# Former Green Beret charged with spying for Russia...



## Kraut783 (Aug 24, 2020)

Wow....

*Feds charge former Green Beret with spying for Russia in latest legal blow to Special Forces community

*FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A former Army Green Beret living in northern Virginia was arrested on Friday, charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities in former Soviet republics during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence.  Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, told Russian intelligence he considered himself a “son of Russia,” according to an indictment made public after his arrest. 

Feds charge former Green Beret with spying for Russia in latest legal blow to Special Forces community


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## Ooh-Rah (Aug 25, 2020)




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## SOSTCRNA (Aug 25, 2020)

Hang em


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## Deleted member 15200 (Aug 25, 2020)

What is "*latest legal blow to Special Forces community*" referring to? As a layperson it seems like NSW is the one mainly in the news for scandals


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## racing_kitty (Aug 25, 2020)

PineTree said:


> What is "*latest legal blow to Special Forces community*" referring to? As a layperson it seems like NSW is the one mainly in the news for scandals



There was a former SF guy arrested by Venezuela several months ago for a very poorly planned coup?/invasion?/something? It was so half baked that he and his two accomplices tried to enter the country in broad daylight. There’s a post about it somewhere on the board.


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## “The Old Man” (Aug 25, 2020)

Being special doesn’t mean. That just maybe you aren’t an asshole. 
So you went places and done stuff. 
Being special doesn’t make you a saint.
Being special doesn’t put you above anyone else as a human. 
Just an opinion and, I’m not special.


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## Marauder06 (Aug 25, 2020)

racing_kitty said:


> There was a former SF guy arrested by Venezuela several months ago for a very poorly planned coup?/invasion?/something? It was so half baked that he and his two accomplices tried to enter the country in broad daylight. There’s a post about it somewhere on the board.



There's that, and the guys who were running blow from Columbia, some child rape, a spouse murder, and some others...


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## DasBoot (Aug 25, 2020)

PineTree said:


> What is "*latest legal blow to Special Forces community*" referring to? As a layperson it seems like NSW is the one mainly in the news for scandals


Off the top of my head- 7th Group Coke smuggler, 7th Group adultery scandal that led to SFC’s CSM being fired, the Venezuela “incident,” child porn incident with a support guy...


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## Deleted member 15200 (Aug 25, 2020)

Just for morbid curiosity's sake, has AFSOC had any serious scandals lately? I remember hearing MARSOC had some big war crimes investigation, but they were cleared of everything at the end of the day.

Coming from the perspective of someone who is about as far from an SME as you can get on this board, it sort of seems like the bigger the unit is, the higher probability a couple bad apples find their way in. Am I off the mark there?


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## Marauder06 (Aug 25, 2020)

PineTree said:


> Coming from the perspective of someone who is about as far from an SME as you can get on this board, it sort of seems like the bigger the unit is, the higher probability a couple bad apples find their way in. Am I off the mark there?



I think that's certainly part of it.  If just 1% of your unit is bad, the bigger unit you have, the more bad apples are going to be in it.


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## Board and Seize (Aug 25, 2020)

Marauder06 said:


> I think that's certainly part of it.  If just 1% of your unit is bad, the bigger unit you have, the more bad apples are going to be in it.


As with many things in life, the Pareto Principle applies.


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Aug 25, 2020)

Tinman6 said:


> Being special doesn’t mean. That just maybe you aren’t an asshole.
> So you went places and done stuff.
> Being special doesn’t make you a saint.
> Being special doesn’t put you above anyone else as a human.
> Just an opinion and, I’m not special.


Be a member of a special unit doesn't make you special at all.  I have met more then my fair share of dicked up shitbags who served In SOF units. 

That said, hard to believe this dude made it threw the cracks. But simply goes to show you how you never truly know who is to your left and right, even after a baptism by fire has occurred.  Learned that the hard way with a dude I once swore I would lay my life down for. But anyway...

Just my $.02


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## JedisonsDad (Aug 25, 2020)

PineTree said:


> Just for morbid curiosity's sake, has AFSOC had any serious scandals lately? I remember hearing MARSOC had some big war crimes investigation, but they were cleared of everything at the end of the day.
> 
> Coming from the perspective of someone who is about as far from an SME as you can get on this board, it sort of seems like the bigger the unit is, the higher probability a couple bad apples find their way in. Am I off the mark there?



Every branch has their scandals, some are just less public. AFSOC tends to be higher ups lying about money, mission effectiveness, or flight hours. The occasional air strike that gets pinned on robots if not the fast movers.

