MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado is accused of trying to sell classified information to a hostile foreign government in an attempt to pay off his debts and "help balance" the world's scales, according to court documents released Thursday.
But while Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, believed he was talking to a representative of a particular nation "with many interests that are adverse to the United States," he was actually talking to an undercover FBI agent, according to his arrest affidavit. After initially sharing excerpts of classified documents and one full document this summer, Dalke was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly agreed to transmit more information using a secure connection investigators had set up at Denver's train station.
Dalke, who is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, appeared in Denver federal court Thursday. He is being represented by a lawyer from the federal public defender's office, which does not comment publicly on their cases.
The arrest affidavit did not identify the country Dalke allegedly believed he was providing information to, but it noted that he speaks basic Spanish and Russian and that he tried to verify that the undercover agent was actually working for the foreign government, rather than "americans (sic) trying to stifle a patriot," by using a website for the Russian government's external intelligence agency.
Dalke also requested that the agent verify their association with the foreign government by posting on an official website or through a report in one of the media services associated with its government, the arrest affidavit said.
Dalke, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs, worked for the NSA, the U.S. intelligence agency that collects and analyzes signals from foreign and domestic sources for the purpose of intelligence and counterintelligence, as an information systems security designer for less than a month this summer, according to the affidavit.
According to his arrest affidavit, Dalke, who has degrees related to cybersecurity, began communicating by encrypted email with the undercover agent in late July after the agent wrote to him saying the agent had been informed that they should talk about "items of mutual benefit." At one point, Dalke allegedly told the agent that his heritage "ties back to your country," which is why he said he has "come to you as opposed to others", it said.
The documents he shared before his arrest included a threat assessment of the foreign government he believed he was helping, a plan to update a cryptographic program for a federal agency, a threat assessment of sensitive U.S. defense capabilities, some of which relate to the foreign government at issue, and a document related to a "foreign government leader" whose identity or nation is not described, according to the arrest affidavit.
According to the document, Dalke told the undercover agent that he had $237,000 in debts. In 2017, he filed for bankruptcy because of student loan and credit card debts, it said. He allegedly told the undercover agent that providing the classified information for payment was "an opportunity to help balance scales of the world while also tending to my own needs."
At another point, Dalke said that he did not think the United States is as great as it thinks it once was, the affidavit said.
"It is all about the businesses and their money, not anything about the people or those that serve it to include the military," he said, according to the document.
The case is the latest prosecution involving a government worker accused of trying to pass classified information to someone they thought was a foreign government representative. Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, was arrested along with his wife, Diana, in October 2021 on charges of trying to sell submarine secrets to a foreign government. Both have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
--------
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report from Washington.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.