February 2020 – Page 5 – Law Enforcement, Military, and Terrorism News

Former DIA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified National Defense Information to Journalists

An employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) pleaded guilty today to charges related to his disclosure of classified national defense information (NDI) to two journalists in 2018 and 2019.

“Frese violated the trust placed in him by the American people when he disclosed sensitive national security information for personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “He alerted our country’s adversaries to sensitive national defense information, putting the nation’s security at risk. The government takes these breaches seriously and will use all the resources at our disposal to apprehend and prosecute those who jeopardize the safety of this country and its citizens.”

“Henry Kyle Frese was entrusted with Top Secret information related to the national defense of our country,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Frese violated that trust, the oath he swore to uphold, and engaged in felonious conduct at the expense of our country. This case should serve as a clear reminder to all of those similarly entrusted with National Defense Information that unilaterally disclosing such information for personal gain, or that of others, is not selfless or heroic, it is criminal.”

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“Mr. Frese violated his sworn oath to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States by using his access to the United States’ most sensitive information and steal state secrets for nothing more than personal gain,” said Robert Wells, Acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “The men and women of the FBI who investigated this case swore the same oath but unlike Mr. Frese, they chose to uphold it. I am proud of the work they did to hold Mr. Frese accountable for his actions.”

“By disseminating the same classified information he had pledged to protect, Henry Kyle Frese put the US and our national defense equities in danger,” said Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “The US Government and the American public depend on trusted government employees to keep such information out of the hands of our adversaries, who could use it to cause us harm. The FBI’s counterintelligence mission is to protect our country’s information and secrets in order to safeguard our future; and the men and women of the FBI will continue to work hard to preserve that information.”

According to court documents, Henry Kyle Frese, 31, of Alexandria, was employed by DIA as a counterterrorism analyst from February 2018 to October 2019, and held a Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance. United States government agencies have confirmed that in the spring and summer of 2018, News Outlet 1 published eight articles, all authored by the same journalist (Journalist 1) that contained classified NDI that related to the capabilities of certain foreign countries’ weapons systems.

These articles contained classified intelligence from five intelligence reports (the Compromised Intelligence Reports) made available to appropriately cleared recipients in the first half of 2018. The topic of all of these initial five Compromised Intelligence Reports – foreign countries’ weapons systems – was outside the scope of Frese’s job duties as an analyst covering CT topics. The media articles, and the intelligence reporting from which they were derived, both contained information that is classified up to the TS//SCI level, indicating that its unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security. The intelligence reporting was marked as such.

According to court documents, Frese and Journalist 1 lived together at the same residential address from January 2018 to November 2018. Throughout 2018 and 2019, Frese and Journalist 1 “followed” each other on Twitter, and on at least two occasions Frese re-Tweeted Journalist 1’s Tweets announcing the publications of articles containing NDI classified at the Top Secret level.

In or about April of 2018, Journalist 1 introduced Frese to a second journalist (Journalist 2). Subsequently, Frese began texting and speaking with Journalist 2 by telephone. Between mid-2018 and late September 2019, Frese orally transmitted NDI classified at the Top Secret level to Journalist 1 on 12 separate occasions, and orally transmitted NDI classified at the Secret level to Journalist 1 on at least four occasions.

Frese knew the information was classified at the Secret and Top Secret levels because the intelligence products from which he had learned the classified information had visible classification markings as to the classification level of the information, and the intelligence products accessed by Frese were stored on secure, classified government information systems.

In relation to one of the 12 times Frese orally transmitted Top Secret NDI to Journalist 1, in or about mid-April to early May 2018, Frese accessed an intelligence report unrelated to his job duties on multiple occasions, which contained NDI classified at the Top Secret//SCI level (Intelligence Report l). A week after Frese accessed Intelligence Report 1 for the second time, Frese received an April 27, 2018 Twitter Direct Message (DM) from Journalist 1 asking whether Frese would be willing to speak with Journalist 2. Frese stated that he was “down” to help Journalist 2 if it helped Journalist 1 “progress.” During the same April 27, 2018, Twitter exchange, Journalist 1 indicated that a certain United States military official told Journalist 2 that the official was not aware of the subject matter discussed in Intelligence Report 1. Frese characterized the official’s denial as “weird” and commented on the source of information contained within Intelligence Report 1.

