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The Spy Who Loved Mother Teresa

When his conscience began nagging him, the FBI agent who had been spying for the Russians went to his parish priest in a small New York city.

The priest advised him to surrender to the authorities and hand over the dirty money to the American government.

But Robert Hanssen, a devout Catholic who went to Holy Mass several times of the week and took pride in being seen in church with his wife and six children, told the priest there was no way he could surrender.

The priest then suggested that he give the money to a charity.

According to the testimony of Bonnie, Hanssen's wife, he told her he gave away the money to Mother Teresa's nuns.

Washington is not revealing how much of the $1.4 million Hanssen---whose spying is being described by the authorities as one of the gravest betrayal in decades, is said to have made from Moscow--- went to Mother Teresa's charities. The nuns are not saying anything either.

Some accounts say that Hanssen, who escaped the death penalty by offering to cooperate with the government and detail his spying misadventures, gave away about $25,000. And for nearly seven years, he ceased to be a Russian spy.

But in 1998, he was back into it, and his conscience started worrying him once again.

But this time he began to bestowing favors on a strip-teaser.

Hanssen, who is said to be obsessed with pornography according to FBI interrogators and psychiatrists who examined him before his plea bargain last week, was not interested in sexual trysts with the stripper.

According to The Washington Post, he gave her over $100,000 in gifts (including a used Mercedes) but on one condition: she goes clean and attends the church. She told him she did so.

Authorities believe 57-year-old Hanssen might have secreted a lot of gifts and cash he received from the Soviets. For he had plied Moscow with information about US satellites, early warning systems and other crucial details of defence strategy, the government said. At least two Russians who clandestinely worked for Americans were executed because of his betrayal.

"His plea of guilty brings to a close one of the most disturbing and appalling stories of a turncoat imaginable,'' said Kenneth Melson, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the Hanssens live.

"The reassuring news is that Hanssen will spend the rest of his natural life under the watchful eye of a prison guard."

Mother Teresa's nuns are not saying whether they will visit him in jail or return his donations to the government.

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