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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to spying for Moscow in an agreement aimed at providing a full accounting of the damage from one of America’s gravest espionage cases. 

Looking thin and wearing a green jumpsuit with “prisoner” stamped on the back, Hanssen, 57, stood before a federal judge Friday, hands clasped behind his back, and admitted to giving a host of U.S. secrets about defense plans, nuclear weapons systems and American intelligence gathering to his Soviet and Russian handlers. 

“Guilty,” Hanssen replied when U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton asked how he pleaded. 

Hanssen admitted to 15 criminal counts, including 13 of espionage and one of attempted espionage. Six counts against him were dropped. 

Under a plea agreement submitted to the court on June 14 and unsealed Friday, Hanssen will give a full confession of his activities in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, thus averting the death penalty. 

But, to protect that commitment, he’ll have to tell all. The government has until Jan. 11, the time of Hanssen’s sentencing, to debrief him. If he breaks faith with the plea agreement, the government can back out of it. 

Hanssen provided Moscow with information about U.S. satellites, early warning systems, defense or retaliation against nuclear attack, communications intelligence and major elements of defense strategy, the government said. 

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said waiving the death penalty was the only way the government could obtain Hanssen’s cooperation and assess the damage he’d done. 

Prosecutors said Hanssen, accused of trading secrets for about $1.4 million in cash and diamonds, was a traitor motivated by greed. 

“His plea of guilty today brings to a close one of the most disturbing and appalling stories of a turncoat imaginable,” said Kenneth Melson, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “The reassuring news is that Hanssen will spend the rest of his natural life under the watchful eye of a prison guard.” 

Hanssen’s lawyer, Plato Cacheris, said his client “very much wanted to make amends” for his deeds.  

“He’s very troubled by what he’s done.” 

The lawyer also spoke of Hanssen’s cunning in not being caught for so many years. He said Hanssen kept his identity hidden even from his Russian handlers. 

“He was in control. He never met any Russians,” said Cacheris. “I think he was pretty good.” 

Under terms of the plea agreement, Hanssen’s family gets to keep their home in Vienna, Va., and the family’s three vehicles. As long as his wife, Bernadette “Bonnie” Hanssen, cooperates with authorities, she will receive a spousal annuity equivalent to 55 percent of his government pension. Based on government pension rules, the benefit could be worth at least $36,300. 

The annuity is contingent on Hanssen keeping his part of the plea bargain. His wife is eligible for the benefit under federal law because the government did not have evidence that she was criminally culpable. 

Cacheris told Hilton that Hanssen had spied on and off since 1979 – several years earlier than originally believed – and took several breaks, including one from 1992 to 1999. 

He said Hanssen had a premonition that he was going to be arrested — as he was — when he went to a Virginia park to leave a bag full of documents for his Russian handlers last Feb. 18. 

Plea papers unsealed Friday contain letters Hanssen exchanged over the years with his Russian contacts in which he discusses drop-off plans and classified FBI information. In the last one, he says he believes his spying may have been detected: “Something has aroused the sleeping tiger.” 

The 25-year FBI veteran is accused of giving Soviet and later Russian agents thousands of pages of classified documents detailing some of the nation’s most closely held secrets about weapons systems and espionage. 

Hanssen is accused of disclosing the identities of Russian agents secretly working for the United States who later were executed. 

His lawyer said Hanssen had been examined by a psychiatrist who advised against a mental defense, pleading insanity. It would have been an uphill battle to plead innocent because of all of the charges, Cacheris said. 

The plea agreement calls for Hanssen to give a full accounting of his spying activities and the activities of others. He will be given lie detector tests. 

Hanssen has already spoken to officials in two five-hour sessions. 

“We expect him to be candid with us and truthful with us and completely open about his espionage activities,” said Melson. 

Hanssen also agreed to forfeit the $1.4 million he was paid. The government is still looking for most of it. 

Cacheris said he hoped that Hanssen would be sent to a federal prison at Allenwood, Pa., because it would be convenient for his family to visit him there. 

“His family very much stands with him,” Cacheris said. 

The agreement provides that Hanssen cannot write or help write any book, article, film or documentary, including giving interviews to writers or media organizations without receiving permission from the FBI. Any profits would go to the government. 

Cacheris told the court that the plea agreement was a victory for both his client and the government. 

Melson took issue with that. 

“He is not a winner, and he will never be a winner. He disgraced himself, and he disgraced his badge,” said Melson. 

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On the Net: 

FBI background: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/hanssen.htm