Since when can you commit such acts against your own country, get caught, and continue to live?

Why the hell aren't we executing these bastards?

This really pisses me off. I don't think we've executed one since the fifties. At least publicly.

They decided it was in the best interest of National Security to give him a choice:
1. Tell us what information you gave away.
2. Death Penalty.

He chose option #1. In the Hansen case I think this was the right way to go. Otherwise we would have had no idea of the extent of the compromise.

Well often it is to squeeze more intel out of them. I know Of a few current cases like that.
One is a guy I knew in Berlin. (The meister)
He was an east German spy master that operated out of the Auto craft shop in Berlin's Andrews
Kaserne. He and a warrent(Was an E5 when I was there)named James Hall got docs out of Field station berlin and where caught. The Meister is still in fedral prision in florida and still hasn't turned on the east germans that he worked for. I agree that life is too easy on these scum.

Hanssen's wife is even getting his FBI pension, all in the effort to get him to recount every piece of information that he turned over to the Soviets and, later, to the Russians.

Never fear, though: Hanssen is going to spend the rest of his miserable life in the federal Supermax joint with Aldrich Ames. 23 hours of solitary lockdown everyday, one hour out of his cell alone in the exercise yard, never seeing another human being except for the COs.

WildWeasel: You knew the Meister? I have a book recommendation for you.

"Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spycatcher's World," by Colonel Stuart A. Herrington, USA (Ret.)

Col. Herrington was the head of the top Army counterintelligence agency, the FCA. It was him and his guys that put together the case that slammed the door on the Meister. Very interesting story.

Thanks Jarhead, I think I have read excerpts of his book online. I will have to get it now.
I knew him from the Autoshop, He was a pain in the ass for the most part. He had a former M.I.
girlfriend that got out and lived with him in Berlin. was always scamming Black market hair-care products for her. James Hall was a prick
pure and simple. Not surprised he sold out.

It was one of those things we where always told to watch out for along with Opsec, and stories like this bring that home hard.

Added- I just ordered the book on AMazon along with Battleground Berlin : CIA Vs. KGB in the Cold War, Looked too good. Thanks for the pointer on the book.