In Nearby Cell: ‘Shattered’ and Silent Lonetree

WEST RUTLAND, Vt. —  When Douglas Beane returned to the United States in June, after 17 years on the run, the 40-year-old Vietnam War deserter quickly found himself shackled in a maximum security ward at Marine Corps headquarters in Quantico, Va.

The only other Marine confined there, he found, was crying and shaking. He was Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree, 26, the security guard being held in the highly publicized sex-and-spying scandal at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

“He’s shattered,” Beane said of Lonetree. “They treat him like an animal. It’s terrible.”

For six days, according to a Marine Corps spokesman, Beane was in Cell No. 2 and Lonetree was in Cell No. 6. They were not permitted to communicate.

Beane said there was no natural light in the maximum security ward. Lonetree’s cell had a bed, a toilet and a desk with some books. He left his cell once a day to take a shower and was strictly forbidden to utter a word to anyone.

Lonetree now faces a court-martial on charges of passing classified documents to the Soviets and identifying American intelligence operatives. Charges that Lonetree allowed Soviet agents into the U.S. Embassy were dropped in May.

Lonetree wore camouflage and kept his Marine uniform pressed and neatly folded next to two large duffel bags, according to Beane. “I think he was still trying to be a Marine,” Beane said.