Samuel Loring Morison

Samuel Loring Morison ((1944-10-30)October 30, 1944 – (2018-01-14)January 14, 2018) was a former American intelligence professional who was convicted of espionage and theft of government property in 1985 and pardoned in 2001.

That same year, Jane's Defence Weekly was provided with several images taken by a KH-11 satellite of a Soviet naval shipbuilding facility.

Under construction is the Kiev-class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, originally named Kharkov and later Baku, along with an amphibious landing ship.

According to the US Government prosecutors, Morison also provided Jane's with a copy of a classified report on the damage to the Soviet navy base in Severomorsk that resulted from a 1984 explosion.

Morison told investigators that he sent the photographs to Jane's because the "public should be aware of what was going on on the other side", meaning that the new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would transform Soviet capabilities.

[8] As a result of the Morison case, policy guidelines for adjudicating security clearances were changed to include consideration of outside activities that present potential conflict of interest.

[9] In 1998, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan asked for appeal on the grounds of "the erratic application of that law and the anomaly of this singular conviction in eighty-one years".

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation on condition that he assist in returning the documents, which he stored in his home in Crofton, Maryland.