Breach: The arrest of an FBI agent on charges of espionage!

[Noblenole82]

Two nights ago, my girlfriend and I watched the movie "Breach", based on a true story about former FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen. Agent Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in 2001 to selling state secrets to the Soviet Union over a 16 year period. In 2001, Eric O'Neill was hired as a clerk within the agency, and was assigned to agent Hanssen. As part of an ongoing intelligence breach investigation, Mr. O'Neill was directed to keep notes on everything that he observed agent Hanssen doing. Late in the movie, agent Hanssen expressed concern about a signal that he was hearing in his personal automobile. Agent Hanssen grew suspicious of the signal he was hearing, and thought that his cover had been blown. Despite having some rather strange interests in online pornography, agent Hanssen was an agent with 25 years of experience in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One afternoon, after Mr. O'Neill had arranged for a 25th anniversary photo shoot of agent Hanssen, Mr. O'Neill went into Mr. Hanssen's personal briefcase and copied files from Mr. Hanssen's palm pilot (onto his own handheld device). In noticing that his briefcase had been moved from its original position, next to the desk, and had perhaps been placed back into the wrong briefcase pocket, Mr. Hanssen questioed Mr. O'Neill about whether or not he [Mr. O'Neill] had been into his briefcase. Mr. O'Neiill denied going into Mr. Hanssen's briefcase, and stated that he had moved the briefcase only to clean up a spill. In 1980, I earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Florida International University. Two years later, I received a master's degree from Florida State University. If my recollection serves me correctly, based upon what I had learned while studying constitutional law, Mr. Hanssen's fourth amendment rights were violated. Obviously, the FBI had been gathering evidence on Mr. Hanssen's dealings with the KGB and the Soviet Union for quite some time. As mentioned earlier, Mr. Hanssen had allegedly been involved in espionage for close to two decades (i.e., 16 years). Mr. Hanssen was observed placing a package under a bridge in Virginia park, and was apprehended by other federal agents within the FBI organization shortly afterwards. I remember when news first broke of this story, obviously with the arrest of agent Hanssen in a Virginia park, just as if it had happened yesterday. The movie concludes with former agent Hanssen telling Mr. O'Neill to please "pray for me". There are obviously things that are not brought out in the movie, perhaps due to the fact that this information might still be considered "classified". If Mr. Hanssen had gone to trial in federal court and had pleaded 'not guilty' to the charges against him, I do believe that a federal judge would have thrown out certain pieces of evidence that had been gathered, especially with regard to files on Mr Hanssen's palm pilot, or personal organizer. Mr. Hanssen is presently serving a life sentence at a maximum security penetentiary in Colorado, and spends 23 hours of each day in solitary confinement. Mr. O'Neill, a graduate of Gonzaga who had once aspired to become a federal agent within the bureau, turned down an offer of employment immediately following Mr. Hanssen's arrest. In closing out this post, I would like to make just one more point with regards to Mr. Hanssen's life sentence. Though Mr. Hanssen pleaded guilty to treason (or espionage), is isolation in solitary confinement, while being confined to life in prison, a condition of his sentence? Would this not be considered cruel and unsual punishment? As such, should Mr. Hanssen become part of the federal penetentiary's general population? Is there nothing else that we can do to monitor any and all communication that he might have with the outside world (e.g., reading mail, tap phone conversations)? Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing back from anyone else in this matter, and anyone else who may be interested in constitutional law.

[Knot4u2no]

I just received a copy of the movie Breach and hope to watch it in the next few days. I am more interested in the “character” portrayed in the movie than Hanssen’s legal situation or conditions of confinement. Several years ago, some colleagues and I presented a detailed study in which I profiled Hanssen as an UNSUB (Smith R.L., Silva J.A., Nair, M., and Hawes E.N. A Profile Analysis of the Spy Robert Philip Hanssen at the 20th Annual Symposium of the American College of Forensic Psychology in San Francisco, California, April 1-4, 2004).

