John Anthony Walker

For other people of the same name, see John Walker (disambiguation).

John Anthony Walker, Jr. (b. 28 July 1937, Washington D.C.)^[1] is a former United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985, at the height of the Cold War (1945–91).^[2] In late 1985, Walker pleaded guilty in a plea arrangement, whereby he testified against conspirator Jerry Whitworth, gave details of his espionage, and negotiated lenient punishment for his son, Michael Walker.^[2] During his time as a Soviet spy, CWO Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than one million encrypted naval messages,^[3] organizing a spy operation that The New York Times reported in 1987 “is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history.”^[4]

Early life

Walker joined the Navy in 1955 when, arrested for burglary, he was offered the option of jail or the military.^[1][5] While stationed in Boston, Walker met and married Barbara Crowley, and they had four children together, three daughters and a son. While stationed on the nuclear-powered submarine USS Andrew Jackson in Charleston, South Carolina, Walker opened a bar which failed to turn a profit and immediately plunged him into debt.^[1]

Spy ring

Walker began spying for the Soviets in December 1967,^[6] when, distraught over his financial difficulties, he walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC, sold a top secret document (a radio cipher card) for several thousand dollars, and negotiated an ongoing salary of $500 to $1,000 a week.^[1] Walker has justified his treachery by claiming that the first classified Navy communications data he had sold to the Soviets had already been completely compromised when the North Koreans had captured the U.S. Navy communications surveillance ship, the USS Pueblo.^[7] Yet the Koreans captured the Pueblo in January 1968 — just one month after Walker had betrayed that information. Furthermore, a 2001 thesis presented at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College using information from Soviet archives and from Oleg Kalugin, indicates that the Pueblo incident may have taken place because the Soviets wanted to study equipment that was described by documents supplied to them by Walker.^[8]

Walker continued spying, receiving an income of several thousand dollars per month for supplying classified information.^[1] While Walker occasionally used the services of his wife Barbara, he began seeking further assistance in 1969 when, stationed to teach radio operators in San Diego, California, he befriended student Jerry Whitworth.^[1] Whitworth, who would become a Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer/Senior Chief Radioman, agreed to assist Walker in accessing highly-classified communications data in 1973.^[1] A transfer had stopped Walker's access to the data the Soviets wanted, but he was able to recruit Whitworth to keep the data flowing by telling him the data would be going to Israel, an ally of the United States, in order to soften the consideration of Whitworth engaging in espionage. Later, when Whitworth realized the data was going to the Soviets instead of Israel, he nonetheless continued feeding it to Walker until his retirement from the Navy in 1983. In 1976, Walker retired from the Navy in order to give up his security clearance, as he believed certain superior officers of his were too keen on investigating lapses in his records. Walker and Barbara also divorced. However, Walker did not end his espionage, and began looking more aggressively among his children and family members for assistance (Walker was a private detective at this time). By 1984, he had recruited his older brother Arthur, a retired Lieutenant Commander who then went to work at a military contractor, and his son Michael, an active duty seaman.^[1] Walker had also attempted to recruit his youngest daughter, who had enlisted in the US Army, but she cut her military career short when she became pregnant. Walker then turned his attention to his son, who had drifted during much of his teenage years and dropped out of high school. Walker gained custody of his son, put him to work as an apprentice at his detective agency in order to prepare him for espionage and encouraged him to re-enroll in high school to earn a diploma, then to enlist in the Navy.

When Walker began spying, he worked as a important supervisor in the communications center for the Atlantic submarine force. He would have had knowledge of top-secret technologies, such as the SOSUS underwater surveillance system which tracks submarine traffic via a network of submerged hydrophones.^[9] It was through Walker that the Soviets became aware that the United States were able to track the location of Soviet submarines by the cavitation produced by their propellers. After this, the propellers on the Soviet submarines were improved to reduce cavitation.^[10] The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal^[11] was disclosed in this activity in 1987.^[12]

In 1990, New York Times journalist John J. O'Connor reported that, "It's been estimated by some intelligence experts that Mr. Walker provided enough code-data information to alter significantly the balance of power between Russia and the United States".^[13] Asked later how he had managed to access so much classified information, Walker said, "KMart has better security than the Navy".^[14] According to a report presented to the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive in 2002, Walker is one of a handful of spies believed to have earned more than a million dollars in espionage compensation,^[5] although The New York Times estimated his income at only $350,000.^[13]

Arrest and imprisonment

In May 1985, the FBI was tipped off to Walker's activities by Walker's then ex-wife Barbara, to whom he had refused to pay alimony.^[1] Following an investigation, the FBI arrested Walker, Whitworth, Arthur Walker and Michael Walker. Ironically, Walker himself was arrested at a motel in Montgomery County, Maryland, using a trick he used to catch people in adultery cases: telephoning his hotel room and telling him that his car had been hit in an accident.^[1] Barbara Walker was not prosecuted because of her role in disclosing the ring.^[1][5] Former KGB agent Victor Cherkashin, however, details in his book Spy Handler that Walker was compromised by an FBI spy named Martynov, who overheard a conversation by chance in Moscow. Documents in his trial, Cherkashin argues, claimed that Martynov played a crucial role in the compromise of Walker's cover.^[15]

Walker cooperated with authorities and in a plea bargain, he agreed to submit to an unchallenged conviction and life sentence, provide a full disclosure of the details of his spying and give testimony against Jerry Whitworth in exchange for a pledge from the prosecutors that his son would receive a sentence of no more than 25 years imprisonment.^[2][16] All of the members of the spy ring besides Michael Walker received life sentences for their role in the espionage. Jerry Whitworth was sentenced to 365 years in prison and was fined $410,000 for his involvement. Whitworth is ineligible for parole until 2048, at which point he will be 111 years of age.

