Quotes about the Robert Hanssen Case, Part II

Quotes about the Robert Hanssen Case

Quotes 2

"Based on what we know, Hanssen is among the most damaging spies that we've ever suffered, without a doubt."--Mark Lowenthal, a former House Intelligence Committee staff director

"The fact that there are still countries that are interested in stealing our intelligence secrets shows that we need to take steps to review our security measures so that this doesn't happen again."--Attorney General spokeswoman Mindy Tucker

"As long as states exist and need to protect their interests, intelligence-gathering will take place. And as long as this happens, the same will be true for counter-espionage, and agents will be unmasked."--SVR spokesman Boris Labusov

"Intelligence collection is as active as it was before the Cold War."--CI Centre Professor Oleg Kalugin

"He knew all the trip wires."--Richard Alu, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent

"Maybe he was intrigued with the game and not the gain."--CI Centre Professor David Major

"We have to look at something in 1985 that caused this guy to say, 'Hey, I'm ready to cross over."--Pete Earley, author of Confessions of a Spy

"I'm not sure he really thought the repercussions through and the effect not only on his country but on his family too. What motivated him, is probably him."--Security expert Frank Cilluffo of the Center for Strategic and International Studies

"Obviously the glamour and excitement played to him but that attraction of being superior to everyone else around you seemed to play a part ... People in the FBI are a lot like that."--Author and intelligence consultant Abram Shulsky

"This is not the first and the last spy scandal. It can hardly undermine Russian-U.S. cooperation focused on far more serious issues."--Andrei Piontkovsky, head of the Center for Strategic Studies think tank

"When you look at the list of things that he allegedly compromised, it has to take your breath away, because what it does is it compromises the capacities and capabilities of this nation to defend itself."--CI Centre Professor David Major

"It's just an incredible betrayal, essentially like a family member. And there are thousands of excellent FBI agents out there who feel the same way."--Former DCI Jim Woolsey

"I have confidence in the men and women who work at the FBI."--President George W. Bush

"Organizations don't commit espionage, people do."--CI Centre Professor David Major

"There are tens of thousands of retired FBI agents and people in FBI. I know how badly we felt at the CIA when Ames was caught. I think it's important to say that this should not tar the reputation of the FBI. It is a fine institution. They do a phenomenal job. Every organization, including the CIA and the FBI, Is going to have somebody like this come along once in a while, and he shouldn't be considered by anyone as emblematic of the Bureau."--Former DCI Jim Woolsey

"I think myself that they ought to look very closely at the possible use of polygraphs in the FBI in a systematic way. Not that it will stop everything such as spying, espionage, but it will thwart a lot of it."--Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby on whether there are other spies out operating in the US

"When CIA employees hear polygraph, they think 'normal course of doing business'. But when our guys hear polygraph they think of it as a tool used against criminals."--FBI official

"This guy looks more tangled, he wasn't really quibbling with them about money, they paid him a good deal. Also it doesn't seem like he was a true believer in communism, there's a strong element of pride and living on the edge about this, it's a very strange set of motivations for a spy."--Former DCI Jim Woolsey

"They were very skillful in the way they played him. It is clear he became quite dependent on them."--former FBI deputy director Larry Potts

"It's certainly possible that [Hanssen] felt he was good enough to beat this whole thing. There could be that challenge there . . . to win the chess game. But it appears he became a little sloppy near the end."--Larry Torrence, a former FBI counterintelligence official

"The polygraph is a useful tool, it's not a perfect tool, it has a deterrent effect."--CIA spokesman Bill Harlow

"Webster will undoubtedly come up with numerous useful recommendations to repair defects in the FBI's security. Repairing defects in the human heart will be harder.''--Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

''Man is caught in a constant struggle between his instincts for good and evil."--Bob Hanssen

"This ain't Aldrich Ames."--Frederick Hitz, former inspector general who investigated Ames

"Money could not have been the sole reason. Instead - and we had an element of this in the Ames case - it seems it was the thrill of game."--Frederick Hitz

