Spy is a linux user

[Stan]

Suspected mole's
               computers seized
               FBI looks to determine extent of
               damage from accused spy


               By Paul Sperry
               © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

               VIENNA, Va. -- Federal agents yesterday
               seized computer equipment from the home
               of suspected FBI mole Robert Philip
               Hanssen.

               The equipment is expected to be turned
               over to the FBI's Computer Analysis
               Response Team for examination.

               Experts there will try to recover computer
               files to help the government build its case
               against FBI veteran Hanssen, who's
               accused of selling vital U.S. secrets to
               Russia over the past 15 years.

               The files also may help assess the damage
               to national security, the full extent of which
               is not yet known.

               Hanssen is known to be "highly skilled in
               the use of computers and computer
               programming," according to the FBI's
               search warrant request.

               In fact, he maintains his own computer
               server and is a registered Linux user,
               WorldNetDaily has learned.

               Linux is an open-source software operating
               system, meaning the basic code is
               available free to anyone. Unlike Microsoft
               Windows, programmers can modify it.

               Linux is mostly used to run servers, but
               IBM now offers it on its laptops.

               As of March 1, 1997, Hanssen owned an
               IBM Thinkpad 365E, according to
               Electronic Oasis Consulting Inc.

               The government listed a laptop as one of
               the computers it wanted to search in
               Hanssen's home.

               Authorities suspect Hanssen may have
               used his home computers to conduct
               espionage, possibly storing "extraordinary
               amounts of information" on them.

               Hanson has accessed the Internet from his
               home computer through a low-cost provider
               called Northern Virginia Internet Access
               Cooperation, using the e-mail account
               hanssen at nova.org. He also has an
               address at hanssen at orion.clark.net.

               Agents say they've already found a
               reference to a "dead drop" site on his
               hand-held personal digital assistant -- a
               Palm III.

               The secret site -- code-named "Ellis" -- was
               allegedly used by Hanssen to leave
               packages with highly classified materials
               for Russian agents. He allegedly hid the
               packages on a concrete ledge under a
               footbridge in a small, poorly lit park about
               one mile from his Vienna, Va., home.

               He was arrested Sunday after allegedly
               dropping off another classified package for
               his Russian handlers at Foxstone Park.

               During a search of Hanssen's FBI office,
               investigators say they also found letters to
               Russian agents on a memory storage card.

               Using the codename "B," Hanssen
               allegedly corresponded with the KGB and
               its successor Russian intelligence service,
               the SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki).

               He also allegedly sent them encrypted
               messages by computer diskette.

               The government's 100-page complaint
               charges that since 1985 -- the height of the
               Cold War -- Hanssen has sent the KGB
               and SVR 27 letters, and left them 22
               classified packages and 26 diskettes
               containing more classified information.

               All told, he allegedly gave Russia more
               than 6,000 pages of classified documents,
               including Top Secret and code-word
               information -- some of it involving the
               anti-ballistic missile, or "Star Wars,"
               program and Russia's effort to gather
               information about the U.S. nuclear
               program.

               He also allegedly compromised a Top
               Secret, highly compartmented U.S.
               government program by providing Russian
               agents with five rolls of film containing a
               tightly restricted and classified 1997
               analysis of the foreign threat to the
               unnamed program.

               What's more, the complaint alleges
               Hanssen also revealed the identity of three
               U.S. moles in Russia, resulting in the
               execution of two of them.

               In exchange, Russia allegedly paid
               Hanssen more than $600,000 in cash -- in
               used $100 bills -- and diamonds. Another
               $800,000 was allegedly held in escrow
               accounts for him.

               The FBI is calling it one of America's worst
               cases of espionage. If convicted, Hanssen
               could face the death penalty.