Another Pentagon Security Leak; Sailor Allegedly Sold Secrets
Navy says low-level clerk with top-secret clearance offered Afghan war documents
Dec. 06, 2010 — -- In the same week the Pentagon said it was cracking down on access to government secrets, a low-level Navy clerk with top-secret clearance to Afghan war intelligence sold classified documents and offered access to the Pentagon's most sensitive computer networks, according to a search warrant filed last week in federal court by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The sailor, petty officer Bryan Minkyu Martin, was taken into custody at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina but has not yet been charged, according to a spokesperson for the investigative service.
According to the affidavit, Martin sold 51 pages of "secret" and "top secret" documents to an FBI undercover agent posing as a representative of an unnamed foreign government.
He was paid $2,000 for the documents, according to the affidavit.
The case came during the same week in which the Pentagon said it was cracking down on access to top-secret documents after some 250,000 classified Pentagon and State Department cables were posted on-line by the website Wikileaks. An Army private, Bradley Manning, has been charged with providing the classified cables.
According to a military source familiar with Manning and Martin's security clearances, Martin's access to sensitive documents is significantly higher.
In the case at Ft. Bragg, the affidavit says petty officer Martin allegedly boasted of his access to classified network systems, including "Joint special Operations Command Information Automated Network (JIANT), a network classified SECRET, and the Special Operations System (SOIS), a network classified TOP SECRET."
Martin told the undercover agent "that his current assignment focuses on Afghanistan, and that he will work for the Defense Intelligence Agency in the future," the affidavit said. Martin added "that over his prospective 15 to 20 years career, he could be very valuable."
Martin, of Mexico, New York, was tracked wearing his U.S. Navy uniform as he left his Ft. Bragg office and headed for the meeting with the FBI undercover agent, the affidavit said.
He provided the agent with 51 pages of documents, "48 pages of which were marked SECRET and three pages were marked TOP SECRET," according to the affidavit.
In a statement, a spokesman for NCIS confirmed to ABC News that Martin is in custody after allegedly selling classified information to a federal agent.
"Bryan Minkyu Martin, a navy intelligence specialist 3rd class was apprehended by special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI," said Paul O'Donnell. "Investigators have a high level of confidence that no classified informaition was actually delivered to any unauthorized persons and Martin is currently being held in the naval brig in Norfolk pending command's review of the investigative material."
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