Retired U.S. Navy officer found guilty of spying

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 6

Retired U.S. Navy officer found guilty of spying

NZPA-Reuter Norfolk, Virginia A retired United States Navy officer has been found guilty of spying for the Soviet Union and prosecutors say that the conviction reinforces their “cast-iron” case in the worst naval spy scandal in the country’s history. Lieutenant - Commander Arthur Walker was convicted on Friday of all six counts of selling military documents to the Soviet Union and of conspiring with his brother, John, the group’s alleged ringleader.

Walker, who will be sentenced on October 15, faces up to three terms of life imprisonment plus an additional 40 years and a SUS4£POO (about 578,500)

fine for passing classified documents to his brother in September, 1981, and April, 1982, knowing that they would be sold to the Soviet Union.

John Walker, who was arrested on May 20 in Rockville, Maryland, after he left a package containing classified information at a drop-site in a nearby rural area, will be tried on October 28. The other two members of the ring, Michael Walker, aged 22, John’s son, who was arrested while stationed aboard the nuclear aircraft-carrier, Nimitz, and Jerry Whitworth, a family friend and naval communications expert, will be tried in the coming months. One of the prosecutors said that he believed Arthur

Walker’s conviction would strengthen “the already cast-iron cases” that the prosecution has against the other three.

John Russoniello, who will prosecute Whitworth in San Francisco, said, “I think it’s fair to say that in terms of the number of Americans involved, this is the largest spy ring since the Rosenbergs.” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for smuggling atomic weapon secrets to the Soviet Union.

At Friday’s trial Arthur Walker was depicted by his defence lawyers as a reluctant spy under great pressure from his brother. They contended that he had volunteered vital information to the authorities, ‘which had helped them tre-

mendonsly. “If he hadn’t tried to get if off his chest and voluntarily help investigators, they would have had nothing on him,” said a defence counsel, Samuel Meekins. After the trial Mr Meekins conceded that he had not expected “any other verdict than guilty.” According to trial evidence, Arthur Walker got a job with a defence contractor in Norfolk in 1980 at the urging of his brother to gain access to classified documents on Navy ships.

Arthur Walker, who retired from the Navy in 1973, knew that his brother was going to sell the information to the Soviet Union, the Court was told.

Captain Edward Sheafer, the Atlantic Fleet’s senior Indigence officer said that

the documents had detailed the vulnerability of Navy ships and would be a “bible for sabotage” if they fell into the hands of the Soviets. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Beverley Andress, said that Arthur Walker had been “hooked” into spying for the Soviet Union by his brother, who began paying him large sums for unclassified information. Ms Andress said that Walker had admitted to her that he received SUS6OOO (about $11,750) “up-front money” from his brother for two ship documents that were unclassified. Ms Andress said that the money had been “a payment in order to obligate him to continue to provide information.” $