Robert Hanssen and Breach

[erpowers]

I think most people at DU have heard about the case of the FBI agent Robert Hanssen. Also, I imagine most people here know that there was a movie made about hanssen and how he was caught. I think the movie does not give the real story. It just seems that a double agent would not have been that stupid. This was the case of a guy who had been a double agent for about 20 years. According to the movie this guy did a number of really stupid things and took a fairly long time to figure out he was under investigation. I just think he would have known sooner. It just seems to me that a guy like Hanssen would have easily caught on to what the FBI was doing. I am happy the FBI caught Hanssen, but I think the movie, like many other gives the wrong idea of how this guy was captured.

I do realize that many movies rewrite the stories that they are supposed to tell. I just wanted to discuss this issue with others. So, what do othters think?

[Taverner]

1. Part of why they (the FBI) didn't investigate him sooner was his associatings

He was Opus Dei, well connected - everyone thought "It couldn't be him"

[formercia]

2. I worked with Robert Hanssen in the early '80's.

He was an asshole but hew was one of Freeh's boys and thus untouchable.

I was assigned by the CIA to provide technical support liaison for the project he was working on at the time, a project that he later compromised to the Soviets.

The film has one glaring error. In the film it was said that Hanssen began spying for the Soviets in 1985. He actually began in 1979 when he compromised another operation to the Soviets that the FBI blamed on someone else who was falsely imprisoned for the crime. Hanssen had a knack of pointing the finger of blame at other people and thus kept the feds on a wild goose chase for decades.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Never underestimate

the stupidity of the FBI.

[formercia]

5. Fucking bunch of Idiots (FBI)

was one of their monikers at the CIA.

Fogarty Brothers Inc. was another

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Long ago, in a faraway galaxy,

I dealt with the FBI on a daily basis, filing FOIA requests on behalf of my client, a Black Panther who had been convicted of murder. In fact, he had been targeted by COINTELPRO (told you it was long ago), and the documents we finally got - hopelessly redacted - confirmed all our suspicions.

Every day, my colleague and I went to that obscenity of a building named after that old queen. I wore a different Mickey Mouse t-shirt every day, just to let them know what I thought of them.

They never got it.

[formercia]

8. We used to sit around Hoover's old desk.

and plot the latest fuck-up.

I came in early one day for a meeting. The administrative assistant gave me a cup of coffee and a donut and I proceeded to sit back in my chair and put my feet up on his desk. It gave me a lot of satisfaction.

Actually, it looked more like a banquet table than a desk.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. Were you seized with an irresistible

urge to don a red dress?

[formercia]

10. No, but I kept fondling my pocket knife.

It was a temptation I forced myself to resist.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. But,

you were wearing heels, weren't you?

[formercia]

12. Strictly casual

except on a first date.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. You're good .............

:toast:

Nice that we're on the same side now..............

[formercia]

14. I was young and foolish back then.

Now I'm just an old fool.

:toast:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. No fool like an old fool........

My favorites..............

:)

[formercia]

19. It was fun flirting but I already have a girl friend.

She's a 5 year old short-tailed tabby and the only one I trust.

[arcadian]

4. Funny how Hanssen is considered a traitor.

But if he had merely started a corporation and sold secrets that way, the guy would have probably won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[formercia]

6. The FBI always gets their man.

It may be the wrong person they throw in jail or harass to the point of suicide, but they always get someone.

It's all about closure.

[arcadian]

16. This is interesting regarding the movie 'Breach'

In the scene where Hanssen gets busted shot at Foxstone Park. Incidentlly, that is the actual location of Hanssen's dead drop under the bridge where he was arested. In that scene you can see a communications tower off in the distance. That tower is located at Tysons Corner, it's called Site E and is part of the Presidential Continuity of Government plan, it's illegal to photograph it, make notes or drawings of that structure per the Internal Security Act of 1950.



The sign has been replaced with a new sign which states the same thing only, it's now under the authority of Fort Myer. I wonder if they went after the director for that one? :rofl:

[formercia]

17. I noticed that in the film too.

A bit of ironic humor.

COG was very tightly held. I knew about it because one of my supervisors was involved with it but it was always hush-hush.

I remember the first activation test. They couldn't get the super-secret modem to work, so a tech went to a phone booth and used the audio from a tape recorder to activate the system. That was another boondoggle. The Soviets knew more about it than I did.

[formercia]

18. Here's another thing to think about

If Hanssen gave up COG to the Soviets and he started working for them in 1985, how did the Soviets know about Able Archer 83 in advance.
That one has bothered me for a long time.

I think this movie was part of a cover-up to the Mother of all fuck-ups.