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When Senior Chief Petty Officer Timothy R. McVeigh opened an account with America Online (AOL), he had every reason to assume his privacy would be respected. The online service provider's stated policy, in compliance with the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, is only to give out information on a subscriber when required to do so by subpoena, search warrant, or court order. Now, however, thanks to an AOL employee's cooperation with a warrantless Naval investigator seeking evidence of his sexual orientation, the much-decorated 36-year-old enlisted man's Navy career may be at an end.

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Like most new AOL subscribers, McVeigh (who is no relation to the convicted Oklahoma City bomber) filled out a user profile offering selected personal information accessible to any other AOL member. He gave only his first name. He stated that he was from Honolulu, but did not mention that he was stationed there as a crew member of the Hawaii-based nuclear submarine USS Chicago, or indicate that he belonged to any branch of the military. Under "Marital Status," he described himself as "gay." Under "Hobbies," he listed "driving, boy watching, and collecting pictures of other young studs." The screen name he selected for himself was "Boysrch."

Tech Services tattles

Early last September, McVeigh perhaps injudiciously made e-mail contact with a Navy wife who acts as a representative for families of Chicago crewmen. His message requested help with a holiday toy drive for children of personnel assigned to the submarine. The recipient, another of AOL's nearly 10 million subscribers, was intrigued by McVeigh's screen name and decided to look at his user profile. Her suspicions confirmed, she dutifully passed the information on to the Navy.

An investigation ensued. A Navy paralegal, Squadron Legalman LN1 Joseph Kaiser, later testified that he "called AOL and talked to a gentleman named Owen at Tech Services. I said that I am the third party in receipt of a fax and wanted to confirm the profile sheet, who it belonged to. They said it came from Hawaii and that it was from 'Timothy R. McVeigh' on the billing." Kaiser did not hold a subpoena or search warrant and did not pretend to.

On September 12, when the Chicago returned from a mission at sea, McVeigh was confronted with a printed copy of his AOL profile, read his rights, and told he was accused of sodomy. His screen profile was the only piece of evidence provided about his sexual orientation at his discharge hearing, which took place in November. On January 5, the Navy issued a directive that McVeigh be discharged within 10 days.

To Navy watchdogs eager to stretch the Clinton Administration's "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy on gay personnel to the limit, McVeigh's e-mail message to someone with access to his AOL user profile amounted to telling. To McVeigh and critics of military policy on gay servicemembers, the Navy's behavior presented fresh evidence that the US military is conducting witchhunts just as diligently as ever. The Service Members Legal Defense Network has appealed McVeigh's discharge to John Dalton, Secretary of the Navy, requesting a review of the procedures followed in Kaiser's investigation.

In a scathing letter to Dalton, David Sobel, Legal Counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), stressed that military services must comply with the requirements of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and refrain from making use of evidence obtained in violation of its provisions. "Any other result," Sobel points out, "would make a mockery of federal privacy law and subject the American people to intrusive and unlawful government surveillance." McVeigh is also receiving support from Wired Strategies, a District of Columbia-based Internet consulting firm headed by John Aravosis.

AOL-- which has a history of bad publicity stemming from censorship incidents, breaches of security, billing practices bordering on fraudulent, failures of service, and cooperation with law enforcement officials trying to dredge up information on its users-- has hastened to distance itself from the incident and to blame the Navy. No information has been forthcoming about "Owen," the Technical Services rep who divulged McVeigh's identity to Kaiser. In a January 13 ABC news interview, however, AOL Senior Vice President George Vradenburg stated that "if the US government wants personal information about one of our members, there's a lawful process and a lawful procedure to follow. It was not followed in this instance."

Meanwhile, McVeigh's 17-year military career is on the brink of termination. While his honorable discharge gives him access to limited veterans benefits and a severance package, McVeigh will not receive the pension to which he would otherwise be entitled.