The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Dangerous Double Agent in FBI History

by David A. Vise

Presents the story of Robert Philip Hanssen, one of the FBI's most trusted agents, who led a double life as a resourceful spy for the Russian government, selling America's closely guarded national security secrets.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, True Crime, Politics, Biography, Crime

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

David A. Vise, is a journalist and author. He is a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital, a New York-based investment firm, and Executive Director of Modern States “Freshman Year for Free,” a philanthropy whose goal is to make college more accessible and affordable.

He won a Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers in 1990 while working as a business reporter for The Washington Post.

He has authored or co-authored four books, including The Bureau and the Mole (2002), about FBI agent and convicted spy Robert Hanssen, and The Google Story (2005), a national bestseller published in more than two dozen languages.

Vise received an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an honorary Doctorate of Literary Letters from Cumberland University and studied at the London School of Economics. Wharton named him to a list of 125 influential alumni on its 125th anniversary. In 2009, Vise received The Joseph Wharton Award for career achievement and community service.

A past president of Washington Hebrew Congregation, Vise is a board member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, where he focuses on interfaith relations. Vise was a member of the first WUPJ delegation to meet with the Vatican. (from: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting story and I enjoy reading about Robert Hanssen. However, Vise spent so much time in the beginning creating a backstory for both Hanssen and Freeh that when he finally got to the espionage part I was disappointed. I felt that through the backstory Vise spent the entire time quoting interviews, which is fine, until you get to the part that is interesting and it reads so quickly the reader becomes disappointed.Yes, the reader needs to understand how messed up Robert Hanssen's childhood was to understand who he became. And the reader needs to understand how Freeh earned the nickname Mad Dog. The facts that created the chapters on the espionage where outstanding and they read like a fiction novel. The only other problem I had with the book is I wished Vise would have spent more time elaborating on the trial of Robert Hanssen and what happened to his family. All the reader knows is that Bonnie stood by her husband's side and forgave him AGAIN. Would have prefered more detail in the end.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problems of the FBI didn't start with James Comey.

Robert Philip Hanssen became an FBI agent. He didn't get along with the other agents, and felt he was smarter than they were. This led him to become a mole for the KGB. He was eventually found out by Louis Freeh, who became FBI director during the Clinton administration.

The book traces the careers of both men, but especially Hanssen.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bob Hanssen, one of the biggest moles in American intelligence, seems to have been waiting to use his great line upon capture by the FBI: "What took you so long?"
This telling of the massive breach by a career FBI agent comes from David A. Vise, and details the many ways the intelligence community could have caught Hanssen before he hit the 25-year mark in spying for Mother Russia.
Vise also details Hanssen's weird sexual perversions, including letting his childhood friend watch covertly as Hanssen has sex with his long-suffering wife, Bonnie. One wonders why his Naval officer buddy was clueless about Hanssen's long-term spying. Vise doesn't explore this aspect. The wife learned early on, but officials bungled this clue that could have shut down Hanssen early on in his spying career.
Hanssen works his spycraft to his advantage - the Russians don't know his identity, nor why this bullied little child sold out his country.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a weird guy Hanssen was, and is. His poor wife and family. I recently saw Breach, so I think I'm about set for life on my recent history CIA spies exposed.

[trivialchemy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guy Hanssen was a real shit. I hope they put him in a cell with Michael Vick, a pit-bull, and a viagra dispenser.

[Jon Koebrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Bureau and the Mole was interesting in short spurts but not an overall compelling read. Moreover, the title did not match the content. The book did not capture much of how Hansen was caught and was as much about FBI director Louis Freeh as Hanssen. 2.5 stars.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

" He would be living the kind of fantasy he had dreamed of for years, proving to himself that he was smarter than the FBI, more clever than the Russians, and bold enough to pull this off, without Bonnie or anyone in the family noticing."

I can believe this explanation of what led Robert Hanssen, an FBI Special Agent, to become the most dangerous "mole" in the organization's history. I have known several people who think they are smarter than everybody else and attempt to demonstrate it at any opportunity. Anyway.

I find both the title of David A. Vise's The Bureau and the Mole (2002) and the overlong subtitle, The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Dangerous Double Agent in FBI History, quite misleading. In fact, the book is framed as a clever juxtaposition of converging life stories and career trajectories of two men, Mr. Hanssen and Louis Freeh, the Director of the Bureau. The author does a good job of presenting the various influences that formed both men. I also suspect that he wants the readers to form their own conclusion about why both these men, driven by their hubris and the arrogance of believing how well they do their jobs (spying against the country in Mr. Hanssen's case, discovering spies in Mr. Freeh's case), eventually failed in a spectacular way.

