A Spy In The Shadows: The IT Specialist's Secret Plot

A tech worker for the Defense Intelligence Agency was caught red-handed. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, a 28-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested last Thursday. He was trying to hand over secret files to someone he believed was a foreign government official. But it was all a setup. The person he was meeting was actually an undercover FBI agent. The whole thing started in March. Someone tipped off the authorities. They said Laatsch was offering to share classified information with another country. He even wrote in an email that he didn't agree with the current administration's values. He was willing to pass along sensitive documents he had access to. Laatsch started writing down secret information. He planned to leave it in a park for the foreign agent to pick up. In one of these drops, he left a thumb drive. It had documents marked as Secret and Top Secret. In exchange, he wanted citizenship in that country. He didn't think things would get better in the U. S. The Justice Department didn't say which country Laatsch was trying to help. They only said it was a friendly nation. Laatsch was supposed to appear in court on Friday. It's not clear if he had a lawyer to speak for him. This whole situation raises questions. Why would someone with access to secret information want to share it with another country? What made Laatsch think things wouldn't improve in the U. S. ? And how did the FBI catch him so quickly? It's a reminder that even in the most secure places, there can be leaks.