Sailor Arrested in Alleged Sale of Secret Document

A Navy enlisted man, stationed at this base where cruise missiles are tested, has been arrested for investigation of selling classified U.S. documents, authorities said Monday.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Dean Haguewood, 24, was arrested March 4 by the Naval Investigative Service after he allegedly sold part of a secret document to an undercover police officer, Navy spokesman Lt. Dave Morris said.

However, a Navy source at the Pentagon said Haguewood was not a “big-time spy” in the same league as the more than dozen people arrested since May in espionage scandals that have rocked the service.

“He didn’t approach the Russians,” said the source, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not identified. “He was a very low-level guy who did a pretty stupid thing. We don’t consider him any big-time spy.”

The source described Haguewood as a petty officer who worked with bombs and other ordnance at the air station, which tests new weapons.

“It appears he was an enlisted guy in some serious trouble financially, who approached somebody in a bar and let it be known he wanted to sell some classified information,” the source said.

“We’re treating it as attempted theft of government property, not as some sort of a spy case,” Point Mugu spokesman Ray Lucasey said.

Information on Haguewood’s Navy security clearance was not immediately available, Lucasey said. His hometown also was unavailable.

John Russell, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said there was no indication that any material “was destined to go to a foreign government or a foreign agent of a government.”

Because of that, the case is “strictly a Navy arrest, strictly a court-martial matter,” and the Justice Department will not become involved, Russell said.

Morris said Haguewood had not been charged early Monday afternoon.

Haguewood allegedly sold half of a document marked “confidential” to an Oxnard police undercover officer, while Navy investigators watched, Morris said. Confidential is the lowest of three levels of secret U.S. information.

The manual apparently dealt with weapons-loading procedures, the source at the Pentagon said. The entire document was recovered.

Haguewood was assigned to the Navy’s Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, which in recent years has been conducting tests of the new Tomahawk cruise missile, Morris said.

The Tomahawk--a subsonic, jet-powered missile with small wings--has been launched at land and sea targets from submarines and surface ships in the 35,000-square-mile test range. It is designed to fly close to the surface to avoid detection and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.

The alleged sale by Haguewood took place at an undisclosed location off the base in Oxnard, and he was arrested after he returned to the air station 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.