Former Pentagon contractor arrested in the US for attempted espionage in favor of Russia | News from Germany on world events

Former U.S. Department of Defense contract contractor, 63-year-old South Dakota resident John Murray Rowe Jr. has been detained in connection with felony charges related to alleged attempts to engage in espionage, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release released Thursday, December 16.

The report states that the suspect has worked as a test engineer for defense contractors for about 40 years, in particular, he was engaged in aerospace technologies of the American Air Force and by the nature of his activity had access to materials of various degrees of secrecy – up to top-secret information with a special storage regime. After he repeatedly violated secrecy and “showed a keen interest in Russian affairs”, he was seen as a potential internal threat and fired from his job, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an undercover operation to determine Rowe’s willingness to release classified information. foreign government.

The FBI conducted a covert operation

In March 2020, Roe met with an FBI agent posing as an “agent of the Russian government”, after which he exchanged more than 300 letters with an FBI officer over the course of eight months, confirming his readiness to work for Russia. In a press release from the US Department of Justice, it is noted that in one of the letters, Roe revealed classified information about specific working details of electronic countermeasures systems used in US military fighters.

John Murray Rowe is charged with attempting to transfer information related to national defense to a foreign government. He will appear before the South Dakota District Court on December 17.

If the court finds him guilty, Rowe faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to the US Department of Justice.

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