A Traitorous Shade: The Betrayals of FBI Double Agent Robert Hanssen
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Spies, moles, and double agents are similar but varying types of designations that populate the history of global intelligence. A loyal spy is among the most common type of employee within many national clandestine groups operating throughout history and in modern times, they may be found monitoring and engaging with various parts of a country’s bureaucratic infrastructure or enemy agencies and diplomatic personnel. Moles are much rarer because the classic definition of a mole requires them to be indoctrinated by enemy groups before they obtained access to classified information. Double agents however are less rare than moles because while they do betray the important secrets of their original agency, this betrayal is not premised upon a long planned ideological motivation. A mole is usually a strategically planned infiltration based upon years of training and plans but a double agent often develops upon other circumstances and grievances. Yet some double agents have strategic access to intelligence than might allow them to produce damage comparable to a mole, and one such person deemed among the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most destructive betrayers was named Hanssen…
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