....I have come about as close as I ever want to come to sacrificing myself to help you, and I get silence. I hate silence....

Conclusion: One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say, insanely loyal. Take your pick. There is insanity in all the answers.

I have, however, come as close to the edge as I can without being truly insane. My security concerns have proven reality-based. I'd say, pin your hopes on 'insanely loyal' and go for it. Only I can lose.

I decided on this course when I was 14 years old. I'd read Philby's book. Now that is insane, eh! My only hesitations were my security concerns under uncertainty. I hate uncertainty. So far I have judged the edge correctly. Give me credit for that.

Set the signal at my site any Tuesday evening. I will read your answer. Please, at least say goodbye. It's been a long time my dear friends, a long and lonely time.

Ramon Garcia

The book "Ramon" is referring to is one written by Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby, My Silent War (1968). Philby was a committed Communist and considered the most successful Soviet agent of the Cold War period. From 1940 until 1951, he worked for MI-6 (British intelligence.) He was posted in the United States in 1949, holding the post of top liaison between between British and US intelligence services. Suspicion began to fall on him in 1951 and he was cashiered from MI-6 in 1955. Thereafter he ostensibly worked as a journalist in Beirut, Lebanon. He ultimately evaded capture by fleeing to the Soviet Union in 1963.

One can only wonder what would make an adolescent growing up in Chicago, Illinois begin to idolize a British double agent and avowed Communist. But then you realize that the "fact" of this revelation doesn't quite fit.

"Ramon" implies that he read Philby's book at age 14. If Hanssen and "Ramon" are one and the same person, he could not have read the book at 14 years of age, as Hanssen was born in 1944. The book was not published until 1968. Hanssen would have then been 24 years of age, and attending Northwestern University in Chicago studying Dentistry studies before going on for his MBA in Accounting and Information Systems.... Or perhaps he was just confused about when the idea of becoming a "master spy" first came to him.

It would seem much more logical for a troubled young man in the turbulent 1960's to receive inspiration from Philby than a fourteen year old boy...

In another letter to the SVR, in November, 2000, "B" seems to be aware that his situation is becoming dangerous. He writes, in part:

"...I say bear with me on this because you must realize I do not have a staff with whom to knock around all the potential difficulties. (For me breaks in communications are most difficult and stressful.) Recent changes in U.S. law now attach the death penalty to my help to you as you know, so I do take some risk. On the other hand, I know far better than most what minefields are laid and the risks. Generally speaking you overestimate the FBI's capacity to interdict you, but on the other hand, cocksure officers, (those with real guts and not as much knowledge as they think) can, as we say, step in an occasional cowpie. (Message to the translator: Got a good word for cowpie in Russian?? Clue, don't blindly walk behind cows.). . . ."

Later in the letter he brings up accessing his money after retirement and again talks about the Swiss bank account. There is the increasing sense, upon reading these 2000 communications, that "B" knows his "career" as a double agent is coming to end.

Reactions

Reactions to this important spy scandal have been grave.

Statements made by former co-workers of Hanssen's in the FBI to the New York Times present a paradoxical picture of the man's motivations. Hanssen is reported to be a devout Catholic, which seems inconsistent with his voluntarily working for a system that has suppressed religion.

Here's what some of his colleagues told the New York Times:

"I think Bob was able to bifurcate his life," said Mr. Major, his former supervisor. "He somehow made the intellectual leap, which I just cannot rationalize, that the compromise of information was somehow O.K., and that it was just a game. It's too simple to say thrill, but I do believe that he was in for the game, not the gain."

Rusty Capps, a retired counterintelligence agent who worked with Mr. Hanssen at F.B.I. headquarters in the early 1990's, agreed that Mr. Hanssen was a "brilliant guy" who may have needed "the thrill ã this is a guy who needs stimulation, who liked to walk on the razor's edge."

"I probably recruited 50 or 60 people over the years to provide information to the United States, and the vast majority of them did it because their lives weren't all that exciting," Mr. Capps said. "Certainly money is always there, revenge, disgruntlement, ego gratification. But it's also excitement."

In the FBI's official press release at the time of Hanssen's arrest, Director Louis Freeh is quoted as saying:

"A betrayal of trust by an FBI Agent, who is not only sworn to enforce the law but specifically to help protect our nation's security, is particularly abhorrent. This kind of criminal conduct represents the most traitorous action imaginable against a country governed by the Rule of Law. It also strikes at the heart of everything the FBI represents -- the commitment of over 28,000 honest and dedicated men and women in the FBI who work diligently to earn the trust and confidence of the American people every day."

The picture which emerges in press reports about Hanssen is that of a highly intelligent, but unsocial individual. Among his nicknames among FBI colleagues are "Dr. Death," "The Moritician" and "Digger"( supposedly short for "gravedigger") because of his quiet social awkwardness and the fact that many felt he dressed like a mortician. In short, nobody felt the guy had any charisma.

Hanssen is also reported to have been an extremely devout Catholic. He attended the same church as FBI Director Louis Freeh and US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and was said to be in the same pew with his wife Bonnie every Sunday mass. He is a dedicated father of six children and a member of the conservative Catholic order, Opus Dei. Again, details not normally associated with a "master spy."

Most intriquingly, Mr. Hanssen became the target of US investigation as the result of documents turned over to the FBI and CIA by an unidentified "Russian source." One of the very people to whom "B" had often expressed thanks and "insane loyalty" over the waning years of his treachery appears to have finally decided that he was no longer a valuable and reliable "friend."

A SPECULATIVE REACTION BY THE AUTHOR: OR maybe... just maybe, we are looking at the concluding chapter in the saga of a 56 year old man frustrated both in his professional life, where his "brillance" -- especially in computer technology -- is not recognized and valued by his superiors and even his Russian handlers are growing increasingly silent, cold and unappreciative.

He's savvy enough to know that that the $800,000 escrow account supposedly in Moscow is as real and valuable as Fool's Gold. All of his dreams of career success and a fat and comfortable retirement -- he begins to see -- are only that, dreams. Whether he honestly admired Kim Philby or not, or just spun that tale to endear his Russian handlers, he also knows that unlike Philby, he won't be recognized as a master spy even unless his deeds are somehow made public.

And then there is also the possibility that his religious life is as real as it appears to be and he could genuinely have been troubled by the guilt of betrayal, something he could not even bring up in confession.

This is a stretch of speculation, certainly, but not one completely beyond the realm of possibility considering the complex paradoxes of human nature. "B" could have arranged his own exposure as a means of gaining the recognition he felt, in his tortured mind, he deserved for all the "amazing" feats he perpetrated over after all of those lonely years.

Stranger things have happened in the shadowy world of espionage... and in a country where infamous celebrity is prized over genuine achievement.

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