The fire control technician third class, assigned to the submarine USS Albuquerque, attempted on three occasions to pass classified information to foreign agents, the charges against him state.

Those incidents occurred in March 2005 in Bahrain; October 2005 in Vienna, Austria; and March 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the charges.

In addition to the espionage allegations, Weinmann also faces desertion charges, which could result in the death penalty. He is accused of deserting in July 2005 during his first tour of duty.

A customs agent took Weinmann into custody March 26 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when he tried to re-enter the United States.

The case is the second involving allegations of military spying by Russia. The Defense Department has said it suspects Russia collected information about American intelligence in Iraq from U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, in 2003.

The official said he had no idea where the Saudi paper got their information from, and that his sources at the Pentagon also knew that Weinmann, suspected of spying, was not a spy for Israel.

To date, the navy has completed an initial investigation and brought a set of initial charges, called preferred charges, against Weinmann. The preferred charges include desertion, larceny, destroying US military property, failure to obey orders or regulations, and espionage.

Specifically, it is alleged that while serving at or near Bahrain, Mexico, and Austria, Weinmann "with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, [attempted] to communicate, deliver or transmit classified CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET information relating to the national defense, to a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government."

The preferred charges also include stealing a military laptop "of a value of more than $500.00," and "willfully [destroying] a laptop computer hard drive, of some value, by smashing it with a mallet and cutting off the pins," the Navy charge sheet states.

"They informed us last night that Hafiz could not leave his residence and this restriction is for one month," Yahya Mujahid, Jamaat-ud-Dawa's spokesman told Reuters.

He said the charity had been banned from all public activities.

After joining a U.S.-led global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan put the leaders of several militant organizations under house arrest. Saeed has been put under house arrest several times before, but he has been operating freely for the past few years.

Pakistan's reluctance to act more strongly against these groups probably stems from the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency's history of support for their activities, according to analysts.

Mujahid said police had been stationed at Saeed's residence and police had also canceled permission for Jamaat-ud-Dawa to hold a rally in Lahore on August 12.

India has called for Pakistan to act more forcefully to shut down militant organizations in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, and New Delhi's suspicions of Pakistani links to the attacks have jeopardized a peace process the nuclear-armed rivals began over 2 years ago.

There was no immediate official reaction from India, but foreign ministry officials in New Delhi expressed a mixture of surprise and skepticism.

"Pakistan is probably trying to give the impression that they are doing something about these groups. Such house arrests have taken place in the past as well and these leaders end up living in luxury," one official, who requested anonymity, said. India canceled a meeting to review the peace process last month.

Both sides have subsequently said they want to go on with talks, but tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats for spying last week showed how strained relations have become.

An attack by Pakistani militants on India's parliament in December 2001 brought the two countries to the brink of a fourth war in mid-2002. Lashkar-e-Taiba was one of the groups implicated in the attack.

Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned by Pakistan, and its members say it only operates out of Indian Kashmir these days, although members of Lashkar have been arrested in the United States.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa is regarded within the intelligence community as a fund-raising front for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It was added to a State Department terrorist list earlier this year, and while Pakistan has put it on a watchlist it is not banned.

In a report issued last year, the State Department said Lashkar used the charity to gather funds and maintain ties with religious militant groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya.

Jamaat ud-Dawa has been prominent in providing relief after an earthquake killed over 73,000 people and left around three million destitute in Kashmir and northwest Pakistan in October.

"Dave kicks him - a straight kick to the groin. There was enough force to launch (Wali) off the ground," Johnson said.

A CIA interpreter who used the pseudonym Farooq Ali and appeared behind a blue privacy screen said Passaro hit Wali with a flashlight whenever he got an answer he didn't like.

"I do not remember exactly how many times (Passaro swung)," Ali said. "It could be 20 times or 30 times, between that."

Defense attorneys have said the former Special Forces medic never hit Wali and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation the day he died.

Prosecutors have charged Passaro, 40, with assault and he could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. Passaro is the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The top CIA officer at the base - who testified in disguise and using the pseudonym Steve Jones - said Wednesday that Passaro enthusiastically volunteered to take over Wali's questioning after an initial interrogation produced no information. Jones said he allowed Passaro to continue his questioning until learning Wali was "not doing well. He was down in his cell and he was groaning.'"

Wali died later that day. According to Jones, Passaro said he had knocked the prisoner down once during his two days of questioning and that Wali had been caught with a makeshift key trying to open his shackles.

"He mentioned to me that he had to defend himself," Jones said.

Earlier Wednesday, a retired Army Special Forces soldier testified that Passaro become enraged when Wali wasn't able to answer questions during an initial interview about the attacks, but said during cross-examination he never saw Passaro strike the prisoner.

Passaro is standing trial in his home state under a provision of the USA Patriot Act allowing charges against U.S. citizens for crimes committed on land or facilities designated for use by the U.S. government.

He admitted during questioning that he was aware the device could be used by a military-linked research institution in North Korea, Jiji Press and Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed police sources.

The man used to head a Tokyo-based trading company, Meisho Yoko. Reports said the company shipped the freeze dryer to the communist state via Taiwan.

The allegations first surfaced in February, when police in Yamaguchi and neighboring Shimane prefectures raided two trading houses over the export of the freeze dryer.

Japan has pledged to tighten scrutiny of transactions with North Korea after the communist state test-fired seven missiles in its direction on July 5.

Japan has banned a major North Korean ferry link, visits by diplomats and charter flights since Pyongyang's tests of seven missiles, which included a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be capable of reaching US soil.

With the United States, Japan also spearheaded a UN resolution that imposed sanctions against the North's missile program.

Japan has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and has been particularly sensitive to its military capabilities after the North Koreans in 1998 launched a long-range missile which flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

A judge will rule in the November hearing whether there is enough evidence for an indictment over the shooting.

The U.S. military exonerated its troops of any blame while Rome said inexperienced, nervous American soldiers and a badly-run road block were at the root of the shooting.

Investigators sought the names of other U.S. soldiers at the Baghdad checkpoint but Washington declined to give them.

Italy's new centre-left government, which opposes the war in
Iraq and has brought forward the withdrawal of Italian troops, has criticized the lack of U.S. cooperation.

The case is one of two major investigations by Italian prosecutors into American soldiers and intelligence agents. Milan magistrates have issued arrest warrants for 22
CIA agents over the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003.