold But each exercise had to be individually guarded against infiltration by the enemy and this was the special role of the counter-intelligence officer. 00.08.13 Tom Mangold In America this fell to the FBI and the Robert Hanssen's of this world. 00.08.19 Tom Mangold This is Skip Brandon. As head of the FBI's counter-intelligence division he was Robert Hanssen's ultimate line manager. 00.08.27 Aston SKIP BRANDON Deputy Asst. Director FBI Intelligence Division, 1990-94 You have to know what operations are going on because the counter intelligence officer protects operations, so you have to know what's going on throughout the government, throughout the world. 00.08.35 Tom Mangold So that is a unique degree of access? 00.08.38 Skip Brandon I think it is. It's a dilemma. You have to know the sensitive operations in order to protect them but then if you know them you can't compromise them. 00.08.48 Tom Mangold Now, you were one of Robert Hanssen's line managers. What was his rank within the FBI and what was his level of security clearance? 00.08.58 Skip Brandon He had the highest security clearance that you can have in the FBI. He was probably one of the top five percent of FBI managers in terms of his position. 00.09.09 Tom Mangold So he was very senior? 00.09.11 Skip Brandon Yes. He was a senior officer. 00.09.13 Tom Mangold And broadly speaking, what kind of access did he have? 00.09.18 Skip Brandon At times because of his various positions, he would have virtually unlimited access, he was a senior counter-intelligence officer running counter-intelligence operations so he had access to virtually everything. 00.09.32 Tom Mangold He worked here at FBI Headquarters in Washington with a civilian rank equal to that of colonel. 00.09.42 Tom Mangold His wide access to the nation's secrets included liaison with British MI5 and MI6 officers in the United States. 00.09.52 Tom Mangold In their wildest dreams the Soviets and later the Russians couldn't have asked for a more perfect spy. 00.10.02 Tom Mangold When Hanssen started spying, senior FBI agent David Major was attached to the White House as President Reagan's advisor on counter-intelligence. 00.10.12 Tom Mangold Later he became one of Hanssen's bosses and knew him as more than just a colleague. 00.10.18 Aston DAVID MAJOR Former FBI Special Agent I considered Bob a friend. Bob was a unique individual and I mean that truly. He was eclectic. He was quiet. He was thoughtful. Some people who didn't know him described him as aloof. He wasn't aloof; he was an introvert. He was a very, very thoughtful man; you could have great philosophical discussions with him. 00.10.41 David Major Interestingly he was really dedicated to counter-intelligence. He was always thinking up new ideas and new approaches because it's very difficult to do counter-intelligence. You are trying to beat the best of another country's service, some of their brightest and best people. Bob was up to that match. That's the Bob that I knew. 00.11.04 Music 00.11.06 Tom Mangold Hanssen cleverly refused to reveal his identity to the Russians and sometimes transmitted hi-tech secrets using World War II trade-craft. 00.11.16 Tom Mangold He retained anonymity using the age-old newspaper advertisement technique. 00.11.21 Music 00.11.24 Tom Mangold On July the 14th 1986, at his instruction, his Soviet handlers inserted this advertisement in the Washington Times. 00.11.32 Tom Mangold It was a signal that he was ready to pass information over. The telephone number led to this shopping mall. After the advertisement appeared, Hanssen called that number. 00.11.42 Telephone ringing 00.11.47 Tom Mangold A KGB officer was waiting. 00.11.52 Tom Mangold When he had something to give the Russians he simply walked out of FBI Headquarters carrying documents, photocopies or floppy computer discs with vast quantities of secrets hidden on the tracks. 00.12.04 Tom Mangold This was hi-tech Hanssen at his best. 00.12.06 Dion Stempfley This is a five and a quarter inch floppy disc, the kind that Hanssen is said to have used. 00.12.12 Aston DION STEMPFLEY Security Consultant, Riptech Corp. The information that is on this disc is written in tracks around the disc and the computer knows that this particular disc stores eighty tracks or should store eighty tracks. What Hanssen knew to do was to write past those, that eighty into the eighty-first and eighty-second tracks to store information. 00.12.31 Dion Stempfley And if you look at the screen you'll see that this disc, the computer sees there's no information on it. It reports that there's nothing on the disc itself and yet if you use a special programme that can look at the individual bits and bytes all the way down to the end, you'll see that this disc has a special message written at the end, past the boundaries where, that would be the normal end of the disc. It's kind of like the modern day version of invisible ink. 00.12.58 Music 00.13.02 Tom Mangold Hand made signals were left on a lamp post here in downtown Washington, alerting his handlers that he was ready to send another secret package. 