Appearance: Hanssen is 6' and 200 lbs, with darker blond hair cut short and combed into place. His brown eyes are offset by his gleaming white teeth, proof some dentist is making good money off him. His attire tends to be dark suits complete with ties, and black shoes. He wears a wedding ring, and depending on how he's moving it might be possible to glimpse the gun held in place under his left arm. At a guess, he is around forty years of age.

Contacts: FBI, USSR, STATE DEPARTMENT {Felix Bloch (born July 19, 1935) is director of European and Canadian Affairs in the United States Department of State, and a mole for the USSR}

History: SUMMERY: Emotionally abused son of a Chicago cop, Bachelors in Chemistry in 1966, three years of Dental School, Masters in Accounting and Information Systems in 1971. Worked for an accounting firm until 1972, joined the Chicago Police Department as an internal affairs investigator, specializing in forensic accounting. In January 1976, he left the police department to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.; wiretapping and electronic surveillance were Hanssen's responsibility, he became known in the Bureau as an expert on computers. Three years later, Hanssen transferred to the FBI's Soviet analytical unit, which was responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. Hanssen's section was in charge of evaluating Soviet agents who volunteered to give intelligence to determine whether they were genuine or re-doubled agents. In 1985, Hanssen was again transferred to the FBI's field office in New York.

Full History: Hanssen was born in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, to a Christian family who lived in the Norwood Park community.[9] His father Howard, a Chicago police officer, was emotionally abusive to Hanssen during his childhood.[4][10] He graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1962 and went on to attend Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966.

Hanssen applied for a cryptographer position in the National Security Agency, but was rebuffed due to budget setbacks. He enrolled in dental school at Northwestern University[11] but switched his focus to business after three years.[12] Hanssen received an MBA in accounting and information systems in 1971 and took a job with an accounting firm. He quit after one year and joined the Chicago Police Department as an internal affairs investigator, specializing in forensic accounting. In January 1976, he left the police department to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[4]

Hanssen met Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck, a staunch Roman Catholic, while attending dental school at Northwestern. The couple married in 1968, and Hanssen converted from Lutheranism to his wife's Catholicism. Hanssen embraced his conversion, and went on to join the Catholic organization Opus Dei[13] with like-minded individuals.

In 1979, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. During his first espionage cycle, Hanssen provided a significant amount of information to the GRU, including details of the FBI's bugging activities and lists of suspected Soviet intelligence agents. His most important leak was the betrayal of Dmitri Polyakov, a CIA informant who passed enormous amounts of information to American intelligence while rising to the rank of General in the Soviet Army. For unknown reasons, the Soviets did not act against Polyakov until he was betrayed a second time by CIA mole Aldrich Ames in 1985. (Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988.) Ames was officially blamed for giving Polyakov's name to the Soviets, while Hanssen's attempt was not revealed (until after his 2001 capture.[16])

In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and he moved to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia. His new job in the FBI's budget office gave him access to information involving many different FBI operations. This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance, which were Hanssen's responsibility. He became known in the Bureau as an expert on computers.[17]

Three years later, Hanssen transferred to the FBI's Soviet analytical unit, which was responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. Hanssen's section was in charge of evaluating Soviet agents who volunteered to give intelligence to determine whether they were genuine or re-doubled agents.[18] In 1985, Hanssen was again transferred to the FBI's field office in New York, where he continued to work in counter-intelligence against the Soviets. It was after the transfer, while on a business trip back to Washington, that he resumed his career in espionage.

On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash. In the letter, he gave the names of three KGB agents secretly working for the FBI: Boris Yuzhin, Valery Martynov, and Sergei Motorin. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, all three agents had already been exposed earlier that year by Ames.[19] Yuzhin had returned to Moscow in 1982, and had been put under intensive investigation by the KGB there due to having lost a concealed camera in the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, but he was not arrested until being exposed by Ames and Hanssen.[20] Martynov and Motorin were recalled to Moscow, where they were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of espionage against the USSR. Martynov and Motorin were condemned to death and executed via a gun-shot to the back of the head. Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released under a general amnesty to political prisoners, and subsequently emigrated to the U.S.[21] Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was not suspected nor investigated. The October 1 letter was the beginning of a long, active espionage period for Hanssen. During this time he lived in the suburban town of Yorktown Heights north of New York City.[