Last week the Department of Justice charged former Special Forces officer Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins with allegedly conspiring with Russian intelligence officers.
"Debbins was assigned a code name by Russian intelligence agents and signed a statement attesting that he wanted to serve Russia," the DOJ press release reads.
Debbins is being charged for alleged acts of espionage between 1996 and 2011 when handlers from GRU encouraged him to pursue a Special Forces career.
"Debbins also provided the Russian intelligence agents with the names of, and information about, a number of his former Special Forces team members so that the agents could evaluate whether to approach the team members to see if they would cooperate with the Russian intelligence service," the press release reads.
There are two interesting details that emerge from the criminal complaint. The first is that Debbins is alleged to have been used to spot and assess other potential Russian intelligence assets for the GRU. Second, he is only being charged for alleged criminal activities up to 2011, although it seems highly unlikely that a long term Russian intelligence asset would simply stop spying on his own abruptly like that.
What was Debbins doing after 2011?
"Maybe he was still working," a former CIA officer, who did not want to be named, suggested to Connecting Vets. "And the U.S. government doesn’t want that exposed."
The Department of Justice indictment does not state that Debbins stopped spying after 2011, it simply cuts off and says he is not being prosecuted for his activities after this time. The former CIA officer described Debbins as likely being a part of a "seeding operation" which would see him scouting and helping to recruit other assets for Russian intelligence. If this is the case, prosecuting Debbins for more recent activities could reveal other ongoing counterintelligence investigations.
“Debbins is accused of giving Russian intelligence officers sensitive information about the units in which he once served and also providing the names of other service members so Russia could try to recruit them. These actions cannot stand and the FBI will aggressively pursue such cases," FBI assistant director of counterintelligence, Alan Kohler, Jr. said in a press release.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
