Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen became the most damaging spy in bureau history not because of his espionage abilities but because of a 20-year lapse in the FBI’s ability to deter or detect spies in the agency and a lack of supervision by its officials, a report said yesterday.
“There was essentially no deterrence to espionage at the FBI during the 1979 to 2001 time period,” said a summary report of a classified 674-page audit by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General of FBI efforts to uncover Hanssen’s spying activities.
People were interested in these podcasts
“The FBI’s personnel and information security programs presented few obstacles to Hanssen’s espionage.
“Because of lax supervision, Hanssen felt free to conduct many of his espionage-related activities while on duty,” the report said. “These deficiencies in deterrence, detection and supervision played a major role in Hanssen’s willingness and ability to commit espionage over a more than 20-year period.”
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said Hanssen’s removal of hundreds of classified documents from the FBI — including original and numbered top-secret papers — and improper searches of the bureau’s computer system for references to himself and to the FBI’s most sensitive espionage investigations “went unnoticed.”
Hanssen, a 27-year FBI veteran who spent more than half of his law-enforcement career as a counterintelligence agent, pleaded guilty in July 2001 to spying for the Soviet Union and Russia after a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.
Sentenced to life in prison, he admitted to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy dating to more than 20 years for which he collected $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
The report said Hanssen betrayed some of the country’s most important counterintelligence and military secrets, including the identities of dozens of undercover operatives — at least three of whom were executed.
“Although Hanssen escaped detection for more than 20 years, this was not because he was a ’master spy’ … but because of longstanding systemic problems in the FBI’s counterintelligence program and a deeply flawed FBI internal security program,” said Mr. Fine, describing the former agent’s espionage efforts as reckless.
The report also noted that despite recent changes within the FBI to address security failures, the bureau remains vulnerable to in-house “weaknesses.” It recommended a “wholesale change in mind-set and approach to internal security.”
“Some of the most serious weaknesses still have not been fully remedied,” Mr. Fine said. “These weaknesses expose the FBI to the risk of future serious compromises by another mole.”
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said the bureau has taken “significant strides” to correct deficiencies, including a nationally directed program for counterintelligence, centralized at FBI headquarters, to ensure accountability, control and leadership. He said the program will allow the FBI to be more proactive in protecting critical national assets.
“The FBI has built, and continues to improve, a comprehensive, centralized and forward-looking security program,” he said.
But Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the inspector general’s report “alarming,” saying it showed that major FBI security deficiencies that allowed Hanssen’s espionage activities are still in place more than two years after his arrest.
“The FBI must overhaul its own efforts to prevent, deter and detect moles,” he said. “The national security of the United States is too important for complacency.”
The report said Hanssen succeeded as a spy for more than 20 years because of long-standing deficiencies and the cumulative decisions of many FBI employees, including several unnamed directors and senior managers who failed to remedy “serious flaws in the FBI’s personnel, document and information security programs.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.