Posted on 10/03/2001 6:23:18 PM PDT by freedomnews
THURSDAY OCTOBER 04 2001
FBI traitor told Russia identity of top agent
FROM DAMIAN WHITWORTH IN WASHINGTON
THE FBI spy Robert Hanssen has confessed to betraying the most important Soviet double agent employed by the United States. Hanssen’s campaign of treachery is being revealed as even more deadly than feared. In a twist in one of the greatest Cold War espionage tales, Hanssen has revealed that he was responsible for telling his Moscow handlers the identity of the legendary informant “Top Hat”. Dimitri Polyakov, a senior official with Soviet military intelligence, was subsequently executed.
For years it had been believed that Aldrich Ames, the CIA officer serving life in prison for spying for the Soviet Union, had betrayed Polyakov. But in secret briefings, reported yesterday by the Los Angeles Times, Hanssen has disclosed that he blew Polyakov’s cover years earlier. This raises concerns that the Soviet master spy may have been used by Moscow to pass on bogus nuclear secrets.
Hanssen was arrested this year on charges of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia. He escaped the death penalty in return for detailing the extent of his activities.
It had already emerged that Hanssen, a veteran counterintelligence agent, received $1.4 million (£959,000) in cash and diamonds for passing information, including confirmation of the names of other double agents cited by Ames. Two of those that he helped to expose were executed.
The confession of his role in destroying Polyakov will ensure the rewriting of one of the most intriguing chapters in Cold War espionage. Polyakov began spying for the US in the 1960s and supplied extensive information for the FBI and CIA on the Soviet Union’s nuclear and military capabilities. Material he provided on the split between Moscow and Beijing helped to pave the way for President Nixon’s 1972 trip to China. The days on which his documents arrived at CIA HQ were said to be “like Christmas”. He photographed highly classified papers and left them for his handlers in fields, hidden in hollow fake stones. To let his contacts know that he had made a drop, he rode a Moscow tram past the US Embassy and transmitted a signal from a device in his pocket.
James Wolsey, a former CIA Director, once said that Polyakov was the “jewel in the crown” of all the double-agents recruited by the US. “What General Polyakov did for the West didn’t just help win the Cold War, it kept the Cold War from becoming hot,” he said.
Then, in the late 1980s, the double agents began to disappear. In 1988 came the biggest loss of all when Polyakov vanished. Two years later Pravda reported that he had been executed for espionage.
When Ames was arrested in 1994, the CIA confirmed that he had betrayed several of its operatives, including Polyakov in 1985. Hanssen, thought to have started spying in the mid-1980s, has said that he gave the Russians Polyakov’s name as early as 1980, possibly to prove his worth.
US intelligence agents were alarmed in 1980 when Polyakov was ordered back to Moscow, but were apparently reassured when he continued delivering secrets. Now questions are being asked about the validity of information passed on after 1980 and whether he was being used — wittingly or unwittingly — to mislead the Americans.
Although the information is dated, some could still be relevant, officials believe. The Los Angeles Times quotes a source close to the case as saying: “The significance is that we don’t really know what happened between those years — whether Polyakov was ‘played back’ on us or what.”
I remember Harry Truman talking about the Potsdam conference after Germany surrendered in 1945. It was during this conference that the first atomic bomb test was exploded in Nevada. They told Truman about its success during the meeting.
Truman not knowing if the bomb would work had been trying to get Stalin to help us invade Japan. Stalin had been demanding that if Russia helped invade Japan,Russia would want Indochina and part of Japan as pay. Truman did not want to pay that price. When Truman knew we had a working A Bomb, he told Stalin we did not need his help to defeat japan. He told Stalin about the A bomb, to gage his reaction. Stalin just said Uh huh when Truman told him. Truman was convinced that Stalin knew about us having a working Atomic Bomb before Truman did. Stalin was not surprised and he wanted Truman to know he was not surprised. Stalin was a bit cocky.
Nations have been spying on nations forever. Both sides are nearly always successful. Someone once said all men are for sale. They only differ in price. I'm not sure that is true, but there is always someone for sale if you have what it takes to buy them.
When I was a young man I had a friend whose Dad was in the State department. He told me one can discern a lot more from what isn't in the news, than what is.
I think you just made his case.
As a typical liberal, you miss the point. What you should have noticed is that we, as conservatives, call a spade a spade when it comes to the rule of law. It's called being principled -- a concept with which I'm sure you are unfamiliar.
Hey liberal maggot, being a conservative is no guarentee of moral superiority.
However, the converse inverts: Being a liberal IS a guarentee of moral INFERIORITY.
I'm still guessing that Hanssen dropped the dime on a bigger badder spy than himself and that's how he kept part of his pension for his family. Gary Condit looks like a candidate for treachery to me.
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