Mr. Vise's book is to a large extent an indictment of how inept the agency was in detecting moles in their midst, how the illusions of organizational excellence fooled everybody, particularly the people on the top, blinded by their self-perceived excellence. It is quite ironic that Mr. Hanssen's wife discovered her husband's contacts with the Soviets quite early in his spying career. Even more ironic is that the Bureau received a report about Mr. Hanssen hiding thousands of dollars in cash at his home and ignored it. One would like to laugh at the negligence were it not so serious: several agents paid the ultimate price - their lives - for the organization's errors.

The book contains verbatim texts of letters that Mr. Hanssen wrote to his Russian handlers. These are truly painful to read: they reveal Hanssen's "fragile emotional state" and neediness:

"Please at least say goodbye. It's been a long time my dear friends, a long and lonely time."

Appendix II contains selected e-mails written by Mr. Hanssen; I don't find them that interesting. Neither has Appendix III, The Sexual Fantasies of a Spy captured my attention. The sexual fantasies - the reader is warned that they are "graphic" while a more fitting qualifier would be "badly written" - feature Mr. Hanssen's wife. The author - of the book not of the fantasies - states that the wife has declined to comment on the fantasies. Duh!

Among significant criticisms about his tenure, Louis Freeh steps down as the Director of the Bureau in 2001, almost at the same time as Mr. Hanssen cuts a plea bargain deal with the prosecutors. This coincidence provides a neat climax to the story of two parallel lives.

Readable book yet I have no idea how biased Mr. Vise is in his arguments. If what he writes can be fully believed then I am scared. Quite scared that human ambition trumps national interest and that dangerous traitors can operate that easily.

Two-and-three-quarter stars.

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The amazing thing about this book is that I remember most of the cases the author was talking about and I went to the encyclopedia to look up the dates of Louis Freeh the FBI director because I remember that name. I probably found out about that name because I took a very intense interest in the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City bombing case and so the retelling of that story in particular brought back memories of doing my own research

In the case of Robert Hanson himself I don’t know how I first became acquainted with that case. It might have been my reading on other espionage tales. The book itself was an easy read and I’m always amazed at how he weaves stories together. This one weaves family, friends, history, major events in the lives of important FBI agents and the director himself into this story. It puts the 80s and 90s and early 2000‘s in a readable without sensationalism framework. Unless I missed it however, we don’t really learn much about how the history of unmasking Robert Hanson occurred. All that we know is that it came about because of the CIA involvement in unmasking their own mole Aldrich aims. We get some detail but it would’ve been interesting to learn more detail. Instead, this isn’t intense weaving of the story was psychological profiles and a troubled FBI are history. Somehow the stories of the director and a the mole a re parallel but I don’t know if I missed the connection or I just didn’t get it. Otherwise this book is eminently readable which is saying something because some stories are very academic. This one is an overview I suppose without so much detail that it bogs down. Perhaps that leaves out the details I wanted. There areOther books certainly on the Hanson case. I know because I have read one of them whose name I don’t remember at the moment. I remember the name of Opus Dei in the Catholic Church and the fact that he had a wife but I didn’t remember her name I thought it was something else. Anyway, this is a psychological profile and can start and serve as a jumping off point for anyone interested in any of the fifty or so years covered in this telling.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to SPY: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW THE FBI'S ROBERT HANSSEN BETRAYED AMERICA by David Wise and THE SPY WHO STAYED IN THE COLD: THE SECRET LIFE OF FBI DOUBLE AGENT ROBERT HANSSEN by Adrian Havill (both of which came out in 2003), though this one focuses more on the contrast between Hanssen and FBI Director Louis Freeh.

"Though the two men had taken radically different paths over the past quarter century, their destinies were inextricably intertwined in the Bureau that one loved and the other loathed."

[Marti Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sober, probing, and detailed look at the Hanssen incident. The author's experience as a reporter obviously strengthened this book because it was not filled with extraneous material just to make it seem more "weighty". Even its foray into Aldrich Ames was to place this incident into historical context.

Hanssen wasn't demonized but he was not painted sympathetically either. The only parts I did NOT read were the unedited e-mails and Internet postings by Hanssen where he discussed his sexual fantasies about other men watching him have sex with his wife, or him watching his best friend have sex with his wife. I think it's quite fitting that Hanssen was a conservative, Opus Dei member, Latin mass attending, Republican National Committee card holding traitor. I have said it for YEARS, if not decades: conservative, white, heterosexual males should not be able to hold TS/SCI. Not freaking one.

