Comrade geocacher - this
story describes an infamous Russian spy. Read carefully
because you will continue the covert activity.
Robert Philip
Hanssen, known by neighbors and colleagues as a quiet family man
and hard-working FBI agent, was also a Russian spy who sold out his
country for cash and diamonds, according to a government
affidavit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen
During more than 15 years of betrayal, the FBI charges, Hanssen
gave the Soviets, and later the Russians, 6,000 pages of documents
and 27 computer diskettes cataloguing secret and top secret
programs. FBI Director Louis Freeh described Hanssen's
alleged espionage as "the most traitorous actions imaginable
against a country governed by the rule of law." Hanssen spent much
of his 25-year career with the FBI in counterintelligence, giving
him access to highly sensitive cases and documents. In 1995,
he began working as the bureau's liaison to the State Department
Office of Foreign Missions and the State's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research. The 116-page government affidavit traces the
beginning of the spy case to a letter Hanssen allegedly sent in
October 1985 to Viktor Ivanovich Cherkashin, the KGB chief of
foreign intelligence at the Soviet Embassy in
Washington .
(
U.S. affidavit on alleged crimes (FindLaw)
Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
An excerpt from
the letter contained in the affidavit reads:
"Soon, I will
send a box of documents to (KGB officer) Mr. Degtyar. They
are from certain of the most sensitive and highly compartmented
projects of the U.S. intelligence community. All are
originals to aid in verifying their authenticity. Please
recognize for our long-term interests that there are a limited
number of persons with this array of clearances. As a
collection they point to me. I trust that an officer of your
experience will handle them appropriately. I believe they are
sufficient to justify a $100,000 payment to me." The
letter went on to alert the KGB that three of its officers -- Boris
Yuzhin, Sergey Motorin and Valeriy Martynov -- had been recruited
as double agents by U.S. "special services." Convicted U.S. spy
Aldrich Ames revealed the same three names to the Russians that
same year, while he was a CIA officer.
Martynov and Motorin were arrested in Moscow,
tried and executed. Yuzhin was also arrested and
convicted of espionage but was released from prison after six
years.
The government
affidavit charges that Hanssen also blew the cover on dozens of
secret and top secret intelligence programs and operations,
including:
-- The National Measurement and Signature Intelligence Program,
involving acoustic intelligence, radar intelligence and nuclear
radiation detection.
-- The FBI Double Agent Program.
-- The Intelligence Community's Comprehensive Compendium of Future
Intelligence Requirements.
-- A study on recruitment operations of the KGB against the
CIA.
-- An assessment of the KGB's effort to gather information on U.S.
nuclear programs.
-- A CIA analysis of the KGB's First Chief Directorate (FCD), its
international intelligence division.
-- FBI counterintelligence techniques, sources, methods and
operations.
"In one case,
he compromised an entire technical program of enormous value,
expense and importance to the United States Government," the
affidavit states. Hanssen is also
accused of tipping off the KGB to the FBI's secret investigation of
Felix Bloch, an agent suspected of spying for Moscow in 1989.
The KGB warned Bloch, according to the FBI. Justice
Department prosecutors were never able to find key evidence that
Bloch passed secret documents. (Bloch lives quietly near
Chapel Hill, NC and drives a bus for the Chapel Hill Transit System
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Bloch_(alleged_spy)
)
The U.S.
government charges that Hanssen wrote a total of 27 letters to the
Russians, who knew him only by various aliases, such as "B" and
"Ramon Garcia." The Russians repeatedly asked Hanssen to
reveal his identity, according to the affidavit. He allegedly
responded in a letter: "I am much safer if you know little about
me. Neither of us is children about this." In another
letter allegedly written by Hanssen to the Russians, he said that
he was inspired by the story of British-Soviet double agent Kim
Philby. "I decided on this course when I was 14 years old,"
reads the letter cited in the affidavit. "I'd read Philby's
book. Now that is insane, eh!"
