Ariel J. Weinmann Visit the Photo Place

Sailor faces spy charges

Immigration officials find $4,000 cash, three CD-ROMs, an external computer storage device and memory cards on 21-year-old petty officer.

Date published: 8/13/2006

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NORFOLK--It wasn't his alleged desertion of the submarine Albuquerque last July that brought down Ariel J. Weinmann on March 26.

Rather, it was the $4,000 cash, three CD-ROMs, an external computer storage device and memory cards for storing digital images that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found on the 21-year-old petty officer third class, now facing three charges of espionage.

The Navy disclosed details of what they found in the sailor's pockets for the first time Friday.

According to testimony by customs agent Allen Brock at a preliminary hearing, Weinmann was found carrying a piece of paper with the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of two individuals, as well as a notebook whose handwritten contents aroused suspicion.

Brock alerted a supervisor, who popped one of the CDs from Weinmann's backpack into a computer.

"Looking at those CDs changed the course of the entire case," said Lt. William Tansey, one of his defense attorneys, during the Article 32 hearing on July 25. Weinmann had previously been sought only on a desertion charge.

The information contained on the CDs has been classified, as is much of the evidence against the sailor.

But Friday, the Navy played a recording of the hearing for the media.

Officials accuse Weinmann of passing classified information to a foreign government representative in Austria and again in Mexico.

Desertion and espionage in time of war can carry the death penalty.

In this case, officials say the charges could result in a life sentence if Weinmann is court-martialed and found guilty.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent Kevin Burke, who questioned Weinmann over nine days after he was brought to Norfolk from Dallas, was one of six NCIS agents or employees who testified during the two-day hearing.

Weinmann's explanation during his first day of questioning, that the money found on him was his savings, "just wasn't plausible," Burke testified.

"He was, in my opinion, lying about creating an explanation for where he was and what he had been doing," Burke said.

The testimony, and dozens of classified exhibits, are now in the hands of Lt. Cmdr. John Bauer, a Navy attorney who served as the investigating officer at the hearing.

He will recommend whether to pursue charges against Weinmann in a court-martial. Navy officials expect Bauer to complete his report this week.

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Date published: 8/13/2006