00.13.10 Music 00.13.12 Tom Mangold Over fifteen years Hanssen and his handlers used some eleven sites around Virginia and Washington for packages and messages to and from the Russians. 00.13.24 Tom Mangold Each site selected for ease of access in a location that would raise no suspicion. 00.13.29 Tom Mangold The most popular dead drop was also the most logical - this park very near to Hanssen's home. 00.13.36 Tom Mangold This is the bridge under which he hid some of his packages containing the most sensitive secrets. 00.13.43 Tom Mangold The routine rarely changed. It was simple, effective and no one knew it was going on. 00.13.49 Tom Mangold America's secrets quietly sold for cash in a green and pleasant suburban park. 00.13.56 David Major This was the single site for Dead Drop Ellis and this location was used by the KGB in 1989 then used again in 2001 as a signal to Bob Hanssen to tell him that they have filled the dead drop or were ready to fill a dead drop. And what the KGB had to do, the intelligence officer, take tape, just like this tape, come to this exact location and at this pole he had to rip it off and place it on this pole. 00.14.25 David Major Now once he does that, then Bob can drive by here and look over without having to stop or even slow down and knows exactly what it means. 00.14.34 Tom Mangold Now this was still being used this year, 2001, but the trade-craft, the technology is a hundred years old. 00.14.41 David Major Because it works. Because if this works properly the only people that know what this tape means is the intelligence officer who puts it down and the agent, Bob Hanssen, who can read it and knows what it means. 00.14.53 Music 00.14.54 Tom Mangold Hanssen had remarkable access to Western secrets. One of them involved this satellite and was a new scientific intelligence system that effectively helps blind men to see. 00.15.05 Tom Mangold This means satellites with radars that can see through clouds or record sensitive infra-red heat temperatures. 00.15.12 Music 00.15.15 Tom Mangold The system is called MASINT - Measurement and Signature Intelligence and involves the use, not only of satellites but any military platform in space, on land or under sea. 00.15.26 Music 00.15.29 Tom Mangold These machine based spies are responsible for much of the intelligence circulating through the CIA and defence intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain. 00.15.38 Music 00.15.42 Tom Mangold The joint US / UK Analysis Centre at RAF Molesworth is where much of MASINT's raw data is downloaded, decoded and then analysed for onward transmission to London and Washington. 00.15.53 Music 00.15.58 Tom Mangold Somehow, Hanssen obtained the original copy of an ultra secret guidance for the whole future of the West's MASINT intelligence programme and passed it to the Russians. 00.16.08 Tom Mangold The contents were highly specific and contained detailed MASINT intelligence. 00.16.13 Tom Mangold How did he manage to lay his hands on it? 00.16.16 Aston DAVID MAJOR Former FBI Special Agent Since he was a technical expert, he understood what MASINT would be. Most people don't understand it. He would be a natural person to have access to it because during a liaison, functions where we're talking about budgets or programmes or protection of programmes, here's a place that you would have to know what's going on. How does American counter-intelligence protect the secret if it doesn't know where the secrets are? 00.16.41 Tom Mangold And it got worse. In 1994 the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, authorised the development of a top-secret communications system that acknowledged the birth of the Internet. 00.16.53 Tom Mangold It was called Intelink and its details remain classified to this day. Hanssen had full access. 00.17.00 Tom Mangold Intelink is the spy's own Internet linking civilian and military agencies around the world. 00.17.08 Tom Mangold One of Intelink's top secret compartments, Intelink C, is code named Stoneghost and contains British, Canadian and Australian intelligence analysis. 00.17.18 Music 00.17.23 Tom Mangold No one yet knows just what Hanssen stole from this ultra secret communications system. The nightmare scenario - he grabbed enough to help guide Russians to British and American human intelligence sources so placing more agents lives at risk. 00.17.38 Music 00.17.40 Tom Mangold What should the British now consider of any operation to which Hanssen might have had access? How should they regard that operation? 