Oregon sailor charged with spying

As reported here, "A sailor accused of taking a Navy laptop containing classified information and peddling its contents to foreign governments is being held for possible court-martial, the military said Wednesday.

"The Navy said that Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann gave the classified information, containing national defense data, to an undisclosed foreign government before he destroyed the computer.

"Weinmann, 21, of Salem, Ore., was confined at Norfolk Naval Air Station on six charges, the Navy said in a statement.

"The charges include three counts of espionage, including a suspected March 2005 visit to Bahrain, where Weinmann tried to pass along classified information to a foreign government, the Navy said.

"Months later, the Navy said, Weinmann deserted his submarine, the USS Albuquerque, for more than eight months and traveled to Austria and Mexico to "communicate, deliver or transmit" the information."

Weinmann was a fire control technician, which carries a rather high security clearance. For those of you that don't know what that means, he operated and maintained weapons systems. The USS Albuquerque, SSN 706, is a Los Angeles Class fast attack submarine. They hunt enemy missile subs, and also fire Tomahawk cruise missiles against both naval and land targets. Weinmann would have been involved in any attacks made by the Albuquerque.

Although it isn't known which foreign government he attempted to sell secrets to, nor what the secrets were, you can pretty much assume that he was trying to sell weapons technology information. The fact that he was in Bahrain suggests that he was possibly in contact with an Arab nation, although he also traveled to Austria and Mexico.

"Weinmann could face the death penalty if his fleet commander decides to press for a court-martial." What Weinmann did is treason, and he did it during a time of war, which is why the death penalty could be invoked.

I'm a veteran of the US Navy, and what he did disgusts me. For whatever selfish, or misguided "idealistic", reasons that he did this, he put lives at risk, and that is despicable. I hope that he does face a courts-martial and, if the facts warrant it, is found guilty. Whether he gets the death penalty, or spends the rest of his life behind bars at hard labor, is immaterial to me at this point. Either sentence would be acceptable to me.