A 22-year-old U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas has been arrested for allegedly attempting to exchange sensitive information related to the military’s main battle tank for Russian citizenship. Taylor Adam Lee, who held a Top Secret (TS) / Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance, is accused of trying to pass classified data to a Russian intelligence officer in a citizenship exchange scheme. The charges include attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary and attempted export of controlled technical data without a license.
Lee allegedly transmitted information about the M1A2 Abrams tank online and offered assistance to Russia, stating that the USA was not happy with him for trying to expose its weaknesses. During a July meeting, he allegedly passed an SD card containing technical data about the Abrams tank and other military equipment to a person he believed to be a Russian government representative.
Authorities stated that several documents on the SD card contained information that Lee was not authorized to provide, and some were marked as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), featuring banner warnings and dissemination controls. Lee also discussed obtaining and providing a specific piece of hardware inside the M1A2 Abrams tank to the Russian government, which he allegedly delivered to a storage unit in El Paso on July 31. He then sent a message to the individual he believed to be a Russian government representative, stating, ‘Mission accomplished.’
The U.S. Army and the FBI have raised alarms about the potential threat to national security and the need for increased vigilance against espionage within the military ranks. Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division emphasized, ‘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.’
The incident comes on the same day that another military-related incident occurred at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where a soldier shot five other soldiers in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) area of the installation. Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, the accused shooter, has been apprehended, and all the soldiers were treated on-site before being transported to Winn Army Community Hospital. Radford, an automated logistics sergeant assigned to the ABCT, is currently under investigation for the incident.