Sailor Charged with Spying

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, United States Navy, is being held at Norfolk Naval Air Station, charged with three counts of espionage after allegedly stealing a laptop and selling the national defense secrets it contained to a foreign government before he destroyed it. Weinmann may face the death penalty if convicted.




This young man is in a lot of trouble. At 21, he has pretty much thrown his life away. Even if he isn't convicted, his career in the Navy is over, and he will never be allowed to handle classified material again, if he ever had clearance to begin with.

If he is convicted, as I said above, he could face the death penalty.

[edit on 9-8-2006 by Icarus Rising]

[edit on 9-8-2006 by Icarus Rising]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the spree of missing and stolen laptops that we keep hearing about in the news. Everyone from recruiters and such are reporting laptops with sensitive information being stolen or lost.

Yeah, I'll say he threw away his life. I can't say how much time he'll get, but even if he gets out of prison, his life won't be worth two cents. He's facing the death penalty according to one of these articles. Let's hope he gets it.

The comcast link is no longer good. Here's a few more on this case:

hamptonroads.com

gulf-daily-news.com

gulfnews.com

theglobeandmail.com

Google Search

Man this kid definitely threw his life away, from this article it seems like he was the really patriotic type, don't know why he would do something like this. BTW sources say that the country in question could have been Russia. I hope for his sake he is innocent of the spying charges even though he will still be tried for desertion.

Petty Officer Third Class Ariel J. Weinmann

Most importantly, Navy investigators are still trying to determine if Weinmann actually passed any secrets to a foreign power. In an exclusive interview with TIME, his father, Robert Weinmann, says he believes his son did not. "I don't know what happened, but I know my son," says Robert Weinman, who works as a quality control inspector for a manufacturing company in Salem. "He has a very high sense of morals. He's the kind of person who gets very indignant about something he doesn't feel is morally right."

Military sources have told TIME they are investigating whether Ariel Weinmann passed secrets to Russia, although they caution that at this point it's still unclear whether the sailor gave classified information to any country. He is accused of stealing a laptop computer from the sub. But investigators are still trying to determine if any of the information in the machine was actually given to a foreign agent or if they just have a case of a disenchanted sailor who deserted with a piece of Navy property.

TIME

[edit on 11-8-2006 by WestPoint23]

I don't know what is up with the link, it still works for me. It may be regional or something. Comcast and Adelphia just merged wioth Time Warner Cable in my area, as well. Also, there was a thread on ATS about this story that I wanted to link to, but I can't find it now, and I looked pretty hard.

Most likely reason why he would do something like this and risk so much was most likely money. He is young and just starting out, At this age his frontal lobe development in not yet completed. Frontal lobe development usually completes at age 25 to 30 in males. He most likely was not able to properly weigh the consequences of his actions. Someone offered him a substantial amount of money and thinking purely of the immediate benefit he took the chance. It is a sad mistake. I do not think that the death penalty should be even considered. Murder should not ever be considered unless a human fails to be a human. He has not showed any other negative qualities but being able to be paid off , that is no more than what the vast majority of our politicians do every day. The death penalty should never be even an option unless the person demonstrated actions that are of a savage and animalistic nature, meaning that their actions are less than human and other life has been taken. At that point and that point alone should the death penalty be considered.

Life is far to rare a gift to be ended with so little thought. i know for a fact if he had been able to perceive the complex line of events that could have come of his action he would have never went threw with it.

i know that a lot of you will say he risked many lives with his actions, however I seriously doubt that he fully understood the potential of disaster his actions could have created.

I hope is is not being scapegoated for some greed ridden five star. Anyone that has been in todays military know this happen far to often.

Originally posted by leapofdreams
I hope is is not being scapegoated for some greed ridden five star. Anyone that has been in todays military know this happen far to often.

While I agree that there have been scapegoats in the past I would just like to add that there are currently no five star generals. The last time congress authorized the five star rank was during WWII.

It may be my suspicious nature but..the sailors name sounds hebrew.And while the government in question may not be cited 4 legal reasons or lack of evidence,i wonder if this is another jonathon pollard?

I've read from other sources that the country in question was Israel, I'll hunt for links later. Israel does a lot of spying on the US.

Generally when they refuse to name the country in these spy cases, that's because it was a friendly country. Usually Israel.

ALL the initial reports of this were saying the country in question was Israel, before the sanitation crews managed to go into damage control and either pull the country name of hint that it was Russia

I bet AIPAC have been burning the midnight oil on this one