• 007 cases where Americans were branded spies overseas

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The U.S. diplomat accused of spying in Russia joins a small group of Americans who have been publicly branded spies while overseas.

    Keystone/Getty Images

    Francis Gary Powers, pilot of the U-2 spy plane which crashed in Russia, appears before a Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington holding a model of a U-2 in March 1962.

    Their alleged transgressions range from piloting a spy plane into enemy territory to darting over a border in the wilderness. Some of them were returned to the U.S. after diplomatic intervention; some are still waiting to learn their ultimate fate:

    Francis Gary Powers: The U-2 pilot parachuted into history on May 1, 1960, when a Russian missile shot down his spy plane. The cover story was that it was a weather plane, but after months of interrogation by the KGB, Powers publicly confessed to espionage and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    He served less than two years, though, after the U.S. and Russia agreed to a spy swap. When he returned to the States, he found himself under fire for failing to activate the self-destruct mechanism on the U-2 or use a cyanide capsule before his capture, according to his son's website.

    Cleared of any wrongdoing during a congressional inquiry, he was later awarded several medals -- but not until 20 years after he was killed in a helicopter accident while working as a pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles.

    Vincent Kessler/Reuters

    American businessman Edmond Pope, accompained by his wife Cheri, gives a thumbs-up to the press assembled on a balcony at the American Hospital of Landstuhl in Germany after he flew in from Moscow on Dec. 14, 2000.

    Edmond Pope: It took 40 years after the Powers case for another American to be convicted of spying in Russia. Pope was a U.S. businessman working on defense projects when he was accused of obtaining classified torpedo designs from a Moscow professor. Pope said he had no idea the plans were off-limits.

    His 2000 trial — which featured his defense lawyer delivering a closing argument in verse — ended with a guilty verdict and 20-year sentence. Within days, President Vladimir Putin had pardoned him, citing his poor health.

    The retired naval intelligence officer always denied being a spy. "I'm not James Bond," he insisted after his release.

    Laura Ling and Euna Lee: The two journalists traveled to China in 2009 to film a documentary for Current TV and were arrested after North Korea claimed they had crossed the border. With tensions between Washington and Pyongyang running high, the two women were convicted of "hostilities" against North Korea and illegal entry and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

    Ling and Lee were granted amnesty after former President Bill Clinton intervened on behalf of the White House. They later said that they had spent only seconds on the North Korean side of the border before returning to Chinese territory and that soldiers chased them and dragged them back.

    Robyn Beck/AFP – Getty Images

    Freed U.S. journalists Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling embrace family members after being released from North Korea at the airport in Burbank, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2009.

    Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd: A visit by three hikers to a waterfall on the border of Iran and Iraq turned into a two-year international saga. Iranian guards arrested the trio — who were working in Kurdistan at the time — and accused them of espionage.

    Shourd was released in 2010 for health reasons but the two men were convicted in 2011 and sentenced to eight years. They became a cause celebre and were released a month later after the government of Oman posted nearly $1 million in bail to secure their freedom.

    They maintain that they were not spying and don't even know if they actually crossed into Iran by accident. "From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American," Fattal said when he and Bauer were back on U.S. soil.

    Press TV via AP

    American hikers Shane Bauer, left, Sarah Shourd, center, and Josh Fattal, sit at the Esteghlal Hotel in Tehran, Iran, on May 20, 2010.

    Timothy Tracy: Venezuelan authorities arrested the California filmmaker last month and accused him of being a U.S. government agent and paying right-wing groups to destabilize the new government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

    The 35-year-old's family said he was in Venezuela only to make a documentary. He was heading back to the U.S. for his father's 80th birthday when he was detained at the airport in Caracas, relatives told the Associated Press.

    Obama called the accusations that Tracy is a spy and that the U.S. is trying to incite civil war "ridiculous."

    Tracy family via AP

    This undated family photo released April 25, 2013, shows Timothy Tracy inside of a vehicle in Venezuela.

    Kenneth Bae: The American businessman was arrested in North Korea in November and sentenced last month to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts."

    Yonhap via Reuters

    Video released in Seoul by Yonhap News Agency on May 2, 2013, shows a portrait of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae.

    Friends say Bae, 44,  was a tour operator who ran excursions from China and a devout Christian who had traveled to the North several times with an eye toward helping orphans there.

    The U.S. has demanded his release, and basketball star Dennis Rodman, who claims to be friends with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, tweeted that he was going to bat for Bae.

    Alan Gross: The U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba after being convicted of leading a "subversive project" by smuggling satellite equipment to the communist-run island.

    James L. Berenthal/AP

    Jailed American Alan Gross poses for a photo during a visit by Rabbi Elie Abadie and U.S. lawyer James L. Berenthal at Finlay military hospital in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 27, 2012.

    He was nabbed during his fifth trip to Cuba in 2009 while in possession of a SIM card that blocks tracking of satellite phone signals. It is not available on the open market, according to the AP, but is used by the Defense Department, State Department and CIA.

