Voice of America
22 Sep 2023, 07:35 GMT+10
WASHINGTON - A contractor for the U.S. government has been arrested on espionage charges, accused of providing a foreign country classified information that he downloaded and printed from his work computer system, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Abraham Teklu Lemma, who is originally from Ethiopia, had a top secret security clearance and access to classified information through contracting positions with the departments of State and Justice.
He is accused of using an encrypted messaging application to transmit maps, photographs and satellite imagery to the foreign government, according to court documents.
Court papers do not identify the country Lemma is accused of spying for, and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. But the documents do refer to travel back and forth over the past year and a half to a country where he has family ties.
The New York Times, which first reported the arrest, identified Ethiopia as the country for which Lemma is alleged to have spied.
Prosecutors say he accessed dozens of intelligence reports, copying information from them and downloading it to CDs and DVDs.
Lemma faces charges of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government and conspiring to do so, as well as the willful retention of national defense information. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Lemma, 50, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the Justice Department said.
Besides the material that prosecutors say Lemma provided, he also communicated with a foreign official who tasked him with supplying information on certain subjects of interest to the country. They discussed military issues, such as command centers and the activities of rebels who were fighting against the government, according to an FBI agent's affidavit.
When the official told Lemma last September that it was time for him to continue his support, the affidavit says, Lemma responded, 'Roger that!'
The State Department said in a statement that it learned that Lemma may have improperly removed classified information from its systems during an internal 60-day security review prompted by the April arrest of a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform.
The department said it would continue to implement recommendations from that review to improve its protection of classified information.
Get a daily dose of Orange County Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Orange County Sun.
More InformationBEIRUT - A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part ...
© Provided by Xinhua HEFEI, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- As steaks sizzle on the grill pan in a steakhouse located ...
(Photo credit: Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK) PJ Hayes and Deuce Turner both set career highs with 23 ...
The U.S. State Department has approved the emergency sale of 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel for about $106.5 ...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Severe storms that tore through the U.S. state of Tennessee killed six people Saturday and sent about ...
HOUSTON - Houston elected Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire as its next mayor on Saturday night, elevating a Texas lawmaker ...
Israel has acknowledged and thanked the United States and President Joe Biden for standing firmly by Israel's side at the ...
NEW YORK: This week, New York City officials said that one person was killed and six others were injured when ...
NEW YORK, New York - The United Kingdom refrained from supporting demands for a ceasefire in the two-months long Israel-Gaza ...
NEW YORK, New York - The U.S. was alone on Friday in a 13-1 vote for a ceasefire in the ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The Associated Press (AP) reported that Manuel Rocha, a former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to ...
MADISON, Wisconsin: On November 30, Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury from Wisconsin pleaded guilty to firebombing a conservative anti-abortion group's office on ...