Marine Held on Suspicion He Spied for Soviets

A Marine guard who served at U.S. embassies in Moscow and Vienna has been placed in “pretrial confinement” at Quantico, Va., suspected of espionage, a Marine Corps spokesman told The Times Friday night.

A government source said that the case against Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree of Chicago involved a “major KGB operation.” Although the source declined to outline the magnitude of the case, he called it “a very serious” breach of security.

Held Since December

Lt. Col. John Shotwell, the Marine spokesman, said that Lonetree has been in custody since late December, when “he acknowledged his involvement to U.S. officials in Vienna.”

Lonetree is suspected of having worked with a woman believed to be a KGB agent to provide the Soviet secret police with extensive, top-secret information from the U.S. Embassy in Vienna and perhaps from the embassy in Moscow, government sources said.

Sources said the 25-year-old enlisted man had access to “extremely sensitive” material, as well as the keys to safes where classified documents were kept. A safe at one embassy was opened and its contents were taken, one source said.

Not Yet Formally Charged

Shotwell emphasized that the case is still under investigation and that Lonetree has not yet been formally charged. “That will take place in two or three weeks,” he added.

The Marine spokesman cited four different espionage charges that could be brought against Lonetree, who could face the death penalty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Articles under which Lonetree may be charged are “conspiracy to commit espionage,” “espionage,” “failure to report contact with citizens of Communist-controlled nations” and “unauthorized removal and disclosure of classified information,” Shotwell said.

The investigation was conducted by the Naval Investigative Service, he said. Officials refused to say how Lonetree came under suspicion or how long he is believed to have passed information to the Soviets.

Lonetree, who joined the Marines in 1980, served in the Moscow embassy from Sept. 24, 1984, to March 10, 1986, and was then transferred to the Vienna embassy, where he served until his detention.

In his formal statement, Shotwell said that Lonetree was confined “upon his return to the United States Dec. 31” and is being held in pretrial detention “awaiting proceedings on espionage-related charges.”

Fits Well-Known Pattern

While many details remain unknown, the facts that have been disclosed make the case fit a well-known KGB pattern of sexual enticement of an American by a Soviet agent, after which he is coerced into spying for the KGB, one U.S. source said.

“It’s too early to assess the extent of it,” one knowledgeable source said of the Lonetree case. “However, he was an agent in place, and we believe he did provide the KGB with information that was more than just passing a few papers.”

The source said that the information has “ramifications” for American security, although he refused to describe what those dangers are.

The case follows about a dozen recent espionage arrests and convictions that have seriously damaged America’s national security apparatus. However, this case is believed to be unrelated to the most damaging spy cases disclosed in the last two years in which highly secret information was passed to the Soviets.

Most Serious Case

In the most serious of those cases, John A. Walker Jr., 49, a retired Navy communications specialist, masterminded a family espionage ring that passed military secrets to the Soviets over an 18-year period. Walker was sentenced to life in prison last November. His son, Michael L. Walker, 23, a Navy seaman; his brother, Arthur J. Walker, 52, and a close friend, Jerry A. Whitworth, were convicted on related charges and sentenced to terms ranging from 25 to 365 years for their parts in what authorities called the most harmful espionage operation in U.S. history.

A former communications specialist for the National Security Agency, Ronald W. Pelton, and a former CIA employee, Edward Lee Howard, also were linked to major Soviet spying efforts. Pelton was sentenced to life in prison last year for selling the Soviets information on how the United States collects and decodes Soviet military communications. Howard fled to Russia in 1985 after officials charged him with selling intelligence secrets to KGB agents in Austria.

Although most of the spying cases involved Soviet contacts, one major recent investigation exposed an information pipeline to Israel. Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former civilian Navy counterintelligence analyst, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to provide military documents to Israeli agents. His sentencing is pending.

Staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow, James Gerstenzang and Gaylord Shaw contributed to this story.