FBI digs more into spying case

Congress wants to conduct own investigation

In this story: Measuring lost secrets New spy policies? Where dirty work was allegedly done RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI agents returned Wednesday to the home of alleged spy Robert Phillip Hanssen, as lawmakers promised their own investigation.

FBI agents were also at the State Department where Hanssen, a 25-year veteran FBI agent, had been posted since 1995. They interviewed former colleagues, trying to determine if they could tie Hanssen to any security breaches there.

IN-DEPTH SPECIAL The case against Robert Hanssen   RESOURCES U.S. Affidavit on alleged crimes (FindLaw) Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader Title 18 : Part I : Chapter 37 : Section 794 Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government (FindLaw) Chat Transcript: Former Russian spy Col. Stanislav Lunev's reaction to FBI agent's arrest for spying Interactive: The world of espionage The U.S. Intelligence community Criminal Complaint and Warrant for Arrest    VIDEO CNN's Kathleen Koch visits the park where Hanssen allegedly made "dead drops" Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Kelli Arena says 25-year veteran Philip Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for the last 15 years Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   IN-DEPTH Cold War   ALSO Senate Intelligence chief: Spy case a 'debacle' Big ego, big money cited as alleged spy's motivation Spy suspect's former co-worker: Smuggling easy Neighbor shocked by Hanssen arrest An interview with Aldrich Ames   MESSAGE BOARD Espionage case

Hanssen has been charged with handing over classified documents to Soviet agents and with revealing the names of double agents working in what was the Soviet Union and is now Russia. Two of the double agents allegedly unmasked by him were executed.

Hanssen is being held without bond at an undisclosed location.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold hearings on the Hanssen case next Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman for committee chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama.

Sen. Bob Graham, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said a quick response from Congress is necessary.

"We've just had a case in which some of our important national secrets have been stolen over a period of 15 years," said Graham, D-Florida.

"At least two people have been killed who were involved in this. And we don't know how many others have been compromised. It's important that we understand what happened so that we can be in position to work with the administration, with the intelligence community, to reduce the chances of it happening again," Graham said.

Next week's hearing will be the first opportunity for all of the committee members to hear from FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director George Tenet. So far, only the Republican chairmen of the intelligence committees in the House and Senate and ranking Democrats have been briefed on the matter.

Measuring lost secrets

The FBI is still trying to assess the extent of the secrets lost in the case -- something that could not be done while Hanssen was under investigation. The agency began investigating Hanssen only late last year, Freeh said.

"He knew all the trip wires," said Richard Alu, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who worked with Hanssen for several years.

The FBI redoes background checks on agents every three years or so, so any red flags that might have indicated a problem with Hanssen -- financial troubles, marital problems, drug or alcohol problems -- would have turned up.

"He didn't fit the profile," said Alu.

Agents Wednesday scoured the Vienna, Virginia, home where Hanssen lived with his wife and two of their six children. The agents raked under and around the shed and turned up a matchbook and a shotgun shell.

They also hauled out about eight boxes of evidence, along with three hard drives from various computers and one monitor.

Neighbor Ryan Bennett grew up with the Hanssen children and told CNN of an unusual room in their home.

"An odd room in their house, that had two computers and it was very dark. And we usually weren't allowed to go in it, us kids," Bennett said.

New spy policies?

Hanssen was the FBI's liaison to the State Department Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) and was primarily responsible for keeping track of intelligence agents assigned to work in the United States "under diplomatic auspices."

"He was a key player here," one department official told CNN. "He was able to move around the building easily."

Senior department officials said FBI agents planned to interview at least a dozen officials in the OFM and the head of the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, David Carpenter.

A State Department official said there is "no reason to think (Hanssen) was involved" in the disappearance of a highly classified laptop computer last year. But, court papers filed Tuesday said that Hanssen had also been the FBI's liaison to State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research -- the office from which the laptop disappeared.

Ashcroft has asked former CIA and FBI Director William Webster to convene a panel to review internal security procedures within the FBI and recommend changes that could prevent future cases.

"The attorney general views this case very seriously," said Mindy Tucker, Ashcroft's spokeswoman. "The fact that there are still countries that are interested in stealing our intelligence secrets shows that we need to take steps to review our security measures so that this doesn't happen again.

FBI agents are given polygraph tests when they join the bureau, but there's usually no subsequent testing unless they need a higher level of clearance for a particular assignment.

Such policies will be reviewed by Webster.

The Hanssen case is bringing new attention to a directive signed by former president Bill Clinton just before he left office. Dubbed "counter-intelligence 21," it is a plan to create a sort of spy czar's office to identify, prioritize and protect classified information.

But even the man who prosecuted convicted spy Aldrich Ames is skeptical anything can be done to prevent security breaches in the future.

"You can't stop that. You can have checks, polygraphs, precautions -- at the end of the day, if somebody is determined to do it, they're going to do it," said Mark Hulkower, who is now a defense attorney.

Former FBI agent Richard Alu, who worked with Hanssen, explains why the alleged spy may have gotten away with what he's charged with for so long.

"There's an esprit-de-corps within the FBI. Everybody trusts everybody else. We have had, over the course of years, very few bad apples in the FBI," Alu said.

In fact, there have only been two FBI agents convicted of espionage: Earl Pitts in 1997 and Richard Miller in 1984.

Where dirty work was allegedly done

FBI officials filed a 110-page affidavit with a federal court that accuses Hanssen of dropping off intelligence information for the Russians on more than 20 occasions. The material included more than two dozen computer disks and thousands of pages of government documents, the bureau charged.

He is also accused of giving Moscow the names of three Soviet intelligence officers who were spying for the United States. Two of the three were executed. The government says that in return for his service, Hanssen was paid more than $1.4 million in cash and diamonds during his 15 years as a spy.

At least a dozen parks in northern Virginia are identified as dead-drop locations in the FBI's thickly detailed affidavit, which purports to quote directly from correspondence between Russian handlers and their source.

"Recognize that I am dressed in business suit and can not slog around in inch deep mud," the FBI says Hanssen complained to his handlers, who never seemed to tire of finding new parks for their mole.

"I am not a young man," he is said to have reminded his contacts on another occasion.

Key locations were just minutes by car from two homes Hanssen and his family lived in during two stints since 1981 in Virginia's Fairfax County.

Indeed, the FBI agent told Russian handlers the best places to leave classified information -- and collect money and diamonds in payment -- were not the most hidden ones, according to the documents.

"Can be actually more secure in easier modes," he is said to have written in September 1987.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow, Justice Department Correspondent Kelli Arena, Reporter Kathleen Koch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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