Walker's son Michael, who had a relatively minor role in the ring and agreed to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence, was released from prison on parole in February 2000.^[1]

Walker is currently BOP Prisoner number 22449-037 and is incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Terre Haute.^[17] He is said to be suffering from diabetes and stage IV throat cancer.^{[citation needed]} His earliest possible parole date is May 20, 2015, at which point he will have served 30 years in prison.

See also

• KL-7 "Adonis" cipher machine (US Navy 1950s - 1970s)
• KW-37 "Jason" cipher system (US Navy 1950s - 1990s)
• USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3) Ship aboard which Walker served as (CMS) Custodian
• Hans-Thilo Schmidt
• 1985: The Year of the Spy
• Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage — a book that includes a description of the Walker spy ring role in its dangerous compromise of technical secrets of some of the vital tactical capabilities of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and critical covert intelligence gathering operations during the Cold War.
• Family of Spies - TV movie based on John Walker's treason.
• Hitori Kumagai

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Earley, Pete. Family of spies: the John Walker Jr. spy case CourtTV Crime Library. Accessed November 16, 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Recent US Spy Case CNN. Accessed November 16, 2007.
3. ^ 米海軍スパイ事件の教訓 070630aquisionresearch_spring 「防衛取得研究」（第一巻　第一号）（平成１９年０６月）＜PDF＞
4. ^ Shenon, Philip. (Jan 4, 1987) In short: nonfiction. NY Times. Accessed November 16, 2007.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Herbig, Katherine L. and Martin F. Wiskoff. (July 2002) Espionage against the United States by American citizens, 1947-2001. ONCIX website. Accessed July 27, 2011.
6. ^ Sontag, Sherry; Drew, Christopher; Annette Lawrence Drew (November 1998). Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (paperback reprint ed.). New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-103004-X. OCLC 42633517. http://books.google.com/books?id=IpUggPJL4t4C. 
7. ^ KW-7 and John Walker John Walker USS Pueblo
8. ^ Analysis of the Systemic Security Weaknesses of the U.S. Navy Fleet Broadcasting System, 1967–1974, as Exploited by CWO John Walker (PDF) Master's thesis by Laura J. Heath
9. ^ "The John Walker Spy Case: Secrets of the Deep Agent May be Linked to USS Pueblo". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. May 18, 1986). http://www.seattlepi.com/archives/1986/8601100536.asp. 
10. ^ "Eaglespeak". http://www.eaglespeak.us/2007/01/sunday-ship-history-us-navy-cable.html. 
11. ^ Document 2 Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal
12. ^ A. FACTUAL BACKGROUND THE TOSHIBA-KONGSBERG INCIDENT II. THE TOSHIBA-KONGSBERG INCIDENT
13. ^ ^{a b} O'Connor, John J. (February 4, 1990) TV View; American spies in pursuit of the American dream NY Times. Accessed November 16, 2007.
14. ^ Johnson, Reuben F. (Jul 23 2007) The ultimate export control: why F-14s are being put into a shredder The Weekly Standard. Volume 012, Issue 42. Accessed November 16, 2007.
15. ^ Cherkashin, Victor. Spy Handler. New York: Basic Books, 2005. (Page 183)
16. ^ Time Magazine, Belated concern, Time, Inc. (November 11, 1985) Accessed November 16, 2007.
17. ^ [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=22449-037&x=0&y=0 Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator

Further reading

• John Barron; Breaking the Ring: The Bizarre Case of the Walker Family Spy Ring; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987, ISBN 0-395-42110-1
• Howard Blum; I Pledge Allegiance: The True Story of the Walkers: an American Spy Family; Simon & Schuster Books, 1987, ISBN 0-671-62614-0
• Kneece, Jack; Family Treason: The Walker Spy Case; Paperjacks, 1988, ISBN 0-7701-0793-1
• Robert W. Hunter; Spy Hunter: Inside the FBI Investigation of the Walker Espionage Case; Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 1-55750-349-4
• Pete Earley; Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring; Bantam Books, 1989, ISBN 0-553-28222-0
• "The Navy's Biggest Betrayal", Naval History Magazine
• Walker, John Anthony; My life as a spy; Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59102-659-4

External links

Persondata
Name	Walker, John Anthony
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Date of birth	July 28, 1937
Place of birth
Date of death
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