THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, June 7, 1995                TAG: 9506070004
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   26 lines

DOWNPLAYED SPY

The unnamed officer quoted in staff writer Jack Dorsey's article ``Espionage case downplayed'' (May 26) deserves some sort of award for proving that in the face of massive cutbacks, doublespeak remains alive and well in the U.S. military. ``He's not a spy . . . I think little espionage fits the definition.''

Given that my dictionary defines espionage as ``1. the practice of spying on others. 2. the systematic use of spies by a government to discover the military and political secrets of other nations,'' it seems to me that what he was doing then was spying. Which tends to make him a spy.

JOHN P. SIMANTON

Norfolk, May 26, 1995

simanton(AT)aol.com by CNB