Robert Hanssen was found dead in his cell this morning.
A quote cobbled together from several people:
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
So I totally parsed the headline wrong, I thought it meant he had somehow been pardoned or been given a commuted sentence and walked out of the prison today.
Thank you for the gift article.
Pretty sure that was an intended joke.
Didn’t he have several consecutive life sentences? So he’s not done now; he’s only just starting on his second sentence.
Those always run concurrently. Maybe someday we’ll have the technology for consecutive life sentences.
I got the joke immediately.
I certainly hope to live to read some other similarly witty Doper headlines. Of course first we have to convict the treasonous bastards. But we’re working on it.
Buh-bye, you traitorous motherfucker.
Sounds like a Black Mirror episode.
I’ll say that justice was served to its full measure, but he still outlived the people he betrayed by decades.
Hey Bob, don’t let the door to Hell hit you in the ass on the way in!
Next up for completing his life sentence, Aldrich Ames, who lived the high life for quite awhile on KGB funds, while compromising and causing the execution of a number of agents passing information to the U.S.
He’s 82, so he’s had a good long while to contemplate his sins, or more likely to justify his sleazy betrayals.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Pollard is apparently living a comfortable life in Israel, investing in several start-up businesses and encouraging the destruction of a Palestinian village.
Yep! My immediate question was, “How do you complete a life sentence?” Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. LOL
He also had a pretty pleasant death, compared to them.
If anyone is interested, the 2007 film Breach seems faithful to the key facts. Unfortunately it starts at the time that suspicion has already fallen on Hanssen so there is no backstory about how it all started and progressed over the years, only about how he’s ultimately caught.
An exciting book about Hanssen getting caught is Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy, by Eric O’Neill, the rookie agent the FBI set to spy on him. I read it maybe 2 years ago, but from what I remember, O’Neill describes Hanssen as just a regular schlub, not particularly smart, bad-tempered and arrogant.
And I hesitate to link to the NY Post, but this article is interesting, with O’Neill’s take on Hanssen’s motivation: “It was the thing that made him feel that he was the best at something in the world. No one was better,” O’Neill shared. “He knew that it was going to make him immortal. And it did.”
Maybe one of you knows the details, but I recall as part of his cooperation agreement his wife was allowed to keep much of the property paid for by his ill gotten gains. Did anyone find this detail in the book, movie, or other reporting?
Here’s a partial reply to @TriPolar 's question:
“Under Mr. Hanssen’s plea bargain, she will receive the survivor’s part of his bureau pension, as well as the right to keep the home.”
It’s at the end of a 2002 NY Times article. Gift link: Spy's Wife Speaks, After Taking a Lie Test - The New York Times