• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 771 0

often becomes a major negotiating point between government prosecutors and the spy’s attorney: cooperation in exchange for a specific sentence or for consideration for the spy’s family. (The wives of Ames and Pollard also received short prison terms for their complicity in their husband’s espionage, serving five years and three years, respectively. Hanssen’s wife knew at least about his first period of espionage. However, she was allowed to keep the survivor portion of Hanssen’s federal pension.) As with everything else in counterintelligence, however, issues always linger. The most obvious is the degree to which the spy is being honest and forthcoming. Those conducting the damage assessment must avoid the temptation to use the fact of a discovered spy to explain intelligence losses that are unrelated to that person’s espionage. The focus must stay firmly on the intelligence to which the spy had access. More than one spy may have been operating at the same time, with access to the same intelligence. This appears to have been the case with Ames and Hanssen, whose espionage was contemporaneous and who had access to some of the same intelligence. Thus, the Hanssen damage assessment likely required a reexamination of the Ames damage assessment, perhaps without any definitive conclusions. The Soviets or, later, the Russians could have used one set of information to confirm the other, thus having Ames and Hanssen ironically confirming each other’s bona fides as useful spies.

Double agents raise a host of concerns about loyalty. Have they been turned, or are they playing a role while remaining loyal to their own service? Investigations of U.S. citizens suspected of spying bring up legal issues because of constitutional safeguards on civil liberties. Domestic phones can be tapped, but only after intelligence agents have obtained a warrant from a special federal court (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court), which was set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA, pronounced “fy-za”). Agents also use other intrusive techniques, such as listening devices in the suspect’s home or office; searches of home or office when the suspect is absent, including making copies of computer files; and going through garbage.

Prosecuting intelligence officers for spying was a major concern for the intelligence agencies, which feared that accused spies would threaten to reveal classified information in open court as a means of avoiding prosecution. This is known as “graymail” (as opposed to blackmail). To preclude this possibility, Congress in 1980 passed the Classified Intelligence Procedures Act (also known as the Graymail Law), which allows judges to review classified material in secret, so that the prosecution can proceed without fear of publicly disclosing sensitive intelligence.

In 1999, as part of government-wide response to revelations about Chinese espionage, the FBI proposed splitting its National Security division into two separate units, one to deal with counterespionage and the other with terrorism. In 2003, the FBI created an Intelligence Division, concentrating primarily on terrorism. The 2004 intelligence legislation formally recognized the new office as the Intelligence Directorate. The FBI also proposed broadening the National Security Threat List, on which it assesses counterespionage threats, to include corporations and international criminal organizations as well as foreign governments.

In June 2005, President George W. Bush ordered a restructuring of both the justice Department and the FBI. The position of assistant attorney general for national security has been created, overseeing counterterrorism, counterespionage, and intelligence policy. The FBI now has a National Security Branch, which oversees the new Directorate of Intelligence and the Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence Divisions, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Division. The National Security Branch is headed by an executive assistant director, who comes under the DNI for coordination of activities and budget. Interestingly,