Robert Hanssen, FBI agent who spied for Russia, dead at 79

[beschizza]

Originally published at: Robert Hanssen, FBI agent who spied for Russia, dead at 79 | Boing Boing

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[lecti]

I didn’t know that prison cells had balconies.

[Rives]

So he did all of that for…1.4…million, with an m. He’d have as much or more just from buying a house near DC in 1979. I suppose if they gave him all of that up front back then it would have been a lot…but I don’t think that’s how that worked.

[VeronicaConnor]

It’s often amazing how bad a decision people will make for not very much money. Like you said, it’s a lot, but not life-in-prison-for-treason a lot.

I think this usually means he was doing it primarily for other reasons. Like the thrill of doing something “espionage-y” or he had a grudge against the government or something.

[anon81034786]

@Rives

So he did all of that for…1.4…million, with an m.

I know it’s fictionalized, but in the movie Breach, they depict Hanssen’s motives as a warped sense of patriotism trying to force institutional change inside the CIA FBI. No idea how accurate that really was. Really good movie regardless…mostly because of Chris Cooper’s performance

Breach (2007) ⭐ 7.0 | Biography, Crime, Drama

[simonize]

And his was one of the bigger payouts. That was one of the lessons of our annual security briefings: how surprisingly little most of these guys sold out their country for. The bigger motivation for most of them was the boredom of their jobs. Being a spy was exciting and you get to feel smart for getting away with it.

Edited to add: Of course to some extent you can take that with a grain of salt. After all, they’re not going to say “The money is really good and you’re not likely to get caught,” in a security briefing.

[VeronicaConnor]

@simonize

And his was one of the bigger payouts. That was one of the lessons of our annual security briefings: how surprisingly little most of these guys sold out their country for.

I always think about this with real life bank robbers too. They almost always get caught, so it’s a very very high risk crime. Penalties are also very steep for this. Then you look at how much money they get away with, and it’s not even a good used car. It’s usually ten or twenty thousand dollars. Banks don’t actually have that much cash on hand in real life. It’s an absolutely ludicrous thing to try and rob one, but people keep doing it.

[eccentriccog]

It was also likely heavily motivated by the conspiracy obsession within the NY FBI office, where they were already passing around “Clinton Cash”. If you’re convinced you’re addressing another conspiracy, you’ll do some phenomenally stupid stuff.

These are smart people, but that can go twice as far to fooling oneself.

[Rives]

That would track in terms of motive. I’ll have to check the movie out.

[Brainspore]

@VeronicaConnor

It’s often amazing how bad a decision people will make for not very much money. Like you said, it’s a lot, but not life-in-prison-for-treason a lot.

And if a person in his position had made many millions of dollars selling secrets then he still would have had a heck of a difficult time spending it without raising a bunch of red flags during security audits and background checks. A mid-level FBI functionary living in a fancy mansion or driving a Bugatti to work would be liable to stand out.

[Brainspore]

@Rives

That would track in terms of motive

For Hanssen’s part, he never claimed an ideological motive and reportedly told the FBI that it was all about the money. So if he really was motivated by a warped sense of patriotism he didn’t say so publicly.

[stinkinbadgers]

Yeah, I mean the most recent case the payoff was to impress a bunch of teenagers online.

[smulder]

@Rives

he did all of that for…1.4…million, with an m

… a million was a lot more money 40 years ago

[jaded]

The counterintelligence people have an acronym for the motivations for spying: MICE. Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego.

The Russians were known for being super stingy with their payments; probably because hard currency was incredibly expensive for them to get. And I don’t think it mattered much, because once someone accepts their money there’s almost certainly compromising photos of the payoffs they could then translate into real leverage.

[Otherbrother]

@jaded

The Russians were known for being super stingy with their payments; probably because hard currency was incredibly expensive for them to get. And I don’t think it mattered much, because once someone accepts their money there’s almost certainly compromising photos of the payoffs they could then translate into real leverage.

Yeah, they had recordings of some of their interactions with him, and a Russian defecting to the US with a copy of those in hand is part of how he finally got caught. The Russians would certainly have every motivation to use his prior crimes as leverage to keep him working for them.

[Rives]

it was, but it took him decades to amass that much money, and the value depreciated over time. Do we think this man invested that money wisely as it came in and turned it into a multi-million dollar fortune?