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CNN Live Today

Spy Arrest

Aired October 01, 2002 - 10:14   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This next story looks like it's right out of a spy movie. Dramatic surveillance video to share with you today of the final moments of freedom of convicted spy Robert Hanssen. That's him you see on the screen there. The FBI releasing this yesterday. It shows Hanssen after making a document drop at a northern Virginia park about a year and a half ago. Watch as he walks away, lawmen surround the veteran FBI agent, guns drawn.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor joining us with more details on this. I just wanted to keep watching the pictures, David.

Good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary videotape, isn't it. This is the moment when Robert Hanssen is quoted as saying to the FBI agents after 20 years of on and off spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, the words as those handcuffs were clamped on were, what took you so long? He was responsible, the prosecutors and the judge agreed, for the deaths of at least three agents in Russia, a strange man, who seemed to wish to turn against the things he loved, a member of Opus Day, the extremely religious Catholic group, and yet a man who gave thousands of dollars to a stripper, who showed tapes of sex with his wife to a friend.

KAGAN: All right, it is live television. That's what happens when the microphone falls off.

ENSOR: It's back.

KAGAN: I'm glad to have you back, because we're watching these pictures. There's a chance, I just wanted to let you know, David, there's a chance we're going to get interrupted, because we have this news conference we might go to in California. If we do, I am going to ask you ahead of time to please stay with us, because these pictures are fascinating, and more questions about Bob Hanssen.

But what I remarked from this, besides the fact that you get to see what, you know, what we so rarely get to see, is how calm Robert Hanssen is in this.

ENSOR: "What took you so long?" is what he said. He wasn't surprised in a way. He'd had been expecting this day for many, many years. This is a man who , as I was saying, betrayed the things he loved most -- his country, his wife, his FBI, and yet all along, expected to be caught, knew he would one day, and he certainly was. I watched him being sentenced months ago. Interestingly, to see this videotape, he's lost a tremendous amount of weight. Apparently, he doesn't like prison food very much. There was a debate prior to his sentencing among investigators on the level of cooperation he's given. Some saying he had not been forthcoming with all the information he should have in terms of what secrets he gave to the Russians, and that nearly scuttled the plea agreement, avoiding the death penalty for him.

But in the end, prosecutors decided to go for that death penalty. The prosecutor called him the worst kind of thief, a traitor in our midst, with no line that he would not cross.

This scene, you're only seeing a small percentage of the FBI agents who were on the scene. We were told there were some that borrowed some houses in the nearby area, using surveillance equipment at the time. They had this area completely blocked off.

KAGAN: Talking about his cooperation, as you said, that was part of his plea agreement, that he would give up some secrets. In all these months later, any word on how cooperative and how beneficial he's been?

ENSOR: They are satisfied that he is doing enough, but there are some among those who have been interrogating him who still feel that he is holding out on them, that there's more he knows that he hasn't told. They have nothing but time, mind you, he's not going anywhere, so the questions will keep coming.

KAGAN: Spend the rest of his life behind bars.

David Ensor, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 1, 2002 - 10:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This next story looks like it's right out of a spy movie. Dramatic surveillance video to share with you today of the final moments of freedom of convicted spy Robert Hanssen. That's him you see on the screen there. The FBI releasing this yesterday. It shows Hanssen after making a document drop at a northern Virginia park about a year and a half ago. Watch as he walks away, lawmen surround the veteran FBI agent, guns drawn.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor joining us with more details on this. I just wanted to keep watching the pictures, David.

Good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary videotape, isn't it. This is the moment when Robert Hanssen is quoted as saying to the FBI agents after 20 years of on and off spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, the words as those handcuffs were clamped on were, what took you so long? He was responsible, the prosecutors and the judge agreed, for the deaths of at least three agents in Russia, a strange man, who seemed to wish to turn against the things he loved, a member of Opus Day, the extremely religious Catholic group, and yet a man who gave thousands of dollars to a stripper, who showed tapes of sex with his wife to a friend.

KAGAN: All right, it is live television. That's what happens when the microphone falls off.

ENSOR: It's back.

KAGAN: I'm glad to have you back, because we're watching these pictures. There's a chance, I just wanted to let you know, David, there's a chance we're going to get interrupted, because we have this news conference we might go to in California. If we do, I am going to ask you ahead of time to please stay with us, because these pictures are fascinating, and more questions about Bob Hanssen.

But what I remarked from this, besides the fact that you get to see what, you know, what we so rarely get to see, is how calm Robert Hanssen is in this.

ENSOR: "What took you so long?" is what he said. He wasn't surprised in a way. He'd had been expecting this day for many, many years. This is a man who , as I was saying, betrayed the things he loved most -- his country, his wife, his FBI, and yet all along, expected to be caught, knew he would one day, and he certainly was. I watched him being sentenced months ago. Interestingly, to see this videotape, he's lost a tremendous amount of weight. Apparently, he doesn't like prison food very much. There was a debate prior to his sentencing among investigators on the level of cooperation he's given. Some saying he had not been forthcoming with all the information he should have in terms of what secrets he gave to the Russians, and that nearly scuttled the plea agreement, avoiding the death penalty for him.

But in the end, prosecutors decided to go for that death penalty. The prosecutor called him the worst kind of thief, a traitor in our midst, with no line that he would not cross.

This scene, you're only seeing a small percentage of the FBI agents who were on the scene. We were told there were some that borrowed some houses in the nearby area, using surveillance equipment at the time. They had this area completely blocked off.

KAGAN: Talking about his cooperation, as you said, that was part of his plea agreement, that he would give up some secrets. In all these months later, any word on how cooperative and how beneficial he's been?

ENSOR: They are satisfied that he is doing enough, but there are some among those who have been interrogating him who still feel that he is holding out on them, that there's more he knows that he hasn't told. They have nothing but time, mind you, he's not going anywhere, so the questions will keep coming.

KAGAN: Spend the rest of his life behind bars.

David Ensor, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com