NAVY SAYS FLEET CODE BREACHED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470040-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: June 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470040-5
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Navy Says
Fleet Code
Breached
Weinberger Orders
Cut in Numbers
Of Secret Clearances
By George C. Wilson
and Ruth Marcus
Washingtoe Post Staff Writers
An espionage ring allegedly head-
ed by John Anthony Walker Jr. en-
abled the Soviets to break the code
on some of the Navy's most secret
messages to the fleet in the 1960s,
possibly reducing the U.S. lead in
antisubmarine warfare in the pro-
cess, top Navy officials said yester-
day.
The Pentagon also announced
several measures designed to solve
problems underscored by the Walk-
er case and other security
breaches.
Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger ordered an immediate
10 percent reduction in the 4.3 mil-
lion military and civilian personnel
cleared to see secret information.
He also announced formation of a
special panel to identify "any sys-
temic vulnerabilities or weak-
nesses" spotlighted by charges
against retired Chief Warrant Of-
ficer Walker and three other Navy
men accused of espionage.
Navy Secretary John F. Lehman
Jr. said he will seek congressional
approval for random lie detector
tests for people dealing with clas-
sified information. He said the ques-
tions would focus on dealings with
foreign governments and not on
personal matters.
In the first official assessment of
ROtentia damage stemming from
the alleged Walker spy nag. Chef
o aval 0 aerations Adm. James D.
atcins said the loss appeared to
be "very serious" but "not cata-
strophic "
At the same Pentagon press con-
ference, Lehman urged Congress to
WASHINGTON POST
12 June 1985
reinstate the death penalty for per-
sons convicted of espionage. He
said the Navy's efforts in the mean-
time will be designed "to increase
the common wisdom" that the pen-
alty for breaking security "is very,
very high."
In a se arate interview, Stephen
S. rott, the assistant attorney gen-
eral in c arge of t e Justice Depart-
ment's criminal division, also urge
Congress to make spying a capital
crime. He said this would deter po-
tential spies in an era when, accord-
in to intelligence officials, most
espionage is motivated mono
rather t an by ideology.
The maximum penalty for espi-
onage at present is life in prison,
and those sentenced to life become
eligible for parole in 10 years. In
addition to authorizing the death
penalty, Trott said, Congress
should make the crime punishable
by life imprisonment without the
possibilty of parole.
"You can't deter an ideologue,
somebody who's bought into the
Russian way of living," Trott said.
"But the guy who needs some extra
money for a Porsche or a condomin-
ium in Ocean City or a few more
girlfriends, those guys are going to
be deterred if the FBI comes down
on them and says, 'Okay, you're
going to spend the rest of your life
in jail."'
At the Pentagon press confer-
ence, Watkins said the Navy will
spend millions of dollars to change
the secret coding gear believed
compromised. He added that sub-
marine, ship and airplane tactics in
warfare may have to be "modified"
to offset the presumed loss of se-
crets to the Soviets.
However, Watkins disputed re-
cent published reports that the So-
viet Union may have perfected
ways to detect U.S. missile subma-
rines.
"There is no indication that the
Soviets have broken the code on
how to detect" U. S. missile subma-
rines, he said. Navy officials, he
said, "remain convinced" that the
missile submarine force "is still 100
percent survivable."
Reading from a paper that had
secret information on one side and
an unclassified summary on the oth-
er, Watkins said Navy communica-
tions "is the most serious area of
compromise."
The design of some secret Navy
communications gear "probably has
been lost" to the Soviets, he said,
STEPHEN TROTT
wants spying penalty increased
and the service is building new
equipment on an "accelerated basis"
in the hope of foiling would-be Rus-
sian eavesdroppers.
Soviet electronic eavesdropping
trawlers trail American warships at
close range on seas all over the
world and, Navy officials presume,
record the ships' message traffic.
Gear that would unscramble the
intercepted communications, com-
bined with the reports on surface
ship and submarine operations that
may have been provided by the al-
leged espionage ring, would have
been immensely helpful to Soviets
trying to determine the military
intentions and capabilities of the
United States, according to military
officials.
Watkins said the Soviets' pre-
sumed ability to break U.S. codes
would permit them "to fill voids in
their knowledge and ... to better
un erstan w gat they observed, a
very valuable intelligence gain to
the Soviet Union."
Maximum vulnerability to the U.S.
submarine fleet came between 1962
and 1969, according to the Navy's
current assessment. The alleged es-
pionage began in 1965, federal pros-
ecutors charge.
John Walker, 47, who held top se-
cret clearance during much of his
Navy service, repaired coding ma-
chines and other sensitive commu-
nications equipment in 1963 at the
Navy's Crypto Repair School in Val-
lejo, Calif. He also served as the
radioman on two nuclear-powered
missile submarines, the Andrew
low
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470040-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470040-5
Jackson from 1962 to 1965 and the
Simon Bolivar from 1965 to 1967.
The others arrested and charged
with espionage in the case are
Walker's brother, retired Lt.
