Spy : The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America

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Summary: Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen....
Review: After reading the very boring and tedious "The Spy Next Door", I was glad to see a well written book. Some say that he is late in getting the story written;"Spy Next Door" was out really early but incomplete. I think that with cooperation from the Hanssen family and better inside information, this is a better book.

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Summary: True Crime & Espionage Meet
Review: At last, an author that delivers the excitement of true crime in an infamous FBI espionage case. There is so much crossover between the two styles in this book that the reader is left satiated at the remarkable depth of Wise's research as well as his deft storytelling technique.

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Summary: A Thrilling Page Turner
Review: David Wise is a top intelligence historian, and this is a book that has many intelligence operatives hopping mad, which is a good reason to read it. If they will cool off and read it they will learn something from it. Another reason to read it is that the book's leading figure is someone who could scarcely be extracted from even the the craftiest fiction in that it is doubtful that anyone could ever dream up Robert Hanssen and his many bizarre mind turns.

Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky probed the depths of madness and bizarre personality traits in their novels, and by doing his research and taking on Hanssen as he actually exists, this work falls into an intriguingly comparable category. Consider the fact that Hanssen, a devout Catholic who converted from Lutheranism after meeting his wife to be, was a member of the conservative Catholic lay group Opus Dei, of which he remained a member while he betrayed his country. Consider that this bizarre and tricky Svengali convinced his wife that he had given up spying after confessing his crime to a priest, who told him to cease his efforts and donate his profits obtained from the Russians for his acts of betrayal to Mother Theresa. It was not until he was finally caught that his wife realized that he had failed to follow the priest's instruction and had continued his life as a spy.

The Hanssen duplicity extended into the sexual realm, and with a twist reflective of the split personality involved. Hanssen became infatuated with a sexually alluring dancer at a strip club visited by FBI agents and members of the Washington intelligence establishment. He bought her a used Mercedes and took her on a trip to Hong Kong. To her total astonishment and acute frustration, he refused to consummate a sexual act with her despite her best efforts. Despite his fascination with her, the Opus Dei Catholic side remained.

A fascinating aspect of the book revolves around how Hanssen got away with his spying for better than two decades. Wise points out that he was aided by the fact that his own FBI colleagues believed that their esprit de corps discipline was so strong and loyalties so unflinching that one of their own would never stoop to such treachery. They strongly believed that the treason stemmed from someone in the CIA. One loyal CIA operative had his entire life disrupted and his career destroyed when he was thought to be the traitor giving secrets to the Soviet KGB.

This is one of those crackling page turners that takes hold of the reader early and carries him or her with the forceful energy of a bucking bronco to the final page.

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Summary: Prison isn't good enough for a tratior...
Review: David Wise's book about the FBI's Robert Hanssen who betrayed his country is clear and concisely written.

Is is the best book on Hanssen and his betrayals of secrets dealing with the FBI and CIA. Mr Wise's book almost seems to good to be true more fiction than reality, but that is exactly what it is reality. The game of espionage is messy business indeed and Mr. Wise paints the picture clearly in his book.

In my opinion this is the best of the current books available on the subject.

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Summary: Best of the Hanssen books
Review: I have read four books on the Hanssen case and this is by far the best. It offers a well-researched story about all aspects of the Hanssen case and includes detailed information about the inside workings of the FBI and CIA. It also manages to be extremely thorough without focusing excessively on the more lurid aspects of Hanssen's betrayals. Wise gives a vivid picture of how espionage works, what the effects of Hanssen's spying were, and why Hanssen was able to remain undetected for so long. The only flaw, if one can call it that, is Wise's somewhat dry prose style and matter-of-fact approach to storytelling. Other books have more of the salacious details, such as the text of Hanssen's pornographic e-mails and descriptions of his relationship with a stripper, but if you only have time for one Hanssen book this is definitely the one.

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Summary: Agreed -- This is the best Hanssen book
Review: I'll keep it short. As a writer, I appreciate good writing -- clear, smooth, concise, accurate, with sources attributed and richly drawn, but never over-elaborated, portraits of the characters involved. Among these "characters" is Opus Dei, the arch-conservative Catholic cult group sanctioned by the Pope, of which Hanssen-the-killer-spy was an active and evangelical member.

"Spy" is, simply put, and not withstanding the enormously complicated story it tells, a very good read.

