A Spy Ring Goes to Court

One quick conviction, but the list of missing secrets grows

U.S. Navy contingency plans for a Middle East war. Details on the top-secret communications network used by all of the Armed Forces. The weaknesses of a Navy vessel that serves as the communications center for the entire Atlantic fleet. Those were only some of the secrets allegedly passed to Soviet agents by John Walker's Navy spy ring, federal prosecutors claimed last week. Summed up Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger: "For 20 years this flow of classified material went to the Soviets. It is a serious loss."

The scope of the ring's activities became clearer in court actions on both coasts. In San...

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