Plea bargain saves spy Hanssen from execution chamber

The country that executes 80 of its poorest citizens each year - most of them members of minority communities who are poorly represented, and many of them mentally-handicapped - has decided to spare the life of a white middle-class man with a top-notch lawyer. The man in question sent several US agents to their deaths.

Tomorrow a Washington federal court will hear Mr Robert Hanssen (57) plead guilty to capital charges of spying for Moscow under a plea-bargain deal. The measure will spare his life in return for his willingness to tell his former employer, the FBI, the extent of his treachery.

The agreement, reached following months of discussion with his lawyers, means that the agency will not have to submit itself to a public airing of the details of one of the most serious espionage cases in US history. The agency has agreed to pay Mr Hanssen's pension to his wife and family.

Mr Hanssen, who was an FBI agent for 25 years, was one its most senior counter-intelligence officers and a liaison with the CIA. He has been charged with selling secrets to Moscow over 15 years in exchange for $1.4 million in money and diamonds.

He was arrested in February after dropping off classified material at a park in Virginia. The package was to be picked up by his Russian handlers.

A 21-count indictment, brought in May, charged that he compromised secrets related to satellites, early warning systems, means of defence or retaliation against large-scale nuclear attacks, communications intelligence and defence strategy.

Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, hired and then fired by the defence team, has gone public with claims that Mr Hanssen's "emotional wounds" and "the demons in his own mind" led him to betray his country.

Dr Alan J Salerian claims Mr Hanssen gave him permission to talk about the case but Mr Hanssen's lawyer, Mr Plato Cacheris, has called the disclosures "absolutely improper" and is threatening legal action. Although Dr Salerian has not been publicly explicit about the nature of those "demons", he has been cited as the source for reports that Mr Hanssen has a fixation with pornography and sex. He told the Washington Post that Mr Hanssen is tormented by emotional problems stemming from a troubled childhood. The psychiatrist believes these are the basis for the alleged espionage.

He added that Mr Hanssen was deeply despondent in jail. He felt horrible about his past and his errors, Dr Salerian said. He was ready to accept any punishment that the system would give, and that the country felt he deserved, including death.

CBS News earlier quoted Dr Salerian as saying Mr Hanssen confessed his spying to priests affiliated with Opus Dei in the 1980s and 1990s.

In a Times article, a BBC reporter attributed numerous details about Mr Hanssen to Dr Salerian, including a statement that Mr Hanssen's late father bullied his son to be a "real man".

Dr Salerian told the Post he never mentioned pornography, either on or off the record. "I did confirm certain things, but number one, it was absolutely, 100 per cent off the record, and number two, I was not the source on any of it," he said.