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| Fifth Column |
| US sailor pleads guilty to espionage |
| 2006-12-04 |
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US sailor pleaded guilty to espionage after admitting to stealing a laptop from a fast attack submarine and peddling classified information to an unidentified foreign government, a US Navy spokesman said. Petty officer 3rd Class Ariel Weinmann, 22, entered the guilty plea in Norfolk, Va., before a military judge, who questioned him on each of the charges, including desertion, espionage, failure to obey a general order, larceny and destruction of military property. "He plead guilty to all charges and specifications with the exception of the espionage charge," said Ted Brown. "He pled guilty to one specification (of espionage) and he pled not guilty to two specifications." The espionage charge said Weinmann "did ... communicate, deliver or transmit classified confidential and secret information relating to the national defense, to a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government" on October 19, 2005 in Vienna, Austria, Brown said. Brown said the guilty plea was part of a pre-trial agreement, but it was not known what it entailed. Weinmann faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. The charges did not identify the country that Weinmann passed information to, but a defense official said earlier this year that it was believed to be Russia. Weinmann was accused of making an electronic copy of classified confidential or secret defense information while serving as a fire control technician aboard the USS Albuquerque sometime between May and July 2005. On July 1, he stole a laptop computer on board the submarine and two days later deserted while the vessel was at a base at New London, Connecticut, according to the charge sheets. Weinmann pleaded not guilty to an espionage charge that he turned over confidential or secret classified information to foreign agents in Manama, Bahrain in March 2005 and in Mexico City on 19 March 2006. Weinmann destroyed the laptop's hard drive "by smashing it with a mallet and cutting off the pins" in March 2006, according to the destruction of government property charge that he admitted. He was arrested 26 March at the Fort Worth/Dallas International Airport by immigration and customs officials after they learned he was listed as a deserter. When are they gonna start shooting these bastards? |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #11 CNN says Russia. As a fire control tech he would have access to info on torpedo, Tomahawk, and decoy capabilities but, hopefully, not submarine sensor capabilities. The USS Albuquerque is an original Los Angeles class, not a 688I. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-12-04 22:39 |
| #10 "he turned over confidential or secret classified information to foreign agents in Manama, Bahrain in March 2005 and in Mexico City on 19 March 2006." -okay, got that part. However, exactly which foreign govt's was he dealing with? |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-12-04 20:07 |
| #9 Was he hoping for a post-enlistment offer from the NYT? |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-12-04 19:08 |
| #8 He's under military jurisdiction, which means no Supermax. Servicemembers get more protections, in court and in confinement. In a typical pre-trial agreement, the accused agrees to plead guilty and the prosecution agrees to a cap on the sentence, usually well below the max possible. The military judge doesn't know what the cap is, so the accused is sentenced as if no PTA exists, and then the cap will kick in if the judge's sentence exceeds it. I couldn't begin to guess what the cap might be, since it depends on a million things known only to the prosecution and defense. I would love to know what possessed him to do this. Hard to believe that money is all. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-12-04 18:54 |
| #7 Anonymoose, I wouldn't be upset if all of our maximum security prisons were run that way, except the destroying the books part. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-12-04 18:40 |
| #6 Not whoosh, but flush. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-12-04 18:35 |
| #5 I would suspect that what awaits him is the special federal max prison block at Florence, Colorado. It is reserved for people like Walker, Pollard, and some others. They wear pajamas, not the regular prison uniform, and sandals with no heels. They are in lockdown in their cells 23 hours a day, and are given 1 hour in a concrete pit in the center of the block to exercise, alone, each day. Guards are forbidden to speak to them. They are given food in their cells on a paper plate with no implements, to eat by hand. They must return the paper plate. They are not permitted anything else in their cells on a permanent basis. No blankets are allowed and lights are on 24 hours. They can be issued one book at a time, which is checked when they are done to insure no pages are missing, and then it is destroyed. They are permitted only one visitor per month, which is very difficult, as the prison is located in an isolated place in the Rocky Mountains. No plane traffic is permitted near the prison. Deceased prisoners are cremated. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-12-04 17:59 |
| #4 RJ, Nah. Just return him to his former command the next time they go out for a cruise. Explain to the crew what he did. Have them give him a tour of the torpedo room while they are submerged. Who knows, he could accidentally get into the tube and Whoosh! Problem solved. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2006-12-04 17:16 |
| #3 He should be cut into ity bitty pieces and buried alive! |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-12-04 17:02 |
| #2 I think the this guy and Sgt Hassan should share a cell that doubles as a gas chamber. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-12-04 16:33 |
| #1 Being a Fire Control Specialist, he had some level of access to the weapon systems; this is or could be a big deal. if we cannot hang him, perhaps the other boys in the pen will show him how to drop the soap...... |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2006-12-04 15:55 |