00.17.51 Aston SKIP BRANDON FBI Intelligence Division, 1990-94 Very simple, it's compromised, that's how. Professionally, that's how I would look at it and they are professionals. Totally compromised, you have to proceed with that. 00.18.03 Tom Mangold Which means that they're wasted, the money's gone, the sources are threatened. 00.18.07 Skip Brandon Yes. That's very true, that's very likely. 00.18.13 Explosion 00.18.18 Tom Mangold But the greatest damage Hanssen caused was to give the Russians the key to Armageddon - the potential to destroy the West in one sudden strike. 00.18.31 Tom Mangold In the event of a surprise Soviet nuclear attack, what was left of the US government would have been dispersed to secret sites all over America. 00.18.40 Tom Mangold This was a key element of Washington's insurance policy for survival. The US would still be able to retaliate. 00.18.51 Tom Mangold But this desperate plan, code named Pegasus and known as the Continuity of Government Plan, could only stand a chance of success if the locations and details were kept ultra secret, otherwise America and Britain could have been politically and militarily decapitated. 00.19.08 Tom Mangold Hanssen betrayed a document to the Soviets, which was an analysis, which directly concerned the Continuity of Government. 00.19.16 Tom Mangold This was the jewel in the crown of Western Intelligence. 00.19.20 Tom Mangold Does any of this matter? 00.19.22 David Major Ultimately it matters. 00.19.23 Tom Mangold We won the Cold War, it's over, audience has gone home. 00.19.28 David Major That's the greatest mistake that most people make when they look at this issue. This is not a game; this is serious business. Intelligence services conduct intelligence because it's in the national interest of countries to acquire information and secrets. And we can wish it away but if there's any value in having secrecy and without secrecy you lose control. Without secrecy you do not, cannot make good decisions and counter-intelligence is about keeping your secrets so that you can make good decisions. It makes all the difference in the world. 00.20.04 David Major Let me tell you something. When I was at the White House and I was Advisor to the President of the United States, I saw for the first time how powerful intelligence was in making decisions, whether it be a terrorist act, whether it be any kind of a world event, whether it has to do with a nuclear proliferation. You know, regardless of what goes on in the world, the President says, the Prime Minister says what's really going on. And you're never going to know that through diplomacy. And secrecy, acquiring what's going on behind the scenes is essential. Counter-intelligence allows you to do that. Bob appears to have taken away that capability. 00.20.45 Music 00.20.49 Tom Mangold As Hanssen stole more and more intelligence from inside Washington's top secret safes, his Russian handlers took pains to flatter and groom him and give him what he seemed to like - praise, admiration and above all virtual companionship. 00.21.05 Music 00.21.06 Voice over reading letter Congratulations on your promotion. We wish you all the very best in your life and your career. Your friendship and understanding are very important to us. Thank you and good luck. Sincerely, your friends. 00.21.20 Music 00.21.22 Tom Mangold Hanssen in turn returned friendship with saloon bar digressions about the friends, colleagues and nation he was betraying. 00.21.30 Robert Hanssen voice over The United States can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous but young, immature and easily manipulated. But don't be fooled by that appearance. 00.21.44 Tom Mangold Some letters from his Russian handlers were transparent attempts to flatter and stroke a damaged ego. 00.21.51 Voice over reading letter Dear Friend. We acknowledge again your superb sense of humour and your sharp-as-a-razor mind. We highly appreciate both. 00.21.59 Music 00.22.05 Tom Mangold Hanssen was paid a million pounds for his spying but never seemed to know what to do with the money. 00.22.11 Tom Mangold His guilt prevented him from using it on himself or his family. He was also obsessed with redemption of others he saw as sinners. So he used the dirty money, payments from the Russians, in what he saw as a service to God. 00.22.26 Tom Mangold This led him into a curious relationship with Priscilla Galey, ten years ago when she was a stripper and dancer in Washington. 00.22.34 Tom Mangold For eighteen months he consorted with her in a non-physical relationship. 00.22.39 Tom Mangold He said he wanted only to save her soul. 00.22.46 Tom Mangold Now, a still baffled Priscilla has decided to talk frankly about the friendship that began and ended in total innocence. 