Comdr. Arthur James Walker, 50;
John Walker's son, Seaman Michael
Lance Walker, 22; and John Walk-
er's friend, retired Senior Chief Ra-
dioman Jerry Alfred Whit ':orth, 45.
While John Walker was on missile
submarines and while he served as
the communications watch officer in
1967 at the Atlantic Fleet's head-
quarters in Norfolk, Watkins said,
"we must assume" that the Soviets
had "real time information from the
message circuits important to sub-
marine operations. Clearly this
gave them a leg. up on understand-
ing U.S. submarine practices and
procedures to help them in their
counter-strategies."
From the documents and the
message traffic, he said, the Soviets
"could have learned about tactics
and procedures used in air and
antiair warfare." He said Walker's
information made Soviet observa-
tion of naval air and sea operations
"more effective, and filled impor-
tant voids in their bank of knowl-
edge.
"We witnessed them gaining on
us in the technology differential
that was significant 10 years ago
and has been shrinking," Watkins
continued. "Perhaps the Walker
case contributed to the rate of clo-
sure of the significant technological
gap that existed a decade ago and is
beginning to close at a high rate."
In the interview, Trott declined
to say whether additional arrests
are anticipated in the case. But, he
said, "You can bet your bottom dol-
lar that there will not be a rock or a
stone unturned in this case."
Trott also said federal investiga-
tors have not yet determined
whether John Walker first ap-
proached the Soviets or whether
Soviet agents solicited him.
"We don't know the genesis, the
first contact, whether he started or
they started," Trott said.
He said one of the unusual things
about the allegations in the Walker
case was the size of the alleged es-
pionage ring. "Usually these people
are independent contractors, be-
cause they sense it's something
that's not going to go down well
with other people," he said.
Trott said that reducing the num-
ber of Soviet citizens permitted to
live in the United States is "certain-
ly something that ought to be con-
sidered" as a means of curtailing es-
pionage activity. The Senate passed
a measure Friday limiting the num-
ber of Soviets with diplomatic im-
munity in the United States to the
number of Americans with such im-
munity in the Soviet Union.
"There's no doubt about it: every
time you have a Russian come into
the U.S. you've got to think 'pos-
sible case agent,' " Trott said. The
State Department, however, has
opposed the measure passed by the
Senate, and Trott cited "counter-
vailing considerations" against such
a move, declining to say whether he
thought its positive features out-
weighed negative aspects.
Trott said the espionage case
against John Walker turned out to
be bigger than FBI agents had first
expected when Walker's ex-wife
came to them with allegations that
her former husband was spying for
the Soviet Union.
"The wife came in and said, 'I
think this guy's pulling some
stuff,' " Trott said. "This has prob-
ably turned out to be larger than
one might have guessed."
Also yesterday, two Norfolk po-
lice officers, including John Walk-
er's girlfriend, said they had lost
their jobs because of their connec-
tions to Walker.
Pamela K. Carroll, Walker's girl-
friend and a former employe at a
Virginia Beach detective agency
that Walker owned, said yesterday
in a statement released by her at-
torney that she was fired from her
job Monday without explanation and
without cause.
"I have no knowledge of any es-
pionage nor other illegal activities
by John Walker," Carroll said in her
statement. "I have cooperated fully
with all law enforcement agencies
. I have been advised that the
authorities are convinced of my lack
of complicity and my innocence."
Carroll, whose one-year proba-
tion period as an officer would have
ended early next week, said all her
monthly evaluations, including one
issued last Friday, "have been ex-
cellent."
Because of Carroll's probationary
status, the department is not re-
quired to inform her of the grounds
for her firing, according to Sgt.
R.H. Leonard, a police department
spokesman, and James R. McKenry,
Carroll's attorney.
McKenry said internal investiga-
tors for the department asked Car-
roll whether, as a favor for Walker,
she had checked state Department
of Motor Vehicles records on one
individual. Carroll didn't "specific-
ally recall" any such instance but
"couldn't specifically deny it,"
McKenry said.
McKenry said Carroll worked for
Walker's detective agency, Confi-
dential Reports Inc., for about a
year as an investigator before join-
ing the police department, but "did
no investigations, no paid work, no
nothing after that."
A second police officer, Jack R.
Bernard, said he retired from the
force Friday rather than face sus-
pension for working for Walker's
agency without obtaining the per-
mission of the police chief, required
for all outside work.
"If he [Walker] hadn't been who
he was, there probably would not
have been anything said about this,"
Bernard was quoted as saying.
Also yesterday, the FBI said it is
reviewing numerous rolls of film,
computer disks and video and audio
recordings seized from John Walk-
er's Norfolk home and office to de-
termine whether they shed any
light on the alleged espionage ring.
U.S. Magistrate Gilbert R. Swink
signed a search warrant allowing
agents to review the tapes and pro-
cess undeveloped negatives and
rolls of film on May 31, according to
documents released in federal court
in Norfolk.
Staff writer Sharon LaFraniere
contributed to this report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470040-5