AMERICAN SOLDIER SUSPECTED OF ATTEMPTED ESPIONAGE FORMALLY CHARGED

Formal charges of attempted espionage were brought against U.S. Army Specialist William Colton Millay earlier this month, subsequent to his arrest last month at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, located in the Anchorage area of Alaska. Millay, a military policeman, had been the subject of a joint investigation by the FBI and Army Counterintelligence special agents. It is alleged that he sought to turn over unclassified national defense data to someone he thought was a foreign operative, his motive being to assist a foreign government. The Army has not disclosed the foreign nation for which Millay was supposedly willing to serve as an agent, nor the sensitive information to which he was privy. However, it has stated Millay was taken into custody before he was able to pass on any information and that it did not anticipate more arrests. Additional charges against Millay include solicitation of another soldier in order to secure secret data , with the intent of handing it over to the purported foreign operative, and also providing false statements during Army Counterintelligence questioning. A further accusation of failure to follow regulations was made. The Army has asserted no link exists between the current case and that of Army Private Bradley Manning, who stands accused of transmitting secret information to WikiLeaks.