Navy nuclear engineer and his wife charged with trying to share submarine secrets with a foreign cou
Source: Washington Post
country
A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with repeatedly trying to pass secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country, in an alleged espionage plot discovered by the FBI, according to court documents.
Authorities say Jonathan Toebbe, who has a top-secret clearance, has passed, and continues to pass, Restricted Data as defined by the Atomic Energy Act . . . to a foreign government . . . with the witting assistance of his spouse, Diana Toebbe, according to a criminal complaint filed in West Virginia and unsealed Sunday.
The court papers say that in December 2020, an FBI official received a package that had been sent to the foreign country containing U.S. Navy documents, a letter and instructions for how to conduct encrypted communications with the person offering the information.
The letter in the package said: Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/navy-nuclear-engineer-and-his-wife-charged-with-trying-to-share-submarine-secrets-with-a-foreign-country/ar-AAPlcZZ?li=BBnb7Kz
roamer65
(36,739 posts)catsudon
(839 posts)Navy engineer's wife arrested with her husband for 'selling nuclear sub secrets' to an unknown foreign power posted pro-BLM rants online, raged against Trump and praised Hillary
now the husband might be from the right. but i'm interested in seeing what country they were spying for.
Calista241
(5,584 posts)His positions, being from the Navy and working in government, are more nebulous.
The wife though, she clearly supports BLM, she posted about RBG, raged about Trump, and had Hillary's logo as her background.
ZonkerHarris
(24,155 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)How just much classified information and intelligence Trump and his spawn sold to foreign governments, especially what intel they gave away free to Russia/Putin, and others..........
Didn't Jared make a one day trip to Saudi and him returning with a "loan" of 150 Million needed to bail out one of his real estate debacles that was about ready to crash and burn..........
Thanks YMBL for your consistently great articles...........
getagrip_already
(14,249 posts)In the form of a P&S for his 666 park ave fiasco. His family was on the verge of bankrupty over it, and they couldn't make payments on the loans they had out.
The saudi's paid WAY over market since the building wasn't even completed.
DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)that a day or two after Jared left, the Head Saudi family? went thru their administration and family members and "cleaned" house ????
getagrip_already
(14,249 posts)including family members who were resisting mr bone saw.
Coincidence?
House of Roberts
(5,120 posts)TheBlackAdder
(28,073 posts).
They were providing Russia with daily sub positions, agendas, and radio frequencies and codes from 1967 to 1985.
All while we were watching how badass the navy was in Hunt for Red October, the book was written during these times. Russia said that the naval information provided allowed the one part of the Military Triad to be compromised with Russia saying they had a winnable advantage.
John Anthony Walker Jr. (July 28, 1937 August 28, 2014) was a United States Navy chief warrant officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985 and sentenced to life in prison.[2]
In late 1985, Walker made a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, which required him to provide full details of his espionage activities and testify against his co-conspirator, former senior chief petty officer Jerry Whitworth. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to a lesser sentence for Walker's son, former Seaman Michael Walker, who was also involved in the spy ring.[2] During his time as a Soviet spy, Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than one million encrypted naval messages,[3] organizing a spy operation that The New York Times reported in 1987 "is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history."[4]
After Walker's arrest, Caspar Weinberger, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, concluded that the Soviet Union made significant gains in naval warfare attributable to Walker's spying. Weinberger stated that the information Walker gave Moscow allowed the Soviets "access to weapons and sensor data and naval tactics, terrorist threats, and surface, submarine, and airborne training, readiness and tactics."[5] John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration, stated in an interview that Walker's activities enabled the Soviets to know where U.S. submarines were at all times. Lehman said the Walker espionage would have resulted in huge loss of American lives in the event of war.[citation needed]
In the June 2010 issue of Naval History Magazine, John Prados, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., pointed out that after Walker introduced himself to Soviet officials, North Korean forces seized USS Pueblo in order to make better use of Walker's spying. Prados added that North Korea subsequently shared information gleaned from the spy ship with the Soviets, enabling them to build replicas and gain access to the U.S. naval communications system, which continued until the system was completely revamped in the late 1980s.[6] It has emerged in recent years that North Korea acted alone and the incident actually harmed North Korea's relations with most of the Eastern Bloc.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anthony_Walker
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LiberalFighter
(50,499 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,362 posts)Now that republicans love Mother Russia.
New republican meme - "Russia is our friend".
Maybe China... Dotard loves them also for financing him.
PerceptionManagement
(461 posts)paleotn
(17,778 posts)Not only does this put the lives of submariners at risk, a crime worthy of being burned at the stake, but risks the lives of every American. It can be argued, rightly in my mind, that the Silent Service kept the Cold War from ever becoming hot. It is the ultimate nuclear deterrent and the most affective means of blunting any adversary's missile boat threat. And its something we're extremely good at.
old guy
(3,281 posts)denbot
(9,894 posts)Someone in their intel or L.E.O. apparatus, that could harbor affection for the U.S.
Calista241
(5,584 posts)Apparently the third country sat on the intro letter for 9 months before turning it over to the FBI. On the other hand, they posted a 'signal' at their embassy in Washington and left it up over Memorial Day weekend so these two traitors would believe they were negotiating with the host country and not the FBI. We're not told what the signal was, but in the complaint the FBI lays out the cooperation of the third country.
The FBI insisted on a dead drop at a location of their choosing, which is how they got caught. If the perps had stuck to their guns and insisted on a web host to transfer the files, they'd still be out there walking free.
kskiska
(27,041 posts)It's all out in the open now, and he's unleashed all the crazies.
Trueblue1968
(17,138 posts)getagrip_already
(14,249 posts)Freedumb of speech doesn't include speaking secrets to enemies.
hunter
(38,264 posts)... and forwarded it to the FBI.
I imagine them smirking a bit as they exclaim, "NOPE!"
reACTIONary
(5,749 posts)Link to original WaPo reporting, no paywall.
https://wapo.st/3As1wA3
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and his wife on Tuesday faced their first court hearing on charges they attempted to sell secrets about nuclear submarines to a foreign power in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Wearing orange prison jumpsuits, they briefly appeared at a federal courthouse in Martinsburg, West Virginia, for a formal reading of the criminal charges against them. They have not yet been asked to enter a plea to the charges.
Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were arrested on Saturday in Jefferson County, West Virginia, following a yearlong sting operation by undercover FBI agents, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Toebbe, 42, a nuclear engineer with top-secret security clearance, is accused of sending Navy documents to an unnamed foreign entity in 2020, along with instructions for how to obtain additional information.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-us-navy-engineer-wife-face-judge-in-submarine-espionage-case/ar-AAPpu7A