00.22.54 Tom Mangold Let's start at the very beginning. You're two blocks down the road at the 1819 Club, you're stripping and after the show you get a note. 00.23.05 Priscilla Galey A wonderful note. 00.23.07 Tom Mangold And you do what? 00.23.09 Priscilla Galey I rush out and I look and I see this very tall figure going out the front door. So I ran to the front of the club and I'm like; 'excuse me, excuse me, are you the person who just gave me this?' And it was a ten dollar bill. He said; 'well yes, I sent it with the waitress'. I said; 'well I want to thank you very much and not for the tip, which is very nice but for the wonderful complement that you sent with it'. And that's how we met. And I said I'm Priscilla and he introduced himself, Mr Hanssen. 00.23.38 Tom Mangold And then? 00.23.39 Priscilla Galey And at that point he gave me his business card which said FBI Special Agent Hanssen on it. 00.23.46 Tom Mangold Hanssen lavished his spy money on the pretty young girl - an expensive emerald and diamond necklace, a Mercedes car, a trip to the Far East when he went on FBI business to Hong Kong. And all he ever wanted to do was to expand her mind and redeem her. 00.24.04 Priscilla Galey He wanted me to realise that I should be closer to God. 00.24.08 Tom Mangold What did he mean, being closer to God? 00.24.11 Priscilla Galey Well I mean I was a stripper and I guess the lifestyle was totally alien to anything he was used to. So he probably, you know, thought that he could save me. I mean, maybe that I would be lost in hell if I didn't start changing my life. 00.24.28 Tom Mangold Let me just get this straight. Because at this stage you are not a lost woman or a fallen woman? 00.24.32 Priscilla Galey Oh no, I was wonderfully happy. 00.24.34 Tom Mangold You are, you are a professional dancer and stripper who enjoys her life. 00.24.37 Priscilla Galey I made lots of money, had lots of attention. 00.24.38 Tom Mangold You were not a street girl then. 00.24.40 Priscilla Galey No, no sir. 00.24.41 Tom Mangold You weren't selling your body. You weren't on drugs. 00.24.45 Priscilla Galey No. 00.24.46 Tom Mangold So just help me here. What was it he needed to save in you? 00.24.51 Priscilla Galey I have no idea. My life, you know, your life could be a lot better and that you really should not be tempting and being in front of men naked and taking off your clothes. So I gather from that, that's what he meant. He wanted me to go to a priest and confess. 00.25.12 Tom Mangold Confess what? 00.25.13 Priscilla Galey I guess he thought I had some deep dark secret sins maybe that I needed to get off my chest to change my life. He said that it would help if I confessed. 00.25.24 Tom Mangold Did you feel a bit baffled by this stage because here was a man who didn't want your body but he seemed to want to get into your head? 00.25.32 Priscilla Galey Definitely. 00.25.33 Music 00.25.38 Tom Mangold Hanssen took the stripper to Washington's National Gallery. Ostensibly it was part of an exercise to broaden Priscilla's horizons. But the pictures that intrigued him had a much more personal resonance. They were relevant to the demons that plagued his own life and his need for redemption. 00.25.56 Priscilla Galey There were lots of different types of pictures. We looked at a lot of religious pictures. 00.26.02 Tom Mangold Did he ever talk about saints and sinners? 00.26.06 Priscilla Galey Oh yes and every day, you know, in conversation of course. Every woman was either a saint or a sinner. 00.26.12 Tom Mangold Really. 00.26.13 Priscilla Galey Everyone. 00.26.20 Tom Mangold Were there also demons in his life? 00.26.24 Priscilla Galey I'm sure there must have been but he was at war fighting them every day. 00.26.32 Tom Mangold The relationship between the spy and the stripper, always innocent, uniquely touches the inner torments of a man whose contradictions caused ever more pain. 00.26.42 Tom Mangold The loving husband and devoted father was never unfaithful but there was something else, something even Priscilla couldn't discover. 00.26.50 Tom Mangold Was religion an obsession? 00.26.52 Priscilla Galey Yes, it was very much a part of his life. He made much more time for religion than most people would. He pressed his beliefs and his thoughts and his encouragement in the religious sphere a lot more than the normal person, yes. 00.27.08 Tom Mangold After eighteen months the relationship came to an abrupt end. Priscilla had declined an invitation to worship with Hanssen at his home church. She remained unredeemed. 00.27.18 Tom Mangold The final irony - the once pretty and sensible young lady eventually finished up on the streets selling herself for crack cocaine. 