Army Specialist William Colton Millay might have pledged his allegiance to the United States, but that loyalty had a price tag, according to prosecutors. An Alaska military police officer, Spc. Millay was sentenced to 16 years in prison Monday after a military court found him guilty of selling national secrets to an undercover agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation who he believed was a Russian spy. Spc. Millay will be dishonorably discharged.
Stationed at Alaska's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, 24-year-old Millay was first arrested in October 2011. When charges were officially filed, authorities claimed Millay had "communicated and transmitted unclassified national defense information to an individual whom he believed was a foreign intelligence agent."
Millay "believed (this information) could be used to the advantage of a foreign nation," the Army added in its charges.
Military prosecutors portrayed Millay as a devout white supremacist who had grown to despise the U.S. and the Army. Millay has two Nazi SS thunderbolts tattooed underneath his biceps as well as spider web tattoos, markings characteristic of racists in prison, prosecutors said.
"He branded himself in their symbols of hate," argued military prosecutor Capt. Stewart Hyderkha in his closing statements. "He had hate for the Army. He had hate for the United States," Capt. Stewart added.
Authorities were first made aware of Millay after an anonymous tip notified the FBI that the specialist had emailed a Russian newspaper in summer 2011 asking for information about the country's military and had made numerous phone calls to the Russian embassy, said FBI Special Agent Derrick Chriswell.
Together with military intelligence, the FBI spun a web to entrap Mallay in his attempt at espionage, setting up a meeting at an Anchorage hotel between him and an undercover agent posing as a Russian spy. During that initial meeting, Mallay wasted little time in getting to business; the specialist clearly "expressed his disgust with the U.S. military," said Special Agent Chriswell. When the agent and Mallay later moved to a hotel room with hidden audio and visual recording devices, the young solider offered to work for the Russian government, and to sell the "Russian spy" confidential military documents concerning the Warlock Duke jamming system used by the American military to clear roadside explosives.
"That's a concern for national security," Special Agent Chriswell said.
"I know I've made a terrible mistake," Millay said in court Monday. "I'm a U.S. soldier, and that piece of me, I'm proud of."
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