Who are some famous science spies? – Ask Your Science Teacher

We’ll look to the modern times of the Cold War. Spies on both sides used highly technical tools to determine the science, industrial and military capabilities of their enemy. In this column, we’ll discuss six cases that were not good for the United States.

Rudolf Abel (1903-1971) was a prolific spymaster for the Soviet Union, and a bad boy for the U.S. Born in England, Abel moved to Russia in 1921 and joined Soviet intelligence in 1948. He illegally entered the U.S. and settled in Brooklyn as a photographer. He used short wave radio equipment and hollowed out Finnish coins. Rudolf Abel conspired to shuttle atomic secrets from Los Alamos to the Russians. Abel was arrested in 1957 and exchanged for U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers, in 1962. His story is partly told in the movie, “Bridge of Spies.”

Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) A real baddie for us and a triumph for the Russians. Fuchs fled the Nazis and went to England where he earned a doctorate in physics. He was recruited by the Soviet Union. Fuchs was hired in the technical division at Los Alamos where the U.S. was developing the atomic bomb. A dedicated communist, Fuchs smuggled blueprints of the atomic bomb out of Los Alamos and passed them on to Soviet agents. Fuchs’ treachery enabled the Russians to build their own atomic bomb in four years.

Aldrich “Rick” Ames, born 1941, was one of the most damaging moles in CIA history. Ames started working for the CIA in 1962. He led an extravagant lifestyle. By 1985, he needed more cash and began selling info to the KGB. Our CIA spies in the Soviet Union started disappearing. Ten were murdered that we know of. Ames was caught in 1994 and given a life sentence. He sits in a Federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Robert Hanssen, born in 1944, was a FBI agent who fed information to Russia from 1979 to 2001. The U.S. Department of Justice described Hanssen’s espionage as “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” He identified our agents working in Russia plus specifics of our nuclear capability. The FBI built a tunnel underneath the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. Hanssen blabbed it to our enemy. Hanssen was arrested in 2001, after an ex-KGB officer revealed Hanssen was a mole. He died in a Colorado Federal prison in June 2023.

John Walker (1937-2014) was reputedly the biggest espionage leak and security breach in U.S. Navy history. Walker did massive damage to our country, passing classified documents to the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985. He was a communications specialist who sold info on weapons, naval tactics, terrorist threats, and how the U.S. trained for surface, submarine and airborne warfare.

Walker’s betrayal allowed the Soviets to unscramble Navy communications and pinpoint the location of U.S. submarines. Walker recruited a close friend, a brother, and his own son to feed classified material to the Russians. They nabbed him in 1985. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in a North Carolina Federal prison in 2014.

Edward Snowden, born in 1983, leaked a hoard of top-secret documents to the press while working for a defense contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden fled to Hong Kong, then Russia. On June 14, 2013, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Snowden with theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Snowden has been living in Russia for the past decade and received Russian citizenship last year. Snowden seemed to be dissatisfied with the manner in which our government was collecting information on American citizens.

The next column will feature spies and intelligence coups for our side.

Sources: realcleardefence, historyhit.com, spymuseum.com.