Former NSA Employee Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges
This case started and got wrapped up fast and his employment at NSA was only one month? (DOJ) A Colorado Springs man will make his initial appearance in federal court today on charges that he attempted to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to a representative of a foreign government. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, was […]
Wife of Maryland Nuclear Engineer Pleads Guilty to Espionage-Related Offense
(DOJ) A Maryland woman pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships. Her husband pleaded guilty to the same offense on Monday, Feb. 14. Diana Toebbe, 46, of Annapolis, was arrested on Oct. 9, 2021, for knowingly and voluntarily joining a conspiracy with her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, […]
Maryland Nuclear Engineer Pleads Guilty to Espionage-Related Offense
(DOJ) A Maryland man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to communicate restricted data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships to a person he believed was a representative of a foreign nation. Jonathan Toebbe, 43, of Annapolis, was arrested on Oct. 9, 2021, after he placed an SD card at a pre-arranged “dead drop” at […]
Former Defense Contractor Arrested for Attempted Espionage
(DOJ) A South Dakota man was arrested last night in Lead, South Dakota, on criminal charges related to his alleged espionage attempts. According to court documents, John Murray Rowe Jr., 63, of Lead, attempted to provide classified national defense information to the Russian government. According to the complaint, Rowe, who is originally from Massachusetts, was employed […]
Jury Convicts Chinese Intelligence Officer of Espionage Crimes, Attempting to Steal Trade Secrets
(DOJ) A federal jury today convicted Yanjun Xu, a Chinese national and Deputy Division Director of the Sixth Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, of conspiring to and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. The defendant is the first Chinese intelligence officer to be extradited to the United States […]
Maryland Nuclear Engineer and Spouse Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges
(DOJ) Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, both of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Saturday, Oct. 9. They will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For almost a year, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, aided by […]
Defense Department Linguist Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison for providing classified information to Hezbollah
(DOJ) Mariam Taha Thompson, 62, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was sentenced today to 23 years in prison for delivering classified national defense information to aid a foreign government. As part of her March 26 guilty plea, Thompson admitted that she believed that the classified national defense information that she was passing to a Lebanese national would […]
Former Army Green Beret Sentenced for Russian Espionage Conspiracy
(DOJ) A Virginia man and former Army Green Beret was sentenced today to 188 months in prison for conspiring with Russian intelligence operatives to provide them with U.S. national defense information. Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 46, of Gainesville, admitted to conspiring with agents of a Russian intelligence service. According to court documents, from December 1996 to […]
Defense Department Linguist Pleads Guilty to Transmitting Highly Sensitive Classified National Defense Information to Aid Hezbollah
(DOJ) A Minnesota woman pleaded guilty today to one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government. According to court documents, Mariam Taha Thompson, 63, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, worked as a contract linguist at an overseas U.S. military facility where she was entrusted with a top secret government security clearance. Thompson pleaded […]
Visiting Stanford University Researcher Alleged to Be Member of China’s People’s Liberation Army
(DOJ) A federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment charging Chen Song with visa fraud, obstruction of justice, destruction of documents, and false statements in connection with a scheme to conceal and lie about her status as a member of the People’s Republic of China’s military forces while in the United States, the Justice Department announced yesterday. […]
Former Army Special Forces Officer Charged in Russian Espionage Conspiracy
(DOJ) A Gainesville, Virginia, man was arrested today for conspiring with Russian intelligence operatives to provide them with United States national defense information. According to court documents, from December 1996 to January 2011, Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, a former member of the U.S. Army, allegedly conspired with agents of a Russian intelligence service. During that […]
New Book on Nicholson Spy Case
Jim Nicholson was a GS-15 CIA operations officer when he volunteered to spy for the Russian SVR intelligence service (shortly after another CIA officer, Rick Ames, was arrested in 1994). One of Nicholson’s job was training new CIA operations officers, and gave their names to the Russians. He was arrested in 1996. Later, while in jail, […]
Fool’s Mate: A True Story of Espionage at the National Security Agency
New Book about the Robert Lipka case, aka the “Rip Van Winkle” spy. Fool’s Mate: A True Story of Espionage at the National Security Agency: Whiteside III, John W: 9781493597055: Amazon.com: Books He was an NSA employee who spied for the KGB in the 1960s, went dormant, but got caught in the 1990s. His words: […]
Shipyard worker’s foreign contacts get him in trouble
Pearl Harbor shipyard worker denounces anonymous claim of spying (Stars & Stripes) A senior Pearl Harbor shipyard manager says he was falsely accused of espionage, taken off the job in March and has not been paid since July — even though an investigation cleared him of the “foreign influence” allegations. Gerald “Gino” Palermo, a former submariner […]
Discovery of Russian spy in Canadian navy set off sabotage fears
(Toronto Star) The discovery of a Russian spy in the ranks of Canada’s military sparked a cyber search to discover whether he had sabotaged government computers with a virus, the Star has learned. And in the wake of the serious spy incident that cost Canada credibility with its allies, top officers concluded the Defence Department’s security […]
Robert Hoffman Espionage Trial (Updated)
(Latest news at bottom) FBI targeted alleged spy by pretending to date him (Virginian Pilot) Step one to building an attempted-espionage case: Respond to your target’s personal ad on Craigslist. Step two: Pose as a single woman interested in a relationship and exchange dozens of emails. Step three: Go on a couple of dates at […]
Trial begins in Norfolk for ex-sailor accused of spying for Russians
(Virginia-Pilot) The trial of a former sailor charged with trying last year to give “top secret” information to Russian agents began today in U.S. District Court. Defense attorneys for Robert P. Hoffman II asked the court for a postponement, noting the publication this month in The Virginian-Pilot of a 12-part series about the John Walker family […]
Scientist and wife plead guilty to espionage involving nuclear weapons
(Examiner) Two contract workers for a U.S. nuclear facility pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico on Friday to espionage charges involving classified nuclear weapons information, according to Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin. Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, a U.S. citizen, […]