Air Force, especially AFSOC is so much smaller than the other branches we just don’t have the numbers for our 1% of the fuck ups to get the coverage like the other branches 1%. Then consider that lots of AFSOC is aircrew and not do much ground forces, and our opportunity for infamy gets even smaller.


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## Intel Nerd (Aug 26, 2020)

This shirtbird taught Russian Affairs and was an intelligence instructor at Molesworth.

I'll say that again- a Russian spy taught USEUCOM intel professionals that covered Russia, on Russia. So he met them and knew them (not all of course). Which also means that Molesworth isn't quite as nested away as it could be, sadly.

I have this guys business cards too. Gonna put them up on a wall of shame.


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## AWP (Aug 26, 2020)

"10%" isn't an actual 10%, but an estimate or stereotype. Every SOF unit has its trash, underperformers, shitbags, etc.  Remember that when clownshoes appear in the news.


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## Devildoc (Aug 26, 2020)

Intel Nerd said:


> This shirtbird taught Russian Affairs and was an intelligence instructor at Molesworth.
> 
> I'll say that again- a Russian spy taught USEUCOM intel professionals that covered Russia, on Russia. So he met them and knew them (not all of course). Which also means that Molesworth isn't quite as nested away as it could be, sadly.
> 
> I have this guys business cards too. Gonna put them up on a wall of shame.



Not 'hate' for you, I hope that is clear.  I can't even come up with a tasteless joke about this.  I get spying for money or strange.  I don't condone it obviously, but I can at least see how it happens.  But for someone to be essentially a plant, a mole, and into the ideology, well to me that's the worst.


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## Intel Nerd (Aug 26, 2020)

Devildoc said:


> Not 'hate' for you, I hope that is clear.  I can't even come up with a tasteless joke about this.  I get spying for money or strange.  I don't condone it obviously, but I can at least see how it happens.  But for someone to be essentially a plant, a mole, and into the ideology, well to me that's the worst.



Truth. He seemed very personable and didn't send off any warning signs for me. I'm going to use this as an anecdote about that "need to know" part when people talk to you about intel outside of their lane.


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## JedisonsDad (Aug 26, 2020)

I just don’t see how this dude got a TS-SCI, something needs to be looked into. One article I read said his mother was born in the Soviet Union, he went to Russia while in ROTC, married a Russian national, and his father in law was an officer in the Russian military.

And to think I get nervous during my investigation when I tell my interviewer about the speeding ticket I had when I was 17.


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## Andoni (Aug 26, 2020)

JedisonsDad said:


> And to think I get nervous during my investigation when I tell my interviewer about the speeding ticket I had when I was 17.



Years ago, I had one interviewer tell me a story about a married couple that it took him multiple tries on both to get through basic questions. He had asked me to answer truthfully and then to lie purposely, and I kept answering truthfully so he was trying to get me to be less nervous. At the end of the story, I said, "Were they spies?" And he said, "Maybe." very straightforward. I was an E3, and totally startled when he said "maybe". Completely caught off guard. Internally I thought fucking awesome /sarc. His answer did not make me more relaxed. 🤣
Edited for clarity


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## Intel Nerd (Aug 26, 2020)

JedisonsDad said:


> I just don’t see how this dude got a TS-SCI, something needs to be looked into. One article I read said his mother was born in the Soviet Union, he went to Russia while in ROTC, married a Russian national, and his father in law was an officer in the Russian military.
> 
> And to think I get nervous during my investigation when I tell my interviewer about the speeding ticket I had when I was 17.



I knew an NCO who was a former Surface Warfare Officer in the Soviet Navy hunting American submarines in the North Atlantic who immigrated to the United States and eventually became a SIGINT 35P and worked as the NCOIC for the Army Division G2 SIGINT shop regionally aligned with Europe. We have a 350F who was a SIGINTer here at the school house that NSA did not approve access to their systems (was a 352N) and forced to switch to 350F. I've got a buddy of mine who is the Russia Analyst for a CCMD J2 who's wife is from Russia. Someone I marched over 100 miles with was from Russia, enlisted into the reserve component as a 35M and is now an intel officer.

It's fairly common. We have a rich history of immigrants working in intelligence, and sometimes it doesn't work out, but usually it does. Some of those most dedicated to America are the ones who escaped some serious hell holes.


