NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001

Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, of Vienna, Va., was formally charged with multiple counts of espionage, each of which could carry a life sentence and a fine of $250,000. Also, under special circumstances, Hanssen could be sentenced to death. U.S. District Judge Theresa C. Buchanan set a March 5 trial date.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director George Tenet were expected to discuss the investigation at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

During the arraignments, prosecutors claimed that Hanssen transmitted information detrimental to the United States. The counts include an alleged event in March 1989 in Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington.

Hanssen's lawyer, a well-known Washington-area defense attorney, Plato Cacheris, said Hanssen was upset and very emotional. He said he expected a plea of not guilty.

President Bush was informed of the investigation before the arrest Sunday. He said he was troubled and found the allegations disturbing. A Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman said it had no comment on the arrest of Hanssen.

According to ABC News, Hanssen worked in the FBI's counterintelligence department and had spent the bulk of his career working on Russian security concerns. Officials said Hanssen had been working for the Russians for as long as 20 years. ABC said the FBI had investigated Hanssen for several months.

Hanssen was reportedly arrested Sunday night as he tied to deliver information to a "dead drop."

During the investigation of former CIA counterintelligence agent and convicted spy Aldrich Ames, the FBI was unable to link to Ames all the classified information obtained by the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency. Further investigations pointed toward Hanssen.

Hanssen worked at one point in the State Department in its Office of Foreign Missions, according to a department official. The office was created during the Cold War to ensure reciprocity between American embassies in the Soviet Union and their diplomatic offices in the United States.

"This was a place where many FBI people would work," a State Department source said. "Keeping tabs of missions here, it was involved in tit-for-tat sorts of things. If we had trouble in Moscow, the FBI would take appropriate steps here."

Hanssen's arrest is one in a series of Russian-U.S. espionage allegations. In addition to Ames, who was arrested in 1994, U.S. officials in recent years arrested a man attached to the Russian Embassy as he allegedly was listening to transmissions from an electronic device hidden in a State Department meeting room. Last year American Edmond Pope, a former Navy intelligence officer, was arrested in Russia and convicted of spying. He was subsequently released.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

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