Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America
by David Wise
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Book Summary Information
Author: David WiseEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-10-14
ISBN: 0375758941
Number of pages: 344
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America
Book Review: Revenge of the Nerd
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the many things that the psychiatrist hired by Robert Hanssen's defense lawyer discovered was that Hanssen had a deep-rooted sense of inferiority because he was not a member of the varsity counter intelligence team of the FBI-his FBI-but was instead a supernumerary, a support player. He never scored the winning touchdown or got the cheerleader. In other words, the most damaging spy in U.S. history was upset about being a water boy and struck back at the better, cooler kids by selling secrets to the Soviets and later to the Russians.To salve his wounded ego Hanssen got men killed and put the entire country at risk.
David Wise's "Spy" is the gold standard about the Hanssen case. Cogent and well-written, it is a page turner that scrupulously adheres to the record; no fanciful filling in the blanks here. Wise lucidly details how the FBI, from the director on down, dropped the ball with regard to Hanssen. No file was opened and no investigation started even after red flags kept popping up all over the place. Hanssens's own brother in law, a fellow agent, reported his concerns about Hanssen's new-found wealth to a supervisor; Hanssen was discovered with a password blocker on his computer; Hanssen beat a woman subordinate. It boggles the mind that this viper was in the FBI's midst for decades and operated with impunity. Incredibly, had not the KGB sold his file to the FBI for seven million dollars, Hanssen might still be at it. Hats off to David Wise for his brilliant encapsulation of a most sordid chapter of the FBI's history.
Summary of Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America
Spy tells, for the first time, the full, authoritative story of how FBI agent Robert Hanssen, code name grayday, spied for Russia for twenty-two years in what has been called the "worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history"-and how he was finally caught in an incredible gambit by U.S. intelligence.David Wise, the nation's leading espionage writer, has called on his unique knowledge and unrivaled intelligence sources to write the definitive, inside story of how Robert Hanssen betrayed his country, and why.
Spy at last reveals the mind and motives of a man who was a walking paradox: FBI counterspy, KGB mole, devout Catholic, obsessed pornographer who secretly televised himself and his wife having sex so that his best friend could watch, defender of family values, fantasy James Bond who took a stripper to Hong Kong and carried a machine gun in his car trunk.
Brimming with startling new details sure to make headlines, Spy discloses:
-the previously untold story of how the FBI got the actual file on Robert Hanssen out of KGB headquarters in Moscow for $7 million in an unprecedented operation that ended in Hanssen's arrest.
-how for three years, the FBI pursued a CIA officer, code name gray deceiver, in the mistaken belief that he was the mole they were seeking inside U.S. intelligence. The innocent officer was accused as a spy and suspended by the CIA for nearly two years.
-why Hanssen spied, based on exclusive interviews with Dr. David L. Charney, the psychiatrist who met with Hanssen in his jail cell more than thirty times. Hanssen, in an extraordinary arrangement, authorized Charney to talk to the author.
-the full story of Robert Hanssen's bizarre sex life, including the hidden video camera he set up in his bedroom and how he plotted to drug his wife, Bonnie, so that his best friend could father her child.
- how Hanssen and the CIA's Aldrich Ames betrayed three Russians secretly spying for the FBI-including tophat, a Soviet general-who were then executed by Moscow.
-that after Hanssen was already working for the KGB, he directed a study of moles in the FBI when-as he alone knew-he was the mole.
Robert Hanssen betrayed the FBI. He betrayed his country. He betrayed his wife. He betrayed his children. He betrayed his best friend, offering him up to the KGB. He betrayed his God. Most of all, he betrayed himself. Only David Wise could tell the astonishing, full story, and he does so, in masterly style, in Spy.
From the Hardcover edition.
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