Bryce Pedicini, a former chief petty officer fire controlman, was accused of delivering classified and national defense information for a foreign government official.

A U.S. sailor was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 18 years in a military prison Thursday after being found guilty of espionage while working for the Navy in Japan.

Bryce Pedicini, a former chief petty officer fire controlman, was convicted of attempted espionage, failure to obey a general order and attempted violation of a general order through a court-martial procedure. He was assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins in Japan when he was taken into pretrial confinement last year.

According to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Pedicini delivered classified and national defense information for a foreign government official from November 2022 to May 2023. He engaged with the foreign official “under the guise of writing research papers,” it said. The Navy described that as a tactic U.S. adversaries increasingly use to obtain both classified and unclassified document.

  • teft@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    I don’t understand the charge of failure to obey a general order in this context. General orders are orders for guarding posts. For the army there are three and the navy there are 11. It’s stuff like don’t quit your post without proper relief, don’t talk outside of duty based things, salute officers….things like that. None of them are about espionage as far as I’m aware.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      I don’t understand the charge of failure to obey a general order in this context

      An article 92 is almost always included, and often the only charge in the Navy if handled by the captain and not court martial.

      Especially in that case, Article 92 could be anything.

      Like, if they say “don’t buy booze for people who aren’t 21” and you do and get caught?

      That’s an article 92.

      Get caught shoplifting Robitussin because no one will buy you booze?

      That’s an article 92.

      Stay up for days in a row because of a WoW addiction?

      Believe it or not also an article 92.

      The Navy has the most “failure to obey a general order” charges because of article 92.

      The most ridiculous I saw was a guy got a sun burn so bad he couldn’t work for a couple days. Got an Article 92. If the military member agrees to Captains Mast over Court Martial, the captain can do what they want. And Navy Captains tend to like broad interpretations of what they and anyone else can do.