Editing Robert Hanssen (section)

=== FBI counterintelligence unit, further espionage activities (1985–1991) ===
[[File:Ellis dead drop.jpg|thumb|"Ellis" dead drop site in [[Foxstone Park]] used by Hanssen, including on the day of his arrest.]]
In 1981, Hanssen was transferred to [[FBI headquarters]] in Washington, D.C., and relocated his family 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 FBI as an expert on computers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=28–33}}</ref>

Three years later, Hanssen transferred to the FBI's Soviet analytical unit, responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. Hanssen's section evaluated Soviet agents who volunteered to give intelligence to determine whether they were genuine or [[re-doubled agent]]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=37–38}}</ref> In 1985, Hanssen was again transferred to the FBI's field office in New York City, where he continued to work in counterintelligence against the Soviets.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/robert-hanssen-business-cards-chalk-and-thumbtacks | title=Robert Hanssen Business Cards, Chalk, and Thumbtacks | access-date=June 6, 2023 | archive-date=March 14, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314200909/https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/robert-hanssen-business-cards-chalk-and-thumbtacks | url-status=live }}</ref> After the transfer, while on a business visit back to Washington, he resumed his espionage career.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McGahan |first1=Jason |title=New Stop on Washington's Spy Tour |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/03/01/new-stop-on-washingtons-spy-tour/270e7b2c-1d32-42eb-8b75-4226037e76d0/ |access-date=June 6, 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 1, 2001}}</ref>

On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the [[KGB]] offering his services and asking for $100,000 in cash, {{Inflation|US|100000|1985|fmt=eq|r=-4}}.{{Inflation/fn|US}} In the letter, he gave the names of three KGB agents secretly working for the FBI: [[Boris Yuzhin]], [[Valery Martinov]], and Sergei Motorin. Although Hanssen was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=50–51}}</ref> Yuzhin had returned to Moscow in 1982 and had been subject to an intensive investigation by the KGB because he had lost a concealed camera in the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, but he was not arrested until exposed by Ames and Hanssen.<ref>Lynch, Christopher, The C.I. Desk: FBI and CIA Counterintelligence As Seen From My Cubicle Dog Ear Publishing 2010</ref> Martynov and Motorin were recalled to Moscow, where they were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of espionage against the Soviet government. Martynov and Motorin were executed via gunshot to the back of the head; Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released by a general amnesty granted political prisoners and he subsequently immigrated to the U.S.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=56–57}}</ref> Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was neither suspected nor investigated. The October 1 letter began a long, active espionage period for Hanssen.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://irp.fas.org/ops/ci/hanssen_indict.html | title=USA v. Robert Philip Hanssen: Indictment | access-date=June 6, 2023 | archive-date=October 6, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006225718/https://irp.fas.org/ops/ci/hanssen_indict.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

Hanssen was recalled yet again to Washington, D.C., in 1987. He was tasked with studying all known and rumored penetrations of the FBI to find the man who had betrayed Martynov and Motorin; this meant, in effect, that he was charged with searching for himself. Hanssen ensured that he did not reveal himself with his study, but in addition, he gave the entire study—including the list of all Soviets who had contacted the FBI about FBI moles—to the KGB in 1988.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=3–4, 67–68, 82–83}}</ref> That same year, Hanssen, according to a government report, committed a "serious security breach" by revealing secret information to a Soviet [[defector]] during a debriefing. The agents working for him reported this breach to a supervisor, but no action was taken.<ref name="oig" />

In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of [[Felix Bloch (diplomatic officer)|Felix Bloch]], a [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] official who was suspected of espionage. Hanssen warned the KGB that Bloch was being investigated, causing the KGB to end contact with him abruptly. The FBI could not produce any good evidence, and as a result, Bloch was never charged with a crime, although the State Department later terminated his employment and denied his pension. The failure of the Bloch investigation and the FBI's investigation of how the KGB learned that they were investigating Bloch caused the mole hunt that eventually resulted in Hanssen's arrest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=111–119}}</ref>

Later that year, Hanssen gave the KGB extensive information about U.S. planning for [[measurement and signature intelligence]] (MASINT), a general term for intelligence collected by a variety of electronic means, such as [[radar]], spy satellites, and signal intercepts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cherkashin|Feifer|2005|p=246}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|p=95}}</ref> When the Soviets began construction on a [[Embassy of Russia in Washington, D.C.|new embassy]] in 1977, the FBI dug a tunnel beneath their decoding room. The FBI planned to use it for eavesdropping but never did for fear of being caught. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $55,000 payment the next month, {{Inflation|US|55000|1989|fmt=eq|r=-4}}.{{Inflation/fn|US}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=98–110}}</ref> On two occasions, Hanssen gave the Soviets a complete list of American [[double agent]]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|p=159}}</ref>

In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who was also an FBI employee, recommended to the FBI that Hanssen be investigated for espionage because his sister, Hanssen's wife, told him that her sister, Jeanne Beglis, had found a pile of cash on a dresser in the Hanssens' house. Bonnie had previously told her brother that Hanssen once talked about retiring in Poland, then part of the [[Eastern Bloc]]. Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and spoke with his supervisor, who took no action.<ref name="oig" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=120–128}}.</ref>