/begin rant

I held TS/SCI for 24 years as an "out" gay man. But at my last 5 year re-investigation (2011 at the DIA), my investigator lost it when I said, "Yes, I have outside income from officiating weddings. My church made me a deacon because we have no minister; I can perform weddings if a couple wants to rent out our big church." He demanded my business license. I said, "I have a certificate from a DC court judge to officiate weddings." He demanded the church name and he was NOT pleased it was a Unitarian Universalist church. (FYI: 4 presidents were Unitarian, and the 2nd longest serving Congressional chaplain was a Universalist - a blinded, Civil War veteran from the victorious Northern forces.)

I decided to quit the TS/SCI environment 3 months later, giving my 2 week notice. I am not supposed to discuss the questions at these investigations, so please feel free to report this review. (I still don't know that final adjudication.)

/end rant

One revelation in the book, regarding the FBI itself, angered me as much as Hanssen's espionage. Page 221:

Privately, Freeh told associates that the Bureau had a "hollow middle" between its new agents and senior officials.

Really? Because when I was a freaking contractor at the freaking NRO (1988-1997), we freaking had continuity, accountability, and TRAINING across government AND contractor lines. Jobs were clearly defined, and when NEW tasks came up, consensus was achieved and new procedures were written. What was freaking wrong with the freaking FBI, huh? As a veteran and a taxpayer that angered me; an unintended consequence of his book, I am sure. New agents should have immediately asked, "Where are my job procedures?, and the senior officials should have said, "Here are your job procedures."

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a double biography of double agent Robert Hanssen and former FBI director Louis Freeh, and how Hanssen was able to spy for the Soviets and Russians for twenty years before finally being caught. Forget James Bond fantasy; dangerous though Hanssen was, he was really just an arrogant mope.

Hanssen was not motivated by principle; he was egotistical but insecure and wanted flattery, getting it from the Soviets he spied for when his FBI colleagues wouldn't give it to him. Though his wife was faithful, he used her for perverted sexual fantasies, even having a friend of his watch without her knowledge. He rationalized and compartmentalized everything a la Jekyll and Hyde (his own comparison), going to Catholic church and purporting to be a hero, though he endanger both his country and cost the lives of many people, which he felt no guilt over.

But even he was surprised by the fact that he went undetected for as long as he did, though it cannot be blamed entirely on FBI negligence. Other spies and double agents were found, and it took time to learn the he was another one. Louis Freeh, though diligent and clever in his pursuit of mobsters before (re)joining the FBI as the director, proved to be negligent and arrogant in his own right, with his career ruined by the 9/11/01 attacks which he failed to stop despite everyone knowing about Osama bin Laden.

One final irony is that Hanssen was in a position to know the Russians better than most American politicians knew; Russia may have lost the Cold War but he was very much privy to what was really going on there politically, and how a leopard doesn't change its spots.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I found this book very interesting. It's clear, both from the book itself and from the author's own admission, that the book was a rush job (he committed to having it done in something like 4 months). In my opinion, the author relied too much on his own interpretation of Hanssen's motives. While I don't think he was necessarily wrong, Hanssen himself has refused to ever tell why he did what he did so it's all just psychological interpretation.

The one thing I think didn't belong in the book is the complete reprinting of more than one of Hanssen's Usenet posts about his hot wife sexual fantasies. He used his real name and email to post, and he used his wife's real name. If a person wanted to delve into that much detail about that side of the guy, the Internet is forever and one could probably find that information online. It felt very cringey to include that in the book, but it was a decent space filler I suppose.

Overall, if you're looking for one good book to read about Robert Hanssen, I'd probably recommend Gray Day by Eric O'Neill over this, but if you're like me and have become obsessed with the whole story, definitely include this in your stack of reading.

