FALLS CHURCH, Va. A former Green Beret army resident in Northern Virginia was arrested Friday on charges of spreading 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 that he considered himself “the son of Russia”, according to an indictment made public after his arrest.
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“Debbins thought the United States was too dominant in the world and should be cut to size,” prosecutors claimed.
The indictment also alleges that Debbins was motivated in part by bitterness about his military career and a desire to make business contacts in Russia.
The espionage took place from 1996 to 2011, prosecutors say.
The case against Debbins is the second prosecution by Justice Department announced this week accused a government as a military official of transferring American secrets to a foreign country. The other case, in Hawaii, accused a former CIA officer of spying for China.
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The two prosecutions “demonstrate that we must remain vigilant against spying on our two most vicious opponents – Russia and China,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the top national justice official, said in a statement.
Debbins’ mother was born in the Soviet Union, and Debbins met his wife in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, where they were married in 1997, according to the indictment.
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Debbins, from Gainesville, apparently met Russian intelligence in early 1996, when he was a ROTC student at the University of Minnesota, through 2011. As far back as 1997, he even received a code name assigned by Russian intelligence agents. – Ikar Lesnikov – after signing a statement saying he wanted to serve Russia, according to prosecutors.
Debbins received nominal payments for his information, even though he initially refused the money. In one encounter with Russian intelligence, he accepted a bottle of Cognac and a Russian military uniform as payment, according to the prosecutor.
“When service providers work together to provide classified information to our foreign adversaries, they are betraying the oath they swore to their country and their fellow counterparts,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting pursues case. “As this indictment reflects, we will be firm and dogged in holding such individuals accountable.”
Debbins, who was arrested Friday, will have an initial court appearance on Monday. Online court records remained sealed, so it was unclear whether Debbins had a lawyer. He is accused under the Espionage Act of providing national information on defense to those who do not have the right to receive it. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Debbins held secret and later Top Secret security qualifications at the time of his criminal conduct, and served in the Army Special Forces, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Debbins’ espionage began in late 1996 when he gave one of his Russian traders the names of four Catholic nuns he had visited in Russia.
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He was assigned to a chemical unit in South Korea in 1998 and 1999, and the prosecutor says he provided his Russian traders with information about that deployment. He later deployed with his unit Special Forces in Azerbaijan and Georgia. He also provided all the information and names of his fellow members of Special Forces.
On several occasions, Russian traders asked Debbins for U.S. military field manuals. Debbins explained that he could not deliver them because he believed that wearing the Homeland Security manuals would require him to stop at the airport and occupy his electronic devices.
This booking photo provided by the Alexandria, Va, Sheriff’s Office, shows Peter Debbins, a former Army Green Beret, who was arrested on Friday, August 21, 2020, for alleged collusion with Russian intelligence operations to provide information on the national defense of ‘ in the United States. (Office of Alexandria Sheriff via AP)
The indictment alleges that Debbins lost his security delay and command of his unit in 2004 or 2005 for an unspecified security breach, and then left the Army in 2005 with an honorable dismissal. He worked from 2005 to 2010 in Minnesota for a Ukrainian steel manufacturer and a transportation company.
His security clearance was restored in 2010 by an army judge, according to the indictment, although the reinstatement came with a warning that his family and business ties with Russia might “make him the target of a foreign intelligence service.”
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Debbins had told his Russian traders since 1997 that he wanted to leave the army, but they encouraged him to stay. They also encouraged his decision to join the Special Forces, saying “he was of no use to the Russian intelligence service as an infantry commander.”
According to the indictment, military officers questioned Debbins about his trip to visit Russia in 2000 and 2003, but he failed to disclose his interactions with Russian intelligence.
The court papers do not explain what late prosecutors brought prosecutors now or how he came under criminal investigation.
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