    Gross, 64, claimed during that trial that he was doing humanitarian work and was duped into bringing in contraband. His lawyer has called him a pawn in the decades-old feud between the U.S. and Cuba.

     

  • How big debt is threatening security clearances for thousands of troops

    Denis Poroy / AP file

    A sign offers military financing at a used car lot in Oceanside, Calif. on Oct. 12, 2006. The lot is one of many businesses in downtown Oceanside that offer credit to Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Nearly 36,000 active-military members who hold security clearances have recently sought urgent financial advice or aid because heavy debts and delinquent bills threatened to void their classified status, according to a nonprofit that helps troops and veterans solve money problems.


    “You can lose that security clearance if you have credit or debt issues,” said John E. Pickens III, executive director of VeteransPlus. “If you lose that clearance, you can become un-promotable or you can be taken from your assignment. And, ultimately, you can even receive a bad-conduct discharge.

    “If you’re going to be entrusted with national security,” he added, “the military figures you’ve got to at least be able to pay your bills on time.”

    Pickens’ nonprofit has offered financial counseling to more than 150,000 current and former service members. Among that crowd of clients, more than half are active duty, National Guard members or reservists. And out of that portion, he said, 46 percent have expressed worries about their security clearances.

    Approximately half of America's 2.4 million active duty, National Guard and reserve troops hold some level of security clearance, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory. Most of those 1.19 million service members possess the second-highest security rating - "secret" - while the next largest portion hold a higher status: TS/SCI, (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information), he added. The sensitive nature of certain military jobs typically dictate the security classifications. 

    “All military members know they are required by the Uniform Code of Military Justice to pay their debts,” Pickens said. “But right now, the Department of Defense says excessive and delinquent indebtedness is the No. 1 cause for denying or revoking security clearances.”

    Asked to confirm that massive debt and late payments are, indeed, the leading factors in security-clearance terminations, Gregory said: “One reason (for concern) is that a person with big debts is more likely to accept money in exchange for revealing secrets.  So that's why financial things are one of the biggest reasons that a clearance would not be granted or be revoked.

    “That said,” Gregory added, “the military takes a ‘whole person’ approach. Finance is only one factor to be considered among many others when it comes to security clearances. The U.S. military pays close attention to debt and other financial issues when it comes to screening applicants for security clearance to handle sensitive information.”

    Based on the financial counseling sessions provided by VeteransPlus, statistics show that service members and veterans who approach the nonprofit have an average debt-to-income ratio of 46.5 percent, Pickens said. According to “The Ultimate Credit Handbook,” by Gerri Detweiler, a debt load of 36 percent or less is healthy for most people to carry, but a ratio of 43 percent to 49 percent means that dire financial difficulties are probably imminent unless immediate action is taken.

    The nonprofit’s counselors also see an average unsecured debt (such as credit cards) of $9,700 and an average secured debt (such as a home) of $16,500.

    How much is too much?

    “I wish I knew that number,” Pickens said. “But if you’re not paying your bills and your debt-to-income ratio is what the military would consider to be excessive, they look at you as a risk.

    “Military folks are susceptible to the same kinds of pressures and economic things as everybody else,” Pickens adds. “Their spouses get laid off. They have foreclosures. The fact that they have to move around frequently means they’re often upside down on their houses when they have to sell.”

    In April 1990, Derek Staden, then 19, learned he was about to be deployed from his Air Force base in Wichita, Kan., to the Middle East as the U.S. military launched Operation Desert Storm. Then a senior airman whose duties included refueling aircraft, Staden’s mailbox suddenly was flooded with offers for credit cards and high-interest loans.

    “Just out of nowhere – all from creditors locally,” Staden said. “I guess they knew our base was deploying. All we had to do was endorse the checks and they would cash them for us. I was a young man and I’d never seen anything like that before. I didn’t know how the interest payments worked so I took them and took advantage of them. I bought some things I needed and things I didn’t need.”

    When Staden returned to his base later in 1990, those same creditors demanded that he repay the loans or balances or they would report him to his commanding officer. He knew his security clearance would be at risk if his superiors learned of his unpaid bills. He had earned that classified status during basic training. He needed the clearance because he was involved in secret, Cold War practice drills during which he refueled aircraft.

    “I had to keep those payments up to speed because the military frowns on having debt issues like that,” Staden said. “It wasn’t an option to call my parents and ask for help because they taught me growing up how to be responsible for your obligations. I didn’t want to call them to tell them I’d been duped by creditors.

    “I just had to scale back, spend all my weekends in the dorms (on base). Those were some lean times for me. I was so embarrassed.”

    Staden, who left the service in 1995 and now lives in New Orleans and is trying to get into the music-production business, estimates that his debt ultimately reached in the low $20,000 range.

    "I felt like I didn’t have anywhere to go for help – outside of my parents. I figured if I went to the adjutant on base I would get myself in trouble,” he said. “It made me second-guess a lot of things. I thought I was more prepared for living on my own. That was probably part of the reason I didn’t re-enlist. It was very stressful.”

     

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