Navy Says Sailor Shared Classified Defense Data Overseas
A sailor accused of taking a Navy laptop containing classified information and peddling its contents to foreign governments is being held for possible court-martial, the Navy said Wednesday.
The Navy said that Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann gave national defense data to a foreign government.
Weinmann, 21, of Salem, Ore., was confined at Norfolk Naval Station, the Navy said.
The six charges against him include three counts of espionage, relating in part to a suspected March 2005 visit to Bahrain, where Weinmann allegedly tried to give classified information to a foreign government.
Months later, the Navy said, Weinmann deserted his submarine, the New London, Conn.-based Albuquerque, for more than eight months and traveled to Austria and Mexico to “communicate, deliver or transmit” the information.
Weinmann destroyed the computer’s hard drive with a mallet in March, the Navy said.
Naval attorneys for Weinmann, a fire-control technician, declined to comment Wednesday.
Ted Brown, U.S. Fleet Forces Command spokesman, would not say which government Weinmann was charged with spying for or how he allegedly obtained the computer.
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