Sailor to face prosecution on charges of espionage

NORFOLK - A young submariner accused of espionage and desertion will face a general court-martial, a top Navy official has decided.

Adm. John B. Nathman, commander of the Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, approved the prosecution of six charges against Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, the Navy said Friday.

Weinmann has been held in the Norfolk brig since April. A date for the court-martial has not been set. A general court-martial is the most serious of three types of courts-martial.

The four-star admiral's ruling follows a two-day preliminary hearing in Norfolk in late July, when Navy prosecutors first presented evidence against the sailor.

Weinmann, a fire control technician, was picked up March 26 by customs officials at a Dallas airport on an arrest warrant for desertion. He is accused of leaving his post on the Connecticut-based submarine Albuquerque in July 2005.

A customs agent's search of his belongings led to suspicions that Weinmann might have been involved in more than desertion, according to testimony at the July hearing.

Testimony also stated that Weinmann was discovered carrying $4,000 cash, three CD-ROMs, an external computer storage device and memory cards for storing digital images.

The 21-year-old sailor from Oregon then was flown from Dallas to Norfolk, where over eight days in April he was interrogated by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents and the FBI.

According to a document the Navy released Friday, Weinmann was charged on April 18 with desertion, failure to properly safeguard classified material and communication of classified information relating to national defense to a representative of a foreign government.

He also was accused of making an electronic copy of classified defense information and knowingly communicating secret information to a person not entitled to receive it.

The Navy has not identified what country or countries Weinmann is accused of contacting.

After his arrest, NCIS agents traveled to Vienna, Austria, where Weinmann had been living, and Mexico City. The Navy suspects he passed information to a foreign government representative in both places.

Two additional charges were filed against him in July, a week before his preliminary hearing, or Article 32, as it is known in military parlance.

Those charges accuse him of stealing a laptop computer from the Albuquerque in 2005 and destroying its hard drive in March 2006.

"We are aware of the charges," Lt. Cmdr. Karen Somers, Weinmann's lead defense attorney, said Friday in a statement through a Navy spokeswoman.

Charges of desertion and espionage in a time of war can carry the death penalty, but the Navy's head prosecutor in Norfolk said two weeks ago that the service would not seek a capital sentence for Weinmann.

If found guilty, Weinmann could be sentenced to life in prison. A general court-martial typically has a five-member jury; an enlisted defendant can request that at least one third of jurors be enlisted service members. In noncapital cases, defendants can request that a judge alone hears the case.

Weinmann's father, Robert Weinmann, said in a phone interview from Oregon on Friday that his son told him he wanted a civilian lawyer.

Robert Weinmann said he spoke to his son last Friday for the first time since his arrest and he seemed in good spirits.

Robert Weinmann said he has talked with the Navy attorneys appointed to defend his son. He fears they don't have the resources needed for the case, he said, but think s they are doing what they can.

"I think they're compassionate and they care about him and they're sincere in their efforts to defend him," Robert Weinmann said.

He said the family likely won't hire a civilian lawyer for their son because of the expense.

Ariel Weinmann's presence in the Norfolk brig and the pending case against him was first disclosed by The Virginian-Pilot on Aug. 4. Despite The Pilot's requests for information about the case, Navy public affairs officials in Norfolk initially refused to release details of the charges against him and did not allow media to attend the hearing.

Navy officials eventually played a recording of the hearing for journalists Aug. 11.

for those of us bubbleheads and others following this case. It burns me that at a time of war, the death penality was taken off the table. And the last paragraph just sounds an MSM whine about the navy not giving them info.

Mexico City and Vienna - it sounds like he was selling to the Russians. Those two cities are their spy playgrounds. What a scumbag.

3 posted on 08/26/2006 5:59:52 PM PDT by Bottom_Gun (Crush depth dummy - proud NRA member & Certified Instructor)

Would it be too obvious to suggest that. with a name like Ariel Weinmann, he might have been spying for the Israelis?

It could be Israel, which would explain why the Navy took the death penalty off the table.

5 posted on 08/26/2006 6:04:33 PM PDT by ABG(anybody but Gore) ("By the time I'm finished with you, you're gonna wish you felt this good again" - Jack Bauer)

Keel-hauling at Test Depth is just plain mean and excessive, and cruel and in-human.

I would be satisfied if he were given a Dishonorable Discharge - and discharged from the submarine- at 1/2 test depth.

Mike
(former submariner also)

Apparently, he was spying for our most reliable, trustworthy ally:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1680387/posts

I'm as big a supporter of Israel as is possible, but when they get caught getting Americans to spy for them (ala Pollard) it infuriates me - we're a country based not on any ethnic, tribal or religous affiliation, but we do, rightly, demand loyalty of those we place in offices of profit or trust and suborning that loyalty is not to be taken lightly. I don't much care who this clown was spying for, but if convicted he should rot in prison and die there - just as should Pollard.

8 posted on 08/26/2006 7:09:37 PM PDT by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)

If it is Israel, I will certainly start questioning - even more, our alliance with them. Aren't they our biggest recipients of foreign aid? Aren't we the ones who back them in the UNSC? Was it Israel selling/trying to sell our tech to our potential foes? Haven't we caught many other spys working for the Israelis? Aren't they the ones who hit one of our ships several years ago? Can we name another friendly country who has been doing this to us? Have I missed anything?

9 posted on 08/26/2006 7:20:00 PM PDT by kddid (Hillary Clinton will never be President of the United States.)

I'm not saying he shouldn't rot in jail, even if, as I suggested, he was spying for Israel. Like Pollard, treason is still treason. I'm just saying that the Navy pulling the death penalty off the table, especially in a time of war, would lead one to believe that it was a friendly country he was working for.

The only other logical reason is that he's giving NCIS and NIA loads of info on other spies. This is also a likely possibility given the fact the Navy has tried to keep a lid on this story for so long.

10 posted on 08/26/2006 7:22:45 PM PDT by ABG(anybody but Gore) ("By the time I'm finished with you, you're gonna wish you felt this good again" - Jack Bauer)

OK..can someone ping the "steely eyed killers of the Deep"? as long as I've been here I still don't know how to do pings!

11 posted on 08/27/2006 1:28:58 PM PDT by Bottom_Gun (Crush depth dummy - proud NRA member & Certified Instructor)

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