ESPIONAGE ARRESTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260014-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: May 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260014-3
CBS EVENING NEWS CBS-TV
7:00 P.M. MAY 22
Espionage Arrests II s S
surface ships in the Atlantic.
Navy officers say that in
those jobs Walker would have
been access to communications
codes and operating orders for
Navy submarines and warships,
as well as the emergency
procedures for launching
nuclear missiles.
He was arrested after FBI
agents saw him allegedly leave
a shopping bag full of classi-
fied Navy documents at this
drop site in Maryland. Some of
the documents apparently came
from the Ni.mitz, where his son
Michael works as a clerk in the
ship's Operations Department.
The senior Walker also has a
step-brother, Gary, who works
on minesweeping helicopters
like these as an electronics
technician. Gary's mother is
quoted as saying he was picked
up for questioning by FBI
agents who asked him to take a
lie detector test. The FBI
says Gary has not been arres-
ted.
The alleged spy ring
apparently began and ended as a
family affair. A source close
to the investigation told CBS
News Walker's wife and daughter
turned him in to the FBI.
RATHER: What good would
Walker's information have done
the Soviets, David?
MARTIN: Dan, the Soviets
have a very limited ability to
track the movements of our
submarines. And the Navy goes
to very great lengths to keep
it that way. So if Walker was
indeed passing copies of
operations orders to the
Soviets, he was enabling them
to track our submarines with a
precision they could never do
on their own.
The good news is that
operations orders and the codes
that go with them change on a
daily basis. So that whatever
damage was done back in the
1960s and '70s is largely over
and done with.
RATHER: Thank you very
much, David Martin at the
Pentagon.
DAN RATHER: What started
with an espionage arrest of a
retired U.S. Navy officer
tonight took a more ominous
turn: the arrest of the man's
active-duty son aboard a U.S.
nuclear aircraft carrier. The
son allegedly found with a
hidden box of classified
documents next to his bunk.
Sources tell CBS News
Pentagon correspondent David
Martin it appears to be a
father-son spy ring for the
Soviets and a serious setback
to U.S. Navy secrets.
DAVID MARTIN: A 22-year-old
sailor aboard the aircraft
carrier Nimitz is under arrest
and charged with 'espionage
tonight as part of an alleged
family spy ring which Navy
officers tell CBS News probably
resulted in the worst compro-
mise of U.S. Navy secrets ever.
The alleged head of the ring
is this man, John Anthony
Walker, a retired Warrant
Officer who reportedly boasted
that he had every security
clearance known to man.
When Walker was arrested and
charged with espionage on
Monday, a U.S. attorney said
there is evidence he has. been
passing secrets to the Soviets
for up to 18 years. Navy
officers say Walker's alleged
espionage appears particularly
serious because he was a
communications expert who
served aboard two nuclear
missile sumbarines during the
mid-1960e and later at Atlantic
Fleet Headquarters as a
communications watch officer
for the entire Atlantic
submarine force. In the
mid-1970s he held a similar job
for, communications with all
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260014-3