Federal
prosecutors allege that Hanssen made $1.4 million from his
espionage, of which $600,000 was in cash and diamonds. The
remainder was put into an escrow account in Russia. "I have
little need or utility for more than the $100,000" The affidavit
quotes from another letter attributed to Hanssen. "It merely
provides a difficulty since I cannot spend it, store it or invest
it easily without tripping 'drug money' warning bells.
Perhaps some diamonds as security to my children and some good
will. ... Eventually I would appreciate an escape plan. Nothing
lasts forever."
Hanssen had a
cynical view of his country, according to federal prosecutors, who
attribute these lines to him: "The U.S. can be errantly likened to
a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but
young, immature and easily manipulated." Many of the
exchanges of secret documents and cash were made at designated
drop-off dead-drop sites in parks near Hanssen's suburban Virginia
home, according to the affidavit. After the KGB switched to a new
dead-drop site in 1987, Hanssen allegedly complained in a letter
about the difficulty he had in trying to locate it at night.
"Recognize that I am dressed in business suit and can not slog
around in inch deep mud. I suggest we use once again the original
dead-drop site," reads a letter excerpted in the affidavit.
The FBI said that Hanssen used the skills he learned as an FBI
agent to cover his tracks. The extent of the material disclosed in
the affidavit, including many Russian documents, indicates that the
case against Hanssen may have been built upon material provided by
another spy.
Federal agents
began investigating Hanssen near the end of 2000. Fellow FBI agents
monitored his activities and conducted clandestine searches of his
Ford Taurus and his office. The FBI says he was leaving more
classified material for his Russian handlers at the dead-drop site
when he was apprehended in a Vienna,
Virginia,
park on February 18, 2001. On July 6, 2001 Hanssen
pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy
charges in exchange for the government agreeing not to seek
the death penalty. Instead, Hanssen was sentenced to
life in prison without possibility of parole. The plea
agreement also called for Hanssen to be debriefed by the CIA,
FBI and other intelligence officials to determine the extent
of the damage he caused.
Hanssen had
also received an Amateur Radio license from the FCC. There is
speculation that he used the amateur radio VHF radio frequencies to
clandestinely contact his Russian handlers via Morse code.
There is no evidence that Hanssen ever met with or otherwise saw
his Russian contacts. All of his known documented
communication was through the messages left at the dead-drop
location in the Vienna, VA park.
Now go read
about the cache in the park where Hanssen's dead-drop was located
in Vienna VA.
The Dead Drop
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5db7eb34-6a2d-48e5-b297-af0aa4f54db6
Greetings
Comrade!
You will
now take the place of Comrade Hanssen. Your first dead-drop
site is located at the above coordinates. Once you get to the
dead-drop location you should search for a message in a camouflaged
container that leads to your second covert activity at the same
location. You must be sure you are not being followed and
that no one is observing you. You must be covert in all your
searching and be secretive in recovering the “container” which
awaits you at the dead-drop. You may want to check the light pole
as an alternative second source of information.
The
encoded message you retrieve will direct you to another secretive
covert activity that you must complete and decode to determine the
location of the final dead-drop. You must be aware of your
surroundings and not be observed in any way. The Commissar
may be watching and the KGB may be alerted. Other agents may
be out to intercept you. The FBI may be following the KGB so
be very discrete. If you receive a knock on the window of your
vehicle, you must give up your search and quickly retreat to safer
locations. Comrade Bert may be watching!
Once your mission is
complete after visiting the final dead-drop, you must not tell
anyone of your journey or how you arrived at the final dead-drop
location. Your report should also be vague and secretive so
as to not arouse suspicion and not in any way that may reveal
any of the activities associated with the journey. Be
sure to study and read the covert detailed instructions at the
final dead-drop.
There is plenty of parking
near the first dead-drop. Be sure to follow the parking
recommendations for the clandestine trek to the final dead-drop in
The Old Forest of Tom Bombadil
If you need help with one
of my caches, no problem. No need for a DNF or any
other demands - just good old friendship and teamwork!!.
Just send me an e-mail at WE4NCS @ bellsouth.net or
call me on my cell phone - 919-280-8510 - I'll help
anyone!!