Author David Wise keeps to the facts -- a complex undertaking, which he accomplishes with extraordinary detail and literary grace. (Thank you, Mr. Wise.) He offers expert testimony regarding Hanssen's peculiar and convoluted value system without playing armchair psychologist, and sheds an astonishing light on the realm inhabited by spies, which is just as fraught with danger to life and limb as one might expect.

The book also suggests why the CIA and FBI were in such a flummox when the Cold War ended. Both were so deeply mired in the irrelevant ethos and practice of "Spy v. Spy" world that 9-11 must have felt like a kick in the chest by a Clydesdale. That much is evident from "Spy" and it is just as frightening as the murderous activities of moles like Robert Hanssen and Archer Ames.

"Spy" is a page turner -- so good, in fact, that I am now a David Wise fan.

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Summary: One of the Worst Spies in American History
Review: Robert Hanssen poses such a puzzle to any right thinking individual that a million books could be written concerning him. An FBI agent, a dedicated family man and a devout Roman Catholic. At the same time, Robert Hanssen represented the worst KGB infiltration into the American intelligence community in the nations history. Hanssen was by no means a genius, but he was smart enough to fool almost every one around him, splitting personalities and giving up the nations most precious secrets. His information led the KGB to numerous spies, allowing them to be executed. Million dollar project were compromised, and the KGB was given a full schematic of US counterintelligence schemes. In other words, almost absolute devastation. And all because of the frumpy guy with the six kids who went to church everyday. The story is mind boggling in its psychological complexities, but noted espionage author David Wise manages to translate the dark world of spies into the vernacular, giving the average reader a clear picture of a most fractured man.

If it wasn't for his career of espionage, Hanssen would be wholly unremarkable. The son of a Chicago police officer, Hanssen studies accounting and dentistry before joining the Chicago force. He then went to work for the FBI in critical but hardly glamorous intelligence positions. He raised a family, was pious and charitable in his faith, and seemed destined to leave out his life as a good, productive civil servant. This was not to be. At some point, in the late 1970's, Hanssen decided to step away from his life of convention and begin to work for the Soviet Union. He was a wonderful spy, as his espoused views on communism and his somewhat distant demeanor kept his safe from the eyes of the spyhunters. His work was damaging, as he compromised sources such as TOPHAT, devastating Soviet human intelligence for a decade. The most troubling part of the story is the fact that clues began to trickle into the Bureau, but were ignored because the idea of a mole inside the FBI was so disturbing to the top brass. Even so, a study was put together in order to examine the entire history of suspected moles inside the United States. The study was headed by Robert Hanssen.

Hanssen is a man of startling contradictions, almost impossible to understand. He was a fervent Catholic, yet he often indulged in very odd sexual and pornographic fantasies, including letting his close friend watch him and his wife have sex. The psychological aspect of the book is as intriguing as it is confusing, as the FBI tried to understand what made this agent turn on them. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Hanssen became more desperate as time moved on and the FBI finally began to close the next around him. Yet, he still displayed a strange sense of resignation and continued disregard of procedure. Was it money, was it the role of his father? The answer is still pretty much up in the air.

Wise does an exceptional job of revealing the world of secrets and espionage to the reader. Hanssen himself often pales in terms of intrigue, as we learn of all the ancillary intelligence activities taking place around him. The reader gets a good nuts and bolts sense of the game, as it were, and that is instrumental in helping one understand a man like Hanssen. The book is heavily and studiously researched, relying on all sorts of secret documents and interviews with the key players. Wise provides a stunning narrative concerning the operation that finally revealed the identity of "Ramon Garcia," Hanssen's nom de guerre. All in all, it is an excellent work concerning a traitor who did an unimaginable amount of damage to his country.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Worst Spies in American History
Review: Robert Hanssen poses such a puzzle to any right thinking individual that a million books could be written concerning him. An FBI agent, a dedicated family man and a devout Roman Catholic. At the same time, Robert Hanssen represented the worst KGB infiltration into the American intelligence community in the nations history. Hanssen was by no means a genius, but he was smart enough to fool almost every one around him, splitting personalities and giving up the nations most precious secrets. His information led the KGB to numerous spies, allowing them to be executed. Million dollar project were compromised, and the KGB was given a full schematic of US counterintelligence schemes. In other words, almost absolute devastation. And all because of the frumpy guy with the six kids who went to church everyday. The story is mind boggling in its psychological complexities, but noted espionage author David Wise manages to translate the dark world of spies into the vernacular, giving the average reader a clear picture of a most fractured man.

