ANCHORAGE, Alaska — U.S. Army officials in Alaska are withholding details behind the arrest of a 22-year-old soldier suspected of espionage, but they stressed Wednesday there is no connection with the case involving an Army analyst suspected of disclosing secret intelligence to WikiLeaks.
Authorities also said Spc. William Colton Millay, of Owensboro, Ky., didn't transmit any information.
Millay was arrested Friday at a barracks room at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. He is expected to be charged through the military justice system later this week.
Millay, a military police officer, was being held without bail at the Anchorage Correctional Facility.
Army Lt. Col. Bill Coppernoll said Millay's arrest stems from an ongoing investigation conducted by the Army and FBI.
Coppernoll said few details were being released and that the case was very early in the legal process. But unlike the WikiLeaks case targeting Army analyst Bradley Manning, allegations against Millay do "not involve the transfer of data on computer networks," Coppernoll said.
"Also important to note is that because of the close coordination between Army Counterintelligence and the FBI, any information that might have been transferred was stopped," he said in an email. "Millay was being observed well before any damage could have occurred."
FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez also declined to provide details.
"It's a joint investigation," he said. "But the Army will actually bring charges and try him the military justice system."
Attempts to reach Millay's attorney were not successful. The name of a private attorney in Anchorage was provided by the Army as Millay's legal representative, but the attorney said any arrangements were not yet official or certain.
Millay is assigned to the 164th Military Police Company. Most members of that company are on a year deployment to Afghanistan that began in March, but Millay was in the company's rear detachment that stayed behind.