LEAHY: NATION 'BADLY HURT' IF SPY CASE CHARGES ARE TRUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030018-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: May 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030018-4
WASHINGTON TIMES
Q
r `' 2?i
28 May 1985
Leahy: Nation `badly hurt'
if spy case charges are true
By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Criticism of the U.S. government's security
policy continued yesterday when a member
of the Senate Intelligence Committee said
security is not taken seriously enough in the
United States.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said if charges
against the accused father-son spy team of
John and Michael Walker are correct, the
country has been "badly hurt"
The Walkers were arrested by federal
agents last week on espionage charges for
passing top secret documents to the Soviet
Union.
The dispute surrounding government secu-
rity checks was reported in The Washington
Times last week after Office of Personnel
Management General Counsel Joseph A.
Morris said background investigations on
military personnel and contractors are the
"soft underbelly" of the government's secu-
I rity program.
Senior Pentagon officials were quick to
reject those charges, saying the quality of
security checks with regard to the military
"are better" than those for civilian personnel.
But Sen. Leahy noted yesterday that over 4
million Americans have security clearances
"and we classify about 20 million documents
a year.
"And I think we're doing a very poor job,
especially when the Soviets and the Soviet
bloc countries have nearly 1,000 active agents
in the United States trying to ferret out these
secrets," he said on the CBS-TV Morning
News show.
Commenting on the Walker case, Sen.
Leahy said, "I think we've been badly hurt if
[the Soviets] are able to follow the kind of code
we've been using, especially if they have our
recordings of virtually all our transmissions.
"I think we've only seen the tip of the ice-
berg because the Soviets are able to go back
and reconstruct so much. I don't think it's
going to be possible to calculate the enormous
damage in this case," he said.
The focus this week will be on Baltimore
federal court, as preliminary hearings get
under way for John Anthony Walker Jr., the
retired Navy communications specialist, and
his son, Navy Seaman Michael Lance Walker,
each charged with spying for the Soviet
Union.
Seaman Walker, 22, who entered the Navy
in 1982 and was assigned to the USS Nimitz's
operations office, was returned to the United
States from Israel on Saturday and will
appear this morning before a federal mag-
istrate in Baltimore.
His 47-year-old father, who retired from the
Navy in 1976 after 21 years of service and
later became a Norfolk private investigator,
will have a preliminary hearing tomorrow in
Baltimore federal court.
John Walker was arrested in Rockville last
week after a bag containing 129 secret doc-
uments - which he allegedly dropped off
near Poolesville for a Soviet agent - was
recovered by FBI agents. Michael Walker was
charged with espionage only days later, after
15 pounds of classified documents were found
adjacent to his bunk aboard the Nimitz.
The FBI refused yesterday to confirm
reports that John Walker's former wife Bar-
bara and daughter Cynthia Walker, who live in
West Dennis, Mass., provided a tip about
three months ago that eventually led agents
to the discovery of espionage activity.
"We don't reveal our sources;' said an FBI
spokesman.
Calls to several family members went
unanswered yesterday, including one to
Michael Walker's wife, Rachel, 22, of Virginia
Beach.
The FBI expects to arrest other Americans
in the case, which according to retired Adm.
Elmo Zumwalt Jr., a former chief of naval
operations, may have caused a greater breach
of Navy security that ever before encoun-
tered.
Some officials believe John Walker may
have been spying for the Soviet Union for as
long as 18 years.
V
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030018-4