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## JedisonsDad (Aug 26, 2020)

Intel Nerd said:


> I knew an NCO who was a former Surface Warfare Officer in the Soviet Navy hunting American submarines in the North Atlantic who immigrated to the United States and eventually became a SIGINT 35P and worked as the NCOIC for the Army Division G2 SIGINT shop regionally aligned with Europe. We have a 350F who was a SIGINTer here at the school house that NSA did not approve access to their systems (was a 352N) and forced to switch to 350F. I've got a buddy of mine who is the Russia Analyst for a CCMD J2 who's wife is from Russia. Someone I marched over 100 miles with was from Russia, enlisted into the reserve component as a 35M and is now an intel officer.
> 
> It's fairly common. We have a rich history of immigrants working in intelligence, and sometimes it doesn't work out, but usually it does. Some of those most dedicated to America are the ones who escaped some serious hell holes.



I’m not saying that foreigners can’t be trusted, I have worked with people that have come over from Eastern Europe and former soviet countries, growing up in less than ideal conditions, and they are probably some of the best Americans around because they have different experiences and perspectives. I just thought that it would have been a conflict of interest to have a father in law that was actively serving as a Russian military officer.


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## Deleted member 15200 (Aug 26, 2020)

A buddy of mine from high school tried to get a TS-SCI and was denied because he was a French citizen. Dude had never even stepped foot outside of the US, but because one of his parents was French he was a citizen at birth (despite being born in the US).


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## Devildoc (Aug 26, 2020)

PineTree said:


> A buddy of mine from high school tried to get a TS-SCI and was denied because he was a French citizen. Dude had never even stepped foot outside of the US, but because one of his parents was French he was a citizen at birth (despite being born in the US).



I'm curious if there's more to the story. I know a handful of people in that similar situation who didn't have any issue with it.


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## Deleted member 15200 (Aug 26, 2020)

@Devildoc It's certainly possible, after all he's the one who told me. Was SEAD-4 the first to state explicitly that being a citizen of another country is not disqualifying on its own? This was some years ago and guidelines may have changed, I don't know


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## Intel Nerd (Aug 26, 2020)

He would have had to renounce his French citizenship. It's not a disqualifer to have had it, but it is if you still posses it.


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## Dame (Aug 26, 2020)

PineTree said:


> A buddy of mine from high school tried to get a TS-SCI and was denied because he was a French citizen. Dude had never even stepped foot outside of the US, but because one of his parents was French he was a citizen at birth (despite being born in the US).


I've said it before on this forum and gotten a lot of hate for it. But it is the truth that French nationals and association with them are a red flag. The French are simply notorious for stealing intel from wherever they can. I'm not bashing anyone with French blood. This is government driven. Anything electronic left in a French hotel WILL be compromised.


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## AWP (Aug 27, 2020)

Dame said:


> I've said it before on this forum and gotten a lot of hate for it. But it is the truth that French nationals and association with them are a red flag. The French are simply notorious for stealing intel from wherever they can. I'm not bashing anyone with French blood. This is government driven. Anything electronic left in a French hotel WILL be compromised.



At one point in time there were thrown out of the CAOC in Al Udeid because of chronic security issues/ violations.


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## SpitfireV (Aug 28, 2020)

Dame said:


> I've said it before on this forum and gotten a lot of hate for it. But it is the truth that French nationals and association with them are a red flag. The French are simply notorious for stealing intel from wherever they can. I'm not bashing anyone with French blood. This is government driven. Anything electronic left in a French hotel WILL be compromised.


Isn't everyone to some extent?


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## Intel Nerd (Aug 28, 2020)

Dame said:


> I've said it before on this forum and gotten a lot of hate for it. But it is the truth that French nationals and association with them are a red flag. The French are simply notorious for stealing intel from wherever they can. I'm not bashing anyone with French blood. This is government driven. Anything electronic left in a French hotel WILL be compromised.



On that note... Espionage? Moi?

"France’s espionage against American companies, described as "aggressive and massive," dates back to the 1960s and is largely born out of a desire to prop up its defense industry, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office, which delicately referred to France as "Country B." *France lacks a domestic defense market large enough to support cutting edge development so it opts to steal American military technology in order to save R&D costs* and enjoy advanced weaponry for its own military and competitive for exports abroad."

Another ally that I know is a major FIS threat is Israel. I know for a fact if I go to either of these countries, I'm *definitely* actually scoring that 10.


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## Goodman (Oct 10, 2020)

I guess now it's gonna be really hard to get any clearance for people who were born in Russia/USSR.


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