VIEW TO A THRILL.

• Author: VILBIG, PETER
• Position: Why 15-year public employee sold top-secret files

He was a churchgoing suburban dad--but for 15 years he allegedly sold top-secret files to Russia. The big mystery: Why?

Call him the spy who loved to take the garbage out. The spy who went to

church every Sunday, whose greatest neighborhood transgression was letting the family dog run loose without a leash in front of his Vienna, Virginia, home. Yet Robert Philip Hanssen, government officials allege, used his position in the FBI to forward hundreds of vital U.S. secrets to the Russians for more than 15 years, in the process probably sending at least two Russian double agents to their deaths and undermining major U.S. spy programs.

Think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Think mild-mannered Clark Kent, who steps into a phone booth and comes out not Superman, but Spyman.

Since his arrest on February 18, Hanssen has been the focus of intense scrutiny by investigators and the media. Yet despite a flood of details about his life, experts say that the reasons the father of six betrayed his country may lie too deeply tangled in the riddle of human motivation ever to be known.

"There is a marvelous old Russian proverb," says Milt Bearden, a retired senior officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. "`Another man's soul is darkness.' Does anybody ever really know anybody else?"

Espionage experts say that spies betray their country for a variety of reasons. They may disagree with its politics or political system. They may just want the money. Or they may hate their job or be resentful about not being promoted. In some cases, it's just the adrenaline rush of leading a double life, the feeling of power that comes with keeping secrets and outsmarting other people.

WHAT MADE HIM TICK

In Hanssen's case, the answer might be all of the above. The voluminous record has enough evidence to support multiple theories and a host of contradictions. Born in Chicago in 1945, the son of a Chicago police officer, Hanssen joined the FBI in 1976, after a stab at dental school and a stint as an accountant. The FBI soon assigned him to counterintelligence--the FBI division that tries to seek out spies operating against the U.S.

Meanwhile, he got married and began having children: three boys and three girls. All but two have left home and are in college or beyond. In fact, one theory holds that his need for cash to pay for his children's education might have driven him to betray his country. But unlike other spies, Hanssen seemed somewhat indifferent to money, and certainly didn't...