Sailor charged with espionage
Updated 8/9/2006 5:00 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? A sailor accused of taking a Navy laptop loaded with classified information and peddling its contents to foreign governments is being held for possible court martial, the Navy said Wednesday.
The Navy said in a statement Petty Officer 3rd Class ARIEL WEINMANN was successful in giving the classified information to an undisclosed foreign government before he destroyed the computer.
The classified information was described as "relating to the national defense of the United States of America ..."
Weinmann, 21, of Salem, Ore., is confined at the brig at Norfolk Naval Air Station on six charges returned at a July 26 Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury, the Navy said in a statement.
The charges include three counts of espionage, including Weinmann's alleged March 2005 visit to Bahrain to "attempt to communicate, deliver or transmit" the classified information to "a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government."
Months later, the Navy said, Weinmann deserted the USS Albuquerque for more than eight months to travel to Austria and Mexico to "communicate, deliver or transmit" the information to a foreign government.
In March, near Vienna, the Navy alleges, Weinmann used a mallet to destroy the computer's hard drive.
U.S. Fleet Forces Command spokesman Ted Brown would not comment on which government or governments Weinmann is charged with spying for, what he was asking for exchange for the information, or how he obtained the computer.
Weinmann was picked up at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on March 26 and transferred a brig to Norfolk Naval Station, the Navy said.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported his confinement last week and on Wednesday detailed the charges against the sailor.
The Navy also charged Weinmann with failing to properly safeguard and store classified information, making an electronic copy of classified information, communicating classified information to a person not entitled to receive it, and stealing and destroying a government computer.
Weinmann, a fire control technician previously assigned to the New London, Conn.-based submarine, faces a maximum punishment of death if his fleet commander decides to press for a court martial.
Weinmann's Naval attorneys have declined to comment.
Updated 8/9/2006 5:00 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? A sailor accused of taking a Navy laptop loaded with classified information and peddling its contents to foreign governments is being held for possible court martial, the Navy said Wednesday.
The Navy said in a statement Petty Officer 3rd Class ARIEL WEINMANN was successful in giving the classified information to an undisclosed foreign government before he destroyed the computer.
The classified information was described as "relating to the national defense of the United States of America ..."
Weinmann, 21, of Salem, Ore., is confined at the brig at Norfolk Naval Air Station on six charges returned at a July 26 Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury, the Navy said in a statement.
The charges include three counts of espionage, including Weinmann's alleged March 2005 visit to Bahrain to "attempt to communicate, deliver or transmit" the classified information to "a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government."
Months later, the Navy said, Weinmann deserted the USS Albuquerque for more than eight months to travel to Austria and Mexico to "communicate, deliver or transmit" the information to a foreign government.
In March, near Vienna, the Navy alleges, Weinmann used a mallet to destroy the computer's hard drive.
U.S. Fleet Forces Command spokesman Ted Brown would not comment on which government or governments Weinmann is charged with spying for, what he was asking for exchange for the information, or how he obtained the computer.
Weinmann was picked up at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on March 26 and transferred a brig to Norfolk Naval Station, the Navy said.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported his confinement last week and on Wednesday detailed the charges against the sailor.
The Navy also charged Weinmann with failing to properly safeguard and store classified information, making an electronic copy of classified information, communicating classified information to a person not entitled to receive it, and stealing and destroying a government computer.
Weinmann, a fire control technician previously assigned to the New London, Conn.-based submarine, faces a maximum punishment of death if his fleet commander decides to press for a court martial.
Weinmann's Naval attorneys have declined to comment.
