On Monday, February 19, 2001, the day after the arrest of Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, a shock, comparable in its intensity to the horror that would permeate all of America on the morning of September 11, passed throughout the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Some indication of the personal and public disarray inside the Bureau comes through in the first news stories and press conferences:

To Russian intelligence, he was allegedly known as "Ramon," a longtime informant on U.S. secrets. But to residents in his quiet neighborhood in Vienna, Virginia, Robert Hanssen, 56, was just "Bob," devout Christian and father of six who could be seen at church every Sunday. For more than 15 years, Hanssen allegedly spied for the Soviet Union and Russia, passing on classified information for cash and jewels. FBI officials say Hanssen was arrested Sunday night after he deposited a package containing classified information in a park near his neighborhood. Overnight, he went from being a low-key family man to only the third FBI agent ever accused of spying.

His neighbors were stunned.

"It's a horrible thing," said Nancy Cullen, who said she has known the Hanssens for 10 years. "He just seemed like a regular person. Every Sunday -- shuffling all those kids into the van, off to Mass."

Described as a father of six children and a devout Christian who belonged to a very conservative Catholic organization called Opus Dei -- "Work of God" -- he attended the same church as FBI director Louis Freeh.

Following is the transcript of a news conference held by FBI director Louis Freeh regarding charges against FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen.

DIRECTOR FREEH: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Louis Freeh, the FBI director ... Sunday night, as you heard, the FBI arrested Robert Philip Hanssen, who was charged with committing espionage.

Hanssen is a Special Agent of the FBI with a long career in counterintelligence.

The investigation that led to these charges is the direct result of the long-standing FBI-CIA efforts, ongoing since the Aldrich Ames case, to identify additional foreign penetrations of the United States intelligence community.

Since becoming director, over 7 1/2 years ago, I've ministered the FBI oath of office to over 4,600 Special Agents at the FBI. Each one of them -- and I share with them the pride and sanctity of the words that they repeat -- swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

Regrettably, I stand here today both saddened and outraged. The FBI agent who raised his hand and spoke those words over 25 years ago has been charged today with violating that oath in the most egregious and reprehensible manner possible. The FBI entrusted him with some of its most sensitive matter, and the U.S. government relied upon him for his service and integrity.

He has, as charged, abused and betrayed that trust. The crimes alleged are an affront not only to his fellow FBI employees, but also to the American people, not to mention the pain and suffering he has brought upon his family.

I take solace and satisfaction, however, that the FBI succeeded in this investigation with the help of all the people and entities that I've mentioned, and that, as an agency, we've lived up to our responsibility, no matter how painful that may be.

I'll take your questions now ...

QUESTION: In all due respect, how can you call this a counterintelligence success when you had a spy working inside the FBI for over 15 years without being detected?

FREEH: ... As an operation and as an investigation, it is an immense success. To conduct this investigation secretly, clandestinely, without any leaks and to do it to the point that we could catch, red-handed, an experienced intelligence officer laying down classified documents for his handlers ... I think by any expert would be judged a huge success.

That does not, of course, answer the question as to why someone for 15 years can successfully operate. I've indicated a couple of the reasons in the documents why we think he was successful. As I said, the Russians, until they heard the morning reports, did not know his name, did not know where he worked. He is very, very carefully, throughout the affidavit, obsessed with his security. And he was very, very successful in masking and protecting his communications and his activities.

For 20 years, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church has attracted some of the area's most influential people to a secluded sanctuary in a grove of evergreen trees on Springvale Road in Great Falls. Doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats, technology executives, politicians, artists and intelligence operatives have found solace and unity in traditional Masses and in the deep-seated piety of the church's 4,000 members. They also have enjoyed the anonymity of worshiping in a quiet parish 20 miles from downtown Washington.

Or so it was until last week, when parishioner and FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen was arrested on espionage charges. Suddenly, the church came under public scrutiny, and the names of its most famous members became widely known.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his wife attend regularly, as do Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA.) and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and their families ...

The revelation about Hanssen has been an embarrassment for some of St. Catherine's parishioners. But foremost, it's a sad moment for the church, they say. Julian Heron, a parishioner who found a spiritual home on his first visit to the church, began crying when asked what effect Hanssen's arrest has had on the parish. He said that he didn't know Hanssen, but that hearing about the charges against him was an emotional blow, almost like the death of a family member.

"It's a tragedy for all of us," he said ...

There has never been an espionage case quite like that of Bob Hanssen. From his first alleged contact with the KGB in 1985 until his arrest last week, Moscow's spy handlers, amazingly, never knew who he was. Despite their entreaties, Hanssen refused to meet with any of them, insisting on leaving the computer disks and documents in dead drops near his modest home in suburban northern Virginia, then collecting money and requests for new information after the men from Moscow had cleared out. But the information Hanssen is said to have provided Moscow was apparently so fabulous that the KGB and the SVR agreed to his terms. Not that they were thrilled about it. "I'll tell you this," says a senior official. "There was a lot of vodka spilled in Moscow trying to figure out who it was." And as gratifying as it must have been for Moscow's spymasters to have moles in both the CIA and the FBI, in the trapdoor world of smoke and mirrors, where paranoia is perhaps the paramount virtue, it also had to make them a little crazy. "It probably looked like a windfall," says Harry "Skip" Brandon, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent. "But they must have been turning themselves inside out trying to figure out if this was too good to be true." ...

Some in the FBI, citing Hanssen's sallow complexion, dour mien, and somber black suits, called him "Dr. Death" and "The Mortician." That may have been just ribbing, commonplace in a macho culture like the FBI. But there may have been something else to it. "He was not a cigar-chomping, door-kicking FBI agent," said a former FBI official. In an agency where many leadership positions involve kicking down doors and placing agents in harm's way, such a deficiency could be a major career stopper ...

It is possible, from the 100-page affidavit released by the FBI and interviews with his friends and colleagues, to begin to piece together clues to the puzzle, to gain the first insights into the twisted mind of a spy. He is described by those who knew him -- who readily acknowledge that he was hard to truly know -- as a brooding, controlling figure, fascinated by secrecy and obsessed by purity. He was, for much of his 56 years, a seeker of black-and-white certainty and higher truth who nonetheless plunged into the gray, morally compromised world of espionage.

Hanssen's own explanation to his Moscow handlers for his secret life, laid out in the bureau affidavit, was at once cryptic and grandiose: "I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say, insanely loyal. Take your pick. There is insanity in all the answers."