American Notes

ESPIONAGE Brothers in Treachery

Arthur Walker, 51 , was supposed to have been a minor figure in the notorious family spy ring. Nonetheless, in Norfolk last week Federal Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. threw the book at him: three life sentences plus 40 years, to run concurrently, for passing two classified documents dealing with Navy ships to his brother John for transmission to the Soviets. Clarke also fined Walker $250,000, to guarantee that he will not profit by selling his story of espionage (there have been rumors of such a deal). John, 48, the acknowledged head of the ring, earlier had drawn a single life sentence and no fine. John's son Michael, 23, has been sentenced to 25 years.

Clarke noted that John and Michael had struck a plea bargain with the Government by trading information on the extent of their espionage for less-than-maximum sentences. But, he asserted, there was no justification for leniency in sentencing Arthur. Prosecutor Tommy Miller hinted that the retired Navy lieutenant commander had been engaged in the family spy business longer and more deeply than he had admitted. (One revelation at Arthur's sentencing was that he had had an affair with his brother's wife Barbara.) Said Miller: "We have gotten a confession, but we have not gotten the whole truth."

Ronald Reagan deplores the term Star Wars to describe his Strategic Defense Initiative. So does retired Army Lieut. General Daniel Graham, one of the originators of the idea to build a defensive shield against nuclear missiles, even though his organization, High Frontier, uses the words in a new pro-SDI television commercial. George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars movie trilogy, hates the usage most of all. His company, Lucasfilm, asked a Washington federal district court to enjoin the TV spot on the ground that it damages a valuable trademark (film revenues to date: $1.3 billion) by taking Star Wars out of "the congenial realm of fantasy and entertainment" and associating it with "the frightening world of nuclear holocaust and death." When Judge Gerhard Gesell refused to issue an immediate restraining order last week, Graham crowed, "The empire struck back, but the empire struck out."

But wait, the plot thickens. Lucasfilm has filed suit, and Graham threatens to sue a group that is using a portion of the High Frontier ad containing the words Star Wars in an anti-SDI countercommercial. It figures. How could a Star Wars suit not spin off at least one sequel?

I saw a bird with a yellow bill Sitting on my windowsill I coaxed him in with a piece of bread And then I crushed his little head I guess I'm just a mean Marine!