Posted on 12/04/2006 10:30:42 AM PST by SmithL
NORFOLK, Va. - A sailor accused of stealing a Navy laptop and peddling its classified contents to an undisclosed foreign government pleaded guilty Monday to espionage, desertion and other charges.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 22, of Salem, Ore., faces a sentence of life in prison without parole, a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and forfeiture of all pay.
Under a plea agreement, Weinmann pleaded guilty to one count each of espionage, desertion, failing to properly safeguard and store classified information, copying classified information, communicating classified information to a person not entitled to receive it, and stealing and destroying a government computer.
Weinmann pleaded guilty to trying to transmit classified information related to national defense to a representative of a foreign government on Oct. 19, 2005 while he was in or near Vienna, Austria.
He pleaded not guilty to two additional espionage counts, one accusing him of giving classified information to an agent of a foreign government in March of 2005 in Bahrain and another accusing him of trying to deliver confidential information on March 19, 2006 in Mexico City.
Weinmann told the judge, who had yet to accept the plea, that he deserted the Navy in July 2005 because the service did not meet his expectations.
"I had a very idealized view, basically what amounted to a World War II Navy," Weinmann told the judge.
Weinmann, a fire control technician, had been stationed on the Connecticut-based submarine USS Albuquerque.
He said he did not report for duty aboard his submarine on July 3, 2005. He moved to Austria and never planned to come back to the United States, but changed his mind and was arrested in March at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Weinmann told the judge he believed his actions could hurt morale and security.
"I believe if it fell into the wrong hand, sir, the information could be detrimental to the United States," Weinmann said.
He said he made copies of classified material on a laptop computer, which he brought with him to Austria. He said he printed one document and copied other information onto CDs and said he had unclassified, classified and secret information sitting on a table in his apartment in Austria.
The military has not said what it believes Weinmann might have sought in exchange for the information.
I'm under the impression that FT is a submarine rate, and FC is a surface rate. I'm pretty sure that the G and M designations have gone away, and FTBs have evolved into something different.
It's all about personal choice, but never about bearing personal consequence for your choices. The Navy didn't agree with him, but rather than suck it up and gut it out, he chose to make a little money and sell his country out.
Surely, there's a special place in Hell, designed just for traitors like these.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 22,
Hmm.... I wonder what country THAT was.
I guess you're right after some searching. Skimmers used to have both FTGs and FCs, but I guess that changed with the dumbing-down of the enlisted rates. After all, they made Quartermasters into ET's - anything is possible.
The way they've merged the rates in recent years, not sure if it was FC, FT, or whatever. He was a non-dolphin wearing 3rd class, probably spent more time cranking on the mess decks or being helmsman/planesman than manning the fire control consoles.
He may know slightly more than rudimetnary knowledge about tomahawks and the ADCAP torpedo, but that's about it. Unless he stole something out of radio, which he probably wouldn't know what it was, I doubt he could've gotten anything above SECRET. He would've had access to all the boat's NWPs which could cover topics on sonar, tactics, weapons employment etc - again, nothing over SECRET.
I don't think that a submarine would have the CIWS "Phalanx" system.
Russia? PRChina? India? Saudi Arabia? Iran?
Any of these may probably have an interest in stealing our submarine technology.
'fraid he would have since he was on a submarine...probably had sensitive Tomahawk missile info, IMHO!
>>And after that, they should shoot whatever's left out the TDU with the rest of the garbage. <<
I knew it as GDU, when it become a "TDU"?
That's what we called it on 637s.
Ariel?
What would be horrific ways to die onboard?
Impulse him out of the tubes with xxxx# air....
Field day the the ion exchanger while operating at power....
Tie his hands and put an EAB mask on him......
If he were a diver, put him over hte bow and then hit him with a burst of active sonar....
Make him stand the midwatch, then put him through department training followed by divisional training followed by GMT, break for lunch (sliders), then run drills all afternoon followed by debriefing then cleanup and then put him on the evening watch...... oh wait, my bust, thats a normal day.....
Gato - 594 tough, 615 stupid.
Trash disposal unit? PC Navy went from garbage to trash, I suppose...I was on SS-420, SSBN-598 & 659 back in 1960s-70s--six years and 7 patrols plus 1 year on diesel boats (RM1/ss)
This is an interesting missing bit of information about just WHO was interested in buying sub tech. Sure got to wonder WHY that was not seen as point of relevance???
I'm surprised it's not a Waste Management Unit Now....
"If he was an FT3, he probably did not have access to anything above SECRET.
'fraid he would have since he was on a submarine...probably had sensitive Tomahawk missile info, IMHO!"
Sorry, I hate to burst the mystique that submarines have, but I was TS / SI control officer during my tour. Aside from all the COMSEC material, there is actually very little TS onboard. Just about everything is classifed SECRET, but the TS material is very limited and fits in the CO's and XO's wall safe ..... and under the Navigator's pillow :)
He wants a WWII reality from the Navy?
Sure, that can be arranged.
We can put him in a WWII type cell with WWII type guards and he can make WWII big rocks into WWII little rocks for the rest of his natural life.
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