Mr Nozette developed technology for the Pentagon and Nasa
FBI arrests US scientist on spying charges
Stewart David Nozette attempted to pass on secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, say charges
- Associated Press
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009 08.42 BST
- Article history
Stewart Nozette (second from left) during a press briefing at the Pentagon about the discovery of water on the moon. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
A scientist credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon has been arrested on charges of attempting to pass on classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.
The US justice department said Stewart David Nozette, 52, was charged with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information to an individual he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer.
The criminal complaint against Nozette does not allege that Israel's government or anyone acting on its behalf violated US law. In Jerusalem, where the story broke late at night, Israeli government officials had no immediate comment.
Nozette, from Maryland, was arrested yesterday by FBI agents. He is expected to appear in federal court in Washington today.
In an affidavit supporting the complaint, Leslie Martell, a FBI agent, said that on 3 September, Nozette received a telephone call from an individual purporting to be an Israeli intelligence officer. The caller was an undercover FBI agent.
Nozette agreed to meet with the agent later that day at a hotel in Washington. During the meeting the two discussed Nozette's willingness to work for Israeli intelligence. The scientist allegedly said that he had, in the past, held top security clearances and had access to US satellite information, the affidavit said.
Nozette also was alleged to have said he would be willing to answer questions about this information in exchange for money. According to the affidavit, the agent explained that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, would arrange for a communication system so Nozette could pass on information in a post office box.
Nozette agreed to provide regular, continuing information and asked for an Israeli passport, the government alleged.
The affidavit then alleged the following sequence of events:
• 4 September: Nozette and the agent met again in the same hotel. The scientist allegedly said that while he no longer had legal access to any classified information at a US government facility, he could, nonetheless, recall classified information by memory. He allegedly asked when he could expect to receive his first payment, saying he preferred cash amounts "under 10,000" so he would not have to report it. (Anti-money laundering laws require that all transactions of $10,000 (£6,000) or more must be reported to the US tax authorities).
Nozette allegedly told the agent, "Well, I should tell you my first need is that they should figure out how to pay me ... They don't expect me to do this for free."
• 10 September: Undercover FBI agents left a letter in the designated post office box, asking Nozette to answer a list of questions about US satellite information. The agents provided a $2,000 cash payment. Serial numbers of the bills were recorded.
• 16 September: Nozette was captured on videotape leaving a manila envelope in the post office box. The next day, agents retrieved the sealed envelope and found, among other things, a one-page document containing answers to the questions and an encrypted computer thumb drive.
One answer contained information, classified as secret, that concerned capabilities of a prototype overhead collection system.
• 17 September: Agents left a second letter in the post office box with another list of questions about US satellite information. The FBI also left a cash payment of $9,000. Nozette allegedly retrieved the questions and the money the same day.
• 1 October: Nozette was videotaped leaving a manila envelope in the post office box. FBI agents retrieved it and found a second set of answers. The responses contained information classified as top secret and secret, involving US satellites, early warning systems, means of defence or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements of defence strategy.
Nozette had worked in varying jobs for the department of energy, the national aeronautics and space, and in the national space council in the president's office in 1989 and 1990.
The scientist developed the Clementine bistatic radar experiment that purportedly discovered water on the south pole of the moon. He worked from approximately 1990 to 1999 at the department of energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where he designed highly advanced technology.
At the department of energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the defence department top secret and "critical nuclear weapon design information" clearances. Department of energy clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.
Nozette also held top offices at the Alliance for Competitive Technology, a nonprofit company that he organised in March 1990. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his company, had several agreements to develop advanced technology for the US government.
He performed some of the research and development at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Virginia, and at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
| He allegedly had links with an Israeli defence company for a decade |
American Moon scientist Stewart Nozette 'tried to spy for Israel'
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