"A careful spy who knows all of the tricks of the counterintelligence world can be very difficult to identify."--Former DCI Robert Gates

"Spying existed before the Cold War. It exists after the Cold War."--Associated Press

"Hanssen's endurance suggests that for almost every tightened security measure the FBI has thought of, there's still a way for a clever spy to get around it."--USA Today editorial

"You can't stop that. You can have checks, polygraphs, precautions -- at the end of the day, if somebody is determined to do it, they're going to do it."--Mark Hulkower, who prosecuted convicted spy Aldrich Ames

"There's an esprit-de-corps within the FBI. Everybody trusts everybody else. We have had, over the course of years, very few bad apples in the FBI."--retired FBI agent Richard Alu

"They had Hanssen in the FBI and Aldrich Ames in the CIA at the same time. That is quite an intelligence coup!"--John L. Martin, a former spy prosecutor

"We do know that happy people never do this, but we never know why somebody is fundamentally unhappy."--CI Centre Professor David Major

"It's the world's second oldest profession by some accounts. As long as we have secrets that are valuable to others, we'll have espionage."--Frank Cilluffo of the Center for Strategic and International Studies

"Polygraphs aren't going to be the answer. Remember, Ames was polygraphed. He was polygraphed twice while he was passing information to the KGB. He passed both times. One time with qualifications, but he cleared. I prosecuted another espionage case 10 years ago. A fellow was spying for a foreign government for 30 years. He passed polygraph exams. They are not infallible."--Former prosecutor Mark Hulkower

"He had a very low profile. He didn't throw his money around. And he probably would have gone undetected forever until the bureau and/or the CIA managed to collect this information that pointed to him."--Former head of counterintelligence at the CIA, Paul Redmond

"We are talking about a counterintelligence expert, a person who had worked this work for a long time, knew virtually all of the techniques the FBI employs. But also knew how to communicate with the Russian intelligence services; knew how to set up an operation, in which his identity was protected."--Former deputy assistant director of the agency's National Security Division Larry Torrence

"Everything – all sources, all methods, all techniques, all targets. There's only a few people in counterintelligence that have to know everything. And he was one of them."--CI Centre Professor David Major

"He didn't suddenly start flashing cash around; his outward behavior didn't change; he exhibited none of the signs – financial troubles, marital problems, drug or alcohol problems – that would attract attention. He knew the system, he knew how to protect himself or he wouldn't have lasted for 15 years."--Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., the vice chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee

"You never say never because you don't know."--Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby on whether there are other spies out operating in the US

"Anyone who's interested in tradecraft ought to read this affidavit; it's very interesting."--Former DCI Jim Woolsey

"The mission is to look at the bureau's process for dealing with internal security processes and see whether or not there are logical ways to strengthen the system and protect it from the kind of activities that the Hanssen case illustrates."--Judge William Webster

"He [Viktor Cherkashin] was lucky enough to have two gold mines land in his lap. But the Russians know how to keep secrets and they have discipline. The Americans don't."--Paul Redmond, former head of CIA counterintelligence

"His handlers were, in many ways, his lifeline and his refuge. He was out there totally, totally alone. He'd already betrayed his country many times, so they had him, and he wanted to be had. . . . There's a very close bond that can develop, and it was even more intense in this case."--Robert M. Blitzer, former head of the FBI's counterterrorism division.

"He may not be just venting his soul. He may be very calculating in what he was telling them."--William H. Webster

"The FBI was always considered the toughest target to penetrate. The easiest was the Defense Department."--CI Centre Professor Oleg Kalugin

“There is much more to this than the public yet knows. It’s more serious than anyone knows. That’s all I can tell you, but we believe other agencies also have been penetrated.”--a senior congressional aide briefed on the Hanssen investigation

"This is why the penetration of this caliber is really a spectacular feat for the Soviet, Russian intelligence. On the other hand the fact that he was exposed ... is another spectacular feat for the FBI, CIA."--CI Centre Professor Oleg Kalugin