[Terry R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bureau and the Mole – by David Vise – Completed 02/16/2024
To my wife, J.E.M.; children, B.J.M.; A.N.C.; T.L.L. and their spouses.
This paperback was a hand me down from my grandmother Chris and given to her by my cousins wife J.R. and their son Matt in 2002.
It is not believable how a human can be constantly put down, belittled, scolded and bitched out at which would force him/her to accept failure, yet be so successful in such a secretive mind game as spying. This morning coffee book sort of explains it to a degree. I guess being such an introvert, shutting out the nasty world allowed Hansen to be so successful in the tradecraft.
The story about Hansen is unbelievable but the book also includes many of the successful and failures of the FBI during the Director Louis Freeh era. I never realized the conflicts between the FBI, mainly Freeh himself and the President Bill Clinton. In my opinion Freeh was appointed to the FBI by Clinton hoping to earn some loyalty in the corrupt White House. Freeh was not corruptible by Clinton. Spies are motivated by the acronym MICE – Money, Ideology, Compromise or Ego. In Hansen case, he was motivated by all but his ego was the biggest because his thinking he was smarter than the others around him. He finely died in prison in 2023 but his damage lives on today.
Read the book. Love Dad, T.R.M.

[Brea Plum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to read this book for the information on Freeh and the investigatory side of the story, but stopped about halfway through. I read David Wise's book on Hanssen and Cherkashin's book that dealt largely with Ames and Hanssen before this one, and the portrait Vise paints of Bob and Bonnie Hanssen bears little resemblance to that of the other two books, and his pronouncements on motivations have no similarity to that which comes from Wise's lengthy interview with the psychiatrist who spent much time with Hanssen after his arrest. Vise's description of the Hanssen marriage is completely the opposite of that given by Wise through interviews with their friends and family, indeed, Vise makes it seem as if Bob Hanssen did not have friends when in fact he had several very close friends throughout his FBI career.

Considering these discrepancies I realized that the chapters that deal with Freeh and the FBI were probably similarly riddles with inaccuracies and contradictions, so I stopped reading. It is a well written book, but simply does not gel with other accounts of the people directly involved.

[Virginia Nichols · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought there were two sizable stories competing for space in this relatively short book. Aside from the main recounting of Robert Hansenn’s long and prolific stint as a double FBI agent, who bizarrely did so solely for personal gratification, there is also a somewhat lesser recounting of what a stunted and twisted human he was and how it drove all of his actions. It is an exceptional premise that could be more greatly explored, in my opinion, on both fronts, but was instead limited by pitting his long and complex story as a parallel to the smaller window of FBI Director Louis Freeh’s career.

The accounting of Freeh’s career distractingly introduces extraneous details to the Hansenn story, e.g., the OKC Murrah building bombing and its actors.

On a frivolous note, fans of “The Americans” series, of which I am one, may enjoy verification of the details of the use of dead drops, coded phone language, etc., that were actually employed.

[Dan Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A readable account of 2 elements of the FBI: the double agent Robert Philip Hansen and the Director at the time Hansen was unmasked - Louis Freeh. The author works hard to understand and make comprehensible the motivations of Hansen and I think does a decent job - it's hard to believe but I don't know what would be a better explanation. I found some of the psychobabble a bit annoying but it makes sense to turn to it in this context. Freeh remains enigmatic from this account - he seems to switch quite abruptly from being a hero to a mean political operator after a few years in the Directorship and it's hard to understand the change.

I was a little disappointed by how little of the book covers the actual detection and unmasking, especially given the book's subtitle. On the positive side, the material on the religious element to Hansen was really interesting and slightly scary about what it might suggest about other members of Opus Dei.

[Jim Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book. What I think is even more compelling than Hanssen's specific story is how relevant the book is today. Recently, an ex-Intelligence guy testified in front of Congress regarding Russia's use of "Active Measures" to influence opinion and shape world events. That whole topic comes up in this book. The Russians have been doing it forever. It's also instructive to read about how much then-FBI director Louis Freeh and Bill Clinton disliked each other. Many in the FBI didn't like Clinton either. So any idea that the FBI has recently become politicized is false.

The only puzzler is that there is a movie called "Breach" based on Hanssen's story. In it, there is a character named Eric O'Neill who plays a big part. He is a real person, significant in Hanssen's downfall and yet his name never shows up in the book. Classified at the time? Anyway, a good read.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great piece of journalism. The author tells a fairly comprehensive story about Robert Hansen, likely the worst traitor in American history. He starts at the creep's childhood, details the rocky relationship with his dad (daddy issues, boo-hoo), his family life as an adult, his career in law enforcement, and finally his endeavors as a spy for the Russians. Unfortunately, to round out Hansen as a character, the author also reported on the icky sex fantasies the SOB published online.

At the same time, he spends a lot of time on the FBI Director at the time of Hansen's arrest, Louis Freeh. The dude was a great agent and prosecutor, and probably as good of a director as one can expect.

What prevents a five-star rating the short shrift given to the investigation of Hansen. There's barely any detail there and I'm not sure why. Other than that, this is a wonderful read.

