From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Wed Jun 13 2007 - 01:01:45 CDT

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http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spying_on_spy_Raw_Story_interviews_0612.html

By Larisa Alexandrovna
June 12, 2007

Agent's riveting account is basis for the film, Breach. [1]

Ask anyone in the intelligence community who was the most damaging spy
in US history and the answer comes quickly: Robert Hanssen, a senior FBI
agent who spied for the Soviet Union – and, after the Cold War, for the
Russians – on and off for a period of 15 years. While much of the
information Hanssen provided to the Russians remains classified, what
has been released to the public illustrates the real life meaning of
treason.

At various times throughout his double-agent career at the FBI, Hanssen
served as the head of the Soviet Analytical Squad, the chief of the
National Security Threat List Unit, part of the Bureau’s computer
espionage squad, and even part of the State Department’s Office of
Foreign Missions. By all accounts he was an outstanding computer
technician, even a hacker according to some, and a brilliant analyst.
But he was also as enigmatic a person as counter-intelligence has ever
encountered.

Hanssen was a devout Catholic, a member of the controversial and
influential conservative religious group known as Opus Dei; he was
fiercely anti-Communist, a good father, a good husband, and mostly an
underachiever, seemingly by choice. At the same time, Hanssen was also
selling the most sensitive information from across several US
intelligence agencies to the Russians, making pornographic films of his
unsuspecting wife and later showing them to his friends, and
masturbating at work to images of screen goddesses such as Catherine
Zeta-Jones. For the information he provided to the Russians, he got
comparatively little compensation, roughly $1.4 million in cash and
diamonds.

According to a 2003 Department of Justice Inspector General’s report
[2], what Hanssen sold included some of the most classified and guarded
information in the US government:

“During the next six years – the last stages of the Cold War – Hanssen
delivered thousands of pages of highly classified documents and dozens
of computer disks to the KGB detailing U.S. strategies in the event of
nuclear war, major developments in military weapons technologies,
identities of active and historical U.S. assets in the Soviet
intelligence services, the locations of KGB defectors in the United
States, analytical products from across the Intelligence Community,
comprehensive budget and policy documents, and many other aspects of the
Soviet counterintelligence program.� (A Review of the FBI's Performance
in Deterring, Detecting, and Investigating the Espionage Activities of
Robert Philip Hanssen)

Although he managed to avoid detection for over 20 years, by 2000 an FBI
task force was well in place and focusing exclusively on Hanssen. They
only needed to catch him in the act of making what is called a dead drop
for the Soviets.

Enter Eric O’Neill, a 27 year old FBI investigator on the Bureau’s
Special Surveillance Group, specializing in surveillance of terrorism
suspects. O’Neill was assigned to be Hanssen’s assistant in a newly
formed FBI computer squad. It was largely O’Neill’s attention to detail
and confidence that provided the smoking gun needed to bring Hanssen in
and led to his arrest on February 18, 2001.

O'Neill on the film, Breach

O’Neill’s riveting account of what transpired between himself and
Hanssen over that final crucial period is the basis for the film Breach,
released in theaters to high critical acclaim early this year. O’Neill
is portrayed by Ryan Phillipe and Hanssen by Chris Cooper in an
astonishing performance that, according to those who knew the spy, is
chillingly accurate.

RAW STORY's managing editor for investigative news and frequent reporter
on intelligence and national security, Larisa Alexandrovna, caught up
with O’Neill to discuss his role in the capture of Hanssen, the PROMIS
software, the Valerie Plame leak, and other topics involving espionage
and government secrecy.

Even though O'Neill never had experience going face-to-face with a
"target," he was trained as a "ghost," able to follow someone closely
for weeks, "but you would never know I was there."

Along with exposing the identities of foreign agents the US had
"turned," According to O'Neill, Hanssen "gave the Russians our nuclear
information, information about agents and assets working penetration, he
even gave them the source code to the FBI’s automated case system
program."

Although he doesn't think there is any "correlation" between the Hanssen
and Plame cases, O'Neill tells RAW STORY [3] "a journalist that
knowingly or negligently releases/reveals classified information should
face federal prosecution."

O'Neill also believes "there are still moles in government agencies."

"I’d like to think that Hanssen was the last FBI mole, but that’s
probably wishful thinking," O'Neill said. "I do think that the Hanssen
case made the FBI more sound – better able to screen for spies, and
better able to catch them once they activate."

O'Neill added, "I think there will always be spies, for the same reason
there will always be crime. Some people are so morally broken they see
no problem with taking the easy road at the cost of others."

-=-

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF O'NEILL INTERVIEW

Raw Story: Nice to meet you, Eric.

Eric O’Neill: Yes, nice to meet you as well

RS: Let’s begin with the obvious question, for me anyway: Why were you
picked to get close to Hanssen? You were not an FBI agent, but an
operative for the FBI – working toward becoming an agent. Is that
correct?

EO: I was a member of a group of specialized FBI investigators called
the SSG, Special Surveillance Group. It was [essentially] based on the
[British] MI5 model… We were intelligence investigators in [the
equivalent of] counterintelligence and handled such things as
surveillance work … using technology to target suspects, as well as
penetration work, data collection, etc.

RS: But you were on your way to becoming an agent?

EO: Well, there are two separate tracks; you eventually hit a glass
ceiling as an investigator. I originally applied to the FBI for the
Special Agent’s class. At the time I was 22 years old and was told that
22 was too young to become a Special Agent. Instead, I was offered a
position with the Special Surveillance Group – a group of specially
trained counter intelligence and counter terrorism operatives who focus
on clandestine vehicular and foot surveillance of foreign nationals and
American citizens known or suspected of spying or terrorism. The FBI
made a decision to create squads of SSG “Investigative Specialists� in
order to overcome an institutional problem that Special Agents have
always had with surveillance. SSG are called ghosts. When an
Investigative Specialist is “ghosting� a target, we are invisible.

RS: And the schooling and training are comparable to that of Special
Agents?

EO: SSG are graduates of the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, carry FBI
credentials and badges, and conduct much of the same investigative work
the Agents carry out. The singular distinctions are that SSG personnel
do not carry firearms and do not make arrests. The goal of SSG is to
follow a target without ever being seen. I eventually wanted to re-apply
to Special Agent’s class, which would require me to return to the FBI
Academy.

[...]

[1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000OYAT3U/c4iorg
[2] http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0308/index.htm
[3] http://rawstory.com/

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