00.27.31 Tom Mangold By now Hanssen was developing an almost unmanageable religious fervour. His evangelical drive had become so dominating it began to show even in casual friendships. 00.27.42 Tom Mangold This is author James Bamford who knew Hanssen as a friend and contact. Bamford often invited the FBI agent on to his houseboat on the Potomac. 00.27.51 Tom Mangold These were purely social gatherings but Hanssen never let an opportunity go by. 00.27.56 Aston JAMES BAMFORD Well we were here on the Potomac on a cruise and Bob Hanssen would try to inject religion into a lot of conversations even when I thought religion was kind of inappropriate for the conversation but he was very adamant that we talk about it at different times. 00.28.14 Tom Mangold Did he every try to proselytise you? 00.28.17 James Bamford Well he knew I was a lapsed Catholic and he was always trying to encourage me to go back into the church. I've never really had anybody try to get me go back, to get me to go back into the church and I thought it was very unusual. And the key thing he wanted me to do was to join him at this session called Opus Dei, which is a sort of conservative, somewhat secretive, like a fraternity of the Catholic church. 00.28.47 Tom Mangold Hanssen also failed to redeem his friend. Perhaps he now sensed whose soul really needed redemption. 00.28.53 Music 00.28.57 Tom Mangold Towards the end the letters to his spy handlers reflected a growing sense of foreboding. Russians he'd never even met became his confidantes as he paced the shrinking borders of his troubled life. 00.29.09 Music 00.29.11 Robert Hanssen voice over I have come about as close as I ever want to come to sacrificing myself to help you. And I get.... 00.29.20 Robert Hanssen voice over Silence. 00.29.31 Robert Hanssen voice over I hate silence. 00.29.35 Robert Hanssen voice over Conclusion: one might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say insanely loyal, take your pick, there is insanity in all the answers. I have, however, come as close to the edge as I can without being truly insane. 00.29.58 Aston Dr ALEN SALERIAN Former FBI Psychiatrist He's not mad but he thinks he's going mad because of the content of his thoughts. Under the circumstances I think he snaps and the snapping is in the form of spying. 00.30.14 Tom Mangold As a former member of his medical defence team, Doctor Salerian has spent some thirty hours with Hanssen since his arrest. He has sat in prison with the spy who, he says, has not denied the charges against him. 00.30.27 Tom Mangold His psychological profile, however, suggests there are extenuating circumstances. 00.30.32 Music 00.30.37 Tom Mangold There is now evidence that solves the paradoxes of Salerian's patient by unmasking the demons that have possessed Hanssen since childhood. 00.30.45 Music 00.30.48 Tom Mangold They are secular not religious and they concern such temporal matters as an obsessive preoccupation with aspects of pornography. 00.30.57 Tom Mangold These uncontrollable and compulsive desires have created a backlash of guilt, which claims Salerian, has tormented Hanssen helping explain his irrational behaviour as a spy. 00.31.08 Music 00.31.12 Dr Alen Salerian He has a medical condition and part of this medical condition is that he is at times bombarded with certain unpleasant thoughts and they torment him, they are his demons. He lives with them, he's been living with them for a long, long time and he's been troubled by them. 00.31.32 Tom Mangold Hanssen's home was the front for an ostensibly normal and happy family. There are six children. But behind the façade Hanssen, deeply troubled, was betraying the trust of marriage and of his office and seemed incapable of stopping. 00.31.47 Tom Mangold What then, Doctor Salerian, is the relationship between his fifteen years as a betrayer of his country and also the betrayal of his wife? I can't square that circle. 00.32.01 Dr Alen Salerian There is a link; there is a connection. He was trying to get away from his demons and as he was trying to get away from his demons he was fighting a losing and horrible battle and feeling horrible about himself. And the way he acted out, through spying, was his unwise and perhaps impulsive escape. 00.32.35 Tom Mangold Are you saying he masked one torment with another? 00.32.40 Dr Alen Salerian That's a great way of putting it, yes. 00.32.43 Tom Mangold Now, Doctor Salerian, you say obviously that this is the extenuating circumstance for his spying. But couldn't it be just a neat psychological get out for a real traitor? 