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Human Intelligence Intriguing, Important

Aired May 10, 2002 - 05:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, sentencing of FBI spy Robert Hanssen will bring to an end one of the nation's most damaging espionage scandals. Hanssen will be sentenced to life.

Our Garrick Utley looks at the spy game and our perception of these traitors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Does he look like a spy or more like your neighbor next door? Which Robert Hanssen was in suburban Virginia, where he raised a family, went to church, and from time to time took a walk in the park, where he left a wealth of the most sensitive American secrets for Russian agents to pick up. He sold the names of spies working for the United States, who were then caught and executed by the Russians.

PETER EARNEST, INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM: Hanssen was a very bright guy, which is one of the reasons he came close to being the perfect spy.

UTLEY: Spies fascinate us because of the risks they take and the double lives they lead. But how do spies see themselves?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell do you think spies are? Model philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me. Little men drunk as queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UTLEY: And then there was Aldrich Ames. Aldrich Ames' job at the CIA was to spy on Soviet spies. Then, he became a Soviet spy for money. He was playing both sides when he interrogated Vitali Yurichenko, a KGB colonel who defected to the United States in 1985. Was Yurichenko a plant? Well, three months later he defected again back to the Soviet Union.

The goal in the spy game is to see how deep you can penetrate the other side. After World War II, Kim Philby reached the highest level of British intelligence while spying for Moscow. Another Soviet spy, Anthony Blunt, the ultimate English gentleman, was the curator of Queen Elizabeth's art collection.

(on camera): But then who are spies but any face in the crowd? And also that rarest of faces, someone who doesn't want the rest of the world to know who he or she really is and really does. Doesn't want even 15 seconds of fame.

(voice-over): So perhaps it's ironic or just smart marketing that a museum is being built in Washington devoted to espionage. Attractions will include tools of the trade from spy cameras to a Russian spy shoe with a radio transmitter built into the heel. The museum's director worked for the CIA, handling spies.

EARNEST: We can often develop information or intelligence about capabilities through overhead satellite, through all kinds of other technical acquisition programs. But it is through human intelligence that you try to get into the minds, if you will, of your opponent.

UTLEY: Whatever motivates a spy, money, adventure, do they, did Robert Hanssen think he could get away with it?

EARNEST: I think any of his intelligence knows that his time may be limited, that he can't go on doing what he's doing forever.

UTLEY: When Hanssen was finally uncovered and arrested, his only question was: "What took you so long?"

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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