Posted on 09/09/2011 3:42:19 PM PDT by SanFranDan
*FBI believe they thwarted plan before any secrets were revealed
*Stewart Nozette had been a leading scientist with high security clearance for decades
A former scientist with Nasa has narrowly escaped the death sentence after he admitted trying to sell U.S. secrets to Israeli spies.
Stewart Nozette was snared by an undercover sting operation launched after a tax investigation uncovered classified documents at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
In a conversation recorded in downtown Washington, the 54-year-old told an undercover agent posing as an Israeli spy: 'I've crossed the Rubicon ... I've made a career choice.
'I'm prepared to give them the whole thing ... all the technical specifications.'
In court Nozette pleaded guilty to one count of attempted espionage, admitting he tried to provide Israel with information about satellites, early warning systems, retaliation strategies, communications intelligence information and major elements of defence strategy.
Prosecutors said Nozette agreed to divulge secrets to what he thought was Israeli spy agency Mossad through a post office box in exchange for money and an Israeli passport.
He took two payments - one for $2,000, the other for $9,000 - from the post office box in September 2009 in exchange for answers to questions about U.S. satellites.
Nozette had earned high-level security clearances during decades of government work on science and space projects at Nasa, the Energy Department and the National Space Council in President George H.W. Bush's White House.
After gaining a doctorate in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he made his reputation as a defence technologist working on the abortive Strategic Defence Initiative missile defence shield during the Reagan-era.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Don’t be too hard on the guy, James Hansen has been whoring for a good deal longer and with far more dire consequences to are country.
interesting..
are? our..
are? our..
A desperate dummox. After his papers get looked through in an audit of how he had bilked the government, including classified stuff, these fellows show up at his door and tell him they’re Mossad and would he sell them some secrets. And he bites the hook, not bothering to contact the real Mossad.
I am peeling my finger nails back as we converse for the horrific linguistic faux pas I have committed.
Thats IT?
You think you can get away with that kinda sh#t that easy?
... and he got caught because he didn’t require the payments in cash. Good thing he was not very smart.
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