Marine Testifies He Only Pretended to Spy : Trial: Charles Anzalone says he was drunk when he contacted the Soviet Embassy and all he wanted was a college scholarship.

Marine Cpl. Charles Anzalone drank 12 beers before telephoning the Soviet Embassy to ask for a college scholarship and never intended to sell out America, Anzalone testified in his Camp Pendleton espionage court martial Thursday.

Anzalone said that, when he met with a purported KGB agent and promised to become a spy, it was only to fool the Soviet agent into believing he would pass military secrets in exchange for the college scholarship.

“It never entered my mind to betray my country,” said Anzalone, adding that, when he realized that the purported agent, known to him as Mikhail Popov, was purely interested in getting military information, he decided to play along.

“I was scamming ‘Mike,’ at least I thought I was scamming ‘Mike,’ ” the 24-year-old Marine said during four hours of testimony that included a withering cross examination challenging his motives and credibility.

“I thought I was getting this guy to believe I was willing to be a spy after college.”

The agent turned out to be FBI counterintelligence Agent Jan Zawitkowski, a key witness in the government’s case against Anzalone for alleged attempted conspiracy to commit espionage, disclosing information to a person believed to be a foreign intelligence agent, and other charges.

On Wednesday, in a clandestine videotape shown at the court-martial, Anzalone told the phony KGB agent he disliked capitalism and resented the American government’s treatment of the Indians. He said he is half Mohawk.

Trying to explain his videotaped performance, Anzalone testified Thursday he didn’t really mean what he said, it was just part of the act to gain Zawitkowski’s confidence and get the scholarship.

“I buttered him up, I told him I admired the Soviet Union and its goals,” Anzalone told the court. Later, he added, “if I had to scam a Soviet citizen to get a college education, that was nothing on me.”

He said he harbored no hatred of Caucasians--contrary to testimony given Wednesday by his girlfriend--and he told the court Thursday he is actually one-quarter Mohawk.

The Marine, who was a wireman at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, admitted under questioning that he gave information to Zawitkowski, but he considered it “worthless crap” that was available to the public.

As Anzalone explained it, the episode began with an innocent desire to ask the Soviet government whether it gave scholarships to foreigners. He said he had read somewhere that, in the Soviet Union, universities are free.

He got the embassy’s phone number at the base library and kept it in his wallet until last Nov. 12. That night he was at home drinking beer, fumbled through the billfold, and found the number.

“On the spur of the moment, I decided to call the embassy,” he testified. “I didn’t realize the different paths my life would take.”

Anzalone, who has been in the Camp Pendleton brig since his arrest Feb. 12, faces a maximum life sentence if he’s convicted by the military judge, Col. Edwin Welch. Anzalone has pleaded not guilty.

“I was extremely drunk that night,” said Anzalone, telling the court he had downed 12 pints of Grolsch lager.

Prosecuting attorney Lt. Col. C.A. Ryan put Anzalone on the defensive during a tough, 2 1/2-hour cross-examination.

Ryan had earlier introduced affidavits and testimony that Anzalone had been interested in joining the French Foreign Legion, was applying for identification cards under a different name, and was deeply in debt.

“Corporal Anzalone was interested in a sovereign other than the United States, he had an adventurous intent,” said Ryan, later adding, “he was attempting to commit espionage for financial gain.”

In cross-examination, Ryan demanded to know why Anzalone didn’t contact the Canadian, French, British or Japanese embassies if he was interested in asking about a scholarship.

“I didn’t think I was going to do anything for the Soviet Union, sir,” Anzalone replied.

Ryan retorted, “Isn’t it a fact you were offering to be recruited?”

The Marine, a native of New York, repeatedly denied he intended to pass damaging information to the Soviets, although he acknowledged telling Zawitkowski in the Yuma hotel room--where they were videotaped by government investigators--that he would willingly answer any questions.

He also admitted to believing that Zawitkowski was a Soviet intelligence agent interested in what Anzalone knew about weapons storage at the air station and units deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Anzalone said Zawitkowski’s questions about military subjects made him nervous, but he thought he could keep the agent’s interest by passing along supposedly useless material.

He gave the purported KGB operative two technical manuals for cryptographic equipment, a security badge for the base airfield area, and information on the number, schedules and armament of guards at the base weapons area.

The defense maintains that information about the guards was obtainable by any member of the public observing the air base’s activities and that the security badge wasn’t always required to enter the air field area.

However, the government argues the information was confidential and the air base was on a heightened security alert after war broke out against Iraq. Further, the government maintains Anzalone provided information about the nation’s preparedness for war.

But Anzalone explained his predicament this way: “America wants a spy and I just happen to be it.”

Anzalone’s defense, based in part on the claim that the federal government entrapped him, continues today.