ROBERT PHILIP HANSEN, ‘’THE MAN IN BETWEEN THE WOODS”


Robert Philip Hanson

The book ‘’Stranger in the Woods” written by Micheal Finkel and published in 2017, was allegedly a true life story about a young man, who lived alone in the woods of Maine, a state in the Northeastern part of the United States. He had left Massachusetts, a nearby state to stay alone in the woods in Maine, simply because he had wanted to live separately from other people.
Despite growing up in the United States, a country some Africans label as ‘Gods own Country’, Christopher Wright chose to live in an environment far worse than where most Africans live, staying inside the forest for a period spanning over two decades.

In contrast Robert Hansen, a double agent, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America, and the Soviet Union, was born in llinois, Chicago in the United States, a state having same 8.0% risk of risk of poverty with Maine in 2020, a good result at a difficult period during the Covid-19 pandemic. Giving an indication that material possession was far a good reason for their actions. Hansen willingly went to the defunct Soviet intelligence Service, the KGB, to spy for the Soviets, against his country of birth, even at a period of heightened tensions during the Cold War. He successfully spied for his country’s adversaries for at least two decades, including transitioning to Russia after the devolution of the Soviet Empire.

Knight lived under terrifying conditions during the winter in the woods, occasionally coming out to steal certain items he only needed, terrifying the community and creating a difficult puzzle for the community to solve. He chose to live separately from the ideologies of his contemporaries, desiring instead to voluntarily live a life, he felt was right to live, even though it was in contradiction to what his contemporaries and family members felt it was.

Hansen voluntarily went to the Soviet intelligence in 1979, to make known his intentions to spy for them and was active in spying, even transitioning to Russia, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He passed thousands of classified documents to their secret services, damaging the reputation of his own country. Some of those led to the capture, trial and execution of Dmitri Polyakov, a General in the Soviet Army who has passed sensitive informations to the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) in years preceding his attainment of been General in the Army.

Knight, lived inside the forest in Maine and didn’t speak to anyone for more than two decades except baring his thoughts in his heart, until he was finally captured in 2013, stealing food. Hansen also didn’t tell anyone among his contemporaries or his family about his espionage activities, and continued to be a Russian mole in the FBI untill he was captured in 2001.

Just like Knight, Hansen chose to do things extremely and dangerously different. He was truly a man in between the woods, selling the secrets of his beloved country to their enemies while pretending to be diligent and trustworthy, in ways so damaging that the American Department of Justice defined his as surely their worst intelligence disaster in history”. He was sentenced to life in prison without a parole in 2002 and the American Government rebuffed several offers over the years from Moscow to swap him with any possible exchange.

Incidentally Robert Philip Hansen, the man who chose to be a stranger in between the woods of his spy peers died on the 5th of June, 2023 at the age of 79 in his cell at a federal prison in Colorado, the same day Kakhovka Dam in Kherson, Ukraine was damaged in controversial circumstances with both sides of the Russians and Ukrainians trading blames for who might have been responsible for the disaster. Perhaps maybe the Greek god ‘Poseidon’ known for his bad temper for causing earthquakes by striking the ground, stroked in anger at the continued loss of lives.

One thing is certain this is a period of very heightened tensions between and West and East, especially with Russian tending more Eastward towards China. This clearly portends a dangerous future for the world today, creating fears of an impending nuclear armaggadon, which no doubt will leave the whole world in tatters.

Just like Hansen said when he was eventually captured in 2001, that, “What took you so long?” The war in Ukraine has taken far too long, since 2014, when the government of Viktor Yanukovych was toppled up till today, countless lives have been wasted, over issues that could have been resolved by world powers, probably without spilling a single blood. At this juncture, I am appealing to world powers to come together, make peace in Ukraine, and bring this war to an end, to preserve more lives.

As Nelson Mandela of blessed memory once said “We can’t win a war, but we can win an election” some people have said to me in the past, that no one wins a war. Actually, in reality, when you consider the lives lost in wars, which won’t ever been coming back, traumatic experiences, destruction, economic loss and untold violence, it’s wise to say, they aren’t far from the truth, BUT ITS CERTAINLY TIME TO END THIS WAR …….

Happy Sunday fellow NLer.
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Wittyness