-Caveat Lector-
From: Editorial Columns at:
www.Intellivu.com
Thursday July 12 03:00 AM EDT
The Hanssen Mystery
By Robert Novak
WASHINGTON -- Three and half-years ago, I reported that a veteran FBI agent
resigned and retired after refusing a demand by Attorney General Janet Reno
to give the Justice Department the names of top secret sources in China. My
primary source was FBI agent Robert Hanssen.
Disclosing confidential sources is unthinkable for a reporter seeking to
probe behind the scenes in official Washington, but the circumstances here
are obviously extraordinary. The same traitor who delivered American spies
into the Kremlin's hands was expressing concern about the fate of
intelligence assets in China.
When my source was revealed as a spy, my first fear was that I had been the
victim of disinformation by a truly evil man. I wrote my column of Nov. 24,
1997 only after other officials confirmed Hanssen's account. Nevertheless,
I now wanted to make doubly sure and rechecked my report's validity. I did
so, and several sources -- including one FBI agent who would not speak to
me in 1997 -- totally confirmed what I had written. I am absolutely
convinced that Hanssen told me the truth.
Then, why break a reporter's responsibility to keep his sources secret? I
wrestled with this question for months and finally decided that my
experience with Hanssen contributes to the portrait of this most
contradictory of all spies. Furthermore, to be honest to my readers, I must
reveal it.
In mid-November 1997, critics were accusing the Justice Department of
covering up 1996 campaign scandals. I was informed by Hanssen that Ray
Wickman, head of the FBI's intelligence unit monitoring Chinese operations,
was ordered in Reno's name to turn over secret sources in his Chinese
account. Wickman refused to surrender this information, resigned from the
FBI and retired from the government in September 1997. Wickman declined to
discuss this with me then and more recently, when I again approached him.
I never met Hanssen but talked to him three times over the telephone, the
first at length and twice more briefly to check out information I received
from other officials. He seemed to be well organized and deeply concerned
about the possible compromise of secret assets in a Communist-ruled
country.
Hanssen told me Wickman's sources were of the highest caliber and among the
FBI's most sensitive. All unattributed quotes in my column came from
Hanssen.
"It was an insult," I quoted Hanssen in describing the demand made of
Wickman. He added: "The purpose of the FBI is to safeguard sources. The
whole idea is to keep sources secret from the Justice Department. If
Justice is going to have full access to our files, we have no purpose."
I now have rechecked these quotes with another FBI source familiar with the
Wickman situation. He agreed completely with these sentiments and attested
to their accuracy.
My encounter with Hanssen came during what the government alleges was his
sabbatical from spying for over eight years from the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1991 until 1999, when KGB alumnus Vladimir Putin became Russia's
prime minister en route to the presidency.
Unanswerable questions are pondered. During the lengthy interim when he was
not betraying his country, could Hanssen have felt some genuine concern
about the security of U.S. assets in China if they fell into the hands of
the attorney general? Could he have experienced a sudden change of heart
after disclosing the identity of U.S. assets in Russia?
Or, was he merely using me to undermine Reno -- and his boss, FBI Director
Louis Freeh, as well? When I informed Hanssen that Freeh had told a member
of Congress that he had heard nothing about Wickman's resignation, he
replied disdainfully: "Of course, he heard about it."
The accuracy of that assertion also has been newly verified to me by an
additional source.
Robert Hanssen is an enigma and will remain so at least until he reveals
himself. The speculation that he is purely the embodiment of evil tends to
be undermined by the validity of his report about Ray Wickman. He really
may have been living a double-life, one as a patriotic, religious American
and the other as spy of the century. That sounds fanciful, but any other
explanation fails.
=======================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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