NAVY ANALYST ARRESTED IN PHOTO SALE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100560007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: October 3, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100560007-9
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WASHINGTON POST
3 October 1984
Published in British Magazine
LNsa Analyst Arrested in Photo
Sale
By Paul W. Valentine
Washington Post Statt Writer
A civilian naval intelligence an-
alyst and grandson of the Navy's
foremost historian has been ar-
rested by the FBI and charged with
providing classified U.S. satellite
photographs of a new Soviet air-
craft carrier to a British military
magazine.
Samuel Loring Morison, 40, was
STA -rested Monday night at > Dulles
ternational. Airport as he was
about to board a plane for England
and charged with unauthorized dis-
closure of three photographs show-.
ing the nuclear-powered carrier
under construction in a Soviet ship-
yard on the Black Sea.
According to the FBI and the Na-
val Investigative Service, Morison
took the photographs from his of-
fice at the Naval Intelligence Sup-
port Center in Suitland last summer
and sold them to Jane's Defence
Weekly, a newly established mag-
azine published in London by the
company that produces a series of
authoritative books on the world's
naval, air and ground defenses that
often are based on classified infor-
mation.
After pictures of the new carrier
.were published in the magazine
Aug. 7, they were distributed by
wire services and appeared in many
newspapers, including The Wash-
ington Post.
The leaked photographs were
said by Pentagon sources yesterday
to have caused concern in the "high-
est reaches of the government."
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Wein-
berger was described as extremely
upset at the time the pictures were.
published, not so much because of :.
the pictures themselves but be-
cause of the information-collection
capabilities they demonstrated. -
Morison-whose grandfather,
the late Samuel Eliot Morison, was
awarded the rank of rear admiral
for a distinguished writing career
that included the official history of
the Navy during World War II-
lives in Crofton, Md., where he was
described by neighbors as a quiet,
scholarly man with*an apartment
full of books.
His arrest coincided almost to the
hour with the arrest in New York
Monday of an East German woman
charged by the FBI with violating
U.S. espionage laws by attempting
to pass classified information to the
Soviet Union. The two cases are
_unrelated, agents said.
Two women accompanying Mor-
ison at the time of hen arrest were
questioned by agents but released,
the FBI said. ,
According to a court affidavit, the
three satellite photographs of the
Soviet aircraft carrier disappeared
in late-July from the desk of one of
Morison's colleagues.
When.'fhe' pictures were published
a veeriater, U.S. authorities ob-
tained the original prints in London
and "positively identified a latent fin-
gerprint.which appeared on the glosss
sy side of one of the .:... photographs
as that of Samuel Loring Morison,"
according tp the affidavit.
Next, FBI experts seized the rib-
bon cartridge from Morison's office
electric typewriter, transcribed the
typings on the ribbon and found cor-
respondence in which Morison told
Jane's editors he. would be sending
them various "items" of interest,
the affidavit said. -
Morison, who the FBI said
earned' $5,000 a year as a part-time
editor of Jane's publications, also
described his naval office as a "pit,"
according to the affidavit, and in-
dicated he wanted to work full time
for the 'British publisher. "My loy
alty to Jane's is above question," he
said, according to the affidavit. "I'd
rather quit here than there." -
Members of Morison's family
said yesterday he had an early in-
terest in 'naval matters, apparently
acquired from his historian grand-
father. He also "was a heavy spend..
er." said Edward D.W. Spingarn, an.
uncle by .marriage. who lives in
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11
Washingto>it. "He liked to take
friends out and entertain lavishly."
Morison was being held in Alex-
andria pending a removal hearing
Oct. 11 on his transfer to Maryland.
Bail was set a't $500,000.
Also contributing to this story were
Washington Post staff writers San-
dra ?R Greg Fred Hiatt and Eve '
Zibart.