Grand Jury Indicts Hanssen

Robert Philip Hanssen, a 25-year veteran FBI agent, was indicted Wednesday on espionage charges. Federal prosecutors said the father of six “betrayed his country for over 15 years” and seriously compromised the security of the country.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

The 57-page indictment handed up by a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., provides new details of the damage that Hanssen allegedly caused to national security during 15 years of spying and begins to lay out the evidence prosecutors might use to seek the death penalty.

The grand jury charged Hanssen, 57, with conspiracy to commit espionage, attempted espionage and 19 specific acts of spying. The indictment also demands that he turn over $1.43 million in alleged proceeds. The conspiracy count and 13 of the specific acts make Hanssen eligible for the death penalty, federal prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges that Hanssen “knowingly caused grave injury to the security of the United States,” said U.S. Atty. Kenneth Melson.

Plato Cacheris, Hanssen’s lead attorney, said he would not discuss the indictment. “We are withholding all comment until court appearances.”

The indictment also offers new details about the dozens of programs, documents and people Hanssen allegedly imperiled.

Among the allegations:

* In 1986, Hanssen told the Russians that the United States was “exploiting” a technical weakness in Soviet satellites to intercept transmissions.

* Two years later, he helped the Soviets protect their communication by disclosing a limitation on what the National Security Agency could read.

* In 1989, he turned over a top-secret analysis of U.S. plans to “ensure the continuity of government in the event of a Soviet military attack.”

* Hanssen betrayed six Soviet citizens and agents who secretly were working for the United States, in addition to the three KGB double agents mentioned in earlier filings.

James Bamford, an intelligence expert and author of two books about the National Security Agency, characterized the alleged compromises as “one of the worst espionage losses by NSA ever.”

Hanssen, who lives in Vienna, Va., will be arraigned June 1 in front of U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. He has been held without bond since his Feb. 18 arrest. FBI agents picked up Hanssen after observing him allegedly leaving a package for his Russian handlers in a Fairfax County, Va., park.

The indictment comes after plea talks between Hanssen’s attorneys and the government broke down.

The sticking point, sources said, was over Justice Department officials’ unwillingness to take the death penalty off the table before knowing what Hanssen would tell them about his alleged spying.

Former CIA official Jack Devine said he supported use of the death penalty as both a bargaining tool and legitimate punishment. Calling the damage Hanssen caused “massive,” Devine, who retired in 1999 as London station chief after serving as associate deputy director of operations, said that treason “meets my threshold” for use of the death penalty.

“We can tick off enough traitors that there needs to be a counterweight to the monetary temptations,” he said.

Facing a deadline next week for an indictment, prosecutors went to the grand jury Tuesday after Cacheris refused to agree to a 30-day extension.

Melson said the indictment was filed because “the grand jury sits this week and does not sit on Monday.”

The indictment does not rule out a deal. Harold James Nicholson, a CIA case officer, and Earl Pitts, an FBI counterintelligence agent, each pleaded guilty to espionage after their indictments.