John Walker Fails Lie Tests : Results Cloud Spy Probe, Endanger Plea Bargain

Confessed Navy spy John A. Walker Jr., the reputed mastermind of one of the most damaging espionage rings in U.S. history, has thrown federal investigators into confusion by failing recent lie detector tests about his past activities, law enforcement officials said Saturday.

The officials, who spoke on condition they would not be identified, said Walker has angered and frustrated his interrogators because he pledged under a court-approved plea agreement last October that he would be cooperative in disclosing the full extent of the spy ring and how much damage it may have caused to the nation’s defense apparatus.

Officials said they are uncertain, for example, whether John Walker, a retired Navy warrant officer, truly headed the espionage operation or whether his older brother Arthur, who was convicted after a trial 13 months ago, was the top operative.

If Arthur J. Walker formed the ring in the 1960s while still a lieutenant commander in the Navy, the potential loss of information to the Soviet Union could be even more severe because he had access to extensive secret data on the U.S. submarine fleet, officials said.

Arthur Walker was convicted of stealing classified documents from VSE Corp., a Virginia defense contractor, long after he retired from the Navy in 1973. He was not accused of passing classified information while he was on active duty. He is serving a life term in prison.

‘Not Gotten the Truth’

Tommy E. Miller, who helped prosecute Arthur Walker, said last year that authorities had a statement from this defendant “but we have not gotten the truth.”

John Walker’s alleged untruthfulness--if it continues--could throw his plea agreement into jeopardy because the Justice Department could ask that it be abandoned because he has failed to cooperate, one official said. The Justice Department recently asked that formal sentencing of Walker be postponed several weeks to Oct. 3, without stating a reason.

Last Oct. 28 in Baltimore, U.S. District Judge Alexander Harvey II conditionally gave John Walker a life sentence and his sailor son, Michael, another confessed member of the ring, a 25-year term. Under such a sentence, John Walker technically would be eligible for parole in 10 years.

Harvey said last fall he was postponing formal sentencing pending a determination of “the nature and scope of cooperation” offered by the Walkers. There have been no complaints about Michael Walker’s cooperation.

Demands for Retrial Seen

It is understood, however, that Justice Department officials are reluctant to pronounce John Walker a liar because he was a key witness at the trial earlier this year of Jerry A. Whitworth, a California member of the ring who nine days ago was sentenced to 365 years in prison for espionage. Any abrogation of Walker’s plea agreement could lead to legal demands by Whitworth for a new trial.

Officials who described Walker’s lack of candor said they are puzzled by his conduct. One reason he agreed to cooperate in the first place was to help ensure that his son, Michael, would get a lighter sentence, the sources said.

Nonetheless, “John Walker’s behavior has not been good; his information is not working out,” one source said. This official quoted John L. Martin, chief of the Justice Department’s internal security section, as having recently told FBI agents and Navy investigators: “You’ll have to go back and get the facts (about the origins of the Walker spy ring). We’ve got to get some more information.”

Martin declined to comment Saturday.

Important Operation

Federal investigators are anxious to learn every detail of the Walker-Whitworth spy ring because of the operation’s importance. In an affidavit submitted at Whitworth’s sentencing Aug. 28, Martin told the court that, according to Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko, who later returned to the Soviet Union, the KGB considered the spy ring “the most important operation in the KGB’s history.”

Data provided by the ring allowed the Soviets to decipher about 1 million secret U.S. Navy messages and could have been “devastating to the United States in the event of war,” Martin’s affidavit said.