Former U.S. Contractor Pleads Guilty to Transmitting Top-Secret Information to Ethiopia for Military Operations
Abraham Teklu Lemma, a 54-year-old former U.S. government contractor from Silver Spring, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. Lemma, who worked as an information technology contractor for the State Department, Justice Department, and National Reconnaissance Office, admitted to supplying highly classified intelligence to senior Ethiopian officials for over two years. This information was subsequently used by Ethiopia's military and intelligence branches in military operations. Prosecutors detailed a December 2021 message where Lemma urged an Ethiopian contact to use drones against government opponents, stating, 'We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia.' The disclosures, which included top-secret satellite imagery and classified reports, began during Ethiopia's 2020–2022 war between federal forces and Tigrayan fighters and continued until his arrest in August 2023. The U.S. Justice...