US Navy: Spies, Deserters, Maniacs

09.08.2006 13:55

A US Navy sailor has been arrested in the United States on suspicion of spying. He is charged with passing secret information to a foreign state and desertion.

A. Weinmann was apprehended at Dallas Airport where he arrived from an unnamed "foreign country". Earlier his name had been officially entered in the list of army deserters.

"The Jerusalem Post" newspaper has found out that A. Weinmann arrived in the United States from Israel. He had been assigned to the nuclear submarine "Albuquerque" ("Los Angeles" class). Last summer he managed to copy classified information onto his notebook and deserted from the ship. A month later the sailor passed the copied information to an unidentified person in Vienna, Austria. The notebook with the US Government-owned secret data has never been found.

This new desertion case fraught with a resonant spy scandal can seriously damage the Pentagon's image. The fact is that lately the US Navy has been sharply criticized by the US public and media. Most of the offences registered in the US Navy are associated with violations of the Code of Conduct, sexual harassment and insubordination.

Curiously, it is nuclear submarines that are leading in the number of offences in the US Navy. Highly indicative is the recent incident at the "Columbus" submarine when seven drunken sailors poured liquor on their mate and burned him. Then the sailor was held at gunpoint and beaten up.

Widespread has lately become ill-treatment by old hands of young recruits in the US Marine Corps. Abuse of alcohol has become commonplace in US Navy support units, and cases of illegal sale of military equipment have been reported.

Despite all efforts by the US Navy command, the discipline continues to decline. The reason is believed to be the high casualties suffered by the US troops involved in conflicts all over the world, the sharp fall of the prestige of military service and the significant drop in the recruit selection requirements caused by the need to patch up holes in the recruitment indices.

But the flagrant violations of military discipline by personnel assigned to the US missile-carrying nuclear submarines threaten not only to undermine the Pentagon's image, but also the world security. As is known, the selection of personnel to serve with the US Navy nuclear submarines is conducted with a special care, and only "the best of the best" can be trusted to operate the complex military equipment. One can only guess what the next "frolic" by US sailors assigned to a cruising nuclear-powered submarine stuffed with ballistic missiles may lead to...