A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado is accused of trying to sell classified information to a hostile foreign government in an attempt to pay off his debts and “help balance” the world’s scales, according to court documents released Thursday.
But while Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, believed he was talking to a representative of a particular nation “with many interests that are adverse to the United States,” he was actually talking to an undercover FBI agent, according to his arrest affidavit. After initially sharing excerpts of classified documents and one full document this summer, Dalke was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly agreed to transmit more information using a secure connection investigators had set up at Denver’s train station.
Dalke, who is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, appeared in Denver federal court Thursday. He is being represented by a lawyer from the federal public defender’s office, which does not comment publicly on their cases.
The arrest affidavit did not identify the country Dalke allegedly believed he was providing information to, but it noted that he speaks basic Spanish and Russian and that he tried to verify that the undercover agent was actually working for the foreign government, rather than “americans (sic) trying to stifle a patriot,” by using a website for the Russian government’s external intelligence agency.
Dalke also requested that the agent verify their association with the foreign government by posting on an official website or through a report in one of the media services associated with its government, the arrest affidavit said.
A sign representing the National Security Administration campus is seen in Fort Meade, Maryland, on June 6, 2013.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Dalke, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs, worked for the NSA, the U.S. intelligence agency that collects and analyzes signals from foreign and domestic sources for the purpose of intelligence and counterintelligence, as an information systems security designer for less than a month this summer, according to the affidavit.
According to his arrest affidavit, Dalke, who has degrees related to cybersecurity, began communicating by encrypted email with the undercover agent in late July after the agent wrote to him saying the agent had been informed that they should talk about…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at FOX News : U.S.…