A U.S. Army soldier was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly seeking to pass sensitive information about American battle tanks to the Russian government, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Taylor Adam Lee, 22, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas, is facing two federal charges accusing him of attempting to transmit national defense information and export controlled technical data without a license, according to court documents.
“Today’s arrest is a message to anyone thinking about betraying the U.S. – especially service members who have sworn to protect our homeland. The FBI and our partners will do everything in our power to protect Americans and safeguard classified information,” Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said in a statement.
Lee has not yet entered a plea on the charges, which were filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Attorney information for Lee was not immediately available.
Prosecutors accused Lee, who holds a top-secret security clearance, of attempting to share information on the operation and vulnerabilities of the M1A2 Abrams, the main U.S. battle tank, with the Russian government in exchange for Russian citizenship.
Last month, Lee shared an SD card that contained documents and information about the tank and other U.S. military operations with someone he believed to be a Russian intelligence officer. The documents contained technical data Lee was not authorized to provide and some were marked “Controlled Unclassified Information,” according to prosecutors.
“Soldiers who violate their oath and become insider threats will absolutely be caught and brought to justice, and we will continue to protect Army personnel and safeguard equipment,” said Brigadier General Sean Stinchon, the commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command.
US Army soldier accused of attempting to share tank infomation with Russia
https://arab.news/6nn7m
US Army soldier accused of attempting to share tank infomation with Russia
UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature
- Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman
- “While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning”
NICOSIA: The key UN envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus’s long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.
In an interview with Cyprus’s Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was “deep, sincere and very straightforward.”
“While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting,” said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.
A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkiye and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.
A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkiye invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.
Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognized administration representing the whole island in the European Union.
