Navy Leaks? Low-Level Sailor Allegedly Sold Classified Documents, Access to Pentagon's Networks

Navy Leaks? Low-level sailor allegedly sold classified documents, access to Pentagon's networks

BY Meena Hartenstein
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Monday, December 6th 2010, 10:09 PM
Updated: Monday, December 6th 2010, 10:16 PM

Navy Reserve Intelligence Specialist Bryan Minkyu Martin, a sailor stationed at Fort Bragg.

As WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange reportedly prepares to turn himself over to British police this week, another leak is hitting the armed forces - this time, from an officer in the Navy.

Bryan Minkyu Martin, a low-level sailor stationed at Ft. Bragg, sold dozens of classified documents to an FBI agent posing undercover as a foreign intelligence officer, Navy investigators wrote in an unsealed warrant obtainedby The Associated Press.

Martin, 22, a petty officer in the Navy, was taken into police custody on Dec. 5, though he has not yet been charged.

The warrant, filed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, reveals that Martin engaged in multiple transactions with undercover agents, collecting $3500 for the sale of 51 secret documents.

He was paid $500 for secret documents in one meeting, and later given two payments of $1500 for even more files, according to the warrant.

Of the 51 documents, "48 pages...were marked SECRET and three pages were marked TOP SECRET," the affidavit states, according to ABC News.

Martin, who began his Naval career in 2006, was given top secret clearance, according to the AP.

In his meetings with the FBI agents, the warrant states that Martin bragged he "could be very valuable" as a source of information over his likely 20-year future in the Navy, and also offered his access to classified network systems.

News of the sting operation comes on the heels of worldwide commotion caused by WikiLeaks, which posted a trove of 250,000 State Department documents last week.

Those files were allegedly provided by Army Private Bradley Manning, who is said to have smuggled the files out by storing them on CDs labled "Lady Gaga."

Though Martin's security clearance was "significantly higher" than Manning's, according to ABC News, officials believe the "leak" never made it past the FBI.

"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," said Paul O'Donnell, a spokesman for NCIS, in a statement to ABC News.