US Army names officer held on ‘allegations of espionage’

An Army official identified Lt. Col. Brandon Carroll Tyner as the U.S. soldier arrested earlier this week in the United Kingdom for reportedly assisting Russian intelligence in what FBI Director Kash Patel described as “allegations of espionage.” Tyner, 41, began serving in the Army as a human resources officer — military occupational specialty 42H — in January 2008, the official told Military Times. Tyner’s deployments included tours in Afghanistan, Qatar and Iraq. At the time of his arrest, he was assigned to Imjin Barracks, a British Army base near Gloucestershire, England, which hosts NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. His arrest came shortly after the U.S. removed aircraft from British military bases over an unrelated reported threat from Iran. Tyner was arrested under Sections 1 and 3 of Britain’s 2023 National Security Act and the Army said officials were investigating two locations in Gloucestershire. Counter Terrorism Policing London is leading the investigation and the accused officer remains in custody at a London police station. “This important arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies,” Patel said in a statement, adding that the FBI had made 167 counterintelligence and espionage arrests over the last 21 months. Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, the commanding general of U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command, thanked the FBI authorities in the UK and encouraged anyone who notices something suspicious to consult officials. “The alleged conduct of a senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information, is a sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent. I encourage anyone who thinks they’ve witnessed something suspicious to report it to their local counterintelligence office,” he said in a statement. The arrest comes amid U.S. European Command’s “See Something, Do Something” campaign, which calls on troops, family members and civilian employees to be vigilant about their digital presence and report unusual behavior to authorities. Though the campaign did not identify a specific threat, experts have warned that Russia is ramping up its hybrid warfare. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED, said in an October report that Russia had increased its hybrid threats across Europe — such as targeting aviation in Germany, attempting to sabotage critical infrastructure in Poland and ramping up drone incursions in Romania and Moldova — in an attempt to weaken the region’s support for Ukraine. The report expects those threats to grow, noting that Moscow would likely use cyberattacks and ramp up attacks against defense and transportation infrastructure.