Minnesota Daily
Guest Column
Minneapolis, Minn.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.
The term "double agent" is crucial to almost every spy movie. Such a free-roaming character can implement the story's twists and turns and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. They also guarantee slower people, such as myself, will be completely lost once the picture is more than 15 minutes old.
While James Bond and Austin Powers are entertaining and even funny to watch, there is nothing amusing about the idea of a real-life double agent effectively working to jeopardize world security. Double agents are individuals who work for government intelligence in their native country while selling secrets to foreign countries. Persons of the aforementioned description are like David Arquette films: You do your best to prevent them from appearing, but somehow they still turn up.
Such is the case with FBI agent Robert Hanssen, arrested last week on counts of espionage and treason. Mr. Hanssen is accused of selling government secrets to the Russians for the past 15 years. Well, on second thought, when authorities are able to obtain past phone messages and confiscate a garbage bag full of U.S. secrets bound for the East, the term accused is really just a formality, isn't it?
Over the past 15 years, Hanssen doled out numerous tidbits of information involving American secrets and policies to the Russians. Included in this overseas swap meet were dozens of classified documents and electronic surveillance and monitoring techniques that included "an entire technical program of enormous value, expense and importance." Naturally the feds won't go into great detail as to the specifics of the damage. It's safe to say more eyes have seen the documents in question than were supposed to anyway. But it is known Robert Hanssen was integral in supplying Russians certain information pertaining to those who play on both sides of the secret agent fence.
Hanssen's busy lips are believed to be the key factor in the crumpled 1989 espionage investigation of State Department employee Felix Bloch. Law enforcement officials say Hanssen informed the Russians of his own government's developing knowledge of the dealings of Bloch. The Russians were able to warn Bloch and Justice Department prosecutors were never able to find sufficient evidence he had passed secret documents to the KGB.
Hanssen also informed the Russians of three of his Soviet counterparts — Boris Yuzhin, Sergey Motorin and Valeriy Martynov — three KGB agents selling preciously attained Russian information to the Americans. On Hanssen's tip, the Russians swooped in, caught and convicted the three. Yuzhin spent time in prison and fled to America after his release. Motorin and Martynov were convicted of espionage and executed. It was Hanssen who gave these men away and as such, is just as responsible for their deaths as the Russians are.
This incident provides a reality check to all people about one of the world's necessary evils. This isn't the glamour of James Bond or "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." These people are thieves, traitors, stool pigeons and opportunists, living on the outer fringe while thousands of heroes and patriots can and do die at the leaking of their lips. But as distasteful as this entire process is, spies have been invaluable in the past, including both world wars. They are revered and reviled, depending only on which side of the fence they serve. Even in a unified world, spies would probably still exist. Right or wrong, it is human nature to harbor a certain level of distrust toward our fellow man.
So how much does it cost to buy a man's integrity or his neighbor's security? According to sources, Hanssen received $1.4 million over 15 years for being such a great little snitch. The vast majority of this ill-gotten bounty, some $800,000, was stored for him in an overseas account; but he also took payments, $650,000 dollars, in the form of cash and diamonds. The money was split because Hanssen feared large cash intakes would make him look like a drug dealer.
This money is little more than icing on the cake for an individual who garnered more than $100,000 a year in base salary and lived in a $300,000 house in Vienna. Thus, we are left to question the motivation of an individual to sell out his country for a little more money on the pile and enough inventory to open his own Pawn America.
Hanssen appears to have a particular disdain for America. In written messages to his cohorts across the ocean, Hanssen referred to the United States as, "a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated." Viewpoints such as the aforementioned are disturbing no matter who utters them, but especially when they come from an individual in a position such as Hanssen's, who has the capacity to do great damage to the country itself.
In politically correct terminology, Hanssen's loose lips have jeopardized American security, which translates into your and my security. Captured traitors such as Hanssen deserve to be dealt with in the harshest manner possible. In a letter to his Russian cohorts, Hanssen said, "One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say, insanely loyal." Hanssen is loyal only to himself and the almighty dollar. It is my hope the American government sees him as insanely expendable.
This article is reprinted courtesy of U-Wire. It first appeared in the Minnesota Daily on February 28, 2001.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, March 1, 2001