00.32.56 Dr Alen Salerian I don't think so. I mean I honestly don't think so. 00.32.59 Tom Mangold Could he be, could he be conning you? 00.33.04 Dr Alen Salerian There is always a possibility. I work for the FBI but not as a detective and I do admit that I'm gullible and that I'm not trying to outsmart him. But I am talking from my gut. 00.33.21 Dr Alen Salerian Two human beings are spending close to forty hours together in a small prison cell talking, crying and sharing. Sharing incredible things that he had not shared with anybody and he did not have to share with me. I walk away believing that he's not bullshitting me, that he's giving me a real line, he's really pouring his heart out. 00.33.45 Tom Mangold If Doctor Salerian's analysis is correct it will help explain Hanssen's religious obsessions. We know he confessed details of all his problems including the spying to his priests. But the church he worships seemed unable to help this sinner. 00.34.02 Tom Mangold Many people suffer physical or emotional abuse as children from their parents. Many people suffer from demons. Very, very, very few betray their country because of it. Will this excuse not be seen as something to support his defence not to be executed? Is there not at the end of the day, a weakness of character there of which you have not spoken? 00.34.32 Dr Alen Salerian Do we have the civilisation today to look at the bigger picture as well and not just look at the end result and say that hey; this guy is just dirt, scumbag who betrayed his country? Shouldn't we also look at the bigger picture? Should we look at the picture where a man has gone to his priest for twenty years and told his priest at least once a week I am hurting, there are demons and demons and gotten lousy, horrendous, horrendous advice? 00.35.07 Dr Alen Salerian I would love to kick that priest. The priest, who gave him that advice, I'm mad at him as a doctor because they burned this guy. 00.35.16 Tom Mangold Was he given absolution? 00.35.18 Dr Alen Salerian Yes, and the lousy advice he would get from his priest was pray more, pray more, pray more. 00.35.25 Music 00.35.29 Tom Mangold Late last year a truly perfect spy working for the West handed the FBI Hanssen's KGB files. It was a stunning coup for the Bureau. 00.35.38 Music 00.35.41 Tom Mangold We now know Hanssen realised that the FBI was closing in on him. At this stage every spy's manual says the same thing - get out now before it's too late. 00.35.51 Tom Mangold But he just worked on, taking neither flight nor fright and quietly prepared for the inevitable. 00.35.57 Music 00.35.59 Tom Mangold In the privacy of his FBI office, he interrogated his computer asking it whether his bosses really were on to him. He searched the huge electronic case file database. 00.36.11 Tom Mangold Again and again he typed in key words - locations, his name, addresses. But he found nothing. 00.36.18 Music 00.36.25 Tom Mangold By January this year the FBI was ready to mount a huge operation centred first on Hanssen's home. To establish that their information was correct and that Hanssen was still at it after fifteen years. 00.36.39 Tom Mangold Undercover agents moved into Talisman Drive and bought a house opposite Hanssen's for surveillance. But the watchers could have saved their effort. Hanssen, it seems, was ready to give up. He'd had enough. 00.36.51 Dr Alen Salerian He knew that the end had come. And that it was a matter of moments, days or weeks where he would be arrested and he wanted to rush this, accelerate this and bring it to a closure and he thought if he really did something provocative and give them the rope to hang him with. And this basically what he was doing, he was giving the Bureau the rope so that they could hang him with. Then his end would come. 00.37.22 Music 00.37.25 Tom Mangold On February the 18th this year the FBI began to position itself for the kill. 00.37.29 Aston Reconstruction 00.37.31 Tom Mangold As Hanssen's car set off, his every movement was closely watched. 00.37.35 Music 00.37.38 Tom Mangold His arrival at a nearby shopping centre was monitored. It was late afternoon but Hanssen wasn't going shopping. 00.37.44 Music 00.37.46 Tom Mangold In fact he'd come all this way just to open the boot of his car and take out a black plastic trash bag. Then they saw him put something inside. It turned out to be computer diskette. Hanssen was still at it - to the bitter end. 00.38.06 Tom Mangold He left the shopping mall car park and headed out to the freeway. 00.38.07 Aston Reconstruction 00.38.12 Tom Mangold The FBI had hidden a burst transmitter on his car. It told them where he was. 00.38.17 Tom Mangold Incredibly it seems Hanssen had discovered the bug but deliberately kept going. The implication is that if he couldn't stop himself spying, he would allow Force Majeure to bring it to an end. 00.38.33 Tom Mangold His car stopped in the quiet park near his home. Courting couples and weekend ramblers knew it as Foxstone Park, for Hanssen and his Russian spy handlers it was Dead Drop Ellis. 