In brief, consensus input ratings were reached by two raters for two separate BRACE Character Profiles™ of the spy Robert Philip Hanssen. The two sets of input ratings were completed four months apart, one based on information available when Hanssen was hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (HIRE profile) and the other based on information available at the time of his trial (TRIAL profile). Under blind conditions with respect to the identity of the person rated, I was tasked with providing two separate consultations by analyzing the two sets of BRACE Character Profile ratings and responding to the same six specific questions related to the UNSUBs' personality characteristics and potential for employment in an intelligence organization. The HIRE profile and the Trial profile were highly correlated and the Trail profile reflected a marked increase in pathology. Both consultations strongly recommended against hiring the UNSUBs and described the UNSUBs as insensitive to and disliked by coworkers, and as being extreme security risks. The profiles were specific and detailed and both generated far more information about the UNSUBs than was necessary to accurately complete the consultations.

By way of emails, I subsequently offered to design a series of interpersonal strategies and tactics for the FBI to use in order to improve the odds of eliciting more cooperation and information from Hanssen. It was my understanding that Hanssen pled guilty and agreed to cooperate in order to avoid the death penalty, but subsequently feigned memory loss related to critical information. I never got a response from the FBI, but I did develop the whole idea of scripting interpersonal styles related to interviewing, interrogation, negotiation and profiling.

Russell

[Knot4u2no]

The following is an excerpt from a profile of BTK which was completed May 14, 2004 and posted on the internet nine months before BTK was identified as Dennis Lynn Rader

(for the full report see http://www.deviantcrimes.com/BTKBRACE.htm ).

By their very nature, profiles of UNSUBS are full of speculations - the more informed the speculations the better. I keep reading after-the-fact commentaries that suggest that no one thought BTK was married, had children, church ties, etc. Comparing BTK to Robert Philip Hanssen still interests me.
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CONCLUDING SIDE BAR COMMENTS:
I believe BTK is very likely more than a casual admirer of the spy Robert Philip Hanssen. BTK likely sees himself as Hanssen’s kindred spirit. In fact (IMO), BTK has very likely read every thing he can about Hanssen ever since Hanssen was exposed as the most enduring, “successful,” and destructive mole in the FBI.

For the FBI, Hanssen was in a class by himself … BTK is a mole too. He knows “it” from the inside out. He knows the techniques of “law enforcement” in general, and the FBI in particular --- i.e., the reliance on statistics, the nature of crime scene evidence, the nature of victimology, comfort zones and related geographical plotting. He knows not only their methods, but the minds of the investigators. Been there done that, one way or another. Perhaps he is just a well studied inmate, but he seems to have specific training. But, an inmate/convict/prisoner with nothing but time on his hands has good opportunity to learn a whole lot about whatever attracts his attention. And, “BTK” in Russian prisons is a tattoo which means the prisoner has spent time in solitary confinement … isolation … which is the ideal environment for the development of deviant fantasies.

Hanssen considered his horrific betrayals of his wife (taped their sex to be viewed by friend), betrayals of his country, and betrayals of his god to be a clever game. US agents, Soviet/Russian agents, same-same to Hanssen, equally expendable to Hanssen … playing and winning the game was everything. The US government, the FBI, and the American public were merely his stage. In fact, the whole world was his stage. Hanssen did not care who would win the “cold war” … he always played both ends against the middle. If there was mutually shared destruction, Hanssen had plan C (Opus Dei).

Following the parallel between Hanssen and BTK, Hanssen was not interested in the money; BTK is not interested in the sex. Hanssen was interested in being the best, the most successful spy in the world; BTK is interested in being the most fearsome and successful serial killer --- the one that got away (perhaps to give it up at the last). Hanssen and BTK could only accomplish their chosen life goals by concealing their identities, by not being detected for who and what they were ... and, not having anyone to directly share their “successes” with. Hanssen “shared” his successes with his Soviet/Russian handlers; BTK “shares” with the media. Both “stuck it” to the FBI, to law enforcement … BTK is still doing it. The people BTK kills are just a means to an end, necessary pawns to affect law enforcement and the media ... and the minds of the public.
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I am certainly looking forward to John Douglas’ Inside the Mind of BTK, which is due out later this month.

Russell