BAD FBI AGENT! BAD! The Damage Is GRAVE--Cheney

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

"BAD FBI AGENT! BAD! The Damage Is GRAVE," claims Cheney.
(whose grave, and whose tunnel, he would not say.)

Sunday March 4 5:36 PM ET (via yahoo)

No Comment From U.S. on Russia Embassy Tunnel Claim

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday he
couldn't say whether the United States built a secret tunnel under the
Soviet Embassy in Washington, which officials believe was revealed to the
Russians by the FBI agent arrested last month on charges of spying for
Moscow.

But while declining to confirm a report by The New York Times, Cheney said
he believed there were grave implications to the case of accused spy Robert
Hanssen, who may have caused considerable damage to U.S. security.

"I believe so," Cheney told the CBS "Face the Nation" program. "I assume,
given the nature of his responsibilities and the length of time he worked
for the Russians, which looks like about 15 years, that in fact it was very
serious."

A spokeswoman for the FBI also declined to comment on the report, which
cited current and former intelligence officials as saying the tunnel
operation, run jointly by the FBI and the National Security Agency, was
revealed to Moscow by Hanssen.

Cheney said that if the report were true he "couldn't talk about it anyway,"
but an assessment would have to be made to determine the full extent of the
damage caused by Hanssen.

"Then we'll have a good fix on exactly how much was in fact compromised," he
said.

The secret tunnel operation was reportedly part of a broad U.S. effort to
eavesdrop on Soviet -- later Russian -- facilities and personnel operating
in the United States, the Times said.

Cheney told CBS the United States had not heard from the Russians about the
revelation. "Not in any official sense, no," he said.

Current and former U.S. officials estimated the tunnel construction and
related intelligence-gathering activities cost several hundred million
dollars, apparently making it the most expensive clandestine intelligence
operation Hanssen is accused of betraying, the Times said.

The tunnel was reportedly designed as part of a sophisticated operation to
eavesdrop on communications and conversations in the Soviet Embassy complex,
which was built in the 1970s and 1980s.

The U.S. government has never publicly disclosed the existence of the
tunnel, but in an FBI affidavit in the Hanssen case, the government said
that Hanssen "compromised an entire technical program of enormous value,
expense and importance to the United States government."

U.S. News & World Report magazine reported in its March 12 issue, published
on Monday, that officials blamed Hanssen for compromising at least two
highly sensitive FBI counterintelligence programs.

Hanssen, arrested on Feb. 18, has been accused of spying for Moscow since
1985. He has been accused of giving Moscow secrets that included names of
double agents, as well as U.S. electronic surveillance methods.
 
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nyteeu-03.04.01-18:57:43-16178