Navy submariner pleads guilty in Norfolk, Va., to trying to sell

Monday, December 4th 2006, 8:04 pm

By: News On 6

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) 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.

If convicted, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 22, of Salem, Oregon, could face a sentence of life in prison without parole, a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and forfeiture of all pay.

Under the plea agreement, Weinmann pleaded guilty to one count each of espionage, desertion, failing to properly safeguard and store classified information, electronically 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 October 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 2005 in Bahrain and another accusing him of trying to deliver confidential information on March 19, 2006, in Mexico City.

Weinmann told the judge 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.

Court adjourned Monday with the judge yet to accept the plea. Attorneys need to iron out details in the agreement regarding Weinmann's cooperation with investigators after trial.

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 national 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 took with him to Austria. He said that he printed one document and copied other information onto CDs and that 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.

Weinmann's most recent duty station was at the Submarine Support Squadron, based in Norfolk.