Several days after the April 27, 2018, Twitter exchange, Frese searched on a classified United States government computer system for terms related to the topics contained in Intelligence Report 1. A few hours after searching for terms related to the topic of Intelligence Report l, Frese spoke by telephone with Journalist 1, and several hours later he spoke by telephone with Journalist 2. Immediately after the call with Journalist 2, Journalist 1 called Frese. During at least one of the calls with Journalist 1 and Journalist 2, Frese orally passed Top Secret NDI derived from Intelligence Report 1. Approximately 30 minutes after Frese spoke with the two journalists, Journalist 1 published an article (Article 1) which contained Top Secret NDI, orally communicated by Frese and derived from Intelligence Report 1 classified at the Top Secret//SCI level.

On at least 30 separate occasions in 2018, Frese conducted searches on classified government systems for information regarding the classified topics he discussed with Journalists 1 and 2. On multiple occasions in 2018 and 2019, Frese conducted searches on classified government systems because of specific requests for information from Journalists 1 and 2.

Additionally, between early 2018 and October 2019, Frese communicated with an employee of an overseas CT consulting group (Consultant 1) via social media. On at least two occasions, Frese transmitted classified NDI related to CT topics to Consultant 1, using a social media site’s direct messaging feature.

Frese pleaded guilty to the willful transmission of Top Secret national defense information, and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when sentenced on June 18, 2020, at 9:30 am. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Neil Hammerstrom and Danya E. Atiyeh, and Trial Attorney Jennifer Kennedy Gellie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

Justice.gov (February, 2020) Former DIA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified National Defense Information to Journalists

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AMBER Alert issued for missing East Tennessee Toddler

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has issued an AMBER Alert for 15-month old Evelyn Mae Boswell who is missing from Sullivan County, in East Tennessee.

TBI stated that the toddler was last seen on December 26, 2019, but for some reason, was not reported missing until February 18, 2020.

The Sullivan County Tennessee Sheriff’s Office started investigating the case after the Department of Children’s Services alerted them to a missing child, ABC affiliate WKRN reports.

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“The child’s mother, Megan ‘Maggie’ Boswell, has been involved in the investigation along with the father, Ethan Perry, who is active duty in the military, stationed in Louisiana,” the office said in an emailed statement to Insider.

Neither parent reported Evelyn missing, Capt. Andy Seabolt, a spokesman for the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office told Insider. It was a different family member who reported that the girl hadn’t been seen in months.

Evelyn is a 15-month old, white female, 2 ft. tall, and weighs 28 lbs., with blonde hair and blue eyes. Evelyn was last seen wearing a pink tracksuit, pink shoes, and a pink bow.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Evelyn, please contact the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office at 423-279-7330 or the TBI at 1-800-TBIFIND.

TN.gov/TBI (February, 2020) AMBER Alert issued for missing East Tennessee Toddler

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ALERT: Ransomware Impacting Pipeline Operations

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday responded to a cyber-attack affecting control and communication assets on the operational technology (OT) network of a natural gas compression facility.

A cyber threat actor used a Spearphishing Link [T1192] to obtain initial access to the organization’s information technology (IT) network before pivoting to its OT network.

The threat actor then deployed commodity ransomware to Encrypt Data for Impact [T1486] on both networks. Specific assets experiencing a Loss of Availability [T826] on the OT network included human machine interfaces (HMIs), data historians, and polling servers. Impacted assets were no longer able to read and aggregate real-time operational data reported from low-level OT devices, resulting in a partial Loss of View [T829] for human operators.

The attack did not impact any programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and at no point did the victim lose control of operations. Although the victim’s emergency response plan did not specifically consider cyberattacks, the decision was made to implement a deliberate and controlled shutdown to operations.

This lasted approximately two days, resulting in a Loss of Productivity and Revenue [T828], after which normal operations resumed. CISA is providing this Alert to help administrators and network defenders protect their organizations against this and similar ransomware attacks.

