November 29, 1999
Web posted at: 10:25 p.m. EST (0325 GMT)

From National Security Producer Chris Plante

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Navy cryptologist has been charged with espionage and jailed for allegedly mailing a computer disk holding top secret information to the Russian Embassy in Washington in 1994, Pentagon sources say.

The sailor, Petty Ofc. 1st Class Daniel King, was arrested by agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on November 4 and was charged the next day with one count of espionage and one count of unlawful disclosure of classified information.

The second charge relates to King's sharing of top secret information with a coworker, sources said.

Information on the disk related to sensitive intelligence gathered by U.S. submarines, among the nation's most closely guarded secrets.

Among other things, obtaining information gathered through eavesdropping conducted by submarines can reveal to rival governments U.S. eavesdropping methods and locations where such operations took place, said officials familiar with counterintelligence.

The investigation of King, 40, an 18-year Navy veteran from Elyria, Ohio, began several months ago, according to sources familiar with the case, when responses he provided during a routine security review polygraph test aroused suspicion.

During the followup investigation, King reportedly "volunteered" that he had sent the disk to the Russian Embassy while he worked for the highly secret Naval Security Group at Fort Meade in Maryland.

King has since recanted some information and Navy officials are concerned that evidence against him may be thin. King said that no money ever changed hands as a result of the alleged act, according to sources.

The military equivalent of a grand jury hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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