6 Vienna Marines Ordered Home; 4 Face Spy Inquiries

Six Marine guards at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna are being returned to the United States, four of them for questioning in connection with a growing sex-and-spy scandal, the Pentagon said today.

Robert Sims, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said the fifth Marine was being returned because of a violation of “local security regulations” at the Vienna facility. The sixth Marine is returning because he has been called as a witness in the pretrial investigation of Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree, the guard whose arrest last December sparked the widening investigation.

Sims, in confirming reports from Vienna about the transfer of guards, said four of the men had previously served at embassies in Warsaw Pact countries and would be questioned about “possible violations” of rules barring fraternization with foreign nationals.

The spokesman declined to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the recall of the fifth Marine, repeatedly saying only that he had violated some local security regulations, that the violation was “not serious” and that it was unrelated to the probe of Lonetree.

No Identities

Sims refused to release the identities of any of the men, stressed that none had yet been formally charged with wrongdoing and said he could not discuss which embassies the men had served in before Vienna.

Lonetree, who has been formally accused of espionage, was arrested in December at the Vienna embassy. He had been transferred to the Austrian capital last fall after working in 1985 and 1986 as a guard at the embassy in Moscow.

The Marine Corps has formally accused Lonetree and a second Moscow guard--Cpl. Arnold Bracy--of allowing Soviet agents inside the Moscow embassy building on repeated occasions last year while the two were working late at night as guards.

Lonetree has also been accused of breaching security at the Vienna facility by providing floor plans and office assignments for the building.

Sims declined to say whether any of the four Marines returning from Vienna for questioning might have served with Lonetree in Moscow. He said his information indicated only that they had worked in Warsaw Pact countries.

He acknowledged those four, however, had been targeted for questioning as a result of the continuing investigation of Lonetree’s activities.

Pentagon sources have said Lonetree and Bracy became involved sexually with Soviet women in Moscow, who in turn introduced them to Soviet agents. A third Moscow guard has been charged with improper fraternization with Soviet women but is not facing any espionage charges.

The Marine Corps has also arrested a fourth man, Sgt. John J. Weirick, on suspicion of espionage while he worked at the U.S. consulate in the Soviet city of Leningrad in 1981 and 1982. Weirick is also suspected of having become involved with Soviet women.