Showing posts with label Robert Hansen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Hansen. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2014

Espionage: The Betrayal of a Nation

Espionage is one of those trade crafts that fuel the plot in 007-type movies. And although this is true, it's also true that there are spies out and about throughout society within these United States working to uncover secrets held by both public and private concerns.

"I miss good old-fashioned espionage. Few crimes can sway or drive the wayward heart’s intentions as spying for — or against — one’s country," says William Parkinson, Senior Moment columnist with The Sentinel, Carlisle, PA, in his recent newsprint column on spying (click here).

Throughout the years there have been many spies on Uncle Sam's payroll who have sold out their country for either the need for money, because of an ideal, perhaps because of blackmail, or some combination of the above. Some of them got away with it and will never surface publicly while others where caught in the act.

I am relatively sure that the trade craft of espionage did not end with the closing of the cold war. There are, in fact, many cases in modern day times of U.S. citizens and others within the borders of this nation who were caught spying on a variety of entities, from Uncle Sam to government contractors.

One of those spies, Robert Hansen, is one of the most notable in a long list of traitors.

Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States for 22 years from 1979 to 2001. He is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. (read more)

Here's the FBI's press release on the Hansen arrest, published on February 20, 2001: (click here).

The following is an interesting documentary on Hansen. There are those who claim that the work that Hansen did for the Russians led up to the 9/11 tragedy. According to this video, the U.S. paid millions for Hansen's KGB file which included an audio tape of a conversation that a KGB operative had with Hansen. This led FBI investigators to recognize the voice, which was that of their Comrade Robert Hansen. This led investigators to investigate Hansen to the extent that they were able to ascertain guilt.

ESC will feature a number of news items via Twitter and our Facebook page that deal with traitors who were caught or suspected of crimes against this and other nations.

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