4.6 • 18.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Realizing there’s a spy in their midst, the FBI and CIA reluctantly agree to join forces, and launch a joint investigation to ferret out the mole. But they unwittingly put Robert Hanssen in charge of a crucial aspect of the case, enabling him to throw them off the scent as he continues selling secrets to the KGB.
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0:00.0 | Wonder. It's dusk on a crisp November day in 1985. |
0:29.0 | Robert Hanson is behind the wheel of a black sedan, rolling slowly past the entrance to a public park in Vienna, Virginia. His eyes narrow as he spots a pedestrian crossing sign near the entrance, hoping to find a signal from the KGB. |
0:37.0 | It's been six years since Hansen sold his first batch of state secrets to the Soviets. |
0:42.0 | Back then, as a junior FBI agent, he began |
0:46.0 | passing top secret information to the GRU, the Soviet Union's military intelligence |
0:51.0 | service. But now he's graduated to the big leagues, working with the Soviet's premier intelligence agency, |
0:57.8 | the KGB. |
0:58.8 | The collaboration began a month ago when Hanson wrote a letter to a KGB agent selling himself as a |
1:05.0 | mole inside the FBI with access to highly sensitive material. In the letter |
1:10.4 | he explained that he would soon mail a box of documents and asked for $100,000 in return. |
1:17.3 | To establish his credentials and wet the Soviet's appetite, Hanson revealed the names of three KGB agents who had been secretly working with |
1:25.1 | U.S. intelligence. |
1:27.1 | Shortly after mailing the box of secret documents, Hanson followed up with another letter |
1:31.8 | that outlined how to deliver the cash and established |
1:34.6 | a protocol on how they would signal back and forth in future exchanges. |
1:39.6 | When Hanson was ready to receive a cash drop, he would leave a small vertical strip of white tape on |
1:45.0 | the pedestrian crossing sign near the entrance to this park. |
1:48.7 | And when the KGB had placed the bag, they would replace the vertical strip with a horizontal one. Then once |
1:55.2 | Hansen had retrieved the cash he would again leave a vertical strip. So as |
2:00.3 | Hanson looks closely at the crossing sign, he's thrilled to see a horizontal piece of white tape. |
2:07.0 | Hanson wants to retrieve the package and get home as soon as possible. |
2:15.0 | His wife just gave birth to their sixth child less than a month ago, |
... |
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