If it wasn't for his career of espionage, Hanssen would be wholly unremarkable. The son of a Chicago police officer, Hanssen studies accounting and dentistry before joining the Chicago force. He then went to work for the FBI in critical but hardly glamorous intelligence positions. He raised a family, was pious and charitable in his faith, and seemed destined to leave out his life as a good, productive civil servant. This was not to be. At some point, in the late 1970's, Hanssen decided to step away from his life of convention and begin to work for the Soviet Union. He was a wonderful spy, as his espoused views on communism and his somewhat distant demeanor kept his safe from the eyes of the spyhunters. His work was damaging, as he compromised sources such as TOPHAT, devastating Soviet human intelligence for a decade. The most troubling part of the story is the fact that clues began to trickle into the Bureau, but were ignored because the idea of a mole inside the FBI was so disturbing to the top brass. Even so, a study was put together in order to examine the entire history of suspected moles inside the United States. The study was headed by Robert Hanssen.

Hanssen is a man of startling contradictions, almost impossible to understand. He was a fervent Catholic, yet he often indulged in very odd sexual and pornographic fantasies, including letting his close friend watch him and his wife have sex. The psychological aspect of the book is as intriguing as it is confusing, as the FBI tried to understand what made this agent turn on them. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Hanssen became more desperate as time moved on and the FBI finally began to close the next around him. Yet, he still displayed a strange sense of resignation and continued disregard of procedure. Was it money, was it the role of his father? The answer is still pretty much up in the air.

Wise does an exceptional job of revealing the world of secrets and espionage to the reader. Hanssen himself often pales in terms of intrigue, as we learn of all the ancillary intelligence activities taking place around him. The reader gets a good nuts and bolts sense of the game, as it were, and that is instrumental in helping one understand a man like Hanssen. The book is heavily and studiously researched, relying on all sorts of secret documents and interviews with the key players. Wise provides a stunning narrative concerning the operation that finally revealed the identity of "Ramon Garcia," Hanssen's nom de guerre. All in all, it is an excellent work concerning a traitor who did an unimaginable amount of damage to his country.

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Summary: Opus Dei & a FBI Spy
Review: There are now 4+ books dealing with the story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, codename GRAY DAY, who spied for The Soviet Union for over twenty years, without either his Russian spymasters, nor the FBI knowing his identity until $7 million was paid for his KGB file. Although Wise's book leaves many unanswered questions, "Spy" is definitely one of the best. Hanssen does rank with Aldrich Ames, but one is still left to wonder what actual harm did these two do to the National Security of the United States?

P> But like Tad Szulc's "To Kill the Pope," this volume has not answered many of the questions surrounding Opus Dei and Hanssen's affiliation with that flagellic cult. Thus if one follows the money paid Hanssen, one finds that it leads directly to Opus Dei coffers, e.g. tuition payments of Hanssen's children to attend the Opus Dei schools, Oakcrest for his girls, and the Heights for the boys. It is illustrative that this Catholic convert was told by his confessor to turn over his early Soviet payments to Mother Theresa, of Christopher Hitchens' "The Missionary Position" repute. The Nobel Prize winning nun also had Charles Keating and Baby Doc as sources of funds. Hanssen's wife agreed that this was an appropriate penance for his sins of expionage on behalf of "godless" Communism.

Opus Dei's prelature even stepped in to urge Hanssen's wife not to make no statements about her husband since that might delay its founder's elevation to sainthood by John Paul II.
Louis Freeh, head of the FBI was a fellow parishioner of Hanssen's which may explain why other FBI Opus Dei acolytes were hesitant to pursue a member of Opus Dei Study Center or Catholic Information Center, which was staffed by an Opus Dei priest, Rev. C. John Mc Closkey, and located a short distance from the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters. Other fellow parishioners were Justices Scalia and Thomas.

So yet another paradox needs to be added to Joan Estruch's "Saints & Schemers: Opus Dei and its Paradoxes" to join Jack Dunn's "The Vatican Boys: A Novel about Church Corruption."

A.M.D.G.

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Summary: The inside story of how Rober Hannsen betrayed America
Review: This is a very good book on the story and Wise writes well and holds your attention.