Death of Robert Hanson, the double agent who betrayed America to Moscow

It was “The most damaging spy in the history of the FBI”. Robert Hansen, As detailed on the Federal Police websiteHe died Monday, June 5, 2002, at the age of 79 at the prison where he had been incarcerated, the U.S. Prison Service announced.

An American agent in charge of intelligence within the FBI, he sold himself to the Soviets during the Cold War and gave Moscow some of the best kept secrets of the 1980s and 1990s in exchange for $1.4 million and diamonds.

He was found unconscious Monday morning at a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Robert Hanson was hired by the FBI in 1976 after starting his career with the Chicago (Illinois) police. A few years later, he joined the counterintelligence division of the New York office, tasked with tracking down Russians on American soil. Soviet ambassadors to the United Nations.

Long undoubtedly

Taking advantage of this prominent position, Hansen quickly offered his assistance to the intelligence services of the Soviet Union, cleverly operating under the alias “Ramon Garcia” without knowing his true identity.

Alternately holding positions in New York and Washington, he provided the Soviets and then the Russians with thousands of pages of documents, including military plans, counterintelligence software and the names of several double agents working for the United States.

Although the FBI quickly learned of a mole in its services, Hanson remained unsuspecting for long. Married and the father of six children, he lived inconspicuously, while maintaining close ties with the capital’s Catholic elite.

Flarant was caught in delicto

The federal police were finally tipped off in 2000 by a Russian who had also defected, but in the opposite direction. When Robert Hansen was about to retire, the FBI offered him a new position at headquarters to oversee him.

“What we wanted was to get enough evidence to convict him and the ultimate goal was to catch him in the act.”said Debra Evans Smith, former deputy director of the Counterintelligence Division.

Kept under surveillance in an office equipped with microphones and cameras to scrutinize his movements and gestures, he was finally arrested in February 2001 after depositing classified documents for Russian agents at a park in Virginia.

Robert Hanson avoided the death penalty by cooperating with investigators. He admitted to acting out of greed and was put through 200 hours of interrogation. In May 2002, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. “The FBI entrusted him with some of the most important secrets of the US government, and instead of keeping that trust, he abused and betrayed it.”Condemns the Federal Police on its website.