[Colin Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes all kinds of people to make this crazy world of ours, and Robert Hanssen is one of the most outrageous pieces of work I have ever read about. Scary smart, duplicitous, and possessing a uniquely enormous ego, Hanssen is the ideal candidate for a fascinating biography. His brilliant spycraft stands out in contrast to that of Daulton Lee and Chris Boyce, the cringe-worthy amateur spies profiled in The Falcon and the Snowman.

Vise's portrait of FBI director Louis Freeh, presented in parallel with Hanssen's, is also interesting. The reader gets a good feel for the history of the FBI, its public image, the challenges it faces, Freeh's vision and contribution, and the Bureau's successes and failures.

[Mike Critchfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked reading this book since it took me back to my “working days.” I thought the author did a great job trying to explain what made Hanssen - and others like him - do what he did. While “The Why” might not be important for legal purposes, it is for those who are charged with preventing and stopping this type of betrayal. The harm Hanssen did to the United States is beyond belief. It is more than a little hard to follow, which I reflect in my rating, but the amount of work done and its value is truly noteworthy. I salute Mr. Wise for a collections job well done.
P.S. Wise was a reporter for the Washington Post, which probably accounts for all the hard work he put into gathering all this info in his efforts to fully reveal the “real” Robert Hanssen.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Vise seems to have done a ton of research for this book – which is surely good news – but most of his findings are included in the finished text, which makes the “story” very cumbersome. Ironically, the biggest drawback to this flagrant display of homework is that Mr. Vise writes in a pretty clear and straightforward style, so that if he had kept things simple the book’d be a much better read. As to substance, he points out the Mr. Hanssen was identified by the good guys from a fingerprint he left on the wrapping of one of the packages he sent to the bad guys. Not a word, however, about how this critical development arose. How did the FBI wind up with the physical remnants from a dead drop deposit that presumably was stashed somewhere in Moscow?

[Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is comparative between Hanssen and Director Freeh. Would have been better served having those as separate books. However, the information concerning what Hanssen betrayed as a bulleted list is very enlightening. Not a lot of citations however. However, this was written immediately following Hanssen's arrest and plea bargain, so it is a bit dated and I am sure a revision would be in order. Historically it is fascinating to see reference to "Active Measures" mentioned as far back as the 90s concerning Russian influence operations.

[Justin Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty interesting event about the FBI mole that sold secrets to the KGB undetected for 15-20 years. The book fell flat though - a lot of backstory and other events that weren’t well connected. It felt like it tried to bring too much into the story but didn’t dive much into any of the espionage and results there of. The opening chapter let’s you know what’s going to happen, but it felt like it just bounced around describing Hansen and Freehs entire lives before settling real quickly on his arrest (wouldn’t call this book gripping).

[John McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This an absorbing analysis of the man some describe as the greatest threat to US security in the history of the FBI, Robert Hanssen. Vise, then a Washington Post reporter in the days when WaPo engaged in thorough unbiased investigations and reporting, describes the spy, his life, his mendaciousness, and the result of his spying which included reporting to his GRU and KGB spy runners the names of 3 Soviet defectors who spied for the US and who were executed by the Soviets after they were recalled to Russia because of information Hanssen had passed along.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of a very few books that actually kept me awake because I wanted to finish it. It was interesting learning more about the FBI while also seeing how it can be thwarted. I was hoping for a happy ending, but it was, overall, a sad read, seeing how someone could give up so much and how many lives are affected by one man’s choices.

[Sean F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super entertaining and hard to put down but mildly disappointing. The first 200 pages are all the set up and background for the 2 main characters which wa super interesting. Then the last 25 pages are essentially “yup, they caught him”. It would’ve been worth it to expand more upon the actual investigation and how it occurred/how he was caught.

[Jane Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

FBI Espionage Story

This book is good, not only because tells the complete tale on Robert Hansson's spying but it also gives the history of the
FBI and the Russians. It is worth reading

[Philip VanDyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful

Fascinating book about the Hanssen spy case, as well as the triumphs and embarrassments the FBI went through during that time. I found the emails in the end of the book particularly revealing about Hanssen and the Clinton administration.

[Alec Edick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting take into the life of Robert Hanssen. The author takes a long time to introduce the life of Hanssen before the story of espionage begins although the life of Hanssen is an interesting read.

[Pamela Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written description of double agents and spies

It is hard to believe that spies have harmed the United States. This book spells it out and makes you wonder why the FBI was so easily fooled by Robert Hansen.