00.38.44 Tom Mangold Out of sight were listening devices, video cameras and FBI agents. It was the closing moment of Hanssen's fifteen year spy career. 00.38.52 Music 00.39.05 News reader Good evening. In a shocking case of espionage and lax FBI security, an American citizen and FBI agent is accused of selling US government documents to the Kremlin. 00.39.18 Aston JAMES BAMFORD I saw the headline - Major US Spy Arrest - and in the corner of my eye I saw Bob Hanssen's name. And I thought for a second, great, you know, he finally made the biggest arrest of his career and I didn't realise until a few seconds later that he was the person being arrested and in a sense I guess it was certainly the biggest arrest of his career. Unfortunately it wasn't him that was making the arrest. 00.39.40 Tom Mangold Does it make any sense to you? 00.39.42 James Bamford It never made any sense. It didn't make any sense from the very beginning and makes even less sense the more I hear about the case. 00.39.50 Tom Mangold Since his arrest a new struggle has developed between those who want him executed for the enormity of his treachery and those who need his co-operation in revealing just how much he has given the Russians. 00.40.02 Tom Mangold There are still huge blanks in his spying career, which Western intelligence agencies, particularly the British, are more than anxious to fill. 00.40.11 Tom Mangold An attempt to make a deal guaranteeing no death penalty in return for full disclosure has collapsed. 00.40.18 Tom Mangold Two and a half weeks ago he was arraigned in court and pleaded not guilty. 00.40.25 Aston SKIP BRANDON FBI Intelligence Division, 1990-94 I think we will find that the damage caused by Robert Hanssen is disastrous at the very, very highest magnitude. 00.40.34 Tom Mangold We're talking Kim Philby level here? 00.40.36 Skip Brandon Oh easily. I think so. I hope I'm wrong but I think so. 00.40.43 Tom Mangold Hanssen now sits in solitary confinement on the third floor of this federal detention centre near Washington. 00.40.50 Tom Mangold His case will certainly lead to new rules at the FBI making regular psychological assessments mandatory. 00.40.58 Tom Mangold Meanwhile his wife has forgiven him. He sees her and his priest regularly. Beyond that he has his ghosts. 00.41.06 Dr Alen Salerian I think that he has done some horrible, horrible things but he's not evil and he's not an angel either. He's a tormented man, a tormented soul, demonised, demonised and overwhelmed with the demons, by the demons and his behaviour affected because of them. 00.41.30 Aston PRISCILLA GALEY Why? I would have to ask him how could he take all the trust and the respect and just throw it away like that and become nothing less than a liar. 00.41.50 Aston DAVID MAJOR Former FBI Special Agent Some day before I die I want to have the opportunity to sit down and look at Bob. And most people would say why. And I would say why doesn't matter. I would say how could you do that to me? How could you do that to all of us who had this opportunity in life to make a difference? Because that's what you do when you have the opportunity to do intelligence and counter-intelligence. 00.42.16 David Major It is a gift to have that commitment in your life because few of us can. How could you take all of our work, all of our commitment, all of our effort and do it for such a selfish act? 00.42.32 Tom Mangold The images in Hanssen's private wilderness of mirrors remain too distorted to allow answers to all the questions. 00.42.43 Tom Mangold His final correspondence to his handlers is a traitor's farewell.... 00.42.49 Tom Mangold ...to a life unfulfilled. 00.42.51 Music 00.42.54 Robert Hanssen voice over Dear Friends. I thank you for your assistance these many years. It seems, however, that my greatest utility to you has come to an end. Please at least say goodbye. It's been a long time my dear friends, a long and lonely time. 00.43.09 Music 00.43.19 Tom Mangold The trial begins in the Autumn. If sentenced and if he is lucky he will live. If he is very lucky he will get life with a prospect of parole. 00.43.28 Tom Mangold It will be the end of the Near-Perfect Spy but the beginning of the redemption he craved in his imperfect world. 00.43.35 End Music www.bbc.co.uk/correspondent 00.43.40 Credits Reporter TOM MANGOLD Camera DAVE SPIRO Dubbing Mixer GEORGE FOULGHAM VT Editor NICK KAMPA Graphic Design NICOLA OWEN Production Team SARAH BRODBIN NILA KARADIA JULIA DANNENBERG ANJANA SHARMA Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager IRENE OZGA Film Research NICK DODD Research VIRGINIA MUCCHI FLORA WOODS JEFF GOLDBERG Picture Editor ROBERT MOORE Producer GUY SMITH Deputy Editor FARAH DURRANI 00.44.00 Editor FIONA MURCH BBC (c) BBC MMI 00.44.04 End BBC Correspondent 1 13