The technical details stated that the victim failed to implement robust segmentation between the IT and OT networks, which allowed the adversary to traverse the IT-OT boundary and disable assets on both networks.

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The threat actor used commodity ransomware to compromise Windows-based assets on both the IT and OT networks. Assets impacted on the organization’s OT network included HMIs, data historians, and polling servers and because the attack was limited to Windows-based systems, PLCs responsible for directly reading and manipulating physical processes at the facility were not impacted.

The victim was able to obtain replacement equipment and load last-known-good configurations to facilitate the recovery process and all OT assets directly impacted by the attack were limited to a single geographic facility.

US-Cert.gov (February, 2020) Alert (AA20-049A)- Ransomware Impacting Pipeline Operations

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FBI Seeks Information on Disappearance, 15 Years Ago Today, of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone, Jr.

The FBI, Philadelphia Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Mount Laurel Police Department, and Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office are seeking the public’s assistance as we continue to investigate the disappearance, 15 years ago today, of Danielle (Ottobre) Imbo and Richard Petrone, Jr.

The FBI, Philadelphia Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Mount Laurel Police Department, and Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office are seeking the public’s assistance as we continue to investigate the disappearance, 15 years ago today(Feb. 19, 2020), of Danielle (Ottobre) Imbo and Richard Petrone, Jr.

Imbo and Petrone were last seen in the late evening hours of Saturday, February 19, 2005, leaving a bar on Philadelphia’s South Street for Petrone’s black 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup truck. An extensive investigation to date has generated some promising leads; however, neither they nor the vehicle have ever been located.

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Danielle Imbo may also use the name Danielle Ottobre. She has a tattoo of flowers on her lower back. Imbo was last seen wearing a dark colored jacket, cream colored sweater, and blue jeans. She wears three small silver rings on either her left or right middle finger. Imbo was carrying a two-handle black purse at the time of her disappearance. She has worked as a loan mortgage processor.

Richard Petrone was last seen wearing a gray Polo brand sweatshirt and blue jeans. He has a tattoo of the word “Angela” on his left arm and a tattoo of clowns on his right arm.

This investigation into Danielle and Rich’s disappearance remains open and active, and there is still a $50,000 reward for information on the couple’s whereabouts or for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for their disappearance. The reward is being administered by the Philadelphia Citizens Crime Commission.

Anyone with information that may assist investigators is urged to call the Citizens Crime Commission tip line at 215-546-TIPS (215-546-8477).

Tipsters can remain anonymous.

FBI.gov (February, 2020) FBI Seeks Information on Disappearance, 15 Years Ago Today, of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone, Jr.

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U.S. Marshal’s Arrest International Murder Fugitive in Reading, PA

Members of the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force arrested Felix Aldencis Peguero Mendez, 61, for homicide and related charges, at approximately 3:30 p.m. on February 13th in the 600 block of East Lancaster Avenue in Reading Pennsylvania.

Peguero Mendez was wanted in the Dominican Republic for homicide since February 15, 2012. It is alleged that he shot his wife 6-8 times resulting in her death.

A Foreign Fugitive warrant was issued in the United States in February 2013, and Peguero Mendez had been on the run up and down the Northeast United States.

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Early on February 13, 2020, U.S. Marshals from Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania developed information suggesting Peguero Mendez was currently hiding in Reading, PA.

Investigation determined he was in an unknown associate’s home in the 600 block of East Lancaster Avenue. Members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force searched the residence and Peguero Mendez was located and arrested without incident.

Peguero Mendez is currently being housed in federal custody pending an initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge where he will formally be charged as a foreign fugitive facing extradition back to the Dominican Republic.

Eric Gartner, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said “Patience, persistence, and unfettered collaboration between our partner agencies has once again proven to be an unbeatable combination. Special thanks to our Task Force partners with the Berks County Sheriff’s Office, Pennsylvania State Police, New Jersey State Police, and Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole in concluding this long-term effort with the safe apprehension of this dangerous fugitive.”

The Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force is a team of law enforcement officers led by U.S. Marshals in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

The task force’s objective is to seek out and arrest violent crime fugitives.

USMarshals.gov (February, 2020) U.S. Marshals Arrest International Murder Fugitive in Reading, PA

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